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Edited on Mon Nov-28-11 10:59 PM by mntleo2
In 1996 when Welfare DEFormed was passed, it was created after the trashing of low income people who became the face for the myth of the Welfare Queen ~ who Ronald Reagan admitted later had never existed.
Listen to the entire name of this bill written by Robert Rector, Heritage Foundation Fellow: It is called The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRAWOA).
As if the poor were *not* "responsible" and they did not do any significant work, that law in essence says that the "only" contribution to communities is saying, "Do you want fries with that?" This laws says that for anyone (not just the poor) "work" is not raising the next generation to take care of us and run our infrastructure for the future of our country, it is not giving to your neighbors, volunteering in your schools, caring for your elders in need, or participating in your community betterment. All that was codified into law under the PRAWOA as "doing nothing". The *only* thing Americans can do that is "responsible" is use our bodies to further enrich the rich guy, THAT is "doing something" for your community.
Let me define poverty in this country: Many people believe poverty is a "choice" thanks to idiots like Rector.
Poverty is *not* a freaking choice ~ it is an INSTITUTION
Poverty is an institution that is based on racism, classism, sexism (including LGBT),and ageism. This institution is kept in place because it benefits in many ways all classes outside of it. The cheap labor of the poor makes things cheaper for the upper classes so they can spend less and save their money. Like that cheap gardener who sweats their life blood while mowing the lawn for a song or the WalMart Greeter who is locked in at night and forced to work for free while not making enough to pay the rent, or the daycare worker who would never dream of healthcare even though she is exposed to sick kids every day and has no sick leave to tend to her own or her family's illnesses.
The reason Robert Rector wrote that bill is an interesting story. One time he had met with some low income welfare moms at a DC community meeting who were calling for change. They were low income women who had fled their communities in Virginia and had come to DC to get college educations. Where they had come from they had little hope of making enough to feed their families. After centuries of living under the oppression that came out of the slave labor of their ancestors, the largest dream they were allowed in those communities was working in the Big House as a maid. As many were doing all over the country, these women left their communities and went to college to (gasp) make a livable wage and actually provide enough for their families.
Rector was incensed that these uppity women were "using the System" to better themselves. He had no problem with his own friends sitting around their private pools collecting their tax free dividends, but a low income single mom using a fraction of that to EDUCATE herself????? Teh NERVE! So he ran home and penned the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Act. After all his pool sitting friends needed MAIDS not educators, they needed gardeners not architects, they want nannies to take care of their kids so they don't have to themselves, they did not want African American psychologists to analyze their kids when they display detachment disorders later in life. Sheesh!
The poor are fodder for blame for all the societal woes, they are stereotyped into being drug addicts, alcoholics, child abusers ~ all things that are just prevalent in the upper classes as well, they are just hidden. However the punishment for all these things are far more prevalent for the poor and the Prison Industrial Complex is growing in leaps and bounds while using their low income prisoners as slave labor.
At that time when Welfare DEFormed was passed and it is true to this day, the poor paid the highest proportion of their income in taxes than in any other class in all states. At that time the low wage worker was not paid any better than they are today as far as a livable wage. At that time the cost of food, housing, medical care, and transportation took just as much from the little they had. At that time corporations paid less than 8% of the revenue, and the rich, while having to pay more than they do now, made a far less sacrifice than the poor to pay taxes, enjoying enough left over to more than suffice for their pleasure while never having to worry about the necessities. In 1996, over 60% of the revenue was paid by wage earners (73% of which were low wage workers), 30% paid by small businesses.
Today is it no different as a matter of fact inflation and taxation has only taken more from meager incomes that are suffering further. While the poor pay for the roads, court system, community commons, the rich who use these things at a far greater proportion, pay little or nothing.
When this Welfare DEFormed was passed, few in the classes above low income people cared because, well, that law they mistakenly thought, did not apply to them. Obviously they did not read their Constitution closely enough ... because anyone with any knowledge of that sacred document knows laws are not passed for a particular class. At that time, activists like me tried to warn the middle class that, "you are next", but we were booed off the stage. The economy was booming and they fell for the myth that anyone one who was poor was because of "choice". The cry of the poor about what was happening to them fell on deaf ears ~ as a matter of fact it was called "class warfare" every time the institution of poverty was so much as mentioned.
That is until the middle class began to fall down to the ranks of the poor. To their horror they too began to be treated, blamed, and considered "lazy" because they were poor. I cannot tell you how many times as an advocate I hear from them, "I did all the right things. I worked hard. I paid my taxes. I obeyed the law. I was in the PTA, I took care of my family. I went to church. I was a good neighbor..."
These were all the same things the poor did as well. While I would never wish poverty on my worst enemy, I would say that the falling down of the middle class was a windfall for the poor because when the middle class began to join their ranks and get the same treatment THEN it becomes a crisis. In a sad way I would say, "The more the merrier ..." Because we are now seeing more people who are speaking up ...and because they are middle class ~ or were ~ they have the sympathy and power to capture the ears of media and policy makers in a way the poor could never dream.
The most important part of all this story is about getting back to the subject of Welfare DEFormed.
Because that whole movement was brought on by disgruntled rich white people who knew that if anyone looked closely enough they would see the coming bubbles enriching them. People would notice and blame the ones responsible instead of the, "quick look over there" dog and pony show they were putting on blaming of the poor, the truth would begin to come out.
I can tell you the poor saw it plain as day. But with all those experts we heard then, those rich people, their paid scholars, politicians whoring for their dollars, and other "professionals" ridiculing and drowning out these cries that the time would come when we would see a dying empire, a broken economy, illegal wars that again enriched the elite and caused death to those below them, and a time when it would become obvious that rest of us had been sold a bill of rotten goods, well that would never happen.
So, I am glad the middle class is waking up to the truth about who to blame for our country's woes and it the poor. It is not class war, it is the damn truth, it is ALL because of the rich who use the rest of us as their galley slaves and then blame us to call attention away from what is their responsibility as people whop have been enriched and enjoyed their privileges at everyone else's expense.
So legislators on the take, all you pundits quoting those pimps and political whores with all your minions, people like me are on our knees thanking God for people like the ones who continue to point out the obvious. I suspect you are worried about the coming torches and pitchforks storming those gated communities that WILL happen unless you begin to pay your fair share.
You well know, it is about the REAL Personal Responsibility you seem so concerned about with others. And it is about the ACTUAL Work Opportunities your friends have sent overseas and then got tax breaks for doing it.
It is about who these TRUE Welfare Queens are, and Sirs, it is certainly not us. We have given our fair share and sorry you and your friends' turn is next. As someone who has seen the needless and harsh punishment of millions simply because they were poor and the suffering you caused with your illusions about what we are and what we have done and how worthless we are compared to your friends' idle, elitist, un-American, and selfish pastimes, now I have to ask ...
HOW DOES IT FEEEEEL ??????
Cat in Seattle
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