Posted on 12/29/2021 4:44:41 AM PST by Kaslin
The Democratic Party used to call itself the party of working people and hail the "dignity of work." No more. Now Democrats want to guarantee people who choose not to work an income funded by the suckers who do the right thing by showing up for work, caring for their family and paying taxes.
Fortunately, these self-supporting Americans just dodged a bullet. The failure to pass Build Back Better in Congress, thanks to holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) means that the monthly checks or automatic bank deposits to parents with kids, sometimes dubbed Biden Bucks, come to an end this month.
For working people, the monthly payments were merely an advance on their tax refunds -- but parents who choose not to work have been getting no-strings money to support their nonworking lifestyle.
Using the pretext of pandemic relief, Democrats enacting the American Rescue Plan last March changed a feature of the tax code -- the child tax credit available to adults who work and pay taxes -- into a grant paid unconditionally and monthly to almost all adults with kids, whether they work or not.
Democrats have been pushing to extend the monthly payments through 2022 as part of the Build Back Better Act, with a plan to make them permanent.
Manchin saw right through what his party intended: a socialist-style universal basic income. Manchin objected to the unconditional monthly cash grants: "There's no work requirement whatsoever." "Don't you think if we're going to help the children," Manchin asked, the parents "should make some effort?"
So what about the Democratic Party that represents working people? resident Joe Biden still talks the talk. "My Dad used to say, 'Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in the community.'"
But Biden's party is no longer walking that walk. As Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin) told the House Ways and Means Committee during a debate over Build Back Better, "the so-called dignity of work -- that's like hearing a fingernail on a chalkboard." New York Magazine's Eric Levitz calls Manchin's work ethic convictions "contemptible."
Sorry, but most Americans don't want to support the moochers.
Supporters of the monthly payments hail them as "already a huge success" for lifting millions of children out of poverty. Nonsense. That's what a working parent does. The national poverty rate fell temporarily, but the payments didn't solve the problem of parents without the mindset to support their children.
This is deja vu. Before the 1996 welfare reform enacted by a Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, Uncle Sam used to send checks to nonworking parents. Welfare reform changed that, requiring parents to work or train for work in order to receive cash benefits. It succeeded, reducing the welfare rolls, ameliorating child poverty and helping single mothers become self-sufficient.
Yet, today's Democratic Party spurns that model. Democrats tend to blame unemployment on racism or a rigged economy and argue that people deserve dignity, whether they choose to work or not.
Of course, all human beings deserve dignity -- but not a seat on the couch in front of the TV funded by people who toil.
Democratic politicians all over the nation are pushing to provide a monthly basic income to the nonworking poor, courtesy of taxpayers. They've formed Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. Los Angeles is sending out monthly $1,000 checks to 2,000 residents.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is using millions in federal pandemic relief funding to distribute $500 a month cash stipends to randomly chosen low-income recipients. That ought to enrage anyone who works and pays taxes.
Jobs are plentiful. The National Federation of Independent Businesses reported that over half of small business owners cannot fill positions. Small businesses are posting "Help Wanted" signs in windows.
Every time you pass one of those signs, you can thank Manchin for holding the line against making taxpayers into suckers supporting the freeloaders.
I believe in a safety net to provide for the basic needs of life. I do not believe in providing them so much they make more than those who do have jobs, so much that in places many on welfare live in what we call the middle class.
Of course the Democrats reward grifters; that is their base.
Their form of reparations, Working people paying taxes redistributed to non working people not paying taxes and contributing
The child tax credit is also available to illegal aliens. That’s the real reason the rats are pushing the policy.
A good number of low income families pay no income tax. Some also get a “refund” for money not even withheld. They do pat SS tax which is a good thing for them as the will receive SS benefits later in life. Otherwise we will have a cradle to grave grifter society.
Dems always were the party of freeloaders. FDR first came up with welfare as a safety net, but LBJ turned it into a hammock.
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” _____
Karl Marx
DEMS also want no requirement for SS numbers for dependents to get the Child Tax Credit. They have this program designed for illegals. Once illegals thoroughly infest it we will have essentially another Social Security system. It will become a major expense that cannot easily be undone.
Howie Carr commented years ago that Dems say they are the party of working families, by which they really mean families where no one works.
Those politicians themselves are also FREELOADERS
POTUS Trump began to get blacks and Hispanics to see reality when it came to the democrat party, that’s one reason they pulled every despicable trick they could to get him out of office. so now this influx of illegals is the beginning or their new constituency.....as Rush used to say “it’s hard to compete with Santa claus”.
My old, but always relevant Tagline: Socialism and its cousin Communism will always be attractive to those who think they can get something for nothing.
What else is new.
When will the working people who pay taxes stop the handouts with their vote?
Right...it’s a policy decades old with them
I'm in agreement as long as the able bodied are only provided with temporary financial support. This should be combined with assistance in finding appropriate work or training. What I disagree with is a 'basic needs' safety net that becomes a lifestyle and then combined with a variety of other taxpayer freebies (local, state, federal) and cash-based side hustles.
“.. then combined with a variety of other taxpayer freebies (local, state, federal) and cash-based side hustles. ...”
Yes, and in that case it is providing more than “basic needs.”
Agreed. It's the way the game is being played today, unfortunately. I think part of the problem is that these supports are being provided by faceless government bureaucrats rather than members of the community who have some clue as to what a family needs to get back on its feet. I'm not heartless, but what we have today is an expensive mess loaded with unhealthy incentives.
“...expensive mess loaded with unhealthy incentives. ...”
Yes, no doubt about it!
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