Shit.

[kyra_ojosverdes]

HELENA - To maintain program solvency and child care funding at mandated levels, benefits to an estimated 17,000 people in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program will be reduced on Aug. 1.

Presently, benefit standards are 40.5 percent of the 2002 Federal Poverty Level, but the Department of Public Health and Human Services, which oversees TANF, is proposing to decrease that to 30 percent of FPL.

For a three-person household, the change would mean a decrease in benefits from $507 per month to $375. Because individual income will decrease, an increase in Food Stamps may result. [Too bad food stamps can't be used to pay rent, dental bills, electricity, medical co-pays, prescription co-pays, clothing, gasoline, car insurance, or phone, eh?]

A public hearing on the proposed change is scheduled for Friday, June 13, at 10 a.m. in the DPHHS auditorium, basement level, 111 N. Sanders in Helena.

"We obviously will be listening and taking down information at the hearing, but to be completely honest, right now we don't see any alternative but to move forward with the reduction on August 1," said Hank Hudson, administrator of the DPHHS Human and Community Services Division.

Hudson said he planned to hold meetings later this month and in July in eight communities to discuss the situation.

The proposed TANF rule change can be found on the Internet at www.dphhs.state.mt.us by looking under the Legal section, then Montana Administrative Register Rule Notices, then Proposal Notices. The TANF change is MAR 37-291.

DPHHS was allocated $31.6 million for TANF benefits in each of fiscal years 2004 and 2005. If the benefit standard remains at 40.5 percent of FPL, based on anticipated caseload growth of 9 percent, the agency predicts program costs would reach $40.7 million in fiscal 2004 and $44.8 million in fiscal 2005. [Growing caseloads? Whatever do you mean? I thought they FIXED welfare in 1996... oh right, they just made it worse. Fuckers.]

Such a scenario would create a deficit of $22.3 million in two years.

DPHHS did explore and dismiss other alternatives, such as a lesser overall percentage decrease; a flat decrease of $25 per month per case; and making no changes now, but stopping benefit payments outright when program funds depleted.

"There is no easy way to keep the program going without hurting clients, but we think this is the most equitable method overall," Hudson said.

Dubya Bush sucks. Judy Martz sucks. Dubya and Judy should get together and suck each other, instead of fucking poor people in painful ways by cutting funding to social services, then handing out tax cuts to their wealthy pals. Where's that tax cut money coming from? Right HERE. And I'm not your typical welfare mom, either. I'm finishing up my education, doing my cancer treatment, and getting ready to get a good job that'll get us off welfare. Most welfare parents don't HAVE that option. If they did, they'd have taken it.

Here's a novel concept: use public funds to pay for the education of people on welfare. No, not the "job training" program that consists of them making sure you know how to interview for the job down at the truck stop. I mean college. Get these people into and through college, and set up a new pattern for their kids and grandkids. Make education and a decent income the norm, rather than continuing the cycle of desperation.

It won't happen. Because, see, the poor CHOSE that life for themselves, right? If they'd just work harder, they could achieve the American dream like the rest of "us," us being the ones who were born into middle-income families, attended decent schools, went to college, and found a nice job. It doesn't work that way if you're born into a poor family. It's more like drop out of high school to work so you can help feed the family and keep a roof over your collective heads, get a job down at the truck stop and work there 30 years if you're lucky and have a boss that keeps you on, raise a brood of your own (because chances are you don't have access to good information about birth control, reliable methods of birth control, or a reason to hope for a better future if you break away from your community's norms and don't reproduce) while your spouse works too (or doesn't, because you can't afford daycare and at the low wages you make, it's more expensive to work than to stay home with the kids). When age 65 rolls around, guess what? You can't afford to retire. So you keep working, hoping that something, anything, will happen to pay off your debts before your body goes (because you haven't been getting adequate medical care lo these many years) and you can't work at all anymore. No, you won't get disability, because you can't afford to pay someone to explain the ultra-complex system and help you through it. Meanwhile, your son is working with you at the truck stop, or maybe the one across town, and your daughter is waiting tables. So are their kids. When you die, they won't be able to cover your burial costs.

How's that for an American dream?

Comments

it's all fucked

[mindscat.livejournal.com]

i have heard an ugly rumor that people above a certain income level are getting $400 back per child, a little after taxes bonus. this is PER CHILD, and ABOVE a certain income. WTF???

Re: it's all fucked

[kyra-ojosverdes.livejournal.com]

Yup. The ironic thing is that if that child credit were fully refundable (i.e., paid to people even if they don't make enough to owe taxes), then that money would be put right back into the economy as poor parents buy the kids new shoes, clothing, bicycles, etc. The way it's set up, the child credit will most likely be put into the bank, where it doesnt' do much good for the economy.

Re: it's all fucked

[mindscat.livejournal.com]

yup, agreed