We have worked hard to create a decent financial situation, we are not rich but comfortable and would never accept anything from anyone. Thankfully we have never had to. I was forced into retirement for medical reasons(I would rather be working) and Barbara still works but at a fraction of what she once made, it is a long story but now she works at the local supermarket at the courtesy counter primarily but also works on a register for additional hours. As you can imagine she doesn't make a large hourly wage nor work full time hours, it is good honest work. She really likes the job and the people she is working with, but for one thing that comes up almost nightly. What I would have to call welfare fraud. At first glance I don't want it to look like I am against poor people while other waste goes on, I am well aware it is just the tip of the Iceberg. But it is one that is quite visible, some of the others are harder to find.

She knows many of these people from her work at the town office and the vast majority of them are not married, but the man makes a decent income and they have kids. The woman usually works part time and doesn’t make too much and can still take advantage of all the welfare benefits. The dishonesty comes in when the mans decent wage is not computed as income to the household.  These people don't need our help and unfortunatly they are in the majority rather than a minority.  I would like to know what happened to food stamps or the equivalent today being used for food.  Most of these people really don't need our help and  buy cigarettes, magazines, beer, wine, snacks, lottery tickets and if that doesn’t work for them, they can take good old fashion cash.  No way for Barbara to really have accurate numbers but she is guessing that 2% of the people come in and actually buy nutrious food, for the most part these are older people that probably really need the help.  What am I missing, does this seem right to all of you?

So just like Ronald Reagan, I go looking for answers and go right into the belly of the beast. The money spent this fiscal year for this program was 600 Billion that is with a B. People are always complaining about how much Iraq is costing us at 160 million a day, guess what that is 5.84 Billion for something constitutionally mandated. Most of which goes to pay people that are getting shot at and die each day to protect our freedom. What is wrong with this picture. I know that there must be people that have already done the research so I don’t have too and I found a good source. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. I bought his "The Myth of widespread American Poverty". The news is actually good for the poor people, there are not that many of them and bad for us because we help the "Phony Poor" people who buy things that we may have to pass on because we are responsible with money and they don’t have to be because someone else is paying for it. I mean this literally, it happens almost daily to Barbara. A good example: Barbara wanted to buy me a Red Sox shirt, but they are somewhat expensive, she passed. But during the last couple of days several people that she knows of and she is only one of many, bought said shirt with a plastic sweep and a thank you very much taxpayer.

A couple of facts that might amaze you, Rector’s report is full of them but just a few for your consideration.  Btw, all numbers are from government statistics they are not just mad up numbers.

Statistics are a little old so compensate for inflation from 1995

41% of "poor" households own their own home(All households 65%)

750,000 own a home over $150,000

200,000 own a home over $300,000 (that is nicer than my house)

And sure you have to live somewhere.

Most poor households have cable, we don’t, I don’t want the payment.

The list goes on and on, the report is September 1998, so it only gets worse, you can download it for $1.50 from Amazon.com as I did.

http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Widespread-American-Poverty/dp/B000062XWI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-7676522-3477249?ie=UTF8&qid=1193266805&sr=8-1

I know there are people that need help, but as Ronald Reagan said in his second state of the Union. The truly needy suffer as funds intended for them are taken not by the needy, but by the greedy. Although I think that was a misstatement, we paid for both.

Yes there are plenty of people that need help. But when people with Children don’t get married because they will loose benefits that is just wrong. If there is truly a one parent family that needs help so their children get what they need and are properly nourished by all means we should help. Should a mother be home with her children, absolutely. The most profound influence and the best teacher a young child should have is a parent, if not two. Do others need help, absolutely. Am I an uncaring conservative bigot, I don’t think so. I would just be a lot happier if the budget were a lot less and people helped them self more and helped them self to our money less. The real problem is this system creates more poverty or at least more perceived poverty. Here is the real deal, like all huge government agencies they don’t want you to know that most of the people don’t need help and are just addicted to the system because they would loose power and the votes that go along with dependency.

This post is not so much an informational post as it is a plea, can someone help me understand this? Do I just not get it?