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Posted on 05/04/2012 6:12:47 PM PDT by mandaladon
Michigan’s welfare recipients may get up to $900 from the state in car repairs every year, but the House of Representatives is trying to cut that to $500.
The car repair subsidies are part of a $6.4 million program the Department of Human Services has to help welfare recipients get a job and stay employed. Among many approved expenses, the program also includes up to $1,200 for welfare recipients to buy a car, and up to $500 for clothing allowance for job interviews and work.
“You've got to be kidding me,” said Jim Chioda, a tea party activist from Holland. “This floors me. … They keep finding more and more. … When are we going to stop? They need money to go to the movies? It’s ridiculous.”
State Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, said the car repair allowance dropping to $500 wasthe only subsidy that was reduced. Rep. Agema said he didn’t like the program, but cutting any more would have created an outcry from Democrats who think the program is necessary to get people off welfare.
David Akerly, spokesman for the Department of Human Services, referred comment to the legislators.
State Rep. Shanelle Jackson, D-Detroit, had her amendment to stop the cuts from taking place defeated.
Rep. Jackson said everyone agreed the goal was to get people off state assistance.
“It is very hard to get your car fixed, which is a tool you need to get to work so you can become truly self-sufficient,” Rep. Jackson said.
Belinda Szmytke, a tea party activist from Superior Township, said the state no longer has the money to pay for welfare recipients’ car repairs.
“It’s just one more thing we are throwing money at that we don’t have,” Szmytke said. “I’m frustrated by that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
UNEMPLOYED here (change) and my 10 y/o car’s falling apart.
Sure could use help. Afraid to drive to interviews, brakes are starting to shake the car.
Don’t be silly!
A government program doesn’t need to actually work out well in the real world, with measurable results.
After all, even if it only truly helps one person,and most of the funds are fraudulently spent, think of the hundreds or possibly even thousands of government employees who would lose their jobs if the program in question was cut!
(Do I need a sarcasm tag?)
Why is it that the Republicans there are trying to be so nice about it? Call Rush/Hannity/O’Phonejob and raise hell!
There are about 76 federal welfare programs
I am assuming (!) that Michigan knows how much in total is being spent on the annual $900 car repair allowance and the $500 "getting a job" clothing allowance.
They must also be able to determine how many individuals are collecting both.
Further assuming that this can't be a lifetime program (!)
They can (and should) definitely be able to answer the following question :
How many well dressed permanent employee have these programs created annually and at what cost?
Does anybody know?
Does anybody care?
Perhaps, if Repubs did some educating of it's own. . .would suggest an add whereby these people, are waving small Chinese flags. . .and saying 'thank you' might help.
Or. . . a revisit of the 'patriotic' ads; pleading for Americans to 'Buy American' - as being the patriotic think to do. And ask why these same 'patriots' have no problem, receiving monies - essentially from China - which fuels China's economy; while diminishing ours. So, perhaps a 'what's the difference ' might at least, be asked. . .
While some people may need to be on this 'program'; safe to say, many should not be; and there is another message; per 'milking the system' that needs to be demonstrated by a visual 'accounting'. This under format of 'Public Service Message'. . .
This is why I laugh when people tell me about “starving children in America”.
My niece had her father’s car repaired on a program like this.
2000.00 for her “main source of transportation”.
Dad was a union grocery worker. He made 17.00 dollars an hour.
My niece in Cleveland is on her third round of “schooling” to keep all these bennies.
Oh noes, not an outcry! Whatever would we do if they made an outcry?
That clothing allotment is outrageous. I could clothe my family of five—nicely—for that amount of money, for a good two years. That sticks in my craw a lot more than the car repair allotment (which is also nuts).
I know a woman who legally bought 2 houses on welfare and this was years ago.
Let’s see if I have this correct, first I fund a bus system (SMART) in my property taxes and then I fund a car purchase and annual maintenance for that car in my state income taxes. Both with the excuse that it is necessary for welfare leeches to find jobs. Yet, I regularly see EBT card holders on spending sprees at the end of every month.
Yet, as a Dave Ramsey minimalist, I walk to work. This morning it was in the rain....
What a wonderful way to start my week, once again realizing I am a slave...
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