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There are ways the SS can be welfare. Disability and survivor are two that come to mind.
Many on disability and receiving survivors benefits have paid into the system. I got SSI for my two kids after their father died. It was roughly 300$/month total. Both he and I had worked all our adult life and I worked part time and attended college while receiving SSI for the kids. Many people on disability worked for years paying into the system. Not as many these days it seems though.
I don't oppose a safety net, nor temporary welfare benefits. Also, there are many charitable organizations that help people. We don't need long term government solutions to the poor, and homeless that create GENERATIONAL DEPENDENCY. However, government loves dependency as it allows CONTROL, more bureaucracy, and bigger government payrolls.
No way to say it better. republicans don't oppose a temporary safety net. we do however have strong views on creating government dependency.
"Constitution of United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992)We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
"to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United Stated"
Read it AGAIN.
It says provide for the general welfare of the United States .
It does NOT say provide welfare TO INDIVIDUALS.
"“With respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them.To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” — James Madison in a letter to James Robertson
In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia, James Madison stood on the floor of the House to object saying:
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” — James Madison, 4 Annals of Congress 179, 1794
“[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” — James Madison
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.” James Madison,
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” — Benjamin Franklin
"These quotes and others make it clear that those who promote "redistribution of wealth" as a task for the government run against the very basic principles underlying the United States of America. This is no detail."
Why do you not publish the truth instead of these one sided arguments?
This is of course the standard Madison versus Hamilton argument - Strict Construction versus Implied Powers. For practical purposes it was settled by the US Supreme Court in 1937. Here is the historical view from the SS Administration.
Many things need to be changed. But if one advocates for revamping the welfare system, the minimum wage has to be raised. A lot. I don't care what a person with a superiority complex believes a job is "worth." If a janitor works their butt off scrubbing toilets 8 hours every night, they deserve to be able to pay their rent, clothes, utilities, gas, etc. . . America needs janitors. If you won't do it, who will? But most welfare reform advocates don't want to address our lousy pay and benefits. One can't even buy fast food with $7.
If a person works full time at Walmart, they deserve to be able to pay their rent. And Walmart employees still earn so little that receive food stamps! People can bash welfare recipients until the cows come home, but they conveniently forget that not even a single person can afford to support themselves on $7.25/hour.
Oh, but go to college, they say. And how does a person pay for that? It's not free. And you still have to pay rent while in school. Besides, we're up to our eyeballs in college grads and they're working at Starbucks for $9/hour now. And paying student loans with that. And they still have rent to pay with that $9.
What about trade school? Maybe that's a better option. But what about having a family? And what if you live in an area with a high COL? It's so easy to judge the poor. Poverty is often a never ending vicious cycle. It is extremely difficult to get out of it.
A poor person gets a lousy job. They earn $8/hour, they drive a crappy car because they can't afford anything better, the car breaks down, they can't afford to fix it to get to work, they lose their job because they miss work, then they have no job so they don't pay rent, then they get evicted from their apartment because they aren't earning money, and on and on. . .
Some of you just aren't acknowledging the repeated statements that people (Republicans) aren't opposed to assisting those in need, the disabled, the elderly, handicapped and those who have issues that prevent them from working or being self sufficient. What is opposed is "generational welfare" for able bodied adults which largely consists of single mothers who keep having children and never manage to further their education or training and find work and the abuse within the system that allows able bodied adults to game the system.
I would prefer to see the $$ spent helping people to get out of poverty by assisting with education and job training and making earning a wage more lucrative than being on assistance. Stop rewarding people for having children when they can't support themselves or the children they already have.
Disability and SS for those no longer able to work is great, giving financial assistance for those who find themselves in a temporary tough spot is great. Most of those have spent a large part of their lives paying into these "insurance" programs. Keeping people dependent not so much.
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