Outrageous: California welfare recipients withdrew $1.8 million at casino ATMs over eight months
Written by Thomas Peters
Friday, 25 June 2010 10:06
This makes my blood boil:
California welfare recipients using state-issued debit cards withdrew more than $1.8 million in taxpayer cash on casino floors between October 2009 and last month, state officials said Thursday.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order requiring welfare recipients to promise they will use cash benefits only to "meet the basic subsistence needs" of their families. The order also gave the state Department of Social Services seven days to produce a plan to reduce other types of "waste, fraud and abuse" in the welfare program.
... Schwarzenegger has already ordered the vendor that runs the state welfare system's ATM network to prohibit the cards from working at casino machines. Republican lawmakers are now calling on the administration to track down the people who withdrew cash at gaming centers and recover the money. (LA Times)
When we create a "Nanny state" we can't expect our citizens to behave responsible when the Nanny isn't looking.
Stalling American Growth
Written by Thomas Peters
Friday, 25 June 2010 10:43
Stimulus spending is a failed economic theory. All the government spending that we've done so far has failed to revitalize the private sector, which continues to be plagued by borrowing issues and government regulation:
The U.S. government revised down for the second time its estimate of economic growth in the first three months of 2010 on the back of lower consumer spending, underscoring caution about the recovery's strength.
Gross domestic product rose at a 2.7% annual rate January through March, the Commerce Department reported Friday in its third GDP estimate for the first quarter. That was down from an original estimate of 3.2% in April.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected no revision from the second estimate of 3.0% that was made a month ago. (WSJ)
Alvare: How the New Healthcare Law Endangers Conscience
Written by Thomas Peters
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 09:30
Helen Alvare writes at the Public Discourse that The new healthcare law has endangered longstanding protections on conscience. We must act to address them or risk creating a dangerous precedent:
A great deal of attention has been paid to the quandary that nearly prevented the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): federally subsidized abortion. Very little attention, however, has been focused on the status of conscience protection following passage of this lengthy, complicated piece of legislation, despite its being chock-full of new mandates that implicate the consciences of private and institutional providers, patients, and health insurance companies alike. A rare exception was Rob Stein’s piece in the Washington Post, yet even this article spared readers too many important details.
Why is the conscience issue so neglected? One possible reason is that conscience violations are less tangible than the destruction of a living human being. Furthermore, the area of conscience protection has many moving parts, which can be hard to monitor.
[...] But conscience protection merits increased attention, particularly in the context of legislation such as PPACA which contains an extraordinary array of new mandates affecting every player in American healthcare—governments, insurance exchanges and insurance plans, hospitals and clinics, doctors and employers, and every single healthcare consumer.
Rick Santelli - one of the founders of the Tea Party movement that Matt Continetti mentions in his Weekly Standard piece - was in rare form recently as he ranted against the failed government policy of creating more and more stimulus spending instead of lowering taxes and targeting the deficit:
Last Updated on Monday, 28 June 2010 13:07
Hillyer: Obama "Criminally Negligent Oil Spill"
Written by Thomas Peters
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 09:48
After detailing the bureaucratic disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Quin Hillyer takes aim at the President:
In this case of the oil spill, all the state and local officials (again with now-Gov. Jindal and Gov. Riley leading the way) have performed absolutely admirably, but the Obama administration is getting in their way (rather than vice-versa) and the new Obamatized Coast Guard being as much a font of harmful red tape as it is much of a help to anyone. In short, bad as the Bush response to Katrina has been, Obama's response to the oil spill has been far, far worse -- to the degree where it is, in moral terms, almost criminally negligent.
This disaster was all BP's fault, and in the long run BP should pay and pay and pay and pay and pay for its numerous violations of basic safety and response rules and practices. But the EFFECT of the disaster on the coasts and in the wetlands, and in the whole Gulf eco-system, could have been so greatly lessened if the administration were competent and caring that the blame for long-term damage must read in the Oval Office, in the person of that cold, detached Alinskyite who sees in this spill nothing more than yet another opportunity to stop other offshore drilling and push cap and trade. The word for his response, in every sense of the word, is "rotten." (American Spectator)
