Paul Ryan: Baltimore is stuck in ‘poverty trap’ because welfare benefits are too lucrative

[babylonsister]

Has he, or any rethug, proposed one job program yet? Yea, that's what I thought.

Paul Ryan: Baltimore is stuck in ‘poverty trap’ because welfare benefits are too lucrative
David Edwards
03 May 2015 at 14:04 ET


snip//

When he was asked for an example of what he would do to attack the root cause of poverty, Ryan pointed to the welfare system.

“I would consolidate many of our federal poverty programs into flexible programs that go to our states to customize a welfare benefit for person’s particular need,” he explained.

“Because what you do when you stack up all these poverty programs on top of each other, we have this thing called the poverty trap, where we’re actually disincentivizing a person from getting on with their life and going to work,” the Wisconsin Republican opined. “It pays not to take a risk to take a job to go out an prove your life because of the benefits your lose.”

“The American idea is that the condition of your birth doesn’t determine the outcome of your life. Anybody in this country can overcome their current circumstances and make a better life for themselves and their kids. We were taught believing that, {Republicans} believe that. There are a lot of people who don’t believe that.”

Watch the video below from CBS News, broadcast May 3, 2015, at link.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/paul-ryan-baltimore-is-stuck-in-poverty-trap-because-welfare-benefits-are-too-lucrative/

[leftofcool]

1. Typical Paul Ryan drivel!

[John_Doe80004]

2. idiota supreme

spoken like the true disconnected from reality idiot he is.

maybe if these idiots worked on improving the poor job situation in this country (which is about to get worse with another bad trade deal) we might have fully recovered by now and the debater over welfare for the poor (not to be confused with welfare for the rich) would be a moot subject.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. Welcome to DU!

I weep over what has happened in my home state.

[yourout]

3. They are stuck in it because all the decent manufacturing jobs are now....

low paying service jobs because of NAFTA, CAFTA, and the WTO.

[edhopper]

4. Oh for fucks sake

just shut the fuck up you Randian piece of raw sewage.

[octoberlib]

5. I'm so sick of his crap.

[hifiguy]

6. Warning, Bullshit approaching critical mass.

Jayzus....

[Chemisse]

7. This is so 1970s.

It's not easy to get welfare nowadays, even if you have small children. In some states, they limit you to a couple of months - and then make you pay it back.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Irony, he has a point

and he does not realize just how much he does.

Though this welfare yapping of his does not apply to the urban cores of American cities, but to the reasons why those jobs left. Hey Paul, ever heard of free trade and things like NAFTA? Yup, those jobs left with globalization

Irony, as I said.

[gratuitous]

9. Now that Ryan has gotten through (you're welcome, dickhead)

Ryan was certainly happy enough to suck up those poverty programs when they benefited him.

But now that he's comfortable, warm and financially secure? Time to pull that ladder up! Isn't it amazing how conversant rich people are with the problems faced by poor people?

[John_Doe80004]

10. typical conservative thinking

i got mine handed to me now screw you and pull yourself up by your boot straps and get yours on your own.

[tularetom]

11. You mean like the "welfare benefits" that enabled him to get an education?

Selective memory.

[SMC22307]

12. That trade deal he and Obama are working on will certainly help...

provide much needed jobs in Baltimore. Right?

[Codeine]

13. We don't believe it

because it's complete horseshit.

[Kingofalldems]

14. Paul Rand at your service.

[katsy]

15. Ignorant POS

If welfare was indeed that lucrative... there would be no poverty traps.

There is great poverty because jobs were shipped overseas and the safety nets have not kept families secure.

I read a Harvard study of free trade and it pointed out that strong safety nets should be in place to keep displaced workers from falling into poverty. Well duhhh. Guess GOP skipped that part.

[daredtowork]

16. Someone needs to challenge him on the specifics

When politicians say "welfare" or "programs", people envision a bags of money.

But when you look at how a particular person is forced to live from week to week - indeed, from day to day - often with NO DIRECT CASH - the picture of the "Welfare Trap" becomes very different!

Paul Ryan thinks people need to be pushed out of the "welfare trap" because they've become too comfortable. The truth is they need to be PULLED out of the welfare trap because they ARE TRAPPED and their situation makes them virtually unemployable! They are not attractive to employers! They recognize the polished resumes as "lipstick on a pig" - they ask about the gaps in the interview! They see the physically disabled or elderly or black person walking in and asking for a job that they mentally see a white person "fitting in" to!

People on welfare need to be pipelined into jobs, but instead we are forced to participate in the same job-seeking process as everyone else (search for jobs on Indeed, Craigslist, SimplyHired, etc.) - the same process that wasn't working before we went on to welfare because there are problems in our lives that make us less desirable employees in a competitive job market.

We do not need to be pushed out of welfare. We need to be pulled into good job. Period. Finito. That's the story. Live with it Paul Ryan, because the other ending of the story is a lot of homeless people and a lot of riots.

[City Lights]

17. Wha?

Little Paulie makes no sense.

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. Screw him.

Not literally, though, because that would be gross.

[Trillo]

20. "In 2012, the average American taxpayer making $50,000 per year

paid just $36 towards the food stamps program.

That's just ten cents a day!

That's less than the cost of a gumball.

But Republicans think that's still too high a price to pay to help the neediest and most vulnerable Americans.

...

The average American family pays a staggering $6,000 a year in subsidies to Republican-friendly big business.

And that's just the average family. A family making more than $50,000 a year - say $70,000 a year - pays even more to pad the wallets of corporate America.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19844-food-stamps-are-affordable-corporate-welfare-is-not

[fadedrose]

21. Ryan is full of poop nt

[Jefferson23]

22. You got that right...REPUBLICANS believe that and there are a lot of people who DON'T

and why you'll lose the White House, again..asshole.