Welfare recipients are not the enemey.

Remember how everyone blames welfare recipients for everything? They are after all easy targets from Reagan’s “welfare queens” to Romney’s “single mothers”. It is just standard conservative rhetoric to beat up on TANF recipients who have no voice in the fight. Mother Jones had a great piece on the “don’t get sick” bill which aims to punish poor families if a child is sick for more than three weeks of school. They also note some of the other crazy “we hate poor people” legislation out there including the drug testing of welfare recipients (16 states and counting have tried this).

So welfare reform caused people to be expelled from the welfare rolls. This means the population targeted for the nation’s problems is smaller than it has been in a long time. Additionally, even during the recession many states saw a decline in (TCA) cash assistance while they saw a huge increase in SNAP (food stamps). The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a new report showing that the cash benefits are not so meager that they barely contribute to the costs of living of the recipients. In TN, the maximum benefit for a family of three is $185 per month, which is barely enough to lift a poor family above 10% of the federal poverty line. Missouri’s benefit is $292 per month, which hasn’t changed since 1996 (most states haven’t), but thanks to inflation that value fell 30%, which leaves recipients at 18% of the poverty line.

Ohio was one of the few states that saw an increase in the TANF benefit for a family of three bring their total up to $450, which still leaves Ohio between 20-30% of the federal poverty line. DC’s benefit also falls between 20-30% of the poverty line. Maryland is actually 30-40% of the poverty line. The figure from the report shows the south is about 10-20% of the poverty line. No state’s welfare benefit is over 50% of the poverty line.

In 36 states, the purchasing power of TANF benefits is 20% less than what it was in 1996. The benefits won’t cover rent for families anywhere in the US. This whole discussion of cutting benefits as a punishment is ridiculous. Some of the women I interviewed joked during their work placement program about how the benefits were so small they hardly seem worth the trouble. I can sit here and write the same thing over and over, but I have so much to do this week. Read the report, it is good. Just repeat this:

Welfare recipients aren’t the enemy: stupid politicians are the enemy.