Happened to me. If not for the dole, I'd have been on the street. The company I worked for went into receivership, the parent company had "milked" it and what was left was a shell from a financial point of view. Eventually I was able to find work. Not quickly.
I have been "on the street" many times. I never took any dole until after I retired. My landlord encouraged me to apply for food stamps because approval was automatic for anybody on social security, so I signed the paper and they awarded me ten bux a month. I kept forgetting to spend the money, and I eventually gave the card to my landlord.
I think it's interesting that many of his supporters are among those who accept some of these benefits from the government. I personally know some such people, and it boggles the mind that they are so daft that they don't realize they voted for someone who seeks to take money from their pockets and food from their tables.
I am all for the shifting of funds to better enable people who are physically and mentally capable of working become gainfully employed, but there are numerous issues that make this complicated. One that comes to mind right away is the fact that people who become employed lose their health care benefits, leaving them incredibly vulnerable.
People like Trump have zero understanding of the struggles of people who receive government assistance. I wholeheartedly believe that he would sooner see them rounded up and exterminated than cost him or his billionaire friends a dime. He's proven himself to be completely heartless and without an ounce of compassion.
"....new rules requiring that beneficiaries of a host of programs work or lose their benefits."
It's about time! Many states already have the work requirement for food stamps for able bodied people under a certain age, usually around 60.
Obama created a huge increase in the number of people on means-tested welfare. He touted that as a success. I criticize it as a failure. Trump understands that in welfare programs, the only way to claim success is by the number of people who, on their own, are able to leave the programs. That is what they were supposed to be in the first place......not a way of life for people who should be working for their own livelihood......passing down the ways to milk the government, actually us taxpayers, from generation to generation.
Those means tested programs should be a safety net for younger able-bodied people for when they/we/all/any of us fall on hard times but along with a work requirement, I believe there should be a six-month limit to the benefits unless reapplying grants extensions.
Of course, there are exceptions to all of this. Those are the disabled and the elderly. Low income seniors who have worked their whole lives but are living on a low SS check in their old age need and deserve some help. For the disabled, some help should be a possibility but each case should stand on its own. If a disabled person has enough work credits then I have no problem with early disbursement of SS retirement benefits for him or her. However, any housing assistance and medical assistance should still require a means test. Some disabled people are millionaires and it's ludicrous that they have Medicaid.
For some reason my previous response to your comment was deleted, so I'll reiterate.
Obama didn't "create" that increase, welfare programs were expanded as a necessary response to Dubya's GFC. Like Roosevelt's New Deal during the height of the Great Depression, it was preferable to food riots and mass starvation in an environment where gainful employment just wasn't available. There are still vast areas where economic depression is still prevalent and there just aren't enough jobs for able bodied folks that genuinely want to work but can't find any. Families living below the poverty line, working in casual employment at or below minimum wage but unable to find anything better. Restaurant staff are a prime example, subsisting on tips just to pay the rent. Single moms whose partners skipped out, leaving them pregnant. Homeless vets who returned from serving their country with shattered minds, unable to unsee the horrors of man's inhumanity to man and unable to rebuild their lives.
That's not my alma mater, so I have no idea. You would be surprised by some of the state eligibility requirements for major means-tested programs. Food stamps is the worst of them and some states, including the one I lived in prior to moving to Florida, have no limit on assets, just income. Obamacare is what I meant to type.....only income is considered. I don't know any state that doesn't look at assets for Medicaid and it's very low in the states where I have had a reason to know. Thanks for the catch.
I know Trump talked about doing something about the subsidies but don't know if he has. That article is from 2016.
This post was edited by Thriftymaid at April 15, 2018 6:42 PM MDT
Not Sure 