Federal Communications Commission chairman Thomas Wheeler has proposed increasing the current Lifeline telephone subsidy to help the poor get Internet service. Such access is good for the economy, good for job and service searches, and good for connecting poor children and their families to their schools, churches, health care providers, and governmental institutions. Most of us know the Lifeline program […]

This week the Michigan Legislature passed House Bill 4041, what they call the Parental Responsibility Act. Gov. Snyder is probably eager to sign it because it has the word “responsibility” in it and impacts only the politically powerless. The Michigan Department of Human Services will be required to eliminate cash assistance to poor families if any child in the household […]

Woe be to the discontented, lazy rabble with heads filled with impossible ideas (like eating) Yesterday, on a nearly party line vote of 217-210, House Republicans passed a bill that would strip $40 billion out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, over the next 10 years. As Amy pointed out earlier this week, if […]

Because the poor simply haven’t been screwed over enough already, right?

Two bills passed by the Michigan House of Representatives this week have the effect of punishing one group and one group only: the poor. One bill, House Bill 4118 would force Michiganders applying for a renewal of their welfare benefits to undergo drug testing if they are “suspected” of being on drugs. The other, House Bill 4388, would kick families off from welfare if they have a child who skips school.

As egregious as this legislation is, what’s worse is that Democrats aided and abetted the Republicans in the passage of both bills.

Details await you after the jump.

By now you’ve likely heard about Rick Santorum‘s offensive statement to a group of supporters in Iowa. “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money,” Santorum begins. “I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.”Santorum did not elaborate on why […]

NOTE: you can UPrate this story at Reddit HERE. Early this month, I wrote about how a move by the Snyder administration to through over 10,000 Michigan families off the welfare rolls had been temporarily halted by a U.S. District Court judge. A federal judge in Michigan today smacked down a new Republican-passed law that will throw tens of thousands […]

THIS is astounding. Nearly half of all Americans lived in a household that received some kind of government benefit during the first three months of last year, the Wall Street Journal reports, based on new Census data. That’s even higher than the figure recorded during the depths of the Great Recession. I’m not rich by most people’s standards. I’m more […]

A federal judge in Michigan today smacked down a new Republican-passed law that will throw tens of thousands of Michiganders off the welfare rolls with little notice, temporarily halting its implementation. A federal judge today accused the state of “sleight of hand,” and halted plans to end welfare benefits to nearly 41,000 Michigan residents. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman determined […]

As I have written about before, tomorrow, October 1st, over 41,000 Michiganders will be thrown off the welfare rolls in Michigan. Nearly 30,000 children are affected by this. Over half of these families live in Detroit where, as reported by the Detroit News, 21,000 families will now be without benefits. In Part 1 of a 2 part MLive series, there […]

Times are tough. People are out of work and many have been for a long time. You can almost imagine Michigan Republicans sitting around smoking cigars and drinking 20 year-old scotch wondering…wondering… “Hmmmm…let’s see…we shortened the time they can get unemployment, slashed aid to the working poor, cut education, eviscerated labor unions (especially teachers hahahahahahaaa) and started taxing old people. […]

I was reading Reddit’s politics page this morning when I came across this Self Reddit: Thank you unemployment benefits. Because of you I was able to pay my rent wash my clothes, eat, and today was offered a job for over 100k. I’ve been unemployed for almost 2 years. I will happily pay my taxes, and not cry about it […]