Not a chance. Not in an electoral year. I cannot picture Senators McCain nor Obama telling welfare recipients unemployed for over 2 years that they need to clean grafitti, pick up trash and basically “make themselves busy or useful to society”. LBJ’s gift to those needing assistance has long been abused by scores of people that simply are unwilling to work. People that are unable to pay the rent but have a Nintendo Wii prominently positioned in the living room, people that sit around all day listening to music on expensive sound systems that I cannot afford to even look at – oh, it is not anecdotal, I happen to own rental units and have seen it all through the lives of my tenants. Some have used this to simply stay home and pursue their favorite hobbies. Those of us that pay taxes and incidentally work and create benefits for our society really do not take kindly to this. Part of the “immigration reform” message has been that immigrants come to the U.S. to get on welfare. B.S. I realize some of the locals do not want the newly arrived to cut in on their action, but the ones playing that game are hardly from across the border, rather smarter Eastern European immigrants (for instance) used to being on the Soviet dole, and those numbers have dwindled or generations of welfare recipients born and bred in the USA. Most of these gremlins are not hopping the fence my friend.
I have not had a chance to examine what is being called “the increase of middle class entitlements” by Senator Obama were he to be elected, but cringe at the thought of an already bloated system going beyond heartburn and into cardiac arrest. I demand accountability for my dollars, and bums need to be put to work. The truly disabled and indigent do not need these leeches sucking their funds. I like the idea of community service in exchange for the free ride. It won’t be free, they might find some self respect and we get some value for the taxes we pay.
