Stuff that Makes No Sense: United States
What if legislators LEGISLATED that the dollar amount of a Food Stamp monthly benefit match the amount the USDA itself says is needed to buy the amount and quality of food that keeps a person alive?
All Tricks, No Treats: A Nation (Un)Committed to Children
It may seem anti-social to smother the baby you birthed, but for a teenager schooled in the values of American society, maybe not so much. Tiona Rodriguez, who was 17 at the time, may have needed some more adult direction to keep from going shopping and shoplifting right after birthing a baby and killing it. [...]
Poverty: All in Your Head, According to Those Paid to Know Better
If there is any one thing that could make a person unfit to head up federal housing policy in the United States, it would be his belief that poverty is a “state of mind.” Despite centuries and decades of intelligent discussion, research and policymaking on the subject, here comes Dr. Ben Carson, Secretary of the [...]
Auditor finds DHHS misspent $13M in welfare funds
This year is the twentieth anniversary of 1996's welfare reform law. In it, President Bill Clinton gave full control for how to spend federal anti-poverty funds to state level administrators. From 1996 on, the federal government would stay out of states' decisions on how to spend their welfare block grants. The accountability was reduced practically [...]
Speak English, Carajo!
Recently, Rick Santorum, Republican party candidate, declared that Puerto Rico would be required to make English its main language if it were to become a state. Just as Santorum’s culture is cemented in his use of English, the Puerto Rican experience has Spanish at its core. The reaction to Santorum’s statements (which he attempted to [...]
GOP Food Stamp Bashers
Have others who know how important the federal Food Stamp program is had enough of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum's endlessly ignorant verbal attacks on the Food Stamp program? Santorum has made several comments that prove he is atrociously ignorant of how the program works, who gets the Food Stamps, and ignorant of how it [...]