Free Stuff Doesn't Work

Good Morning, Breakfastpoppers. Today is Monday, July 10, 2017. Our dear friend, Wasp Tevya, is in my kitchen preparing potato pancakes for breakfast. He has been thinking about the poor in our nation and the poverty that defines our inner cities. He has asked for the pleasure of your company this morning. Please come over, eat Tevya's luscious pancakes and listen to his thoughts about a problem that has yet to be solved. We hope to see you soon.

Thanks so much for joining POP and me this morning. I was thinking about how food stamp usage rose like a rocket during the Obama years. Advertisements for the program were all over the place and a huge effort on the part of the Obama administration was made to eliminate the stigma of the program. The result of all this publicity was a massive increase in people using the stamps. In 2013, the number rose to whopping 48 million.

The idea of a leg up was originally intended to help people to cope while they worked their way out of poverty. Instead, welfare became a way of life for many and fraud and poor oversight allowed recipients to take taxpayer money and sit back without trying to turn their lives around. Recently a few states have begun requiring able bodied adults without children to find a job or participate in work training if they wish to continue to receive SNAP(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefit. The results of this change are astounding. Alabama instituted a work requirement and witnessed a significant decline in SNAP participants. Georgia tried the same thing in a few counties and the results were the same. Maine and Kansas have followed suit and the results are impressive. In Kansas, for example, work requirements were implemented and 60 percent of former SNAP beneficiaries found jobs. The results have ben a win-win for everyone. Requiring participants to play an active role in their own "recovery" makes common sense. They benefit and so do the taxpayers. The lesson in all of this is quite simple. Get the government out of the business of keeping people dependent and watch things turn around for the better.

The left has always been wrong when it comes to welfare reform. They consistently attack any attempt to reform the welfare system. Our inner cities are in bad shape. They have been under Democratic control for decades and nothing of any consequence has been accomplished. It is time for voters to hold those in power accountable. It is time for voters to opt for a change in leadership. Republicans have always been characterized as unfeeling, wealthy elites when it comes to dealing with poverty. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Rep. Jim Jordan a Republican from Ohio has proposed a bill that would increase work requirements for welfare recipients. It defies common sense to oppose a bill that would get able bodied people off welfare and back into the work force. In order for any good to come out of increased work requirements, we need to monitor the programs and root out fraud and non-compliance. Just beefing up the work requirements is not enough. If we are going to do something, it has to be done right. Again, it would be a win-win for everyone. Breaking the cycle of dependency benefits everyone.

A perfect example of what can go wrong when you hand out freebies is displayed in the Obamaphone program. The Government Accountability Office conducted an undercover investigation and concluded that the majority of Obamaphone recipients lied on their applications. The lies didn't prevent them from obtaining the free service. They also concluded that when it comes to this particular freebie, fraud dominated the program. Those receiving the phones didn't need them and the lies they told on their applications were obvious and should have been detected. The program was flawed from the onset. The only requirement for participation was being able to say that you were already on another welfare program. Of course, verifying the claim was not important, and the phones were handed out to undeserving people at taxpayer's expense. We can thank the Obama administration for making it easy to defraud the government. Poverty became acceptable during his terms in office.

We have a chance now to turn things around. The move by a few states to require able-bodied adults without children to work is a great beginning. The fruit of these changes are already in evidence. We need new leadership in our inner cities. We need to encourage education and hard work. We need black leaders to step up their game and reach out to their communities. Welfare is necessary in many cases, but it should never be a way of life for those who are able to work.

President Trump is in a unique position to improve the hideous conditions of our crumbling inner cities. When the president appointed Ben Carson to run the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs it was a good move. Mr. Carson possesses a fresh eye and is not stuck in the past. Existing policies have failed miserably and it is time for a new and creative approach. We have that opportunity now and it is a golden chance to right the wrongs of the past. What do we have to lose?

Tevya's Song

Dear God, you made so many liberals

It's no shame to be a liberal

But it's no great honor either!