Fix the safety net

[Peter1469]

Fix the safety net: (http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/07/23/paul-ryan-an-opportunity-to-cut-poverty/13069345/)

Rand Paul at least is looking for ways to fix the safety net before it collapses under its own weight. I suspect the leftists will go into attack mode and "forget" to discuss any of the merits.


We need to expand opportunity in this country. And to do that, we need Washington to get its act together. Each year, the federal government spends almost $800 billion on 92 programs (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/business/house-committee-looks-at-war-on-poverty.html) to help struggling families. Yet the poverty rate is the highest in a generation.

Hint: that is not a success. It also is bankrupting us.


The problem with all these federal programs is that they're fragmented and formulaic. They don't see how people's needs interact. And what's worse, they measure success by how much they spend, not how much good they do. Instead, we need to measure success by results — that is, by how many people we're helping get out of poverty.


I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. But I'd like to get the conversation going by offering an idea to repair the safety net. I'd start a pilot program, which I'd call the Opportunity Grant. It would consolidate up to 11 federal programs into one stream of funding to participating states. The idea would be to let states try different ways of providing aid and then to test the results — in short, more flexibility in exchange for more accountability.



It seems as if the Opportunity Grant is a lump safety net payment rather than dozens of different targeted payments (i.e. food stamps). Unfortunately, a lot of people on the safety net programs don't have the life skills to take a lump sum and spend it wisely for all of their necessary needs.

But I applaud Paul for engaging in useful debate on the issue. The current system is not only broke. It is unsustainable.

[Green Arrow]

I believe that fixing the safety net should be a cause that right and left can work together on. Personally, as a leftist, I see the current state of the safety net as untenable. It doesn't truly help families, because if it did, the poverty rate would not be so high and we would not have so many people who are actually receiving aid from the safety net but have NO upward social mobility. It's turned into a hand-out rather than a hand-up like it should be.

[Bob]

To measure such programs, it requires the Government to do to citizens what it is not able to do to itself. Make meaningful measurements and corrections. It also means citizens will endure even more and more close watching.

There are effective ways to solve it. But the goal should be to wean citizens off government assistance.

An effective way is to start with babies as they enter school. Train them to set goals. Test them. Have them prove they know how it is done.

This powerful tool along with implementation will do a lot to make them less reliant on Government.

Democrats will resist because their aims are to keep people reliant on government. Thus they will no doubt block such new systems.

[lynn]

The poverty rate is so high is because there simply is not enough jobs for everyone to be employed. Wages have not increased but the cost of living is rapidly increasing. This is not the time to focus on families who are on welfare. You have to fix the employment problem that is not improving regardless of what the media claims that it is improving.

People need to start creating innovation of jobs that can employ the average Joe who is not college educated but will earn enough to support his family. This alone will reduce the number of families needing welfare aid.

[Peter1469]

Right. Cut taxes on business and end onerous regulations (not the ones that make sense). Get business back to work in America again.


The poverty rate is so high is because there simply is not enough jobs for everyone to be employed. Wages have not increased but the cost of living is rapidly increasing. This is not the time to focus on families who are on welfare. You have to fix the employment problem that is not improving regardless of what the media claims that it is improving.

People need to start creating innovation of jobs that can employ the average Joe who is not college educated but will earn enough to support his family. This alone will reduce the number of families needing welfare aid.

[Professor Peabody]

I believe that fixing the safety net should be a cause that right and left can work together on. Personally, as a leftist, I see the current state of the safety net as untenable. It doesn't truly help families, because if it did, the poverty rate would not be so high and we would not have so many people who are actually receiving aid from the safety net but have NO upward social mobility. It's turned into a hand-out rather than a hand-up like it should be.


Paul Ryan offers to repair U.S. economic safety net with a single grant stream

By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times Thursday, July 24, 2014

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan proposed sweeping changes to America’s safety net Thursday that would combine up to 11 federal welfare programs into a single funding stream to states.

The plan, which he called “Opportunity Grants,” would allow states to join a pilot program to experiment with unique ways to deliver aid such as food stamps, housing assistance, child care, cash welfare — replacing Washington’s bureaucratic and one-size-fits-all formulas that have failed to lift American’s out of poverty.

“We spend almost $800 billion on 92 federal programs each year to fight poverty. And yet the poverty rate is the highest in a generation. Deep poverty is near record highs,” Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/24/paul-ryan-offers-repair-us-economic-safety-net-sin/

92 Federal programs to fight poverty and it's as high as ever if not more. We all know how "efficent" Government run entities are, just look at the VA....a National Disgrace. What's to stop an individual from double, triple or more dipping into those programs? Hell, investigators were able to sign up for Obama Care subsudies with fake ID's, why woulds it be different with anti-poverty programs? Imagine the nice income one could derive if they got even $100 a month from 24 or 36 of those "programs". I wonder if that money is even taxable? Then filing income tax returns with $2400 a month in income excluded, the child tax credits would be very generous. It's time for this crap to stop. If Government is so large that it can't be proper caretakers of our hard earned tax dollars, then it needs to be streamlined, shrunk till it can or both.

[Dr. Who]

92 Federal programs to fight poverty and it's as high as ever if not more. We all know how "efficent" Government run entities are, just look at the VA....a National Disgrace. What's to stop an individual from double, triple or more dipping into those programs? Hell, investigators were able to sign up for Obama Care subsudies with fake ID's, why woulds it be different with anti-poverty programs? Imagine the nice income one could derive if they got even $100 a month from 24 or 36 of those "programs". I wonder if that money is even taxable? Then filing income tax returns with $2400 a month in income excluded, the child tax credits would be very generous. It's time for this crap to stop. If Government is so large that it can't be proper caretakers of our hard earned tax dollars, then it needs to be streamlined, shrunk till it can or both.
Shouldn't there be a method of cross-referencing all people receiving assistance by their social security number? I hesitate to say that this would be an inexpensive endeavor because with government it rarely is, unless it's outsourced to a company and the contract is very strict as to cost overruns. Access could be granted to all of the various and state agencies based on need to know. This would not prevent false identity fraud however.