Welfare reform at work
Conservatives are masters of the horror story. I apologize in advance if I seen to be sinking to their level with this, but yeesh, what a mess!
From: L1Riviera@aol.com (Laura L. Riviera)
Date: 29 May 1998
Wisconsin has recently announced that they have no more welfare recipients, and all of their former welfare recipients are either working or being
"trained." Here are some specifics on what is happening.
Wisconsin has no more "welfare" recipients, because they have just ended their welfare system. Everyone is now in the W-2 program. This program has 4
categories for jobs. The lower two are the same as most state's workfare requirements. The recipient receives a grant for a set amount of money and must work
28 or 35 (respectively) hrs/wk in a "volunteer" position (assigned by the caseworker). These jobs are degrading, dehumanizing and do not provide any chance
to move "up" in that place of employment. Neither do these "jobs" provide work experience other than having to show up on time (the idea is that welfare
recipients never knew how to set an alarm clock and/or dress properly to get/hold a job.
When any government agency or person says that welfare recipients are now being trained, this is what they mean - that the "training" they are receiving is
what Jean Rogers, the woman in charge of DHHS in WI, calls "soft skills".
More specifically, at a public hearing videotaped by the Women and Poverty Public Education Initiative, Rogers says, "Overall, the labor statistic, in terms of
what is most likely to be the kind of education and training that every employer expects of their potential employee, is what are called the "soft skills" or core
ability trainings. We hear this over and over again from employers that before you can begin to train for any other kind of specific purpose, you need to be sure
that folks come to a job willing to work, able to come on time, able to come every day, able
to come with basic reading and math skills, being willing and understand that it is required to take instruction from the boss, get along with co-workers. These
are the core abilities. What we expect is that as a tie to be sure that those soft skills are in place, in the case of the various points on the ladder...that amount of
time will need to be put in by the participant in order to demonstrate, at a minimum, that they have a clear ability to maintain an attachment to the work force.
Once that has been done to the financial planner's satisfaction, then that individual - if they wish to advantage themselves by having other types of training that
are clearly likely to lead to movement up the economic ladder - - they may then come in and request that child care be able to be accessed for training
purposes."
Employers are having to monitor performance of these "participants" based on these criteria. If a person "fails", they are penalized in some way. For example:
1) public transportation, as most people know, is not always timely or accurate. If a person is late for work, it is documented and given to the caseworker.
2) Being absent is absolutely unacceptable in all cases unless there is written proof from a doctor that someone was ill (and even that was not accepted at one
point). Now, doctors are having to take children with "minor" problems (typical colds and flu), because the day care will not accept these children and the
mother needs a doctor signature to "prove" her child was ill so she can stay home with the child and not be Penalized.
Doctors who take medical assistance (which is rare in the first place), now have 6+ months waiting lists for emergency cases - cases that most doctors accept
immediately. If it's a real emergency, the child is taken to the hospital (which costs the state much more money than allowing her to stay home with the child
that day and keep her grant). If it is not an emergency, the mother is either lucky enough to get in and receive the doctor's note or she is penalized.
3) Penalty for missing work is the number of hours missed times minimum wage deducted from the monthly grant to the family. If a mother misses
more than 25% of her "training" during any given month, her entire grant may be cut (at the caseworker's discretion) and the family's food stamps may be cut
down to $10/mo.
Keep in mind that this penalty is much more than the amount received per hour for working. The amount of child support collected from the father goes directly
to the state. Essentially, women are working for their child support which is included in the monthly grant to the family and is, essentially, "taken away" if she
misses work.
(I know a woman who was a straight-A psychology major who was being told she had to quit school to "work for her grant" (over 2/3 of this "grant" was
actually child support that the state collected from the father and included in her monthly grant). Basically, she was working for 60 cents/hour for her grant and,
for every hour she missed, $4.65 (min. wage at that time) was deducted from her grant. She was even sanctioned while in the hospital recovering from a heart
attack because she missed her "training" which consisted of filing checks in numerical order for the courthouse. She was recently on Dateline - although I
haven't watched it yet so I'm not sure how much of this they included.)
4) The types of jobs people are doing for this "training" are either jobs that most people would not take if they were paid positions (very hazardous to health,
etc.) or are considered "busy work" (ie, filing checks in numerical order).
One woman was required to pick up beer bottles in the garage behind a shelter for drug and alcohol addicted men. The men would purposely throw their beer
cans and bottles on the floor so they could watch her bend over to pick them up.
Another woman was required to put pegs in round holes on a board. When the board was filled, the supervisor would come over and dump it out and
require her to start over. This is their way of determining if she is willing and able to follow instructions.
These job categories are filled with positions that are hazardous to health and are unsafe. Women are Required to cut down trees with no safety gear
whatsoever, working in hospitals having to dispose of hazardous materials with (again) no safety gear. They are having to wear their own clothing and not even
given a pair of gloves to dispose of bloody needles, etc.
5) Women are not allowed to quit any of these jobs or they will be seen as not willing to work and will be removed from the program by the case worker.
6) Women are introduced to other employees as "the W-2 participant." Knowing that this person is required to work at the company for free,
employees automatically feel threatened by this person. [Capitalism: the art of turning workers against each other] This sets up a situation where it is very
difficult for that person to get along well with other employees no matter how hard she tries. Because of all of these things (and more), we have yet to hear of a
case where the caseworker has determined to his/her satisfaction, that a participant has performed these "soft skills" to the point where she would be allowed to
use child care subsidies to get an education. Of course, they never mention the fact that many of these women were already in college (and doing very well) and
told they had to leave school to prove they have these "soft skills."
The 3rd job placement position is called "subsidized employment". This is where the state pays a company to hire someone in the program at
minimum wage. Basically the same assumptions were made here - they need to learn how to be "willing and able" to work - which is why the
state is willing to pay a company approximately $300/mo. (for 6 months) for every person they hire at minimum wage. The company is required to do
everything possible to keep the person on permanently after the 6 months is up, but we have yet to hear of this happening.
What we do hear is that after 6 months, the company calls the caseworker and says, "This person isn't ready for a permanent position. Send
us someone else." That company then receives $300/mo. (for 6 months) for that person and at the end of the 6 months, the cycle continues with a new person.
We've also heard from many women who were working and barely making ends meet until welfare reform began. They were pushed out of their minimum
wage jobs by these less expensive employees provided by the state and are now in the W-2 program.
(In other words, these women were pushed out of their jobs and INTO WELFARE because of competition from other, sub-minimum wage women
whose positions (profitable for companies) were introduced as part of 'welfare reform' and to 'move people from welfare'. )
In Milwaukee County, the welfare caseload increased by approximately 26% since welfare reform began (mainly for this reason). This was reported by the
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in July (?), 1997 (not sure of exact date).
The 4th job placement position is called "unsubsidized employment." This is where anyone who has even a part-time job is considered job
ready and is literally pushed out of the program (receiving no subsidies). The idea here is that if someone can find one job for 5 hours a week,
they should be able to find 7 more like that and support their family. They are "job ready." I've talked to a number of women who have been told this by their
caseworkers. There is a tremendous amount of fear now in the poverty community that a person will actually be able to find a job, because they know if they
find even a part-time job at min. wage, they will be removed from the W-2 program.
Many families who have been in this category are now homeless. The state has made it almost impossible for anyone to get into the system if
they need it -even for emergencies - so this is a concern for those already in. They don't want to have to try to get back in at some other time so
most are praying that they don't find a job at all or they somehow win the lottery (or some other miracle happens).
Many people are also concerned about the recent child care statistics showing there just aren't enough child care openings for all of these children whose
mothers are now working. Even when there are openings, child care is very expensive (ranging up to $800/mo./child. I've received
quite a few inquiries asking what is happening in this situation. We don't know that specifically, but we have heard several cases (either on the
news or from the mothers themselves) regarding this lack of child care and how this is affecting children (often seeming to result in death, rape, or other serious
events).
Last summer, a woman was sentenced to 90 days in jail for failure to pay a $100 child care bill. This bill was supposed to be paid by the state (she verified this
with her caseworker before starting) since she was in "training", but 4 weeks into her training she was informed by her caseworker that the state could not
reimburse her for this training (she was enrolled in a 6-week course to become a nurse's aid and had to drop out at that time).
We heard from several mothers living in the inner city of Milwaukee who were not allowing their children to go to school on the days they had to
participate in their "volunteer job," because the neighborhood was not safe for their children to walk to/from school without an adult chaperone.
In a "safer" rural area of the state, we heard from a mother who had to have her 6-year old daughter take her bike to/from school because the
mother was not able to do this anymore. One day after school, this 6-year old girl was molested on her way home.
Recently, we heard of a 12-year old girl who was at home by herself (home sick from school) while her mother was working and was raped by a man who
broke into the home.
Another woman left her 1 year old son out in her car all day because her babysitter could not watch him that day (she checked on him every hour) and he died
at approximately 2pm.
Another mother had to leave her children with an irresponsible adult who fell asleep on the couch and woke up just in time to get himself out of the
burning house while the children were upstairs. They died also.
Another mother told us that she is allowed to keep her children upstairs in the attic of the building she "works" in while she is doing her "job training".
On 4/28/98, a 3-year old child had his middle toe amputated because of a gun shot wound. His "babysitter" - a 21-year old male who had several
other people in the home at the time - was "playing with" a gun and accidentally shot the boy's foot.
"Imagine what a mess welfare reform will be" -Al Franken
The horrors of liberal government
Make your own Conspiracy theory
For example: Smurfs are communists!
Taxes
For guys who always want to spend more and more on defence, It seems strange that they'd complain about taxes.
Four seasons of hypocrisy from America's self-proclaimed truth detector
You might say "but if he's so bad, why is he so popular? A million wrong people can't be wrong!" Read about why Rush is popular
Spring
"$14,400 for a family of four. That's not so bad." (Radio show, 11/9/93, quoted in FRQ, Winter/94)
"I know families that make $180,000 a year and they don't consider themselves rich. Why, it costs them $20,000 a year to send their kids to school." (Radio show, 8/3/93, quoted in FRQ, Winter/94)
Summer
"The people in the states where these Democratic senators are up for reelection in '94 have to let their feelings be known.... These senators, you let them know...You people in Wisconsin...let Herb Kohl know somehow."
An hour before:
"I have yet to encourage you people or urge you to call anybody. I don't do it. They think I'm the one doing it. That's fine. You don't need to be told when to call. They think you are a bunch of lemmings out there." (Radio show, 6/28/93)
Fall
"Never trust a draft dodger." (Radio show, quoted in FRQ, Summer/93)
Limbaugh used a minor physical impairment to avoid the draft (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/27/93).
Winter
Constant attacks on Clinton for alleged sexual harassment (TV and radio, April-May/94)
"Sexual harassment at this work station will not be reported. However...it will be graded!!!" -Sign on Rush's office door (USA Weekend, 1/26/92).
If the bible contradicted itself this badly, maybe we wouldn't have to deal with fundamentalism. Maybe.
"Prepare your mind to be challenged as it has never been challenged before" [See, I told you so]
Rush: "have you ever noticed how all newspaper composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson? (Newsday 10/8/90)
NEWT is no genius either.
"If you want a sense of the personal values we should be communicating to children...go and look at readers digest and the Saturday evening post from about 1955." -Newt Gingrich
The 1955 readers digest has articles called "The Negros Among Us" and "Why Women Act that Way" which answers the question "why are women such glib fibbers" and said it was to compensate for lesser strength. Another article enlightens our children with sex ed: "anatomical disproportion is very rare, and the dilation of the hymen is seldom accompanied by much discomfort" (Just in case you're worried about Daddy raping you).
Quotes about conservatives:
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right."
-- Mark Twain
"In my life, I have prayed but one prayer: 'Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."
-- Voltaire
"A fool uttereth all his mind."
-- Bible, Proverbs 29:11
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few."
-- Shunryu Suzuki
"When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
-- Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects
"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can not get eight cats to pull a sled through snow."
-- Jeff Valdez
"Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in."
-- Flaubert, Sentimental Education
"It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word."
-- Andrew Jackson
"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it."
-- Clarence Darrow
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits."
-- Unknown
Dan Quayle Quotes:
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy -- but that could change."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/15/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, The New Yorker, 10/10/88, p.102)
"This election is about who's going to be the next President of the United States!"
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/2/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared.'"
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 12/6/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the Phoenix Republican Forum, 3/23/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92) Also reported by Reuters, 5/2/90
"Let me just tell you how thrilling it really is, and how, what a challenge it is, because in 1988 the question is whether we're going forward to tomorrow or
whether we're going to go past to the -- to the back!"
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 8/17/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle winning friends while speaking to the United Negro College Fund, 5/9/89 This gem has been added to Bartlett's `Familiar
Quotations.' (reported in Esquire, 8/92) (reported in the NY Times, 12/9/92)
"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."
-- Senator Dan Quayle, US News and World Report (10/10/88)
"Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 4/25/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle addressing the 20th anniversary celebration of the moon landing, 7/20/89 (reported in Esquire,
8/92)
"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are
canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 8/11/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"The loss of life will be irreplaceable."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle after the San Francisco earthquake, 10/19/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Bobby Knight told me this: 'There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.' In other words a good offense wins."
-- Senator Dan Quayle, in a speech to the City Club of Chicago, comparing the offensive capabilities of the Warsaw Pact with the defensive system of NATO,
9/8/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Target prices? How that works? I know quite a bit about farm policy. I come from Indiana, which is a farm state. Deficiency payments -- which are the key --
that is what gets money into the farmer's hands. We got loan, uh, rates, we got target, uh, prices, uh, I have worked very closely with my senior colleague,
(Indiana Sen.) Richard Lugar, making sure that the farmers of Indiana are taken care of."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle on being asked to define the term `target prices'. Quayle's press secretary then cut short the press conference, after two minutes
and 30 seconds.
"My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will never, never surrender to what is right."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle speaking to the Christian Coalition about the need for abstinence to avoid AIDS, 11/15/91 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, regarding David Duke's candidacy, 10/12/90, (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"My grandfather... saw where inherited wealth ruined people. And my grandfather was right."
-- Vice-President Dan Quayle giving an analysis of his own situation: he has a half-million dollars worth of his family's newspaper stock holdings. (ABC's
`Prime Time Live', August 10, 1992)
"This isn't a man who is leaving with his head between his legs."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle discussing John Sununu's resignation and apparent lack of flexibility, 12/6/91
"The other day [the President] said, I know you've had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in
your maturity and sense of responsibility. [He paused, then said] Would you like a puppy?"
-- Vice President Dan Quayle (LA Times 5/21/89)
"Although in public I refer to him as Mr. Vice President, in private I call him George... When I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I called him George rather
than Mr. Vice President. But, in public, it's Mr. Vice President, because that's who he is."
-- Senator Dan Quayle shortly after being named George Bush's running mate, 8/27/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, The NY Times, 8/28/88)
"They asked me to go in front of the Reagans. I'm not used to going in front of President Reagan, so we went out behind the Bushes."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle after the swearing in ceremony on Inauguration Day, 1/20/89. (reported in the NY Daily News, 1/21/89)
"I'm the Vice-President. They know it, and they know that I know it."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle talking about his political enemies, 3/13/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, talking to NASA employees, 9/5/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle on the concept of a manned mission to Mars.
"We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world."
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 9/21/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"What you guys want, I'm for."
-- Senator Dan Quayle to farmers on a local pork issue (8/25/88) (from the Book `The Clothes have No Emperor')
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle to Sam Donaldson, 8/17/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"I have made good judgments in the Past.
"I have made good judgments in the Future."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
"The future will be a better tomorrow."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
"Votes are like trees, if you are trying to build a forest. If you have more trees than you have forests, then at that point the pollsters will probably say you will win."
-- Senator Dan Quayle, during the '88 campaign (reported in Newsweek in 1988)
"Office of the Vice President... The Council on Competativeness."
-- The letterhead on stationery, complete with misspelling, found in Dan Quayle's old White House office by Clinton administration staffers. (Newsweek, 2/8/93)
"I felt like I was in charge."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle after working the locks of the Panama Canal locks during his visit to Panama City in January 1990. (reported in High Times, 11/92)
"It's rural America. It's where I came from. We always refer to ourselves as real America. Rural America, real America, real, real, America."
-- Senator Dan Quayle, 10/20/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be."
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the American Samoans, whose capital Quayle pronounces `Pogo Pogo', 4/25/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
Tobacco companies are your friends
In WW2 a British brand of cigarette supplied to soldiers was found to be made from cigarette butts swept up from cinema floors. (Page 295 _The Sharp End of War_ John Ellis) Just something to think about.
Tasteless humour: