The Internet at its best is a treasure trove of information,
better than a thousand libraries. At its worst, it is a means of
spreading falsehoods unlike anything the world has ever seen. This is
especially true in social media, which the right wing has discovered to
be the perfect platform to spread misinformation on political subjects.
Of course, one of the right’s favorite targets is the American social
safety net. Americans who receive welfare benefits or food stamps are
regular targets of right wing memes and attacks on Facebook or other
social media. Not only are most of these memes way off base, virtually
every one of them plays on the public’s complete ignorance of how the
programs we know as “welfare” function. What do you know about welfare?
Most likely you know more than your right wing uncle. But, in case you
are in need of some facts and figures, here is some information about
some of the right’s favorite welfare myths that will certainly drive
that uncle crazy at the next family dinner.
Myth: “People on welfare are lazy and sit at home collecting it while the rest of us work to support them.”
Fact: The welfare reform law that was signed
by President Clinton in 1996 largely turned control over welfare
benefits to the states, but the federal government provides some of the
funding for state welfare programs through a program called Temporary
Assistance For Needy Families (TANF). TANF grants to states require that
all welfare recipients
must find work within two years
of first receiving benefits. This includes single parents, who are
required to work at least 30 hours per week. Two-parent families are
required to work 35 to 50 hours per week. Failure to obtain work could
result in loss of benefits. It is also worth noting that, thanks to the
pay offerings of
companies such as Walmart, many who work at low wage jobs qualify for public assistance
, even though they work full-time.
During the recession, the Obama administration allowed states to
request a temporary waiver of the work requirement, due to the scarcity
of jobs. That move gave the right an opening to claim that President
Obama was
removing the work requirement
for welfare. First, conservatives claim that those on welfare don’t
want to work, then they claim that the president is “gutting welfare
reform” by allowing states to request a waiver of the work requirement.
Myth: “People who go on welfare stay on it forever.”
Fact: According to statisticbrain.com, the vast majority of TANF recipients, 80.4 percent,
receive benefits for five years or less.
Nearly 25 percent of all recipients receive benefits for less than a
year. (The site still refers to the program by the old name of Aid To
Families With Dependent Children. AFDC is the old name for the program,
that was replaced by TANF in 1996. The site’s statistics are current,
however.)
Myth: “There’s a woman in Chicago. She has 80 names,
30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards. … She’s got Medicaid, getting
food stamps and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her
tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000″ – Ronald Reagan
Fact: Ah, the “welfare queen.” Ronny loved to tell
his stories, and his welfare queen story is one of the most popular. The
only problem is
the woman he talked about didn’t exist. There
is some evidence that elements of this story may have been based on
facts, but the descriptions of abuse by an actual woman were wildly
exaggerated by Reagan.
Myth: “Welfare recipients keep having more kids so they can get more benefits.”
Fact: According to a 2010 report, which is the most
recent data available, released by the federal Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), the average family receiving TANF benefits has
1.8 children,
which is about the same as the national average. Half of the families
receiving TANF benefits only have one child. In fact, the average size
of families receiving welfare benefits has
declined from 4.0 in 1969 to 2.4 in 2010.
Also, some states, such as Delaware and Georgia, make it clear to those
who sign up for TANF benefits that their benefits will
not increase if they have additional children. Taken from the
Delaware Department of Health and Human Services website:
You will get information on family planning. Your check will not increase if you have a baby 10 months or more after you sign up for this program. [Emphasis added]
A
Government Accountability Office report (page
45), shows the amount of TANF benefits paid in each state for one to
three children. Even in states where having additional children
will result in a benefit increase, that increase is, in most cases, $100 a month or less.
Myth: “Where Is The U.S. Headed If More Than 100 Million People Get Welfare?” – Headline of August 2012 column by
CNN’s Jack Cafferty
Fact: One hundred million Americans on welfare?
Cafferty apparently gets his information from a biased source, the
Center For Immigration Studies, which is connected to
identified racist John Tanton. According to the
2010 federal HHS report, 1,084,828 adults and 3,280,153 children received TANF benefits that year, a far cry from 100 million.
Myth: “I see these guys all the time, hanging out and drinking, and doing drugs, collecting welfare instead of working.”
Fact: The able-bodied single male with no dependent
children who collects welfare in the United States is extremely rare,
since the primary goal of most welfare programs is to provide
temporary support for children and families. Single males can receive certain benefits, such as
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if
they are disabled. The rare, able-bodied male who does qualify for
benefits is still subject to the program’s work requirements.
Myth: “Most welfare recipients are drug users.”
Fact: In recent years, several states have tried requiring
drug tests of welfare recipients.
The number of applicants who tested positive for drugs was not enough
to make the programs cost effective in every state where it was tried.
Even Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, one of the early proponents of the
idea has given up on it after his plan was
ruled unconstitutional by two federal courts.
When Florida tried drug tests for welfare in 2011, only about two percent of all applicants
tested positive for drug use. According to the
New York Times, federal statistics show that the
rate of drug use among welfare recipients is about the same as it is for the public at large.
Myth: “Most welfare recipients are minorities and illegal immigrants.”
Fact: TANF benefits were paid out to
roughly the same percentage of white and black recipients in 2010, according to the HHS report. In fact, the percentage of black families receiving welfare benefits has
declined by
almost 7 percent since 2000. It’s popular among conservatives to claim
that illegal immigrants are getting welfare. But that is not the
case. Those who are in the United States illegally are
ineligible for benefits other than emergency Medicaid.
Myth: “People collect welfare instead of work, and
they get rich. They all have iPhones, drive new cars, have widescreen
tv’s, etc. I work and I can’t afford any of that!”
Fact: Since welfare payments vary by state and by the size of the family, it’s hard to provide all the pertinent numbers here,
but here are some ranges:
- A family of four can expect up to $500 a month in food stamp benefits. A single person can expect an average of $200 a month.
- The average monthly allowance under TANF/AFDC is $900 for a family of four. For a single person the average is about $300.
It would be interesting to see what kind of “new car” anyone could
buy on that income, or even an iPhone, for that matter. Also remember,
despite what Newt Gingrich may have claimed during the 2012 election
campaign, you can’t use food stamps for anything except food, so when
you’re figuring how much money someone might have for an iPhone or a
car, take that money out of the equation.
One final fact about welfare: Would anybody like to guess who makes
up the single largest group on welfare in the United States?
It’s children. One out of every four children in the United States receives welfare benefits.
“Everybody’s gotta have somebody to look down on, who they can feel better than at any time they please.” — Kris Kristofferson
That seems to be the story when it comes to welfare and the attitudes
of conservatives. “There but for the grace of God go I” isn’t a
consideration. Ask any conservative what problems they have with
welfare, and they are likely to start their reply with “I know somebody
who…” and then launch into a narrative about someone they know who they
don’t believe deserves benefits. But, in a nation of 300 million, it is
impossible to know enough “somebody’s who” to reach a valid conclusion.
Not that that matters to conservatives, who largely base their ideas on
contempt for their fellow man.
Since the year 2000, over three million jobs have been lost to China. Most of those jobs were lost during the
Bush administration.
If we even had a fraction of those good paying jobs back, maybe so many
people wouldn’t need to rely on welfare. But you can’t confuse
conservatives with facts, when they would prefer to just blame the
welfare recipients…and Obama.
![Tennessee state Sen. Joey Hensley (R) [Chattanooga Times Free Press]](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Tennessee-state-Sen.-Joey-Hensley-R-Chattanooga-Times-Free-Press-478x257.jpg)
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