GUEST AUTHOR: Want to Make $60K a Year? Try Welfare

By Steven Ahle, Guest Author

This article first appeared on BuzzPo. Used by permission

Ever wonder why no one ever seems to get off Welfare?  Maybe it’s because the money is so good.  As of Labor Day 2013, 35 states paid more in welfare benefits than workers making minimum wage do.  Everything was taken into account in the report by Cato’s Michael Tanner and Charles Hughes.  Making more than minimum wage includes the average Earned Income Credit refund made to working families.  But in some states, the benefits are much higher.  In Hawaii, you would need a job paying over 60k to make the same as you do on Welfare.  The median income in Hawaii is only 61k.  So basically if you are on Welfare, you are in the middle class.

Tanner and Hughes wrote:

“The current welfare system provides such a high level of benefits that it acts as a disincentive for work.  Welfare currently pays more than a minimum-wage job in 35 states, even after accounting for the Earned Income Tax Credit,” which offers extra subsidies to low-income workers who take work.  In 13 states [welfare] pays more than $15 per hour.”

In five states, you make more than a worker making 20 dollars an hour.  Is it any wonder people make a career out of Welfare?  Don’t let the liberals fool you when they tell you that Welfare recipients get a very small cash benefit.  But you get your rent paid for you.  You get your medical paid for you.  Your food is free as well as your utilities.  You get a free Obama cell phone.  And you can pick up extra money as a paid protester for any number of liberal demonstrations.

In Sweden, which is considered the ultimate welfare state, the government taxes welfare benefits and now 85% of all citizens hold jobs as opposed to the European average of 70%.  Under Obama, benefits have increased at an unprecedented rate.

Read more here

 

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About Steven Ahle

Steven H Ahle won the 2014 CJN Journalist of the Year Award. I have written six books and have had 2 newspaper columns. I am a credentialed journalist, as well as an investigative journalist that has broken 2 national stories on the AFL-CIO voter intimidation, and the targeting of Christians by the DHS. I write for the Free Patriot and write for and edit redstatements.com. Follow me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stevenh.ahle

Money photo credit: public domain.

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5 Things You Need to Know About Target and Open Carry Texas

By Liz Harrison on July 2, 2014 in BuzzPo, Gun control, Politics

Originally posted at BuzzPo. Used by permission.

It’s no secret that the mainstream media has no interest in covering news without bias, especially when it comes to gun control. The latest smear has been a dust up about Target stores and the pro-gun organization Open Carry Texas. Unfortunately, because this is happening in Texas, it’s very easy for the liberal media to distort the facts. Let’s take a moment to clear things up.

1. Target hasn’t banned weapons from their stores. – Contrary to what Huffington Post is at least implying, the store simply didn’t ban guns. What they did do was respectfully ask people to “choose” not to bring weapons into their stores. Dana Loesch explains that clearly for everyone.

2. No, the pictures of people with long guns aren’t all from Texas. – Again, we’re dealing with news with an agenda. Moms Demand Action pushed out the photographs. Don’t expect the mainstream media to double-check that they are all from the state they’re reporting about.

3. Open Carry Texas told members months ago to not take long arms into businesses without express permission. – Contrary to news reports, this organization is not lead by gun zealots that want to make people feel nervous about weapons being in stores. (Never mind that having people with legal weapons should make people feel safer, since they’re a good deterrent against criminals.) This organization is focused on legislative action, namely getting open carry fully restored in the state of Texas.

4. “The people were carrying long guns in public for the shock factor, because they’re gun nuts!” commentary is a lie. – This is an important issue to clarify, especially for the benefit of people outside Texas. The Moms Demand Action organization is very pleased with the fact that this story is getting national attention, especially in states where people can open carry handguns. A quick Twitter experiment shows that this tactic is working for them.

There were no replies to that, just a single retweet as of this writing. That’s a big problem.

The reason why the Open Carry Texas activists are going around with long guns is because those are the only kinds of weapons that are legal for them to open carry.

Texas gun laws are interesting, to say the least. While the people are generally for guns, the laws are a little, well bizarre. In summary from Texaslawshield.com:

“In Texas, it is generally illegal to carry a handgun outside of a person’s own premises. However, a person may carry, either open or concealed, in a non-threatening or alarming manner, a shotgun or rifle.”

With the exception of about a handful of situations, one must have a concealed carry license to carry a handgun in Texas. This is why Open Carry Texas activists are going around with long guns.

5. Anti-gun activists are using the media to target Open Carry Texas because they are worried. – The liberals are very nervous, because Open Carry Texas is getting very close to getting what they want – a sensible open carry handgun law.

“Over the past year, our members have done what no other gun rights organization has been able to do – put open carry at the forefront of the fight to restore gun rights for all Texans.”

That’s a tiny portion of a press release by Open Carry Texas and a few other organizations working for a new handgun law in Texas. They are in the spotlight because they are succeeding, and that’s making liberals extremely nervous. They are so nervous that they are pulling out all the stops, and using the liberal media to depict these groups as a bunch of crazies that will only cause more gun violence. That simply isn’t true.

Just like everything else, that means that conservatives have to set the record straight.

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Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons – Public domain.