Welfare

Or, how to make the duties of social workers even more difficult

Here’s how to get them.

Sometimes The Scrapbook thinks that the D.C. city government exists solely so that Congress won’t be the most incompetent political entity in Washington. We’re no strangers to writing about the effects of terrible regulations, and we really have to give D.C. credit for cooking up this one: The city…

The Scrapbook visited Los Angeles for the first time around 20 years ago, and it was a delightful experience in most every way. One oddity stood out, though: the sheer number of homeless people. We don’t mention this to denigrate the needy, but the experience of being approached on nearly every…

It was a British-born American patriot, Thomas Paine, who first proposed a "basic income" plan in 1797. The idea has been recycled every few decades since the 19th century by various utopian communes and left-wing economists. Now, it seems, the idea's close to becoming a reality in Utrecht.

Traditional marriage is in big trouble in the United States. Between 1960 and 2011, the share of white adults 18 and older who were married declined by 25 percent, while the declines for Hispanic and black adults were 35 percent and 50 percent respectively. 

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published a month ago but just publicly released on Monday found that while the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken steps to see that ineligible beneficiaries do not receive reduced-price or free school meals, oversight still needs to be…

New research from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee shows that over the last 5 years, the U.S. has spent about $3.7 trillion on welfare. Here's a chart, showing that spending versus transportation, education, and NASA spending:

After five decades of liberal antipoverty programs that have produced only failure and futility, it is more than time for a conservative response to the problem of poverty—one that emphasizes work, family, and economic freedom. 

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with R Street Institute's Lori Sanders on her recent story: Why the GOP needs a reform agenda for anti-poverty programs -- reforms that emphasize work, family, and economic freedom.

The Boston Herald reports:

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on welfare, sponsored by tax payers. Tsarnaev, now dead, is suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon last week. 

On Friday, the United States Department of Agriculture quietly released new statistics related to the food stamps program, officially known as SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The numbers reveal, in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it's ever been, with an average…

Federal welfare spending will skyrocket 80 percent over the next decade, according to new analysis by the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee. Here's a chart, provided by the committee, detailing the growth in spending:

Defeat, like death, concentrates the mind wonderfully. It also liberates the mind. People venture to think the unthinkable, or at least, the impermissible. A new generation of conservatives may be moved to reconsider some ideas that have fallen into disuse or even disrepute. Compassion is one such…

The amount of money spent on welfare programs equals, when converted to cash payments, about "$168 per day for every household in poverty," the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee finds. Here's a chart detailing the committee's findings:

With the latest jobs report, it is now the case that "Under Obama, Food Stamp Growth [Is] 75 Times Greater Than Job Creation," according to statistics compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee. "For Every Person Added to Jobs Rolls Since January 2009, 75 People Added To Food…

New data compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee shows that, last year, the United States spent over $60,000 to support welfare programs per each household that is in poverty. The calculations are based on data from the Census, the Office of Management and Budget, and the…

A report from the Congressional Research Service released today finds that welfare spending is now the largest federal budget item. Presently, the federal government spends $745.84 billion to support 83 of these welfare programs.

A new report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service finds that the largest federal budget item is spending on welfare programs. To support the 83 programs that CRS identified as welfare programs, the federal government spends $745.84 billion. 

Food stamps enrollment has hit a new record high. 46,681,833 are now enrolled in the social welfare program, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, the federal department that runs the program.

A new chart put together by the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee finds that, since 2001, the "number of non-citizens on food stamps quadrupled." Here's the chart detailing the growth in regards to non-citizens:

Mitt Romney may want to consider adding a few more lines about welfare reform—and Barack Obama’s gutting of the law’s work requirement—back into his stump speech. A new poll conducted by the National Republican Congressional Committee asked 1170 respondents two questions about welfare reform, and…

An alarming data point from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee: More Americans are being added to food stamps than are finding jobs. The data is detailed in this chart, provided by the committee:

A new television ad from Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee looks at Barack Obama's history of opposing the 1996 reforms to welfare and promises a Romney administration will restore "work back in welfare." The ad begins by asking the viewer, "Do you support work for welfare?" Watch…

The Boston Herald today reported that the daughter of Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren chairs a non-profit group called Demos, which pushes state governments to spend taxpayer money to register welfare recipients to vote. The president of Demos, Miles S. Rapoport, has donated to…

A new chart set to be released later today by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee details a startling statistic: "Over 100 Million People in U.S. Now Receiving Some Form Of Federal Welfare."

As the campaigns argue over welfare reform, following Mitt Romney's ad this morning that states, "President Obama quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform," it's worth remembering what Barack Obama said about Bill Clinton's reforms before he was in the national spotlight.  

In an ad released this morning, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney goes after Democrat Barack Obama for being to the left of President Bill Clinton on welfare: 

Rich Lowry: "The Effrontery of Rick Santorum"

One big problem conservatives face in trying to develop and implement effective public policy is that conservative thinkers have gotten used to operating in an intellectual milieu that assumes activist government is the answer to every question.

The spring issue of National Affairs has just come out, and it's packed with great articles. Here are a few highlights:

I should explain, at the outset, that I am agnostic on the subject of public broadcasting. It's obvious that NPR suffers from a left-wing bias—so obvious that it seems not to be noticed by NPR—but the fact is that I seldom listen to its programming except the classical music on one (WETA) of the…