LOWMAN S. HENRY: Cycle of Dependency

By Lowman S. Henry

The headline blared from the Sunday opinion page: Where's Washington's Heart?  Rather than being an editorial on helping to lift people out of poverty it was instead - predictably - a robust and deeply flawed defense of government social welfare programs.

Decades after President Lyndon Johnson declared a "war on poverty" that turned out to be a massive expansion of government dependency programs, and after the expenditure of trillions of taxpayer dollars on those programs, the needle on poverty has barely moved.

What has changed is the number of Americans trapped on the government dole.  The Left believes this is a good thing - government is assisting more people.  And while helping people who truly need assistance is a shared goal across the political spectrum, conservatives want to take that one step further and return as many people as possible to self-sufficiency.

The term "cycle of dependency" is used by social scientists to describe how addiction to government aid gets handed down from one generation to the next.  But, there is another "cycle of dependency" that explains the Left's fixation with growing the number of people receiving public assistance.

Here is how it works: more people dependent on government creates more voters will support those candidates pledging to preserve and expand their benefits; this results in the election/re-election of Left-leaning candidates who then work to increase the number of people dependent on such programs, repeat, repeat and repeat.

Attempt to break this cycle and the Left will attack saying you lack compassion, or as the headline put it "heart."  This too is a favorite, and highly effective, tactic of the Left.  Big government advocates are exceptionally good at messaging.  They can take any government program, regardless of how ineffective or inefficient it might be, and make it sound like mom and apple pie.  For example the "Affordable Care Act" made health care less available and more expensive; illegal immigrants become "dreamers" and the murdering of babies in the womb becomes "reproductive rights."

What triggered the editorial screed, augmented by the sub-headline "When it comes to helping hunger Americans, we have lost our humanity," was a move by the Trump Administration to allow states greater flexibility in moving people off the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, and into self-sufficiency.

You would think helping Americans become more self-sufficient and thus not needing government assistance would be an obvious goal.  But, it would break the Left's electoral cycle of dependency so crank up the propaganda machine and declare such efforts to be heartless.

But are they heartless?

The Trump Administration's goal is to foster the movement of able-bodied adults without dependent children from dependency into the work place.  A similar effort in Pennsylvania passed the General Assembly last year, but fell victim to a veto by Governor Wolf who saw the threat to his electoral coalition.

Opposition to this policy is the opposite of heartless; it restores human dignity.  Nobody is proposing that children go unfed; or those with physical or mental disabilities are denied SNAP benefits.  The goal is for those able to work, and for whom jobs are available, to do so.

This is, as conservative author Arthur Brooks termed it, the "conservative heart":  Provide equality of opportunity through educational reforms such as expanded school choice and job training programs.  Foster a pro-growth economy that makes available good, family sustaining jobs.  This approach will break the classic cycle of dependency and move those who are able from being dependent on government to helping government through their tax dollars funding programs for those in actual need.

In fact, advocacy for the continued trapping of able-bodied, able-minded individuals on government assistance is what is truly heartless.  Doing so with an ulterior political motive is not only heartless, but downright mean. It is time we stopped falling for the Left's spin and put into place those policies that restore more people to the dignity of self-sufficiency.

(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal.  His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)

Obama Calls for $12.7 Trillion in New Welfare Spending

The Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector on Barack Obama's latest boondogle, dismantling the welfare reform compromised former President Clinton reached with Republicans:

Obama has increased federal means-tested welfare spending by a third since taking office. Last year, combined federal and state spending on means-tested welfare hit $927 billion. (Social Security and Medicare are not included in this total.)

Welfare spending amounts to $9,040 per year for each lower-income American. If converted to cash and simply given to the recipients, this spending would be more than sufficient to bring the income of every lower-income American household to 200 percent of the federal poverty level (roughly $44,000 per year for a family of four).

Remarkably, Obama plans to increase spending on means-tested welfare spending further after the current recession ends, spreading the wealth through a dramatic, permanent expansion of the welfare state. The President’s own budget calls for a permanent increase in annual means-tested spending from 4.5 percent to 6 percent of gross domestic product. Combined annual federal and state spending would reach $1.56 trillion in 2022. Overall, President Obama plans to spend $12.7 trillion on means-tested welfare over the next decade.

Read the full post at The Foundry blog.

Pennsylvania Rolls Out Drug Tests For Welfare Recipients

Pennsylvania Officials Roll Out Drug Tests For Welfare Recipients

6 More Pennsylvania Residents Prosecuted for Welfare Fraud

Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General Announces November Welfare Fraud Adjudications

Pennsylvania to Crack Down on Welfare Fraud

Considering Pennsylvania taxpayers are on the hook for more than $10 billion a year to fund various welfare program, it's about time the state focuses on ending fraud and waste, which are rampant.

Even if you catch just 10 percent of the fraud and waste, that's still a coll $1 billion savings to taxpayers.

Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Creates Office of Program Integrity to Strengthen Efforts to Curb Fraud, Waste and Abuse

Pennsylvania Prosecutes 9 For Welfare Fraud

Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General Announces September Welfare Fraud Adjudications

Poll: 53% Support Drug Testing For Welfare Applicants

Rasmussen Reports: 53% Support Automatic Drug Testing For Welfare Applicants

Rep. Tom Quigley: Controlling PA Spending Starts with Welfare Reform

Controlling State Spending Starts with Welfare Reform

By Rep. Tom Quigley (R-Montgomery)

In light of the recent passage of the budget for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I wanted to focus on an area of the budget that may not have received much attention; welfare reform. Nearly 40 percent of Pennsylvania's annual state budget is used to support public welfare programs, making public welfare the single largest expenditure in the Commonwealth, above even public education. In the 2011-12 fiscal year, welfare programs will receive more than $10.5 billion out of our $27.15 billion total budget.

Even when faced with a worldwide economic downturn and multi-billion dollar budget deficits, the public welfare allocation in Pennsylvania continued to balloon, while nearly every other sector of state spending was being slashed. Our Medical Assistance benefits are growing at a rate of nearly 12 percent every year, increasing by a total of 97 percent in the past decade. At the same time, our general revenue collections are only increasing by 3 percent per year. Clearly if we are going to control state spending and balance our budgets into the future, we must take a hard look at managing welfare spending and reforming welfare programs.

House Republicans have made welfare reform the foundation for our agenda to return sensibility to state spending. This spring, we introduced a package of eight measures designed to return fairness, accountability, integrity and responsibility to Pennsylvania’s welfare system. Of those eight bills, six gained approval in the House and four were signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett as part of the final budget agreement.

The four welfare reform measures that have now been signed into law include:

• Instituting drug testing for welfare applicants who have been convicted of a drug felony in the past five years.
• Creating an Income Eligibility Verification System to detect fraud by authenticating recipient information.
• Basing benefit amounts on the permanent legal residence of applicants to discourage benefit shopping.
• Requiring greater oversight into the Special Allowances program, as outlined by Auditor General Jack Wagner.

Because of the inclusion of these reforms in the budget package, hundreds of millions of dollars were applied to restoring many of the Governor’s proposed cuts to public and higher education.

Welfare reform is not about denying assistance to people who are truly in need, but it is about ensuring that every taxpayer dollar is being used appropriately. The four proposals signed into law were designed to preserve welfare assistance for senior citizens, people with disabilities, children and those who need a temporary safety net until they are able to get back on their own feet.

If we had not taken action to implement these reforms, our welfare system would eventually become unsustainable and our state budget unsound. Not only must we contend with our current liabilities, but we must also look down the road to when the federal health care law takes effect and even more people are added to our welfare assistance rolls through Medicaid programs. The federal government will only fully fund these additional beneficiaries for three years and after that some of the costs will be turned over to the states. While we will not have much control over the addition of these new beneficiaries, we can and should better manage other public welfare programs.

I am pleased about the great strides we have made to improve the way in which Pennsylvania administers welfare programs, and I am hopeful we will be able to achieve even greater success in the future. The viability of all state programs depends on our ability to control welfare costs and appropriately oversee how our state tax dollars are being spent.

State Rep. Tom Quigley is a Republican who has represented Pennsylvania's 146th House District in the state Legislature since 2004.

Are welfare cuts next for Pennsylvania?

The biggest mystery in Harrisburg - Why won't Gov. Tom Corbett cut the $11 Billion spent each year by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare?

Are welfare cuts next for Pennsylvania? - pottsmerc.com

Rep. Quigley's Benefit Shopping Bill Passes House

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives Tuesday approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Tom Quigley (R-Montgomery) to limit the ability of welfare applicants to shop for higher benefit amounts in neighboring counties.

The legislation would require the Department of Public Welfare to base benefit amounts on an applicant's county of permanent legal residence, according to Quigley.

From a Quigley press release:

"For the past eight years our welfare system has been a leaky faucet, but House Republicans are getting out the wrench and turning off the tap," said Quigley. "Our taxpayers could never afford this lack of oversight into state funds, but especially during this budget crisis, it is imperative that we account for every single dollar the hard-working citizens of this Commonwealth send to state government."

Quigley's House Bill 1261 was introduced as part of the House Republican's WelFAIR package, which will restore fairness, accountability, integrity and responsibility to welfare programs. Other bills in the package include:

· House Bill 1297, which would institute drug testing for applicants convicted of a drug felony within the past five years.

· House Bill 1251, which would increase penalties for welfare fraud.

· House Bill 1254, which would prohibit the purchase of tobacco products with Access cards.

· House Bill 392, which would require photo identification on welfare benefit cards.

· House Bill 960, which would create an Income Eligibility Verification System.

· House Bill 1301, which would implement new guidelines and restrictions on the existing Medical Assistance Transportation Program.

· House Bill 1312, which would assist people in moving from welfare to work with job transition loans, rather than the current grant program.

"Public funds should be held to the highest scrutiny and strictest standards – that is what our taxpayers deserve," said Quigley. "We must ensure that the people using Access cards are those for whom benefits are intended, that the people receiving assistance meet all eligibility requirements and that taxpayer dollars are not being spent to purchase drugs or tobacco. I am proud to be a part of this effort, and I am hopeful these bills will make their way to the governor's desk soon."

House Bill 1261 will now go to the Senate for consideration. The House also approved House Bills 960 and 1251.

More information about Quigley and the WelFAIR package are available at RepQuigley.com

Study Finds High Welfare Use by Immigrants

From a new study by the Center for Immigration Studies:

The states where overall welfare use by immigrant households with children (legal and illegal) have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62 percent); Texas, California, and New York (61 percent); Pennsylvania (59 percent); Minnesota and Oregon (56 percent); and Colorado (55 percent).

Study Finds High Welfare Use by Immigrants

Newspaper: Is America Becoming A Welfare Nation?

From Investor's Business Daily:

More than one-third of all wages and salaries in this country are actually government handouts. We should be alarmed that we've become a nation of dependents.

Editorial: Is America Becoming A Welfare Nation? - Investors.com

The 2009 Index of Dependence on Government

This is scary. A new study by The Heritage Foundation concludes that nearly 61 million Americans remain dependent on the government for their daily housing, food, and health care. And Obama wants that number to rise.

From the report:

Despite the famed 1996 Welfare Reform Act and the more recent welfare adjustments in 2006, 60.8 million Americans remain dependent on the government for their daily housing, food, and health care. The number of taxpayers is shrinking - and the country may be rapidly approaching the point where more than one-third of Americans do not pay taxes for benefits they receive. In February 2009, the Democrat-controlled Congress and the new Obama Administration may have driven the final stake into the heart of any semblance of fiscal responsibility when they enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - essentially overturning the fiscal foundation of welfare reform.

Starting in 2016, Social Security will not collect enough in taxes to pay all of the promised benefits - which is a problem for all workers, but especially for the roughly half of the American workforce that has no other retirement program.

Add in spiraling academic grants, flat-out farm socialism, and the swelling ranks of Americans who believe themselves entitled to public-sector benefits for which they pay few or no taxes - and Americans must ask themselves whether they are near a tipping point in the nature of their government.

The budget, welfare, and policy experts at the Heritage Foundation lay out the gloomy facts - in the hopes of pulling Americans back from the brink of complete dependence on the government.

Read more at the link below:

The 2009 Index of Dependence on Government | The Heritage Foundation

Obama Will Spend More on Welfare in the Next Year Than Bush Spent on Entire Iraq War, Study Reveals

From CNSNews:

During the entire administration of George W. Bush, the Iraq war cost a total of $622 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service.

President Obama's welfare spending will reach $888 billion in a single fiscal year --2010 -- more than the Bush administration spent on war in Iraq from the first "shock and awe" attack in 2003 until Bush left office in January.

Obama's spending proposals call for the largest increases in welfare benefits in U.S. history, according to a report by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. This will lead to a spending total of $10.3 trillion over the next decade on various welfare programs. These include cash payments, food, housing, Medicaid and various social services for low-income Americans and those at 200 percent of the poverty level, or $44,000 for a family of four. Among that total, $7.5 trillion will be federal money and $2.8 trillion will be federally mandated state expenditures.

Read the full story at the link below:

CNSNews.com - Obama Will Spend More on Welfare in the Next Year Than Bush Spent on Entire Iraq War, Study Reveals

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Auditor General Jack Wagner: Potential for massive welfare fraud in PA

One of the reasons for the growing mistrust of government is the fact that there are so many documented examples of money being wasted or handed out without property accountability.

A new audit conducted by the Pennsylvania Auditor General has found that 45% of the payments in the Department of Public Welfare's Special Allowance Program were issued without documented justification.

From a press released issued today by Wagner's office:

Auditor General Jack Wagner said today that a Department of Public Welfare program that provides cash assistance to welfare recipients seeking employment was rife with mismanagement and poor oversight, creating an environment for potential fraud and abuse that could cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

In a special performance audit released today, Wagner's auditors found insufficient documentation to justify 45 percent of the 3,201 special allowance payments examined. Specifically, auditors found insufficient documentation for 163 recipients totaling $564,700 in cash for clothing, child care, tools, transportation and other expenses.

Wagner said his concern over potential fraud stemmed, in part, from the fact that DPW has acknowledged potentially fraudulent handling of special allowance funds in Philadelphia and reported cases to the Office of Inspector General for further investigation.

"With the commonwealth facing its greatest budgetary challenges since the Great Depression, all of us in state government must do everything we can to stretch every dollar and eliminate the potential for waste, fraud and abuse," Wagner said. "Department of Public Welfare management must provide greater leadership and be held accountable for its mishandling of taxpayer dollars, and must ensure that these vital funds are not wasted and are used appropriately so that these funds are available to assist some of Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens who are eligible and truly need the benefits."

Read the full release at the link below:

Auditor General Jack Wagner: DPW's Special Allowance Program Rife With Mismanagement, Potential for Fraud

Rendell's Welfare State

Most states have succeeded in getting people off welfare and into productive jobs, but Gov. Ed Rendell has taken Pennsylvania in a different direction: Keeping people dependent on government assistance.

Pennsylvania spends $10 billion a year on welfare programs, a $4 billion increase since Rendell became governor in 2003.

Pennsylvania ranks No. 41 among the 50 states in the area of welfare reform, according to a new national survey. Check out "Welfare Reform: PA gets poor grades" at POLICY BLOG for more.