Barbara BUSH's Texas Is No Welfare Paradise

[UTUSN]

The old witch's (not in the Wiccan sense) saying that the Katrina evacuees going to Texas had it so good that they didn't want to go back was disgusting enough. But today LIMBOsevic picked up the Texas theme by saying that Texas had been STERLING in handling the influx.

Help in Texas is to be appreciated, but this is a spike in the record, not representative of its ongoing public assistance to its own residents. & I've seen posted here that Texas is going to recoup its expenses from the Feds.

At one time in the '80s at least, Texas ranked 3rd from the bottom in the per capita spending on public assistance, only above Alabama and Mississippi, two states with very different resources from Texas. That was the link of ranking I was looking for, but found only these, the first from the Cato wingnuts, since wingnuts are VERY interested in looking in Welfare recipients' grocery carts to see what luxuries they are purchasing with their benefits. Texas is 7th from the bottom in the value of its public assistance.

The 2nd link shows how Texas pays less than the national median, helps fewer children, and has more children without health insurance.

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.cato.org/research/pr-nd-st.html

Hourly Wage Equivalent of Welfare


Hawaii $17.50

Alaska 15.48

Massachusetts 14.66

Connecticut 14.23

Washington, D.C. 13.99

New York 13.13

New Jersey 12.74

Rhode Island 12.55

California 11.59

Virginia 11.11

Maryland 10.96

New Hampshire 10.96

Maine 10.38

Delaware 10.34

Colorado 10.05

Vermont 10.05

Minnesota 10.00

Washington 9.95

Nevada 9.71

Utah 9.57

Michigan 9.47

Pennsylvania 9.47

Illinois 9.33

Wisconsin 9.33

Oregon 9.23

Wyoming 9.18

Indiana 9.13

Iowa 9.13

New Mexico 8.94

Florida 8.75

Idaho 8.65

Oklahoma 8.51

Kansas 8.46

North Dakota 8.46

Georgia 8.37

Ohio 8.37

South Dakata 8.32

Louisana 8.17

Kentucky 8.08

North Carolina 8.08

Montana 7.84

South Carolina 7.79

Nebraska 7.64

Texas 7.31

West Virginia 7.31

Missouri 7.16

Arizona 6.78

Tennessee 6.59

Arkansas 6.35

Alabama 6.25

Mississippi 5.53

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http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?NavMenuID=24&template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=7169

TABLE 2. The Safety Net in Texas, in National Context

------------ Texas -------------- United States
Welfare Benefits - Maximum Monthly Benefit
(Family of Three, No Income)
1996 (AFDC) a $188 ----------------Median: $415
1998 (TANF) a $188 ----------------Median: $421
2000 (TANF) a $201 ----------------Median: $421

Ratio of Children Receiving Welfare to All Poor Children
1996 (AFDC) b 33.7% ---------------59.3%
1998 (TANF) b 20.7% ---------------49.9%

Percent of All Children Without Health Insurance
1997 c 22.0% ----------------------12.2%
1999 c 23.0% ----------------------12.5%

********UNQUOTE*******

[bliss_eternal]

1. Again, is Texas NOT the state where a black man was dragged

to death?

[UTUSN]

2. I Sure Wish Our Crack Investigative Media

had bothered to follow the clues in Molly IVINS's books and checked out Shrub's record, instead of being scared of his "don't-mess-with-Texas" crap on the one hand and then spreading the he's-a-Moderate-no-difference-between-him-&-GORE on the other hand.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. NEVER elect a Texas Governor as president

The Governorship here is basically a figurehead position. Texas Governors hold very limited institutional powers.

When they ran bush for President of the United States on the claim that he had earned his political "boots" as Texas Governor I didn't think America would buy such a BS story.

As it tuned out enough of them did that on election night it all depended on Florida. The rest is history. :cry:

[solinvictus]

3. An honest question about poverty and single mothers..

One of the evacuees interviewed leaving New Orleans was, on Yahoo I believe, described as a single mother with five children. Now, hurricane or not, this in and of itself is a pattern that all but guarantees a life of poverty. I hate the Chimperor as much as anyone, but no political doctrine forced the woman to have that many children. I suppose, in the welfare debate, that issue bothers me more than any other as I don't see how it's society's responsibility to subsidize the bad decisions of others. If a woman has one child; fine, but there should be a mandatory Norplant or tubal ligation to accompany any welfare benefits. I guess I get sick of the phenomena of young single moms complaining about their lives when they literally made their own bed by engaging in unprotected sex.

[AndreaCG]

5. Some of those single mothers

with 5 kids nevertheless have jobs.

[UTUSN]

6. Kick for the HANNITY Hour n/t

[UTUSN]

7. Last Kick Forever n/t