Arizona caps welfare benefits, will drop over 1,600 families from rolls
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/18/facing-1b-deficit-arizona-sharply-limits-welfare.htmlFacing a $1 billion budget deficit, Arizona's Republican-led legislature has reduced the lifetime limit for welfare recipients to the shortest in the nation. Low-income families on welfare will now have their benefits cut off after just 12 months.
As a result, the Arizona Department of Economic Security will drop at least 1,600 families — including more than 2,700 children — from the state's federally funded welfare program when the budget year begins in July.
The cuts of at least $4 million reflect a prevailing mood among the lawmakers in Arizona, that welfare, Medicaid and other public assistance programs are crutches that keep the poor from getting back on their feet and achieving their potential.
"I tell my kids all the time that the decisions we make have rewards or consequences and if I don't ever let them face those consequences, they can't get back on the path to rewards," Republican state Sen. Kelli Ward said during debate on the budget. "As a society, we are encouraging people at times to make poor decisions, and then we reward them."
Cutting off benefits after just one year isn't fair, said Jessica Lopez, 23, who gave birth to her son while living in a domestic violence shelter and has struggled to hold on to jobs because she has dyslexia and didn't finish high school.
"We're all human," said Lopez, who got $133 per month for about a year until she qualified for a larger federal disability check. "Everybody has problems. Everybody is different. When people ask for help, we should be able to get it without having to be looked at wrong."
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SSI can take 3 years: the Federal government has seriously been stalling because of their own budget issues.
Arizona is pulling a Kansas here in the race to the bottom: the idea is that since States have been given charge of welfare, then they can just tweak it downward and push those poor people to migrate to more "generous" States. (and of course, cities within those States are conducting that same race to push the poor people out of town).
This situation has officially reached ABSURD levels!!! Isn't it clear yet why, no matter how much "big government" it entails, that welfare programs need to disbursed from the Federal level? Of course States are going to balance their budgets on the backs of the poor if they can get away with it. Politicians only have to answer to their rich donors! What are poor people going to do to them? There is no way to even enforce their rights. Even the ACLU will only get involved if it's a situation where they can grab the media spotlight and "take it all the way to the Supreme Court". But defending the civil rights of average poor people? Who does that? Pffft. 
Seniors have justly resisted means-testing for Social Security because they know that they will gradually have fall victim to this same dynamic - excuse upon excuse will be found to take everything away from them.
Of course the best solution is to implement a national mincome. Then everyone has a means of support, and there is no stigma attached to receiving the money. Better yet, we can eliminate the vast bureaucratic overhead that's going into surveillance and investigation to keep those poor people who are trying to get by on $133/month from committing "fraud"!
