It’s a liberal faux pas to be against welfare. How could you be against helping millions of struggling women and children? That’s just wrong, right?
Well, I’m against welfare. Welfare as we know it, that is.
I have no problem with the helping part. Unlike many I’ve heard from, I think human beings are morally obligated to help each other, and I don’t mind my tax dollars going towards struggling families. In fact, I may be one of the few Americans who wouldn’t mind paying a few more tax dollars if I knew it meant more kids could go to the doctor when they were sick or never went hungry. That’s the kind of stuff I think money is for, and when it’s automatically deducted from my paycheck, my silly desires for a new thing at Target don’t get in the way of that happening.
What I hate is TANF. That’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or what we commonly refer to as a welfare check. It sucks. Before reform, after reform — whatever. It pulls families deeper into poverty by establishing stupid rules that make families choose between today’s rent check and their future financial security.
Listen to the story of Angie Grice, a mom who attended the Women for Economic Justice Congressional Briefing. Grice had a son when she was just 16, and with no money or help from her parents, she turned to the welfare system. Her story starts at about 6:27:
In most TANF programs, like in my own state of Illinois, there’s a work requirement for welfare. You can’t get benefits if you are unemployed; you must be working in some regard. Except that for moms like Angie, who only have the skills to get a low-wage job that won’t make ends meet, this isn’t a forward-thinking solution. At best, she’d have been promoted to manager at a fast food restaurant, making $12 an hour, still needing welfare and childcare credits to get by.
Instead, she saw a future for herself as a CPA owning her own business. But most state welfare programs won’t let you go to school and receive welfare. No, our welfare system is about short-term shame with a bleak outlook on the future.
“I knew the system was pretty messed up when a young mother is told that in order to get help, they must allow themselves to be held back. I want to know that the help that I get now in five years will create stability for my son and myself,” she says.
Smart woman, eh? But our system isn’t smart enough to help her work through her dreams and into a future where she doesn’t need to depend on anyone for money. Her childcare credits would come up short or be cancelled. She’s one of many welfare recipients who describe a shoddy administrative system — losing paperwork, transferring case workers, employing people who don’t know the answers and treating applicants like scum for asking.
“If you are going to help me, help me the right way,” she says.
It’s moms like Angie who see that our system is broken.
I don’t want to end welfare. I want to end the broken system we’ve created that hurts families more than it helps. If that makes me a bad liberal, than I’ll wear that badge with pride. Because until we have a system that creates opportunities, not dismal futures, my tax dollars and I don’t want any part of it.
Photo credit: DianeWorth
