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Refugees in U.S. State Drawn to Welfare, Jihad

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Photo Credit: WNDOver the course of two decades, the federal government’s Refugee Resettlement Program has forcibly infused the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota with a large dose of Somali culture, and the transition has not always been smooth.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told WND that while many of the Somali transplants have been hard-working citizens, the experiment has been costly for her state. And too many Somalis remain dependent on public assistance.

“We have the largest population of Somalis in the United States, and Somalia is a failed state. It is based on piracy for ransom and fraud,” Bachmann said.

She said the war-torn east African country is in a state of desperation, with an economy that more closely resembles the stone-age than the information age.

“And so tens of thousands of Somalis have been lifted out of a completely different situation and dropped into Minnesota,” Bachmann said. “They have been brought here in many cases by Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services and made homes here, but the problems of radicalization have come to Minnesota as well.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Leads Nation with Welfare Recipients

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Photo Credit: blmiers2 / Creative CommonsBy Associated Press.

Alaska has the highest number of families on public assistance in the nation, and the state’s rate is more than twice the national average of 2.9 percent, according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

A state-by-state tally of public assistance rates shows nearly 7 percent of Alaska families receive government help, the Alaska Dispatch News reported (https://is.gd/K6hRAZ). The figures are from 2012, the most recent data available.

Health department spokesman Clay Butcher said seasonal tourism and fishing jobs play a role, as do 140 villages in the state that are exempt from public assistance time limits because of few job opportunities. Most people are limited to receiving public assistance for 60 months.

“We also have a lot of transient types, people who come up in tourism jobs or oil jobs,” Butcher said.

Besides Alaska, 17 states saw an increase in the number of residents who receive public assistance. However, none have a higher percentage of recipients than Alaska, a trend that has held steady since at least 2000, the newspaper reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: iStockAlaska, West Coast lead U.S. in receiving welfare

By Joseph Lawler.

Alaska has the highest rate of residents receiving welfare of any state.

The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that almost 7 percent of people in the Frontier State receive public assistance from the federal or state government, more than a percentage point more than the state with the next highest rate.

West Coast states lead the rest of the country in the share of residents receiving welfare. More than half a million people got public benefits in California in 2012, the most recent year for which welfare data from the Census’ American Community Survey is available.

Read more from this story HERE.

City Mandates Free Medical Marijuana for Low-Income Residents

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Photo Credit: My Fox NYWeed welfare?

That’s what the Berkeley City Council in California has unanimously approved, ordering medical marijuana dispensaries to donate 2 percent of their stash to patients making less than $32,000 a year.

The new welfare program in the liberal-leaning city is set to launch in August 2015.

The ordinance, which passed in August and is the first of its kind in the country, comes at a time when several states are debating how to handle a growing movement to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational use.

But Berkeley’s decision to effectively order weed redistribution is prompting a vocal backlash.

Read more from this story HERE.

The 35.4 Percent: 109,631,000 on Welfare

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded “means-tested programs” — also known as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau has not yet reported how many were on welfare in 2013 or the first two quarters of 2014.

But the 109,631,000 living in households taking federal welfare benefits as of the end of 2012, according to the Census Bureau, equaled 35.4 percent of all 309,467,000 people living in the United States at that time.

When those receiving benefits from non-means-tested federal programs — such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and veterans benefits — were added to those taking welfare benefits, it turned out that 153,323,000 people were getting federal benefits of some type at the end of 2012.

Subtract the 3,297,000 who were receiving veterans’ benefits from the total, and that leaves 150,026,000 people receiving non-veterans’ benefits.

Read more from this story HERE.

Welfare Cash for Weed in Colorado

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Photo Credit: Dreamstime

Photo Credit: Dreamstime

For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.

At least 259 times in the first six months of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, beneficiaries used their electronic-benefit transfer (EBT) cards to access public assistance at weed retailers and dispensaries, withdrawing a total of $23,608.53 in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash, NRO’s examination found.

In 2012, the latest fiscal year available, Colorado used $124 million in TANF money from the federal government, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Withdrawals at marijuana establishments represented only a tiny fraction of the more than 500,000 total EBT transactions that have occurred since recreational weed became legal in Colorado on January 1. And it’s impossible to determine how much of that welfare money actually was used to buy pot, given that cash benefits are fungible and some of these establishments also sell groceries.

Nevertheless, welfare withdrawals at weed stores are coming under increasing scrutiny, and Colorado’s legislators and bureaucrats are beginning an effort to restrict abuses.

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Welfare Rolls Have Never Been Higher

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Hope and Change has given way to something new entirely. Call this the “new normal,” I guess. CNS News reports that in 2011, the percentage of Americans on welfare hit its apex (23.1 percent), according to an up-to-date Department of Health and Human Services report released this year. Regrettably, we don’t have any data for subsequent years, but my hunch is that welfare rolls have been soaring to new heights ever since:

More startlingly, the number of children under the age of five who are on welfare is unconscionably high:

Read more from this story HERE.

Why Should I Work When I Can Sit Home and Smoke Weed?

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Photo Credit: Amac

Photo Credit: Amac

A welfare recipient called in to a radio show in Austin, Texas gloating about how she gets to just sit at home and do nothing. She claims she also gets to smoke weed. In addition to her gloating, she got on to the radio hosts’ “moralizing” work ethic. TheDaily Sheeple’s video description quotes this proud parasite:

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Chicago Public Schools Now Phoning Home to Make Sure Kids Are Signed Up for Welfare

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Photo Credit: IJ Review

Photo Credit: IJ Review

Last week, parents of children enrolled in Chicago Public Schools received a recorded phone message encouraging them to sign up for low-cost health insurance and food stamps:

“Currently there are 68,000 children in the Chicago Public Schools that are not enrolled in free or low-cost health insurance and SNAP also knows as food stamps,” the recording, obtained by The Daily Caller, says.

“Your child may be one of them. To find out more about your eligibility call the Children and Family Benefits Unit at 773-553-KIDS.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Couple Who Lived on Yacht Accused of Welfare Fraud (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox News A wealthy Minnesota couple has been charged with taking more than $165,000 in state welfare benefits while living on a yacht.

Court documents say that Andrea and Colin Chisholm illegally received public assistance between 2005 and 2012, despite owning a $1.2 million yacht, driving a $30,000 Lexus and having about $3 million in various bank accounts.

Authorities say the couple lied about where they were living and who they were living with…

Read more from this story HERE.

Louisiana Bans Use of Welfare Benefits for Tattoos, Lingerie, Jewelry

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Photo Credit: APLouisiana welfare recipients will be prohibited from spending the federal assistance at lingerie shops, tattoo parlors, nail salons and jewelry stores, under new limits enacted by state social services officials.

The Department of Children and Family Services announced the emergency regulations late Thursday. They cover the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program — commonly known as welfare benefits — and the Kinship Care Subsidy Program.

Both programs pay cash assistance to low-income families for items like food, clothing and housing.

DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier said the agency decided to ban the use of electronic benefit cards, which work as debit cards, at stores that don’t sell items that are considered basic needs for families.

Read more from this story HERE.