My husband and I were both laid off from our jobs.
Its been a really scary time, but taking the time to be afraid and stressed does nothing but cloud your judgment.
So in the meantime, we've struggled. We've both filed, and received, unemployment. We've received free health care from the state in which we literally don't spend a penny to see the same doctors we used to pay hundreds (thousands) in premiums and copays for. We get free food from the WIC program. We have qualified for more things, but we have too much pride to take advantage.
Ever been in that position?
The thing is, it takes very little to get these programs. You don't even have to speak English.
We hate that we are using these programs, and as soon as we are back on our feet again, we'll pay our way through life 100%. I'm becoming angry and bitter that these programs exist...and that they HAVE to exist for times like these. Perhaps if our taxes weren't so high to pay for things like these, we'd have savings and wouldn't be stuck like this.
The workers in these programs are courteous and go out of their way to make sure you know of all the programs available to you. They go out of their way to make the process easier. That should be a good thing for any other industry except for those that exist solely for the purpose of prolonging making an honest living.
I know I contradict myself when I say I use these programs but they royally piss me off. The thing is, they wouldn't piss me off as much if they were hard to get, or if I even had to speak English to get them. I now know why people "live off the system" and I'm pissed that so many of my tax dollars went and go to these programs in the first place because I know full well someone could stop working forever and have the same exact luxuries for free that we've paid for as a struggling middle class family.
Before this point, I was a democrat. I've become such a far right fiscal conservative since. Our (paid for) health insurance begins in a few weeks and now that we're starting to get back to a point where we are out of the hole, I'm no longer ashamed because I'm using government subsidies. However, I'm pissed off at the same time because I know that my job is paying for someone else to sit on their asses and wait for the check in the mail.
The democrats have made it too easy. They had some really good ideas, but they have gone so far wrong its ridiculous.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
28 comments:
Well I'd really like to know HOW you got all these things so easily! I was a single mother of a sick child and much of my paycheck went to doctors and prescriptions. My day care payments took a huge chunk of my paycheck, and the day care mother told me "all" her other mothers were getting their child care paid for by the State. But when I applied, I was told that BECAUSE I WAS NEVER IN THE SYSTEM, I WASN'T ELIGIBLE FOR ANYTHING!! I'd really like to know how these people managed to get so much when I wasn't able to get anything at all.
This is a stunningly hypocritical post. Thanks to the government welfare programs championed by the Democrats, your family was able to survive a very tough time. You got food and were even able to see a doctor. That is true family values! Instead of being grateful, you think that nobody who doesn't speak English should get the same care you got--how selfish! I am glad that my tax dollars helped save your family, and I am glad that my tax dollars may save a family that doesn't even speak English. After all, disease and hunger could care less what language you speak. I am proud to vote for the Democratic Party to help people like you out. It would be nice if you returned the favor by voting for Democrats who helped you in your time of need, but I guess you would rather vote or the guy who has pledged to cut taxes on the wealthiest 5% of the population only.
The funny thing is that if these services where not available to you during this time of need, all that you have said would be null and void. If it were hard to get these services you would still be upset because you would feel that previous to me and my husband being laid off I was paying into this and I need to know receive some back.
These programs exist for circumstances like this. Granted some people do take advantage of it when they can actually get off their buns and find work. However, if these programs were not available to you; you would be complaining that programs like these should be offered.
Whether taxes are high or low jams still come up where we need assistance to get back on our feet. Your taxes go into this but they are changing the rules where people have to try and get jobs. But if the job market is down and some are really trying what else can they do but continue to receive from the state.
Luxury? If it was up to the conservative would you have had that luxury?? Dear Bush, I lost my job can I come and stay with you? I think not! You would be worse off than you are now. At least now you were able to get back on your feet. Think of it as helping others that get into jams.
Yes, some free load but if it wasn’t for these luxuries you could be homeless. Welfare was created to help not to be a crutch that so many try to use it for, but it happens. Even those that pay 100% still try to get over. Be Grateful and stop complaining.
Joe, You forgot to add "Vote McCain" at the end.
While I am glad you are able to get back up on your feet, and were able to get the assistance you needed....it bothers me that people want to bash Democrats for everything they don't like in this country.
I'll bet you there were MANY Republicans...well known ones who also voted to put these systems in place and to keep them there.
The problem, as I see it, it not the fact of the programs being in place, it is with the people who are dishing out the benefits/money.
There seems to be not much oversight...because some have cushy little state government jobs and feel like they have a right NOT to do their job and just pass the problems down to the next person who sits in their chair.
I couldn't agree more. It's sad to sit back and think about all the people abusing the hell out of the system. It's one thing to be in need of help, it's a whole different story to be just plain lazy. I'm 20 years old and I work a full time job. Every time I look at my paystub and see that they've take almost $400 out in taxes from me biweekly, it makes me think, I could be paying to go to college with this money. But instead 80% percent of that money is going to someone who doesn't want to get off of their lazy ass and find a job. I pay all of my own bills and I have never asked the state for anything. This is bullshit. Bare minimum is that you should be able to speak fluent English to the point of being able to go out and be eligible for regular jobs just like everyone else.
Wow is all I can say. Don't you think that these systems are in place to help you for your temporary situation? You complain about taxes while you use the very system they pay for. I believe that is called hypocrisy.
I was laid off from my job in August and I am receiving unemployment. However I have no health insurance, I do I get medical insurance until I am able to get on my feet? Thanks for the help.
I think some people just read what they want to read and hear what they want to hear.
The point of the story:
There is no oversight or watchdog service that makes sure your tax dollars are being used appropriately.
Go to any grocery store on the first of month watch the kind of cars the "freeloaders" load their groceries in. You will be surprised how many of them have $30,000 + vehicles.
And then the ones that have the cheap cars (who look like they need help) can’t speak a word of English. No English = No Job = Your tax dollars well spent.
Unfortunately this persons story is not the norm as this program was intended.
9:31 You can pay my share too please, since you think it is so great.
10:27, if you have children, look into the Maryland Children's Health Program. It no longer covers just kids, it covers parents too.
8:38, the way you get into their system is to apply for the Maryland Childrens Health Program. Once you qualify for that, you are qualified for literally everything else.
8:58, I'm glad you're glad your tax dollars saved this family but do you realize your tax dollars are helping other families CHOOSE to remain unemployed? And yes, you're in a country that has made an official language choice--ENGLISH. IN what other country can you simply get free subsidies without even speaking their language?
9:31 You've missed the point completely. The current system spends so much time and money trying to subsidize people that they have no real encouragement to actually go out and get a job and pay their own way. Its not complaining, its stating that there are serious problems with the system. I can walk in right now and just say I don't work. Does anyone actually verify that????
Justin, just wait until you have kids. People with kids get a MASSIVE amount of their tax dollars back. Its amazing how single people get penalized in this country just for not having babies.
10:26 The complaint was not that the system exists, the complaint was that it is significantly too easy to abuse.
11:39 EXACTLY!
Sounds to me like a self-hating welfare queen.
How many of the guys driving a Mercedes are using corporate tax breaks to fund their fancy lifestyle? You know, the guys who make $250,000+ a year and thus will be eligible for McCain's tax break? Why don't you go after them in the same way you go after the people getting groceries? I'd rather risk some middle class people abusing the system and getting benefits they don't need rather than follow the Republican plan, which is to let you sink or swim, hoping benefits will eventually trickle down to the neediest people. Now we learn that Palin, the big reformist, was charging taxpayers to take her children on trips. Sigh.
this is very true. More people use it because it's their and because they can. I know plenty of people riding around in a Denali or Big SUVs that are on state assistance or they own $400,000 and have jobs. I was 19 when I got pregnant and hadmy baby. i didn't use state insurance or WIC. I worked my ass off. My baby was even on a extremly expensive formula that costs about 400-500 a month just for formula and i held ground and wouldn't use state help. No i didnt live with my parents either. There are people like me who fight to be above that line of people who just use it jsut because. I probably needed and should have used it but i am glad i didn't.
You anti-"welfare" people crack me up. You complain about a program that provides a crucial safety net in times of need--of course we could all cite examples of its abuse, but there is always tremendous waste in the military--should we get rid of it? As for welfare keeping families out of jobs because they don't have to work, maybe you all should vote for Obama, who has a proven record in Illinois of moving people from welfare to work (I bet Rush Limbaugh doesn't mention that on his show). Finally, on the language issue. First, there are lots of people working here who don't speak English--they are working the jobs in the chicken and crabbing industry that you won't. They have to pay taxes, even if they are not citizens. And you can go to many European countries and get benefits without speaking the language, or simply move north to Canada. So that was a bad argument. I sincerely hope none of your families has a crisis where you need a financial safety net. I hope you don't come down witha rare form of cancer that the insurance company won't pay to treat. I hope your children are born healthy, and I hope your employers pay you a living wage. But since I live in the real world, I am glad that my political party, the Democrats, will continue to fight for the average American, even if the average American believes the Rush Limbaughs of this world.
Annon 12:45:
Those rich greedy people that make $250,000+ reinvest into the economy with taxes and jobs; that person makes sure you have a job to go to every day.
They can take the breaks stats will show that the country is better off.
Annon 12:45
The government doesn't stand on the shore with a life preserver. The government gives you the means to learn to swim. Quit complaining about the cold water and learn to swim.
Anon 2:30,
I'm glad you have $2 million in the bank, to cover experiemental treatment if you ever come down with a rare form of cancer. You, of course, are completely prepared for that. Drive carefully, and hope that everyone else drives carefully. And should a Category 5 hurricane ever hit the shore and take away your job, your house, your car, and the person who makes the biggest salary in your family, I think you will change your tune.
Who says that the guy making $250,000+ a year is reinvesting in America? After all, he can buy an imported car, stockpile his earnings in an offshore tax shelter, and hire illegal immigrants for a salary below the minimum wage. Or he could be a farmer, being paid by your tax dollars to not till his fields. trickle down economics is baloney. Some wealthy people create jobs, some don't. Why should I subsidize their wealth with tax breaks? McCain is targetting people making over $250,000 a year for his tax breaks. Let's take a poll, and be honest: how many readers here make $250,000 or more a year? I don't.
You Republicans kill me. All you do is bitch about people needing a helping hand. You are the first in line with your hand out when you need it.
So, let's get rid of ALL these programs even though they help such hard-working folks like you because 20% of the people abuse it. SCREW the 80%!
As for "how easy it was," I am dubious -- I've never been through anything easy with programs like these when I helped elderly relatives.
The lies, the fabricated stories and the hypocrisy are just never ending from the Republican propogandists.
Annon 2:52
$2 Million: If I'm smart enough to earn it then I think I could handle what ever comes my way.
Category 5: I'm smart enough to get the hell out of the way.
Take away your job: I have learned to be self sufficient
My house: I'm able to pay insurance premiums.
My car: I used it to get out of the way, it's still dry.
And in event of my departure I have made sure my family will be taken care of.
If you take the time you’ve used to complain about how you don’t have it and transform that into investing into yourself; you might be somewhere today. It's no secret that the evil Republicans are happier people. Happier people are less likely to be sick.
Why is this so far to figure out?
5:20-- What a series of oversimplifications. Bad things happen to rich people as well as poor people, you know that. But you really think you would be so well prepared, eh?
You want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans.
Hey-- and while you're at it, why not pause for a minute and think of what your massive tax breaks mean to the people left behind-- wading through waist-high waters, foraging for food for their infants, while under-funded government relief agencies are nowhere to be seen. Oh, but you're sitting safely in a Marriott somewhere... right.
5:20,
You don't have $2 million in the bank ready to pay for unexpected medical problems, and you know it. Perhaps it will keep you awake tonight to know that your homeowners insurance will not cover your medical costs should you get a terrible disease. Also, good luck collecting on your home insurance should a hurricane destroy your house--ask the folks in Louisiana how that worked out. Your self-sufficiency is a myth--I challenge you to last one month without a job and without buying anything from anyone else. All you have to do is look on this blog a few posts in front of this one--a woman is bravely fighting a terrible disease and her friends (bless them) are putting on a fundraiser to help her out. She is lucky to have such great friends, and I hope they raise a ton of money, but it will not cover the costs of her care. Wouldn't it be nice if rather than worrying about how she will pay her bills (even though she has medical insurance, the costs go far beyond that), she and her family could concentrate on getting better? Is that such an awful way to spend our tax dollars? When did we stop becoming an empathetic country and start becoming like you, satisfied as long as you have the illusion of being perfectly prepared? I don't care if you are a Democrat, Republican, white, black, rich, poor, or even if you cheer for the Dallas Cowboys, I wish good health and prosperity for you. But I want to believe in a country that takes care of each other in times of need, and therefore I will vote for Obama. He is not perfect, but he will help us move away from what has happened in the last 8 years.
6:04 wouldn't it make more sense to cry out for health insurance reform, rather than creating yet another government subsidy? Why does it make sense to force tax payer's money to pay for a disease or injury that is not covered by insurance? The point of insurance is to have coverage in the event that it is needed....so the insurance companies should be required to change their policies and cover all medical needs.
I mean you no offense, you could be the nicest person in the world with the nicest family in the world, but I don't want to pay your medical bills. I have my own to pay.
A few comments...
First we've all seen what several years of control of the federal government by one party gets us.
The economy is down the crapper and it was helped there by massive banks that have had regulations lifted, altered, or ignored that should be in place to keep them from commiting usury. The lending institutions made loans that people were foolish enough to sign off on, yet they made it possible for people to get in way over their heads. All in the name of greed. Sell properties way above reasonable prices to people that can't afford them. Loan officers should be judicious enough to deny people these sort of loans.
The same crap happened with the S&L scandals.
[b]Both parties[/b] are to blame for setting this country up for a crash of Great Depression magnitude. It was the same mentality back then that built a house of cards and then brought it back down.
Once again we're going to bail them out. The excuse is they're too big to let them die the painful death they deserve. The way to stop that is to go back to the way it was following the Great Depression and bring them down a notch so we don't have these massive entities that run wild on us.
So while everyone is quite content to scream about the peanuts being spent to support welfare recipients, corporate welfare soars to new heights.
Yet all we get is finger pointing and navel gazing.
Republicans scream and yell about what a bunch of useless bastards Democrats are and Democrats do the same about Republicans. Corruption knows no party line. Crap floats to the top in politics. Literally.
And you lame proles swallow up every lump of the fetid BS.
The bottom line is having either party have a lopsided stronghold on the federal government means we're going to get all manner of pocket lining, corruption, and NO accountability. If we've got a fairly balanced government at least, in theory, theres room for debate on important matters.
Regarding welfare recipients, I suspect the folks ranting about the food stamp users at the grocery going out to limos are probably exaggerating extensively. The bags of cash you think they're getting wouldn't put them in one of those things and they can't all be king pin drug dealers. That market just doesn't work that way. Those sound like fabrications. If they are going out to brand new full size SUVs and they're using food stamps there is a really good possibility in the current economy they're on their last leg and foreclosure is coming along with the repo man because they've over extended themselves and/or lost their job.
The truth about the welfare system as it stands is that it punishes you for attempting to climb out of the rut you're in. Get a mediocre job and all bets are off. No daycare for the kids, no health care, no food stamps, etc. So why bother going from the security of having access to food, not needing daycare, and not worrying about health care to working a job that is below the poverty level.
As far as the "non-English" speaking crowd using food stamps and other welfare programs I'll bet that is an oddity. They seem to be the only group in this country that isn't allergic to their own sweat. I've talked to numerous people that can't get a white person or a black person to work for them. It's in the service industries, like hotels, and in agriculture like apple production. They piss and moan about cleaning toilets or sweating in the orchards while hispanics just go do the work, efficiently.
All you xenophobes bitch about "them" stealing your jobs, yet they're jobs you wouldn't be caught dead doing. You want cheap crap from WalMart yet you don't understand why all the manufacturing jobs are flying over seas so fast you can hear sonic booms.
For those of you that are always screaming about the welfare moms having more and more babies just to get the extra income it ain't like they're rolling in it. You'd think by the way people yack it up they're bringing in $100,000 per child each year.
Is it abused? Yes. Scream all you want about the programs being mismanaged or lack of oversight, but there's probably an element of a lack of man power playing a role too.
Jobs are disappearing and the amount of theft of copper and catalytic converters is going up. Desparate people can be pretty creative. TBH I'd rather see them on welfare than worry about where I park my car and whether or not the exhaust is going to need replacing when I come back to it 30 minutes later.
11:18,
True. And I don't think I should have to pay for the police to come to your house when you've been robbed.
Get your own "robbery insurance".
While you're at it, get "fire insurance" that pays for the fire department to come out and put out the fire.
In fact, let's get rid of every service provided by the government, because I don't want to pay for other people. ever.
Good point, man.
9:18 What a well though out and concise response. Very mature, too. You do a wonderful service for those with your point of view...that is if the service is discrediting it completely.
You fail to address the concern. Doesn't it make more sense to push health insurance reform rather than expect government subsidy? There are private companies out there whose sole purpose is to foot the medical bills we rack up, and they make a killing to do so. We spend thousands of dollars every year to pay these companies to pay our medical bills. Does it seem fair or realistic that they choose certain medical conditions that they will not cover? I mean, that's like a car insurance company saying, "I'll pay for everything except accidents involving Ford Explorers." Its absurd! But what is even more absurd is you saying that the government, or really, the taxpayers, should pick up where the insurance companies leave off.
I spend thousands of dollars a year for medical insurance that barely gets taken advantage of. They make a killing off me and every other person sending them a check every month. Do you know how pissed I'm going to be if I get an illness that my insurance company decides they're not going to cover?
Fix the insurance companies. There is no reason why the government should have to do a thing or spend a penny to pick up where insurance companies leave off. Not for the amount of money they pull in every year.
I'll say it again. I don't want to pay your medical bills. I have my own to pay. Stick to the subject, please, or move on.
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