(Untitled)

[chrsmoos]

This whole "stimulus bill" is not impressive. 250 billion of it is going to such things as medicaid, foodstamps, cash assistance, unemployment, and earned income credits. I ave no problem helping those who help themselves, but, why do I have to keep supporting people who don't want to work

Comments

[mizukaze]

it's telling also that not a single republican AND 11 Democrats (Dixiecrats some of them, granted, but still) voted against it. Speaks to me of the necessity of divided government...

[chrsmoos]

I have faith in Obama, much more than anyone in recent history but this is not the kind of stimulus we need

[mizukaze]

I think that's part of why WIC is a good idea. It has a set of restricted items based around nutritional guidelines/basic cooking items for standard traditional Western (or maybe more, i'm not familiar with the whole list) cooking and dietary considerations.

And I just wanted to clarify that divided government = one party in Presidency, the other in control of majorities in at least one chamber of Congress (preferably the Senate.)

[chrsmoos]

WIC is a great model, albeit it does have its faults. Food Stamp programs should be more restrictive like WIC is. I think if we changed the rules of food stamps and eliminated much of the cash portion of the benefits, the costs of the entire program would cost less and be healthier. A massive amount of people would drop out of it as well since they couldn't buy what they want.

Food Stamps is meant to be temporary help not a lifelong benefit. We need changes in that program before it along with medicaid buries us.

[wolfboi]

i dont entirely agree here. there are a lot of people who have lost jobs and are looking very hard for any work they can get, and still arent having any luck. so until we do something about job creation, we need to be putting money into unemployment programs. I dont know how it is in other places, but here you can only get so much and only for 6 months. It doesnt even pay all the bills. as for medicaid, i think the thinking there is you have to do something while you rework the system

[chrsmoos]

I agree with you that we need to assist those that are having difficulty finding work to support themselves, including temporary assistance programs such as unemployment. The food stamp program in its current form need to go away. The rationing system would support agriculture and farming and be far cheaper than our current programs, and, would be an incentive to not continue on food stamps. The problem with food stamps is the restrictions are so loose there is no incentive to do better for yourself. Even the cash assistance and SSI programs can be worked around to where people who are perfectly healthy suck off the system. I once had a roomate on foodstamps and such who went out and bought a $25.00 box of chocolate. Thats misuse

[starfirerapture]

Why do you consider funding schools to be pork? Without properly funding students now, we won't have the means to be globally competitive in the future, which hurts our economic prospects and damages the chances of strengthening our economy in the long term. In many industries already (such as engineering and computer science), Americans are making up a decreasing portion of the workforce because there simply aren't enough of them with the necessary knowledge and training to take the jobs that are needed, and if there's one thing that helps the economy it's training our own citizens to be ready for the jobs that our own economy demands.

[chrsmoos]

I won't disagree with you. In the short term though we need more immediate stimulus to retrain workers who are already in the workforce and enable businesses to make things on US soil at a competitive price. In the long term we definately need to revamp our educational priorities and make education affordable so jobs stay here. I simply was looking at the short term (the next 5yrs). I don't think the problem is access to education rather than priorities that we as americans have with regards to education. We need more focus on science, engineering, and medicine in the long term to make ourselves competitive but right now that won't help the current economy. Remember we have a large population of babyboomers who are still able to work many more years with proper training and we shouldn't overlook their years of experience as in favor of a new generation of workers.

[starfirerapture]

Maybe so, but education nationwide is only getting $10b of the $825b proposed, so in essence education is merely being sneezed on by this proposal, and in states like California where we are suffering from a $45b deficit because we rely so heavily on sales tax, education is being cut by billions, and the federal money coming in is something many of us (in more areas than just education) are going to rely on to keep our economy from destroying itself. Granted, this is almost entirely the fault of our state legislature and our governator, but still.

I definitely agree that these stimulus packages are flawed in many ways, but I also feel like this one is WAY better than the shit that Pelosi pushed through last year.

[chrsmoos]

We are in the same boat in NY. Huge deficit and reliance sales tax and one time revenue generators. We need to change education in this country and refocus to keep competitive. This is certainly better than nothing but is only a step towards bringing us back.

[thewdwboy]

I am one of those who depend on social welfare problems ... i am on Disability, and that bearly is enough to live. But if i was phys able to work i would just me ....