Protesters seek Minnesota State Rep. Franson’s resignation
March 8, 2012 at 7:07 am in Grand Forks Herald
Protesters chanted for Rep. Mary Franson to resign and a liberal organization submitted a petition this morning demanding that she apologize after making comments that some say insulted poor Minnesotans. Continue Reading
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Welfare is NOT a right. It is a support the people of this country provide to those unfortunate people who end up needing it. Most people on welfare do not want to be on it. But there are those who do become dependent on the system I see it all the time and it is tragic so there is an element of truth in her statement.
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“Most people on welfare do not want to be on it.” Like Michelle Bachmann.
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“she quoted from a “little funny clip” that said it was ironic that the federal government is pleased to distribute the most food stamps ever while the park service “asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.””
I’d call that clever, insightful, and , as far as the park service is concerned, almost certainly TRUE. She’s exactly the kind of person I want in public office, except that she’s apologizing for her statement.
When something is free, it has no value and carries no responsibility. “Welfare” cheating is epidemic; and it goes on for generations because too many don’t learn to control their breeding. Two lazy people create the next, larger generation of deadbeats. As long as we feed them, they’ll continue to over-populate.
Charity should not be enforced via the tax code. Enforced charity causes no end of problems for EVERYONE concerned. “Entitlement” programs must END.
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To steal a quote from Garage Logic, “ah, we don’t know that”, spearman
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By all the dislikes…Apparently they’d prefer to adhere to the great Oz and not pay attention to the person(s) behind the curtain….Corporate welfare is the biggest scurage on the coffers by far….But as long as the repubs can do a little hocus pocus mis-direct….Hey..Who’ll notice…Lets just pay attention to the easy targets…You know…The ones with the least power……..
On the other hand there’s a lot of corporate farming around here that really wouldn’t want anyone to look too closely at their nice welfare checks…..It’s nice to find loopholes that allow you to gouge the government on programs that were designed for family farms….
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Millions more out of work in the last couple of years, lost homes and people hungry…and republicans complaining of people “scamming” the welfare system…unbelievable that you can lump everyone receiving welfare benefits into a group abusing the system. No one denies that SOME welfare recipents are abusing it but stop generalizing! Maybe the system is broken but there are a lot more people needing these “entitlements” these days through no fault of their own. Maybe you should take a moment and place yourself in their shoes.
Franson’s comparison was insensitive…period.
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Her comment was not offensive to me. It was clever. Schurkey described it well.
The one thing I read about the push for unionized childcare workers is the AFL-CIO is behind it. They are trying to up their membership for additional income because they spent so much money getting Obama elected. They are losing memberhsip as well.
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Regardless of whether a Republican or Democrat says something controversial, it’s an opportunity for the other side to react and make life miserable for them. A couple of hours of video of the demonstrators would give us all some insight as to who should be apologizing. It’s almost suspicious that people have all day, every day to demonstrate about something so trivial.
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“I just thought of something: isn’t it odd the GOP chooses to let the government support the poor and consistently fights any legislation to force business to pay a living wage? hmmmmm.”
NO! This is NOT odd, and it’s not just the GOP. Adjust your perspective: This is NOT about assisting individuals. This is about CORPORATE WELFARE. If the State picks up the tab for housing, food, clothing, etc; business can get by with paying less. Without the subsidy to the workforce, no one would work for low wages, because they’d starve or freeze to death.
To exaggerate in order to make the point:
When slavery was legal, the slave owner had to feed, clothe, and house his slaves. Corporate America is paying so little that it’s slaves often can’t pay for food, clothing, and housing. Relatively speaking, Corporate America often compensates it’s workforce LESS than slaveowners did.
So instead of causing Corporate America to increase wages to a reasonable level, taxpayers are forced under penalty of law to subsidize the lower-end of the workforce.
I’m tired of carrying them. I’m tired of subsidizing Corporate America.
NO more food assistance paid by tax dollars.
NO more housing assistance paid by tax dollars.
NO more entitlement programs of any sort paid by tax dollars.
FOR DAMNED SURE no more direct aid to corporations paid by tax dollars.
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Your point is made really clear when you hear about some of these smaller commuter plane pilots who aren’t making enough to pay for rent and food for their families and end up having to collect food stamps (Though it’s actually Food Cards now I guess) Anyway….I don’t fly (Kind of silly when I already truck everyplace), but if I did I’d sure like to know my pilot was feeling secure enough about his or her job that they could keep their mind on the task at hand instead of how they’re going to make ends meet for their family……And as for the theory of working two jobs…..I’d like my pilot nice and rested between flights…..
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“The food stamp program was started under Bush.” Wow. I worked in a grocery store in 1969 and lots of food stamps came in. You can blame your presidents all you want. I blame us for most of our problems. This particluar article is about the politics of someone saying something unpopular and protestors making her pay. A couple of dozen people are treating this like Watergate. The subject of poverty isn’t trivial, but the subject of these demonstrations is.
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The meaning of my comment went over your head. Sorry.
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I worked in a Valley Dairy in the early ’80′s.
People would come in and buy candy with dollar food coupons. Get back a bunch of actual coin change.
Ten minutes later, they’d buy a bag of chips with a dollar food coupon. Get back more coins as change.
Ten minutes later, they’d buy a can of pop with a dollar food coupon. Get back additional coins as change.
THEN they’d come in, drop a bunch of coins on the counter, and demand cigarettes.
The scams have been going on as long as there’s been an assistance program to abuse.
We need an END to charity enforced by the tax code.
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I think that what she said was spot on, not that everyone that is on food stamps wants to be there or is taking advantage but I would say that better than 60% are. I don’t think that she should have apologized at all, if she believes what she was saying than stick by it. You will always have people who disagree with what you say but stick to your convictions and don’t back away. This shows that getting new blood in our political system can shake things up, it is great that she is a freshman congresswoman and making points like this. Now that it has been brought up why not take it even further and start to find a way to change it so that the dependence on wellfare can start to diminish. The first step is recognizing the problem, the next step is starting to solve that problem. I say to Mrs. Franson keep on standing up for what you believe and if we can get a few thousand more like you in our political system throughout the country we might actually have a chance to make some changes.
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Everyone please stop making up statistics. 60% of those receiving benefits from their state want to continue to receive them for eternity and not work? Where did you get that?
Yes, in fact, welfare is a right. The U.S. does not simply let disabled or unemployed families with CHILDREN starve. That would be awful and I am proud to live in a country where not dying is your right!
Also, food stamps is the worst thing to criticize. If you have done any research at all you’d know for every dollar spent on that program, $1.73 is generated throughout the economy.
NEXT attack on the suffering…
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Many people are not interested in facts. Here’s a couple, though. I’m over 60 years old. Many people I did business with 20 years ago are in the nursing home, nearly pennyless and on welfare. We take care of people. I don’t know the facts, but, my impression is that the medical assistance for nursing home care is the biggest part of the welfare budget. I’m guessing several of the people here judging people on food stamps have had relatives (maybe close relatives) collecting from the system at 20 times the rate of a food stamp recipient. It’s almost Easter and I’m just not feeling the love.
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Tom Vilsack, who made the original claim that for every SNAP dollar given out, there would be $1.73-$1.79 in economic stimulus, based that claim on faulty math. Think about it, it would be a true stimulus IF that money was going toward something that would never have been purchased in the first place. SNAP benefits don’t materialize from thin air, they are taken from others who pay for it through taxes. The original owners of that money would have used it in other ways to stimulate the economy through purchasing cars or clothing or even food. In this economy, fewer people are saving because they can’t afford it. That money would have been spent anyway. It’s not a true stimulus.
By Vilsack’s reasoning, (and YOURS) someone who breaks into my house and steals my wallet and then spends my money on what he/she wants would be considered to be creating an economic stimulus by virtue of taking it back to their neighborhood and spending it in a different Wal Mart than I would have in the first place.
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“Everyone please stop making up statistics…If you have (sic) done any research at all you’d know for every dollar spent on that program, $1.73 is generated throughout the economy.”
You first Jack; if your statistic is true all we have to do is put everyone in the country on food stamps and unemployment will be zero and GDP will grow at 25 percent a year. Like the mythical Keynesian stimulus the reality is only pennies for every dollar spent.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s all for the children…
Maybe if these boneheads had to actually support their kids, they’d get a job or two instead of mooching off the rest of us. When you get hungry, work isn’t so bad. When the choice is work or go to prison for child neglect, they’ll work.
Or they’ll control their breeding so they don’t have kids to begin with. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Actual pre-parental responsibility leading them to make better decisions?
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As with so many of the current GOP positions….She’s just the wrong person for the position and has no ideawhat good statemanship is about….How they keep putting such unqualified individuals into these positions is just amazing….But then again there’s Bachmann…So that pretty much says it all…
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is there truth to what she said? Yes a few people do abuse the system. Most do not want to be on it and are trying to get out of a hole. The problem is she said I heard a FUNNY little bit comparing welfare recipients to WILD ANIMALS. There is nothing funny about welfare and deffinetly nothing funny about comparing humans to wild animals.
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Democrats say republicans want to starve children and old people all the time. How is that better than what Rep. Franson said if we were to accept the left’s erroneous take on it?
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Because the Dems are referring to the direct actions of the bills or proposed bills that would have such effects on the aged and/or poverty level citizens….They don’t necessarily make a blanket statement that the ” republicans want to starve children and old people all the time” thus lumping them into one group doing this…..It’s those in the position to push legislation that they refer to….
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So that’s how democrats justify their lies.
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Like the song says….”Sit you down father…rest you” And the big bad Dems just might not seem so scary in the morning
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