We Lost the Battle for the Republican Party’s Soul Long Ago

[Shirley]

if you're all suppled up to that big succulent juicy teet. reaping all those benefits paid for by the working folks in the greatest country in the world. asking you to work and contribute doesn't seem like too much. get out there and cut some grass. shovel the snow. pick up some garbage. plant some flowers. anything to contribute to the greater good.

doesn't seem like too much to ask.

Generally speaking, I think able-bodied people should work, too.

But children who are hungry won't do nearly as well in school, which hurts not only them but our entire society. When the children do better they can be more productive and raise the quality of life for all of us. And while it won't do anything for the chronically aggrieved's insatiable need to be exacting retribution on someone or something for why their lives haven't lived up to their expectations, not doing what we can to help children do well and become more productive citizens is not only shortsighted, but stupid.

Don't be stupid.

Not everyone is able to work:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been issuing a series of annual reports on the demographic and economic characteristics of households and individuals participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Key Report Findings

SNAP targets those in greatest need. Among those participating in the program, most are children, elderly persons, or individuals with a disability. In fact, 86 percent of all SNAP benefits go to households that include a child, elderly person, or person with disabilities. In addition, about 92 percent of all SNAP benefits go to households with income at or below the federal poverty line...

[jfish26]

Also - just zoom out here. We're the richest and most advantaged nation in modern human history. It feels to me like, just morally and ethically, we should not be actively seeking out ways to make a basic standard of living harder to realize.

If a guiding principle of our justice system is that it's better to have some criminals go free than to imprison innocent people (indeed, that's the point of, among other things, requiring jury unanimity to a "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard), then - to ME - an obvious corollary is that it's better to have some freeloaders than to have starving kids.

[MICHHAWK]

i know. you are already in the 24 election cycle. the message is:

"you do not have to work or contribute to reap all those beautiful free benefits courtesy of the working folks. just stay on your couch. play on your cellphone. the working folks got your back."

-uncle joe biden-

[jfish26]

i know. you are already in the 24 election cycle. the message is:

"you do not have to work or contribute to reap all those beautiful free benefits courtesy of the working folks. just stay on your couch. play on your cellphone. the working folks got your back."

-uncle joe biden-

Problem is, the facts just don't really bear out the schoolchild logic.

Consider:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ts/673888/

The argument for these requirements is straightforward: Threatening people with the loss of benefits will encourage them to get off their butt and get a job, which will be good for their well-being and better for the economy. That’s why the section of the Limit, Save, Grow Act that deals with work requirements is headlined “Grow the Economy.” Advocates of these requirements frequently point to what happened after 1996, when work requirements were attached to what had been Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits: Welfare rolls shrank dramatically, supposedly because recipients poured into the workforce and found gainful employment.

The logic here seems neat and clean. And work requirements also seem morally just to numerous voters. “I don’t think many people think it’s right to be paying billions of dollars to allow people to sit at home,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said recently, “and not work when everybody’s looking for workers.” The only problem: No good evidence exists that work requirements of the kind that are in this bill will have a noticeable impact on employment; plenty of evidence exists that what they’ll do instead is cause many thousands of people to lose their benefits despite being perfectly eligible for them.

To start with, most people on government benefits who realistically can work already do so. They may not work 80 hours every month, because they work in seasonal employment or can’t get enough hours, or for health reasons. But a study by researchers at the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project found that only 29 percent of SNAP and Medicaid recipients did not work over a two-year period. This should not be surprising: Few people who can work are going to choose a subsistence existence on food stamps and Medicaid. That’s why the Congressional Budget Office’s evaluation of the new bill’s impact is that “the employment status of and hours worked by Medicaid recipients would be unchanged.” And it’s why, when Arkansas put work requirements in place for Medicaid recipients ages 30 to 49 in 2018, the program did not increase employment in the group, according to a 2020 study.

What Arkansas’s work requirements did do, though, was result in a lot of people losing their health insurance. In fact, 18,000 people fell off Medicaid in the months immediately after the requirements went into effect (and before they were halted by a federal judge), and the uninsured rate among Arkansans in that same age group rose by four percentage points. Many of those who lost their benefits were either working or were eligible for exemptions and should never have been kicked off the rolls.

[ousdahl]

i know. you are already in the 24 election cycle. the message is:

"you do not have to work or contribute to reap all those beautiful free benefits courtesy of the working folks. just stay on your couch. play on your cellphone. the working folks got your back."

-uncle joe biden-

That’s quite the critique of capitalism.

[twocoach]

if you're all suppled up to that big succulent juicy teet. reaping all those benefits paid for by the working folks in the greatest country in the world. asking you to work and contribute doesn't seem like too much. get out there and cut some grass. shovel the snow. pick up some garbage. plant some flowers. anything to contribute to the greater good.

doesn't seem like too much to ask.

Maybe you should do some research into the cost of trying to audit and police such a requirement to these policies. But who am I kidding, if the description of it doesn't fit on a social media meme then you aren't reading it.

[MICHHAWK]

there is a worker shortage all over this great land. i can think of a few million people we could motivate. to make a dent.

[KUTradition]

suppled?

lol…dumbfuck

[zsn]

suppled?

lol…dumbfuck

Somehow I picture mich as Buckwheat (the Eddie Murphy version)

[KUTradition]

suppled?

lol…dumbfuck

Somehow I picture mich as Buckwheat (the Eddie Murphy version)

it’s, uh, mind-bottling lol

[Shirley]

So, Mich is Blackmild's sock?

[zsn]

there is a worker shortage all over this great land. i can think of a few million people we could motivate. to make a dent.

Unemployment is the lowest it’s ever been, to the first approximation. So you’re just wrong. Any localized worker shortage is self inflicted - not paying enough, horrible working conditions or influence of wannabe fascists.

[KUTradition]

even if unemployment were zero, there’d still be unfilled jobs

(some 4 million, i believe is the figure i read)

[jfish26]

Yes. Zero unemployment is not, I believe, really the macro goal. Logically, it would seem to me like zero unemployment means you’re leaving growth and innovation on the table (and maybe leading to inflation?).

[Shirley]

To no one's surprise: Yet more republican fascist crooks: (Check out the legal representation(s).)

https://youtu.be/NZDivv4iffw

[dolomite]

suppled?

lol…dumbfuck

Says one of our resident namecallers

[jfish26]

https://twitter.com/jefftimmer/status/1 ... PzNG4aOfKQ

[KUTradition]

suppled?

lol…dumbfuck

Says one of our resident namecallers

and?

i call ‘em like i see ‘em

don’t pretend like mich is the victim here. he very much knowingly plays the role

[zsn]

https://twitter.com/jefftimmer/status/1 ... PzNG4aOfKQ

Your first error is assuming MAGA can and does do math. MAGA is like “truthiness”. Reality and logic have no place.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Happy Father's Day....

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/stat ... 5856795648