Work Requirements

I don't understand the opposition to work requirements for receiving SNAP or Medicaid benefits. The requirement only applies to healthy working age people without dependent children and recipients are only required to work 20 hrs per week. That seems like an extremely low bar to me.

I'm curious to hear from those who disagree with this policy.

There is no issue with the fact of this requirement.

Dems don't use facts, they use lies and feelings.

Lies and feeling tell you that little joey will starve because mommy can't get snap.

Facts will tell you little joey is living at his grandmothers house and mommy is using snap for drug money and will lose it if she doesn't work.
 
Getting disability is not hard, in fact it's a little too easy.
Maybe it has changed. But that was not the case in situations I'm aware of. One involved a relative who needed it and had to get a private lawyer at her parents' expense to get on it. Another was a client my wife represented. The Administrative Law Judge looked at jobs throughout the country that this person could do, none of which were remotely available or possible in her area. They said she could be a fisherman. There were no fishing jobs in that town or probably in a thousand miles, I assure you. The idea seemed to be to reject the claim initially and then maybe approve on appeal later.

I guess we'll see down the road if the work requirements are a problem or not. Maybe there are all these lazy people sitting at home that the Republicans decry, and we'll see them incentivized to work. Or maybe they'll keep doing what they do without health coverage and show up at the ER when they need healthcare.
 
Beef is $8/lb and upward. There are four beef processors in the US and some are foreign own. Re Walmart... it forces price concessions from its suppliers based on leverage from volume purchases. WM's niche/branding is based on lowest prices. Other than that, initial labor (e.g. Guangdong factory workers) and the consumer on the other end don't benefit from the profits made in-between.
If local farmers/ranchers could sell beef for a lower price they would dominate the market. The reality is they can't compete with the economies of the big guys. It's a shame that family farms have died off but we all benefit from the economies that companies like Walmart or Amazon have brought.

BTW, Walmart's profit margin on groceries is between 1% and 2%. That's not why steak is $8/lb.
 
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Maybe it has changed. But that was not the case in situations I'm aware of. One involved a relative who needed it and had to get a private lawyer at her parents' expense to get on it. Another was a client my wife represented. The Administrative Law Judge looked at jobs throughout the country that this person could do, none of which were remotely available or possible in her area. They said she could be a fisherman. There were no fishing jobs in that town or probably in a thousand miles, I assure you. The idea seemed to be to reject the claim initially and then maybe approve on appeal later.

I guess we'll see down the road if the work requirements are a problem or not. Maybe there are all these lazy people sitting at home that the Republicans decry, and we'll see them incentivized to work. Or maybe they'll keep doing what they do without health coverage and show up at the ER when they need healthcare.

The preconceived notion is that it is easy because we all see the stories of otherwise healthy people using benefits, but I was told by my cousin's husband that it is actually quite hard.

On the other hand, one of the football managers back in HS was a special needs kid. Collected carts at the grocery store for decades much like this special needs kid here where I live. Saw him yesterday as a matter of fact. Puts in 40 hours.

Ann Arbor Special Olympian issues a bowling challenge to President Obama​


https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2009/03/ann_arbor_special_olympian_iss.html

OK, Mr. President. You think your pitiful bowling skills are something you'd see at the Special Olympics?

An Ann Arbor man has a challenge for you.

"Bring it on, Obama!" said Kolan McConiughey, who is proud of the six Special Olympics bowling medals he's won as well as the fact that he's bowled five perfect games. "I challenge him! I'll show him how to do it."

McConiughey is a bagger at the Busch's grocery store, where calls from talk show hosts and TV stations across the country were coming in Friday morning following Obama's faux pas on "The Tonight Show" Thursday.Obama told host Jay Leno he's been practicing in the White House bowling alley. He said he bowled a 129 and said it was "like Special Olympics or something."

McConiughey, who was born cognitively impaired, was profiled in The Ann Arbor News on his 35th birthday on Christmas Day. Since then, his story has been picked up in other news media.
 
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Steak is comparatively cheap when you buy in bulk direct from a local butcher

The "steak" we ate growing up was the cheapest of the cheap. It's one reason why I won't eat meat loaf or pot roast ever again, and frown highly on "high end" London Broil.
 
I think that it sounds okay, but people will fall through those cracks. I think it would be far better to fix the medical system than to keep propping it up with insurance that doesn't work so well. 1/3 of all medical expenses are to file forms with insurance. It also gives insurance companies or govt agencies the say in how the medical system works. What gets covered and what doesn't.

I'm retired and have Medicare. I have to pay for my Medicare Advantage at $170/mo. I don't take any drugs, and only a few annual trips to doctors for a checkup. A recent blood test was billed at $286, which was inflated. The insurance co. paid $18.50, I paid $20. I might have a couple of bills a year, and I always pay more than the insurance co.

If the govt thinks it has to provide healthcare, then they should set up clinics for those that can't afford it. Right now, according to a hospital employee, hospital ERs are still overflowing with uninsured, and they're forcing the rest of the system to pay for them.

Work requirements might work if there are sufficient jobs available. It would save $3.4 billion/yr. Is it worth the added bureaucracy?
It is bullspit. . If you are able bodied and not working in our economy, YOU DO NOT WANT TO WORK. God says if you do not want to work you should not eat. Quit making excuses for lazy people. PS Families should help members who need it. My mother's generation did this a lot.
RESPONSIBILITY has been removed from our language. Such a shame.
 
Question for those of you commenting about the price of steak and ground beef. I haven’t looked at purchasing any of those at a store outside of a few random times for ground beef, for my entire life. I grew up on a farm raising black Angus beef, cattle and sheep. The neighbor raised Hampshire hogs. The family always raised a couple steers each year, one for ourselves, and one for trade. We would generally trade some beef and some lamb for bacon, pork chops, ribs, and that kind of stuff with the neighbor. The old man still farms to this day though with about 25% of the animal population. Either way I still get all of my ground beef, roast, steaks, and such from my parents.

Based on my old school 4H percentages, the 1300 pound finished steer is going to get you about 60% that weight in meat so somewhere between 750 and 800 pounds total. Selling that at about $2.50 -$3.00 a lb plus a butchers fee of a few hundred bucks means I’m getting all of that meat for around five bucks a pound. That’s including steaks and such.

So based on that, there’s no way that ground beef is eight dollars a pound, correct?
 
Maybe it has changed. But that was not the case in situations I'm aware of. One involved a relative who needed it and had to get a private lawyer at her parents' expense to get on it. Another was a client my wife represented. The Administrative Law Judge looked at jobs throughout the country that this person could do, none of which were remotely available or possible in her area. They said she could be a fisherman. There were no fishing jobs in that town or probably in a thousand miles, I assure you. The idea seemed to be to reject the claim initially and then maybe approve on appeal later.

I guess we'll see down the road if the work requirements are a problem or not. Maybe there are all these lazy people sitting at home that the Republicans decry, and we'll see them incentivized to work. Or maybe they'll keep doing what they do without health coverage and show up at the ER when they need healthcare.

Mental health.
 
Mental health.
I don't have much experience with SS Disability but I do have experience with workers compensation related disability. We had people hurt their back in the warehouse and they stayed on workers compensation for the rest of what would have been their working career. It's called permanent partial disability where the person can do other work that doesn't involve heavy lifting. We tried to give them a job in another area but they weren't interested. Golf was OK but light assemble or an office job didn't cut it. We also had people claim workers compensation because of work related stress. We hired an undercover investigator who took photos of an employee out in the yard playing with kids, going out to lunch, etc. It helped us reach a settlement but IMO the whole thing was B.S.

My point is that these things can really get abused. I support the government's effort to limit benefits to people who are able to work. I also understand that people should have a way to appeal if they are being unfairly denied.
 
Millions o blind people have worked.
You are not entitled to a job in your field. Take another job.
To be honest I have a problem with policemen, air traffic controllers, etc being able to retire with full benefits after 20 years of service. I understand the rigors of the position but it seems like these people could be moved to less strenuous positions. Look at roofers or carpet installers. They don't get full pension after 20 years (or at all).
 
I don't have much experience with SS Disability but I do have experience with workers compensation related disability. We had people hurt their back in the warehouse and they stayed on workers compensation for the rest of what would have been their working career. It's called permanent partial disability where the person can do other work that doesn't involve heavy lifting. We tried to give them a job in another area but they weren't interested. Golf was OK but light assemble or an office job didn't cut it. We also had people claim workers compensation because of work related stress. We hired an undercover investigator who took photos of an employee out in the yard playing with kids, going out to lunch, etc. It helped us reach a settlement but IMO the whole thing was B.S.

My point is that these things can really get abused. I support the government's effort to limit benefits to people who are able to work. I also understand that people should have a way to appeal if they are being unfairly denied.
I have had some experience with government job programs. Way back in the 1970s some inner city kids were working at a job program on the golf course where my father was the golf pro. My father told the manager (who was the high school teacher) that he only wanted good kids. He did get two real good kids and they were helpful in the golf pro shop. In fact after thneir work ended both of the kids wtote thank you letters to my father.

On the other hand, the jobs program was intrinsically inefficient. When the government is managing the program there is no incentive for creativity or extra hard work or efficient work. One time I observed 20 kids by a sand trap on the golf course watching two kids rake the sand trap. There were only two rakes by the sand trap and there was nothing else they could do.. No one was being lazy or goofing off. It was just that no one thought ahead as to what was needed to keep everyone busy. This type of inefficiency was simply built into the program.

My basic point is that job requirements are not simple programs to implement. However, their existence may motivate some people who are not really that ddisabled to not bother to get on government assistance
 
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