Way to go Georgia ! I think I'll forward this to my Reps. in the Tennessee government as a hint

Thousands of people have dropped off the food stamp rolls in Georgia as a result of the state implementing work requirements for food stamp recipients.

More than half of the 11,779 people enrolled for food stamps in 21 counties, an estimated 7,251 people, have dropped out of the food stamp program—a drop of 62 percent, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Georgia first rolled out its work requirements for the food stamp program in three counties in January 2016. Since then, the state has expanded work requirements in an additional 21 counties, giving people in those 21 counties until April 1, 2017 to find a job or lose food stamp benefits.

Those who receive benefits must work at least 20 hours a week, be enrolled in state-approved job training, or volunteer for a state-approved non-profit or charity.

State officials say the plan is to extend the work requirements to all 159 counties in Georgia by 2019 and implement work requirements in 60 more counties, starting in 2018.

“The greater good is people being employed, being productive and contributing to the state,” said Bobby Cagle, director of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services.

Views on the work mandate are mixed in the state, with some seeing the requirement as a way to get more people into the workforce and less dependent on government handouts, while others say it is an unfair measure that targets the disabled who cannot hold down a job due to their impairments.

Brandon Hanick, who represents the progressive advocacy group Better Georgia, says people with mental health problems, limited education, and the physically disabled would have trouble trying to provide proof of their inability to meet the work requirements.

“It’s cruel,” Hanick said. “We’re talking about one of the most basic needs — the need for food.”

State Rep. Greg Morris (R-Vidalia), on the other hand, says that the decrease in food stamp recipients means that the work requirements are helping people become less dependent on government handouts.

“This is about protecting taxpayer dollars from abuse, and taking people off the cycle of dependency,” Morris said. The big drop in numbers, he added, “shows how tax dollars are abused when it comes to entitlements.”

Over the past year, the number of able-bodied food stamp recipients without children in Georgia decreased from 111,000 to 89,500, a 19 percent decrease, the AJC reported.

According to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics for FY 2017, 42,906,253 Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program—a 2.9 percent decrease from FY 2016, when 44,219,363 Americans received food stamps.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...s-work-requirements/

awesome start

quote:

or volunteer for a state-approved non-profit or charity.

Given the above, I don't see how it is "unfair" to anyone who can't find a job for any reason so long as thee is an approved charity around.

I've been saying this for years; if the "poor" thought they had to work for what they receive, even if it was picking up cigarette butts along the highway, they'd drop welfare in a second. Work is like daylight to a vampire to a vast majority of these people.

Man, this is what I have been saying for a while now. As a taxpayer, I am sick of watching the cycle continue. Stand in line to purchase something in a convenience store, and watch 2 of the 3 people in front of me buy all sorts of junk food on EBT like it was a credit card from Daddy Warbucks. Or watch them at a store wheel up with a cart full of HoHos, frozen pizzas, cokes. When they run out of money on the card, they leave the stuff on the conveyor and walk out. Or they buy a couple hundred dollars worth of cookies and Pepsi, then pull out a stack of 100's to pay for their booze and cigarettes. Then they go out and load it all into a late model SUV while on the latest iPhone.

The only thing I will say is that Georgia now needs to incorporate a random drug screen. Want handouts? No dope. Got money for dope? You don't need government handouts.

Great job, Georgia. Governor Bevin, are you listening?

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
I've been saying this for years; if the "poor" thought they had to work for what they receive, even if it was picking up cigarette butts along the highway, they'd drop welfare in a second. Work is like daylight to a vampire to a vast majority of these people.

The Holy Bible said that a few thousand years ago also. Seems like something that should work.

There have always been relief organizations dedicated to assisting those in need. The government dole is just another wealth redistribution effort.

(Yes, I belong to a church that feeds underprivileged kids and their families in our community).

The article doesn't say much about the law in Georgia. I would think that if
1 you are not physically/mentally disabled
2 you have reasonable education
3 you are not receiving significant aid from some charity

Then you should not be drawing food stamps from a state program unless you are willing to work as it is stated.

If you are disabled in someway or very poorly educated, then certainly there are charities which would be available to you and the state could help balance out your support after evaluating what Aid you receive or what is available to you.

I'm all for helping people who truly need a hand however if you're capable of working and just want welfare then Georgia is doing it right.

To the critic in that article, people with a real disability do deserve assistance BUT you fuckers in politics keep expanding the definition of what constitutes a disability to the point where it starts to lose its meaning.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Man, this is what I have been saying for a while now. As a taxpayer, I am sick of watching the cycle continue. Stand in line to purchase something in a convenience store, and watch 2 of the 3 people in front of me buy all sorts of junk food on EBT like it was a credit card from Daddy Warbucks. Or watch them at a store wheel up with a cart full of HoHos, frozen pizzas, cokes. When they run out of money on the card, they leave the stuff on the conveyor and walk out. Or they buy a couple hundred dollars worth of cookies and Pepsi, then pull out a stack of 100's to pay for their booze and cigarettes. Then they go out and load it all into a late model SUV while on the latest iPhone.

The only thing I will say is that Georgia now needs to incorporate a random drug screen. Want handouts? No dope. Got money for dope? You don't need government handouts.

Great job, Georgia. Governor Bevin, are you listening?

Back in the mid 70's in Santa Barbara, a person in the gun shop told the story about a person that jumped the checkout line and noticed the person bought everything on food stamps and got in a Catty. He got the tag number and had one of his friends check the person out.

After some work, they found something that got them a warrant to search the place. They found a food stamp counterfeit operation.

I thought I remembered something about Zippy taking the work requirement out of the federal welfare laws and finally found it. It sounds like something that Trump could reverse with the stroke of a pen.

This is from 2012.

Obama Admin. Did Change Work Requirements In Welfare Law.

On the eve of Bill Clinton’s address to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday confirmed that President Barack Obama did in fact change the rules in Bill Clinton’s landmark Welfare Reform Act despite the Obama administration’s claims to the contrary.
The GAO said the Obama administration should give Congress an opportunity to block the tweaks it made to the law.

“It must be submitted to Congress and the comptroller general before taking effect,” GAO general counsel Lynn H. Gibson wrote to lawmakers on Tuesday.

In July, the Obama administration gutted the work requirements in the welfare law by giving states more latitude to get waivers for the work requirements or define “work” in a way that would allow those on welfare to receive benefits while doing things like going to fitness classes, which states could define as “work.”

Mitt Romney has attacked Obama on welfare by running numerous ads and has criticized Obama on the stump for being against the fundamental tenet of Clinton’s signature piece of legislation. Liberals and the mainstream media have accused Romney of using racially-coded language, even if they made up the language themselves.

Clinton signed the Welfare Reform Act into law in 1996 after working on the bill with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and those like former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson. This angered liberals, like Peter Edelman, who left the Clinton administration in protest, but the legislation has been effective in ending the culture of dependency by placing a premium on work for able-bodied people.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) asked the GAO to determine whether the Obama administration’s tweaks to the welfare laws amounted to a rule change that required congressional approval, which the GAO said that it was.

“This analysis is unequivocal that any changes must be submitted to Congress,” Hatch said. “Circumventing Congress, as this White House has done, is a flagrant abuse of our system of checks and balances and an insult to American taxpayers.”


http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...ents-in-welfare-law/