Thursday, August 25, 2011

No Jobs, But Poor Can Get Day Care Subsidies

you really have to wonder what is going on the brain of Rick Snyder. Apparently, being a millionaire divorces someone so completely from reality that they say really stupid things, or they hire people to do it for them.

Such is the case with the news that Snyder was expected to sign a bill that kicks 11,000 poor people off welfare in the middle of a weak economic recovery because Snyder thinks four years is enough.

Says Snyder's Department of Human Services spokeswoman, Sheryl Thompson, there's nothing to worry about. The poor people can still get food stamps and day care subsidies. Food stamps won't pay the rent, but the state makes up for that by providing two months of rental assistance. Two whole months. Why, everything will be fine by then.

They'll also get day care subsidies. But those don't pay the rent either, and people without jobs may have little use for day care.

Oh, but the department has an answer for that. The people being kicked off welfare will get "intensive aid" in looking for work. Guess the Snyder administration hasn't checked what has happened to the unemployment rate since it gave business $1.7 billion in tax cuts to create jobs. The jobless rate went up.

But Thompson says, "We will be providing every tool necessary" to enter the work force, except of course, an actual job. If they had so many tools to help these people find work, why haven't they been employing them since they took office in January?

She added that that "Michigan can no longer afford to provide lifetime assistance."

Federal law has a five-year cap for benefits. That's hardly a lifetime.

But being Snyder's DHS spokeswoman doesn't require facts, just meaningless sound bites.

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