TANF: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
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- Опубликовано: 15 май 2024
- John Oliver discusses TANF - a federal program designed to help families with little to no income - who’s currently receiving these vital funds, who should be receiving them, and what it all has to do with Brett Favre.
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A gem from Reddit: There was a thread asking people “what’s classy if you’re rich but trashy if you’re poor?” and the top reply was “getting government money”.
it's so true
🔥
just ask Elon Musk....
👍
That is so terribly true to Maga American Dreamthink, it made me gasp. Then I remembered what I was commenting on and felt better. Then angry. But better.
My grandfather left his family so that my grandmother could claim aid to dependent children at the height of the great depression after he lost his job on the railroad. He lived in a park and my grandmother would bring him food. The obsession with poor people being lazy while rich people are "hard working" while they rob the system is part of American culture.
I know that was very hard for them. My husband and I almost divorced (on paper) to get help. We barely made it through holding it off until his disability came through.
Okay, so what point are you making? That white people get help from the colonizer government and everyone else should go fuck themselves?
The ones yelling about people on welfare being lazy are the same ones with major tax write offs government subsidies, grants and loans with low interest rates. They like to hog it all for themselves. They hate anyone else getting help.
@@Sweetyhide whoa is you! You're completely missing the point of this video, and are in fact part of the fucking problem
@@Wolf950 So what is the point and why am I part of the problem?
Isn't it ironic that the government is doing so much to ensure women see their pregnancies through to term, but then suddenly turn skeptical and distant when those who are struggling to support their children apply for government aid?
Don’t say ‘the government’ is doing those things when it is almost exclusively the Republican Party that wants to ‘ensure’ that women see pregnancies through to term, and also the Republicans who regularly vote against funding food stamps, school lunches and other types of financial support that directly improves the lives of poor children. It is disappointing that you fail to recognize the right wing agenda….
As a catholic THIS THIS THIS WHY THE HELL IS THE PROLIFE MOVEMENT SO ANTI-CHILDREN AND ANTI -MOTHERS???? FUCKING HYPOCRITES . Daycare is prolife!! Free parenting classes, free therapy, free Healthcare, social security and fucking AFFORDABLE HOUSING ARE ALL PRO LIFE
Aint it funny how that works?
Republicans love the soldier, hate the veteran.
They love the fetus, hate the child.
I take your point, but it's not really ironic, it's just hypocritical (and sadistic). The "pro-life" crowd just want to keep women and poor people under control, even when half of these twisted people are female and poor themselves.
During the Reagan era, I was a self supporting, very poor college student. I managed with the help of food stamps, Pell grants and a work study job. When I was badly injured in a car accident and couldn’t work, I lost my food stamps due to the new requirements that food stamp recipients work. If not for handouts from a friend who worked at the local Jiffy factory, I wouldn’t have had any food to eat. I went on to graduate and have a great career, but those years were truly hellish. Just hearing this story brings back the frustration and anger I felt back then.
That Reagan era that GOP like to slobber over was terrible for not those wealthy or a certain "class" or status. I often hear people growl and screech about people need to work. There are people like you who couldn't work. Also, Reagan severely cut programs in the JTPA, a WORK program and it's affiliate SYETP for 14 - 21 years old to work, get work counseling, and improve school grades - very successful programs. Reagan and company cut those drastically, too.
and so many are happy to ignore that their tax cuts ARE help from the government. to continue their privilege in a certain way.
if a family gets $100 in food stamps somehow that’s so egregious- but $1000 tax reduction because of ownership of a home that the other family can’t buy… that’s perfect. such shit.
Socialist, Cater was better then Reagan and I'm entitled to have food on my table throu the government 🤡🤡🤡🤡.
I've met a couple medical school students who more than qualify for food stamps but can't meet the 15 hour/week work requirements because of, well, being in medical school
You can always rely on John Oliver to make you pissed off about something you didn't even know existed 30 minutes ago.
You didn’t know welfare existed but was hard to get?
@J J maybe he meant how it being used to build volleyball courts
You must have had a nice easy life if you didn't know it existed
John's good like that, tho i imagine much more people have seen or are aware of TANF, it being that thing you always check "no" to when applying to jobs.
i never really knew what it was myself
Good thing that problems in the world is constant. We will never run out things to talk about.
People desperately hold on to the stereotype that poor people are lazy because they don't want to confront the idea that they could fall on hard times due to no fault of their own at any time.
Plus, a lot of poor people are like me, permanently disabled and literally unable to work, so much so that it'd be foolish for any employer to try and hire us. I don't like being poor! I would rather work! But I don't have that choice. Social security disability, medicare, and a housing voucher are keeping me from not dying. Whoever thinks that I don't deserve those things or any other financial aid I might qualify for "because I'm lazy" needs to walk a mile in my shoes. I can still manage to walk a mile on a good day, but it's not fun.
Because they assign value to people based on how hard they work.
The idea that if you don't work, you have no value, is disgusting.
Or the fact that these crappy job don’t pay enough. I don’t care where you live in the US. $9 an hour is not enough to take care of 3 children. And she can’t even qualify for those tiny TANF checks. If they don’t want to hand out the money to help, then they need to force these employees to pay a livable wage.
As a white guy that was seriously injured and had no choice but to apply for welfare in California many years ago, it's ridiculous the way people are treated. I was constantly "tested" as to if I could work. I went to the office of vocational rehabilitation every 2 weeks which for me at the time was extremely difficult, I was receiving 400 per month. Obviously couldn't pay rent, and I was declared unemployable by the state of California, but still couldn't receive social security. Luckily I had friends that helped me immensely, but that whole system is brutal. To this day, I get angry whenever I hear people say "they should just get a job".
The testing is unfortunate, but they have to do something because there are too many who take advantage of the system, whether it's TANF, welfare, disability, or even COVID relief. It's heartbreaking when you hear about how much money went to people who spent it on luxury cars and lavish vacations.
@@leavingitblank9363 can you please explain what corporations and politicians did to prove they were reliable... oh right they didn't yet shamelessly waste while telling other what they can't do.... the rigging is so obvious...
@@leavingitblank9363 turn off Fox News
@@GentlemanNietzsche Turn on ANY news. Do try to keep up.
@@leavingitblank9363 Lol you think welfare allows people to buy luxury cars and vacations. No, seriously, lol.
You need to watch the video to see who the real thieves are and it's not poor people. It's rich colleges and rich guys like Bret Favre.
In 2007 in Kansas it was so almost impossible to get any TANF. Just to get $250 a month for a family of 3, they wanted us to fill out 20 job applications a week. We were on food stamps for a few months, just like most families who get benefits. It was temporary, but ended up having to reuse diapers because SNAP doesn’t cover anything but food.
Nobody should have to live that way. This country is basically just a Third World country with a snappy theme song.
Lol.smh. right.
A comparable programme for the Netherlands allows you to get up to 70% of your former salary, and I think a couple of job applications a week. The length of time you qualify depends on total time worked. A much more humane programme for those in between jobs with financial obligations and dependents
Last I knew the Netherlands weren't taking US refugees and the US doesn't give a shit what the Netherlands are doing "cuz thur commeez" (or something).
I'm a retired Income Maintenance Caseworker and can tell you that TANF, SNAP, Cash Assistance is supplemental only, it's not livable. The ridiculous questions that are asked and requirements for mere chump change is abhorrent. But, when it comes time to finance a "war", there are no applications and the paper "money" flows like water.
@Repent and believe in Jesus Christ I hope you don't consider Donald Trump a fine Christian like some people, he is anything but. He is even on camera twice saying he has never asked God for forgiveness. By his own admission he is no Christian but he is too stupid to know that.
I had to give up on the idea of getting married because I would have lost my disabled son's medicare. I lost TANF because my son's father paid $40 a week to help out. I refused a raise because I would have lost my disabled son's state sponsored medical. The largest misunderstood thing about welfare is that recipients don't work. We work, but wages are so low we still qualify. Those days are long behind us, but all this happened after 4 years in the Army. It was a wild fight that kept me single, afraid to make more than $9 an hour and penalized for getting $40 a week in support. And this was in Tennessee!! Those bastards, $790 million dollars???
The system discourages getting ahead. You get more income but not enough to really elevate you and the help goes away potentially putting you in a worse situation. My mother complained about this awful dichotomy all the time. If you got ahead, you had to hide it.
Republicans are evil.
@miketomlindiversityhire2572you tried.
It's clear you're alone and childless.
Do yourself a favor, getting married is overrated.
@Mike Tomlin= diversity hire Wherever you pull this 20 an hour on a standard work week is 800 a week or 3,200 before taxes apply. Average rent in Tennessee for Memphis is 1,000, Chattanooga is 1,100, Nashville is 1,300, and Knoxville is 1,100. So after you hopefully luck out and qualify to get an apartment in 1 of those 4 cities in Tenessee you have to never miss more than a week of work due injury or sickness. You have around 1,500(after taxes and rent) to pay for utilities, car payments/public transportation, groccery needs, and child care at minimum. So you expect a parent to live on a razor's edge working at minimum 40 hours a week, with a job that has no upward mobility, no realistic chance at a raise for the next few years, saving almost nothing, as the cost of living keeps increasing, while also raising a child?
Also, while I'm no fan of Mike Tomlin's schemes(with or without assistants/coordinators) equating him to a diversity hire instead of a 'great defensive coach with subpar offensive schemes' (aka what he is) is gross.
“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor” ― Voltaire
Hence the push to cut education and force people to birth more babies.
Voltaire was a dumbass
Edit: imagine everyone who was poor was magically not poor. How would that impact the top 1%, 5%, or top 50%. It wouldn't. People who are poor don't have money to add into the systems that the rich benefit from. In fact it is the exact opposite.
Wellfare systems depend on the abundant supply of the rich. Instead of blindly reciting quotes, try thinking about them even a little bit.
Exactly
French royalty found out how that cam backfire.
Time to show the rich that again.
Why you think they want to force people to have birth? Guaranteed poor people.
I tried to apply for aid in CA and was told that the maximum income for a single mother with two children is $1073. My rent alone is $2350. I work 40 hours a week and I’m hanging on by my fingernails. I don’t qualify for any help. This is so scary.
Yep.
I applied for aid in Florida when I was a single mom in college there, and was told that my student loans counted as income, so I was denied.
I used to determine eligibility for people and how often it fell short was not only horrifying, but I spent more than a few days crying in my cubicle when it inevitably became “how do I make too much money.”
For reference, a single parent can’t make more than $400 a month to get TANF. Rent here is 1500 for a one bedroom. These same people end up hating and distrusting us (or even kill us) because our representatives spend this money however they want.
That threshold requires either being paid less than the federal minimum wage or working for effectively no more than _55 hours_ in a month at that rate. (For clarity, the minimum wage in the US is $7.25/hour. At an assumed 40 hours per week over four weeks, $400/month would only be $2.50/hour, while the aforementioned minimum means you're practically unemployed.)
@@sonicboy678 That sounds like minimum wage back in the 50s imo.
@@crushedorchids But now we live in a world where politicians are attacking access to both abortion care & contraceptives. The Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Comstock Laws (laws preventing the sale & distribution of birth control of any kind) was on the same basis as the original Roe v. Wade ruling. Now, with the mifepristone ruling, republican judges are effectively trying to reinstate the Comstock laws. What will you do when moving condoms, birth control pills, and other contraceptives across state lines becomes illegal? Does your state have a single place that manufactures any of these contraceptives? Probably not.
@@crushedorchids You... you realize that UBI literally has *universal* in the name, right? It's not UBI if it's means-tested.
And I'm not sure discouraging births in a country that is already below replacement rate is really the right call for capitalism...
Not to mention the fact that singling out women is ridiculous, as if they singlehandedly undergo mitosis and spawn a child. Blaming a single mother for 'choosing the wrong guy' or something is unhinged.
Besides which, welfare being shitty especially for impoverished single family households hasn't improved outcomes in the several decades since Reagan et al, what makes you think being even more stingy would change that? Conversely, most other 1st world nations have less restrictive / more accessible benefits which cover more essential areas including housing, healthcare, childcare, food, and education, and in turn see far more success at lifting families out of poverty regardless of when and with whom recipients have children. Why reinvent the wheel?
@@crushedorchids yeah if only women could choose what to do with their bodies....and decide for themselves when to have children......instead of it being forced upon them...
okay but jokes aside, abortion bans and enforcing poverty is not a mistake and it's hardly "the woman" 's fault for having a baby she can't afford, though i agree many people actively choose to have children before they're ready. a shocking lack of sex education leads to unexpected pregnancies, abortion bans mean those unexpected pregnancies must be seen to term even if it puts the family into poverty or the fetus isn't viable (I've read stories of women being forced to carry a fetus to term that was determined at 6 months to not be "compatible with life" and the baby died four days after being born, the mother ofc stuck with all the medical bills from a full pregnancy). more poor people means more petty crimes which means more incarceration, and private prisons are essentially vessels for modern day slavery. if they can lock you up p much just for being poor, then keeping you poor means more free labor for the upper class so the rich get richer!
it's kinda like climate change - big corporations want you to think that you as an individual should be doing more to help the environment while Coca Cola is the #1 plastic polluter on the planet. when we accuse and turn on each other, rich people and big corporations continue exploiting us all equally
Tennessee: "We need to protect our children by banning drag shows!"
Also Tennessee: **Sitting on $790 million that could help children hoping no one finds out**
Yup from the so-called "Save the children" crowd.
Honestly, what so expect from a corrupt republikkkan party? 🤷🏻♀️
That’s why some of the smart Tennesseans leave.
Because aperantly those things are related somehow
@@saxyrep1 imagine thinking being pro children is a bad thing 😂😂😂
As a Dutch person I was so shocked when I moved to the States.
The US is the biggest economy on the planet, yet there is such an incredible amount of poverty, with basically no substantial social safety net.
It was a real culture shock. The states only is the greatest place on earth if you’re upper class, otherwise I’d much rather be in a place like the Netherlands.
when I visited the states, I've noticed a correlation between poverty and the density of American flags.
I mean... that is kinda what made them the biggest economy on the planet, exploiting labor and giving nothing to the people. that and size and "diplomatic" power. the problem is that their economic power is in the hand of few.
While President, Donald Trump complained about Immigrants and asked; "How come we don't get any immigrants from Norway?" Well Donald, Norway is a Social Democracy.
Goedendag! As an American in The Netherlands, I agree it’s much more efficient here. I still want to go back to the US. Mostly because of the variety of nature and climates. I also think it’s generally hard to be away from home.
Maybe we can switch lol
@@MrSupaflyjr92 You are not wrong, the nature and climate in the Netherlands can be summed up as 95% grass, ducks and rain. (A Dutch person who would live in the US if she was financially secure enough)
I was granted food stamps in north Carolina, because I am diabetic and couldn't afford my meds, food, and doctor's visits. After a year and a half I got a letter from dhhs saying that I was never supposed to get any kind of help at all. Over the next several years I had to repay every penny I was given in assistance. I still can't afford my insulin, food, and doctor's visits. Haven't bothered trying to get any kind of help since.
Smh. I'm sorry about that. Our country is crazy.
I'm sorry the system acted on the pretense of helping and only ended up putting you through more hardship. I hope you're able to have access to the $30 insulin that that manufacturer is offering! The cost and accessibility of insulin has been despicably exploitative in this country. I hope in the future there's drastic reform to change that.
i'm so sorry. if i could afford to help you buy your insulin, i would. it's not fair.
Same. I'm type 1, and I got on food stamps after being fired from my job for being in the hospital too long. I had to fill out tons of applications every week, for only $30 worth of food stamps. A local church bought insulin for me, thankfully, or I'd be dead. I finally got on disability, which I had applied for almost two years before I was fired. I had been in and out of the hospital all the time, basically dying, because I was trying to work while still not being able to afford enough insulin and medical supplies. My A1C was 14 the whole time. So I finally applied for disability, and hoped for the best. I did almost die getting there, but once I got on disability, keeping food stamps was actually easier. They gave me way more and I didn't have to fill out applications. And I finally got insurance and could go to a doctor. If healthcare was free, and you didn't have to jump through hoops for food stamps, I would have had enough assistance to never have to be on disability. I could have had enough medicine to actually be healthy enough to keep working. But no, instead I became so sick, I became too blind to drive, and damaged my organs and body so much, I will never be able to work again. The stigma around getting assistance was so bad though, I let myself suffer horribly before I finally gave in and started applying for stuff.
@@dpo2078 The only thing that sucks about the $30 insulin, is that insulins are different, and only certain ones are $30. Different diabetics need different insulins. You can use a cheaper one, but it won't keep your blood sugar under control, you'll still be pretty sick, but it's better than nothing. I had to have Tresiba specifically, and luckily I have insurance, because it's not one of the ones covered under that law. Before insurance, I had to take Walmart insulin. I was in the hospital a lot, in DKA. It just didn't work. Hopefully they come out with more generics covered under the $30 law, so diabetics can get the insulin that actually works for them.
Finding out you were kicked off of government assistance while you were in a Coma has to be one of the worst things to happen to you! As someone who lost their job after coming out of the hospital after getting brain surgery, I Sympathize with her!
In the 70s, my Mother received food stamps and a welfare (TANF) check each month. She had 3 young children including me, the youngest.
She wanted to take accounting classes, but every time she signed up, they stopped payments. She finally went into the office, with 5 year old me in tow, and yelled "You just don't want me to be able to get off this assistance and have a better job than you!"
We were on it for less than 2 years, and she retired as Risk Manager for the large city we lived in.
I'm so proud of my Mom.
All moms deserves an award !
@@Pandemonis eh, all good mothers and fathers. Unfortunately there are some outright abusive parents out there, including sexually abusive parents (sexually abusive mothers unfortunately exist).
They don't want you off of it.
Alternate reason: they didn't want her to take accounting and learn how they were messing around with the books and stealing most of the money
TANF started in 1997, not the 70s. Did she receive AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children)?
My husband and I were able to get emergency assistance once. This was back in 2010. We got completely screwed by the great recession. I lost my job when the media industry collapsed. We had done everything you're supposed to. Had savings for six months of expenses, cut unnecessary spending, treated looking for work like a job. We did everything we were supposed and still wound up having to move in with my parents.
Two years later, we're both working as close to full time as you can get at Walmart and still had to choose between food and rent. We were going to the food bank. We had to drain every single account we had. We were literally down to using loose change. THAT'S when we got emergency assistance. Even in a blue state like Illinois. We got a single month. Which was enough to survive. But it was so degrading applying and literally begging for help.
13 years later, I'm doing okay. My husband passed away and I'm pretty sure the fact we couldn't afford medical care for so long contributed to it. But I do have a good job and now own my own home. But I still remember what it was like to struggle like that and how people kept making it feel like it was our fault. What this country does to its poor is a crime.
I hope you are healing well 💛
JC I’m so sorry you had to endure this! We should not accept as the richest country in the history of the world that we can not take care of those who need it most. So sorry for the loss of your husband.
More people like yourseld need to speak up!
So sorry 😢for your loss
I think about situations like yours whenever someone beats their chest and proudly proclaims that the United States is the greatest country in the world.
I'm grateful I live in The Netherlands. I live on my own and became dependent on welfare from my local government. The people at the department were very supportive and helped me every which way I could possibly need. After exactly a year I found my dreamjob, thanks to their assistance in applying for it, and I was no longer dependent.
👍🦊👍
Thank you for posting this. I'm 73, live in the U.S. and think there's lots The Netherlands do that is more sensible than how we do the same things.
@@LoveMusic-pd5iz Thank you for your response.
The Netherlands is much better but still not all that good on this front. I'd say the Dutch version is bijstand, which also has some ridiculous hurdles to apply. I remember being in it at one point. They can literally visit your home unannounced to make sure nobody else lives there who could also have an income, they check all your bank records for several years back which is a massive invasion of privacy, and so on. There was this woman who was gifted some groceries regularly (I don't remember exactly by whom, could be a neighbour or family member) and because the state counted that as extra income she had to pay back thousands of euros of welfare money to the government. There are also similar requirements while you're in the program such as sending plenty of job applications and going to training to improve your job application skills. And to top it all off, every single correspondence you receive from the government about it comes with big warnings that if you don't do everything correctly they can kick you off the program. I wouldn't say bijstand has the level of abuse and just spending it on nonsense that TANF has, but the government very much treats recepients with a very hostile and paranoid attitude, constantly giving you the feeling that they see you as a very lazy scumbag who will defraud the system the moment they're not watching you or haven't warned you in a letter.
@@bananatree2527 I don't understand why you are criticizing the requirements when you are getting a free handout and support to find a paying job suiting the skills you have.
It is completely justified to demand your efforts and honesty about your living situation and financials. You can't expect to receive income for doing nothing and not being open about your situation.
By the way, the woman you mentioned who received groceries was also driving a mid-to-high range car. That's not the kind of person Bijstand is for.
Welfare to work programs have always pissed me off. They want you to work to take you out of the system, but low paying jobs don’t help you either. If you’re not born rich in this country, you have to fight for everything. It’s exhausting and the rich want to keep us exhausted so they can keep counting their money.
Exactly
Because poor people won't work for slave wages if they have government benefits.
My mom got attacked buying groceries with food stamps after my brothers and I bought her a nice purse for her birthday. A guy and his wife attacked my mom buying groceries because she had too nice of a purse for food stamps. My mom had one, nice, quality thing and was physically attacked because she was using food stamps to buy food.
That is so messed up… Do you mind sharing the state / region of the U.S.? Were there cameras &/or witnesses who saw the attacker? Was he/she charged for the physical assault?
@@x77punk77x Just call them a liar like you clearly want to, coward.
@@x77punk77x what state does that sort of thing happen? Here is a list: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, California, Delaware, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia...you can guess the other 40 on the list.
Screw those horrible people! Those people are The ones I truly hate the most. Mind your damn business everyone has a story and doesn’t owe anyone an explanation on their life.
Is it me or the GOP is ruining American Government?
I make $21 an hour and don’t have kids, and am scraping by. How in the FUCK is a mother of 3 who makes $9 an hour not qualify for government aid??? I am so beyond taken aback by that one, holy shit, I hope her and anyone in similar circumstances gets the help they need 😢💔
Her and those kids deserve a better financial situation fr
How many hours per week do you work and what's the cost of living where you are?
if youre making 21 and are barely scraping by thats a you problem tbh
Basic wage growth, per the bureau of labor and statistics, grew 240%+ from 1940-1980 under strong labor representation. Since 1981, with the tech-sector boom, companies shipping labor overseas and the Communist propaganda about labor representation in full swing, *basic wage growth stalled at 5.5% from 1981-2021.*
@@verde7595 stop shaming others that's the problem they want us attacking each other when it's them that's the problem
@@verde7595 Not at all. It depends on where you live. Some states are incredibly expensive to live in, and no, it's not so easy as "Oh, just move somewhere else." The reality is, in many places, 20 dollars isn't enough to live by. Where I live, the average rend for a single bedroom apartment is 1600-2100 a month. Yeah, a month. The suggested pay to live comfortably in my area is around 41 dollars an hour so yes, 21 an hour is well below the livable wage.
A friend told me that she couldn’t attend college full time or she’d lose her TANF funds so they’re not interested in u finding a career. Plus she couldn’t let them find out that the father of her kids loved at home. So they’re not interested in all families, just certain families
So she could have still went to college part time. Seems like the desire to get ahead wasn't there. Then add to it lying about the baby daddy living with her. That's the problem I have with a majority of the welfare recepients. They make a mistake and have a child. It can happen. But they then continue to make the same mistake over and over and expect society to take care of them........
The wealthy can afford to sleep around because they don't depend on public assistance.
The poor need to have good moral compass and practice it. To escape poverty, don't sleep around, don't sow wild oats, hold oneself to high moral standard and focus on education. Finish high school, go to college part-time while working. After getting the college education, get a decent job. Get married and stay married before having children. Children in stable family with 2 solid parents are more likely to become well-adjusted stable adults.
@Comedic Farce that's messed up
@@comedicfarce4132 no.
@@carlbrenda6518be quiet about just-world fallacy.
"This country is basically just a Third World country with a snappy theme song." Very well said 🏆
Lol
And great PR in the form of Hollywood movies.
That want every other country to be like it. If Canada become more like the US, I'm moving to Europe.
The US is the monkey with a machine gun of the Earth
I volunteered at a local food bank on the phones registering parents for the WIC program. I cannot convey just how embarrassed and frustrated the individuals calling in to get help were. It was absolutely heartbreaking. No one WANTS to be on any assistance program. I assured them I was getting them registered only to help and zero judgement was attached: everyone has their own story. I volunteered for two years for only a couple hours a week and spoke with hundreds of people. There was only one person I spoke with who was super rude and demanded assistance. Everyone else did not want to be calling in! Anyone saying poor people are just looking for handouts has never actually spoken to people and need to gain a little humanity.
I never got TANF, but I can remember applying for SNAP and just apologizing over and over...The shame for being poor and needing help is overwhelming in this country.
@Tinil0 Same here. I got laid off at 7 mos pregnant, by which time I was walking with a cane because of excruciating sciatica. In Kansas, to stay on unemployment and/or SNAP, you have to submit at least two job applications PER WEEK. I remember the social worker explaining this, and asking "hon, what are you gonna do?" And all I could do was smile and say, "I don't know".
@@Tinil0 It's not even ADEQUATE help. I hope they talk about SSI soon.
@@kitcoffey7194 Oh man, yeah, what an absolute clusterfuck. I actually am disabled too, but if you don't have the work credits for SSDI SSI is an absolute joke. They really, really don't care about disabled people unless you were a good worker bee. You literally cannot survive on SSI...
Using the benefits is somehow more embarrassing than applying for them. Whenever I would go to Wal-Mart, with my baby, I would wear a fake wedding ring, so the cashiers wouldn't make cruel comments about me being unwed. It was horrible.
My dad walked out when I was 4 leaving my mom with no home and 3 kids. We were on welfare, which was then taken away after she bought a used car (with loaned money) for 3000$ to bring us to school and so that she could get a job. The welfare office essentially said "well if you can afford a car you aren't struggling" we lived on eggs and rice that year.
Dear lord! I think these ppl get off on cruelty.
the fact that your government didnt care about u at all while all politicians think social-democracy is the devil... USA doesnt stop to amaze, especially stupid people
Same thing happened to us. My kids lived on potatoes and onions
Love eggs and rice
The “assets totaling $2000” clause is such utter bullshit.
After husband/dad abandoned us I had to attend a jobs plus program, a program amazingly out of touch and condescending. It showed my group how to dress for an interview with clothes from the fifties, told us we had to be clean and neat, and gave us two weeks to fill out 20 applications, none of which could be online, which is the only way to apply for most jobs.
That's cause these programs are made by public sector people who have 0 experience in the real world
@@nifralo2752wow.
horrifying -- for the county food stamp/general assistance (cash assistance to single adults with no children -- a whopping $140.00, around 2004), i also had to participate in a "work activity," which was administered by the state -- we all had to take a multiple choice test that, for me, seemed incredibly easy -- but when the "instructor" was looking at my results, my score was just shy of failing -- i asked her, did i really do that badly? then she looked again and said, "Oh! I held up the grid wrong!" and laughed (instead of actually looking at answers, there was some stupid grid that she had to place over each participant's test) -- then she said, "Oh, you're a college graduate! You did not even have to take this test!" again giggling -- there was another young woman in the group, also a college graduate and also needlessly taking that test -- i was sickened, thinking of how many other people she must have screwed up, and i did not even want to think about, as a state employee, how much she was being paid to do so
The twist on the narrative even worked on those who needed it. My grandmother raised 5 kids while working on her GED and working as the secretary to the police chief after divorcing her abusive husband (who never paid child support) and got welfare to keep afloat but now my relatives ignore that and claim welfare users are lazy!
Yep.
It's called survivorship bias.
Completely ridiculous! I’m sorry.
I work as a TANF caseworker and I fully agree with everything said here. The entire program needs an overhaul.
Democrats controlled the House, Senate and Presidency the last two years, why didn't they fix it?
My man 😉
agreed, they should fire you.
@@seanb9907 lol?
@@seanb9907 👈 Erectile dysfunction makes you petty.
“Ronald Reagan made it worse.”
That one line perfectly describes all of this country’s problems.
Ronnie boy outside of trump was the worst President in my lifetime and I am 74. He should have been impeached for the Iran-Contra affair. Smoke and mirrors was Regan's stock and trade. What do you call someone who sells weapons to our enemy? I call it treason or a Reagan job.
Bullshit
Facts
Yup. Now imagine that an entire political party in a bipartisan system bases it's entire identity and policy on trying to emulate Reagan. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine: this nightmare is real.
Dude the more I learn about US history the more I realize that Reagan and Nixon (to a lesser extent) are responsible for a lot of the shit we're dealing with right now.
Thanks for highlighting this story. As a Mississippian, it’s amazing how our leaders look at defrauding this agency. It is wild. And there is no in-state accountability for the elected officials who pushed these actions which means the federal govt has to do the right thing. I hope that my fellow citizens keeps this in mind when we go to the polls this fall. It’s appalling & quite frankly sad
Yes ! And Tate Reeves had his hand in the jar just like Phil did , that's why nothing happens
@@heritagelabrador3840 Damn Tater the Crook!
@@heritagelabrador3840 yep smh lol
Then you see how much taxpayer money is going into that stupid vanity book Tater's wife got published. It's appalling
If you're honest with yourself, there are accountability problems with the system and those on welfare indefinitely. Its a completely broken system.
This hits home for me My grandmother has Parkinson’s she can’t walk now. She applied for Medicaid and was denied. She couldn’t afford vital medicine that may have helped her keep walking. Her husband committed suicide and she is very old. I live in Hattiesburg the town of Brett’s alma mater. I understand that this is just a relatively obscure anecdote but I thought it was relevant.
When I lived in Louisiana, I had a friend who had really bad Chron’s disease. She would get sick, spend a week or two in the hospital, go back to work, and within a short time, get sick again, and go back to the hospital. She had a young teenage son also, and was divorced.
When she tried to get benefits, they told her that she would have to stop working for a year before she could qualify. Now…how was she supposed to do that?
It’s just ridiculous!
My dad has Parkinson’s. Between his tremors and the hallucinations, there is exactly not one place he should be but at home. I’m sorry for you and your grandmother.
My political awakening happened in a welfare office at 25 with two kids and an abusive ex husband who had frozen me out of our joint accounts.. it was the moment I realized that the right had lied about generous welfare benefits for mothers in a rough spot.. it doesn’t exist.. getting any help meant I had to do full time welfare school (lol) and have my small kids in daycare.. luckily I’m middle class and it was only a short lesson on how awful America is and it worked out for me financially without any help from the state. It did lead me to becoming a leftist and realizing the right really doesn’t care if kids go hungry they want to force women and children to stay with abusive men.
Forcing women while saying it's best for them. Yep. And there are people who still vote for them.
I live in the 2nd most leftist state with leftists at every level of government and I earn 1/3 of the poverty line and I don’t qualify for tanf or snap for that matter so I don’t think the left cares anymore than the right. They pretend they do on shows like this and in speeches but when they have full governmental control they still only have pretty words.
Same goes for men only worse because men are rarely looked at as victims, and family courts are stacked in favor of the mother (at least in my state). It was heart wrenching to watch my friend lose his house, car, and most of his paycheck, all because she had a better lawyer and knew how to pull those "I am just an innocent women" shenanigans.
@@darthclide divorce sucks.. it’s like the system is set up to drive the divorced parties to hate each other when they still have kids and have to learn to co parent.. the entire system should be set up to make it as easy as possible for the family to go on in separate directions without creating more animosity and anger.. the current situation just adds gas to fires.
@@darthclide "same goes for men only worse"
... look, let's not compare suffering here. Try to keep those phrases out, it creates division rather than fostering mutual support. You probably didn't mean to, but on sensitive topics such phrases can really set off a fire...
Yep my mom tried to apply for TANF when I was younger, but she was a single mom and they wanted to track down my dad before giving her money. Conveniently for them, they don't consider the possibilities of abusive partners, and how contacting my dad would have put the both of us at risk for retaliation.
They do ask you now if you're worried about abuse or have been abused by the absent parent.
@@pennyproud1621 Glad things have changed a bit. If only that concern existed when I was a child, then maybe I wouldn’t have had to languish in poverty for most of my life.
@James Thomas Civilians abusing welfare programs are extremely rare, and it’s extremely difficult to accomplish. The fact of the matter is that you don’t know every detail of your neighbors’ lives, or how they may or may not qualify for benefits. You’re making an assumption. Regardless, individual ‘theft’ of public money always pales in comparison to widespread, systemic corruption by politicians. At most, your neighbors are taking a few hundred or thousand dollars per year. Meanwhile states have the ability to withhold millions or even billions of dollars. We have to focus our priorities.
They did the same when my mom would try to apply. She gathered up myself and 2 sisters, we left in the middle of the night while he was at his job. We moved out of state to be closer to my mom's side of the family and were all sharing a bed with my grandma in a one bedroom apartment she lived in thanks to her retirement and social security. We would share a package of top ramen between all of us for dinner every night, and they claimed that they needed to track down my father and have him "help out". They finally found him when he got a job 14 years later. He had apparently become homeless at some point and then proceeded to spend the rest of his life bouncing between being homeless and getting his veteran benefits to pay for housing. But ya, abusive guy who has never actually held down a job or home and self medicates his mental illnesses with alcohol is absolutely going to somehow give us the money we need to meet our basic necessities while still keeping a safe distance...😑
These are the same states with the highest prison populations, especially minorities.
This happened to me in West Virginia. After a divorce, I was a single mother of two and worked a job that was just spare money for the marriage. It was not enough to sustain us temporarily. I applied to get help, and was told I made to much money. I was not receiving child support yet also. I could not understand how I made to much! Like how in the world could a single person, earning minimum wage with mortgage and two children be making to much money? Especially when you need to work to qualify! What the heck?????
Many years ago, I worked with a woman who got divorced, with 3 kids (although one was from a prior relationship - I don't think they were ever married - and was an adult) and applied for aid because she knew she was never going to get any child support. (I didn't ask why, and she never told me, but I believe he went to prison.) Anyway, they said she made too much money, and she replied, "I bet if I was black, it would be a whole 'nother story." Yeah, I didn't work there very long, although for other reasons.
working full time at minimum wage is probably too much.
maybe if you work part time.
of course, I know you also have kids to support.
you probably were not making enough to support both you and your kids.
that said, I don't think that is what we the people (who voted for representative in office) and by extension the government consider "poor" enough.
16:20
The truly perverse and sad part about this, is West Virginia is actually pretty generous, relatively (and I cannot emphasize relatively enough) speaking when it comes to their TANF programs. Among other things, they also use TANF funds to provide their school clothing allowance every year, the *only* state in the nation to provide such a program every year.
WV also only (“only”) had $110 million in stockpiled TANF funds in 2022, but that’s only about 2% of the nationwide $5.2 billion stockpile.
Of course, none of this changes that your family wasn’t able to get the help you needed, I’m just offering some perspective on how kafkaesque the welfare system in this country is.
That's the point.
The reason we don't have robust welfare support programs is because poor people won't work for slave wages if they have government benefits.
Noone would work shitty minimum wage jobs.
This is income bigotry by state governments who want to use Federal grants for social engineering,as they try to make the lives of the poor so intolerable they”ll move to another state or commit suicide.
The woman in a coma reminded me of how I was diagnosed with severe and chronic pneumonia and I applied for disability and was denied for missing an appointment that I missed because I was in the hospital with pneumonia.
I replied and after 9 months got it immediately after a disability Dr saw my lungs. My check was a couple of hundred dollars less because my neighbors, friends and even strangers (I was basically reduced to panhandling while unable to have access to treatment and oxygen) so if not for an asthmatic friend giving me inhalers and my mom's oxygen concentrator and leftover nebulizer medicine I wouldn't have stood a chance and was hospitalized monthly (sometimes twice).
I was told had I been receiving government food stamp assistance my monthly check would have been more but, because I was receiving the aformentioned assistance it was considered assistance! How backwards is this countries logic when it comes to the most vulnerable in our society.
It's a bit of a digression but, I should have starved or suffocated due to how little the government cares about people who have a hard time just staying alive.
It's just-world fallacy.
It's just-world fallacy.
About a decade ago I received TANF in CO. It was the most dehumanizing, soul-crushing and infuriating disaster of a system I’ve ever seen. The system is designed to wreck you.
Yes
After leaving a physically & financially abusive partner, I was on TANF in Missouri for just 1 year. It was incredibly helpful to get me back on my feet, until they told me I had to work, unpaid, at Goodwill to continue receiving it. The amount I got wasn't enough to cover childcare or transportation costs while I volunteered, and I had to decline & lose the benefit. If I didn't have a family members garage to live in while I looked for work, I would have become homeless & lost my child.
I can't imagine how they expect people in hardship with no family support to survive on this system. This is why there are so many children in abusive foster homes for no good reason - the family is just poor & the taxes they've paid into their whole life act as a personal piggy bank for the rich, rather than the safety net it should be.
Goodwill is horrible. I worked at one in Michigan, and I was suppose to get at least part-time (20-32 hours/week), but some weeks I would get as few as 8 hours! Why? Goodwill uses the community for free labor: "volunteers" from the welfare work programs, court ordered community service, and job training programs for the disabled. Why pay employees when they can get free labor? I ended up loosing the job due to illness (only full-time employees get health care, and Goodwill didn't need full-timeemployees). So, I ended up in a work program, where to get $300/month in cash assistance, I would have to work at Goodwill...for about 40 hours a week. There are jobs available, but greedy companies like Goodwill figured out how to get free labor:(
And all the while, Goodwill gets filthy rich - free goods, free labour = $$$$. Sad and pathetic.
@@wendyhanrahan5828 amen
That's horrifying. I was recently cued of cancer and applying for and receiving State Disability Insurance, which was supposed to be 55% of my salary but didn't even come close to that amount. I spent 15-20 hours a week for most of the time I was on chemo trying to ensure that I would be paid. They still owe me for the first month I was out of work and in the hospital. Oddly enough that amount is identical to the amount I am behind on rent. And that 15-20 hours doesn't include the amount of time on the phone. I never got put on hold until I'd hit redial a minimum of 30 times. One day I called 106 times. It was nearly a full time job navigating the SDI labyrinth. And I thought I had it bad. The people who work for the offices that handle cases like yours and mine are the absolute worst people on the planet
“I don’t know how the government expects me to…” THEY DON’T. They. Don’t.
We need Katie Porter, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Bernie Sanders to expose this abuse and propose solutions to Congress. Seriously, the corruption has to stop. We have to vote into office more people dedicated to working FOR the good of the people, not crooks and corporations.
Bernie Sanders lives in the Whitest State in the Country and has SEVERAL Mansions in really expensive areas.
Meanwhile he tells Joe Blow the Carpenter that he needs to allow a 1000 immigrants to come live in his 1200 people strong hick town and tells him he is Evil if he buys an AR15 to keep his daughter safe from the Cartel members who sneaked in and settled on the edge of town.
Real hero that Bernie.
"You shouldn't live off the government" says the politicians arguing for more tax breaks for the wealthy population
Because politicians believe rich people deserve government help, not the poor.
It's no surprise why John and his team win awards every year the amount of analysis in this show is so insightful.
And it makes you wonder why regulatory agencies can't seem to do the same.
@@patmaurer8541 because something, something, Hunter Biden's labtop.
True im a media critical far leftist and John and the team are really good for the most part
This is straight to the point
I am a TANF success story. My family and I were so poor but pulled ourselves up and started our own business. It makes me so mad that states refuse to help their poor.
i wonder as business owner if you complain about the taxes you pay. thats why.
They worked hard to make them poor.
@diegojines-us9pc I wonder, as a business owner, if he pays his employees pauper's wages.
@@diegojines-us9pc Tax money goes to wars and oil companies, no one cares
Tax money goes to poor people, suddenly a moral panic
I wonder why people are inventing scenarios about someone they don't know.
After a few years working at a shelter I realize that many people start life far behind others due to lack of resources and support. Some people are going to spend their whole lives trying to catch up and remaining behind. They don’t have stable primary caregivers. They don’t have anyone to lean on. No way of getting a good education, food, clothes, etc. So they can’t get good jobs, good incomes, none of that. They are always stuck in a cycle of poverty with little to no way out.
I will never get over how well done this show is! The research, writing, and presentation...John Oliver's rage feeds my soul!
as a local Mississippian, Thank you for bringing up and briefly covering the Favre scandal. I feel like around here, it's been mostly swept under the rug.
Yeah because the state governor was involved in this. Gotta keep any spotlight she'd on this issue focused on favre and not the rampantly corrupt system that creates these situations. If we focused on that we might actually be able to fix something. What a laughable notion
I am sure it is the tip of the iceberg... check politicians families and I bet you find 10X as much going to them...
In PA, the TANF benefit for a family of three with no other income used to be $403.00 per month. That was in 1999 when I started working for the agency. Today, in 2023, the TANF benefit for a family of three with no other income is... wait for it... $403.00 per month. Think of how little $403.00 could get you in 1999, and now think about how much less it gets you today.
Just sad…
If the poor in America, whose ranks are swelling every day, should ever wake up and realize they are treated worse than DOGS for the benefit of the rich, I hope their response is to burn this rotten, inhuman capitalist system down to the ground.
TANF stands for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. How does the shrinking value of the benefit due to inflation not fit the deffinition of temporary? Can you call a program that is still important after 30 years temporary? What better way to make a government program temporary than allowing it to fade into obsolescence until it ends as a budget cut?
Also $403 is a lot of money for someone who has no rent, no utilities, no car payment, and no insurance because if they could afford all these things, then they wouldn't be below the poverty level. It's not meant for people to live on but to soften their financial burdens in between jobs, a span of time which is also supposed to be temporary.
I just bought a weeks worth of groceries for myself, a weeks worth, and it was over $100, for one person. Also, what if the family applying for this support actually does have obligations for rent, utilities, water, trash, some old car that gets crap gas mileage ...i just filled my tank, $45 every 4-6 days depending on how much i work. And i get on average 37 mpg! What if your car only gets 23?
Also, your observation on the nature of or intention of the program would feel stronger to me if it weren't for the point of the show being how this money is actually being used.
The "Temporary" doesn't apply to the program itself, which is supposed to be unending. Instead, the "Temporary" here means that the assistance provided to a family is temporary in nature. That is, the funding would be provided until the family can afford to stand on their own without government help.
I lost my job and didn't have savings or an income 11 years ago in Arizona. It was extremely difficult to get food stamps and I had to apply to jobs every week. The phone line to call to renew benefits often didn't work. It was a nightmare. This country is damaged in a way that needs to be remedied from it's core.
Yep
I work in social services. TANF has been made nearly impossible to get on purpose.
That's messed up.
@@scifirealism5943 I agree. With SNAP and TANF they count your vehicle against you, your home, your savings and checking against you when you apply.
Yup so it can go where it's not actually needed
@@t.h.8475the real reason politicians hate welfare is because poor people won't work for slave wages if they have government benefits.
Welfare pays more than minimum wage work, so politicians restrict welfare.
As a social worker who often spends my time trying to help young mothers who can't work to navigate the complicated process of applying for governmental aid and assistance, I can tell you that they don't make it easy, often get kicked off it for silly reasons, and are barely surviving if they get it. Not to mention the fact that they need me, competent paid adult support, to wade through the bureaucrat bullsh*t in hopes that they MIGHT get a little money to survive. The system is broken and I am happy John is exposing it.
so basically saying one of the new parents need to be a competent adult. there is a problem with 2nd gen. they never had one to show them what that was.
@Diego Jones No, she is saying that the system is so broken that it leaves parents as weak as children as it funds volleyball courts. You child.
I think we need a universal basic income.
@@diegojines-us9pc what does being a competent adult entail? I would argue that your comment doesn't sound much like something that a competent adult would say.
Here's why; in the original comment "competent paid adult support" meants that OP is competent at their job of being support and helping people through the bureaucrat bs.
Being competent at parenting does not correlate to being competent at going through bureaucrat bs that is specifically set up to be terribly difficult for those who don't have experience in it.
The same kind of thing happens in education. If a family already has the ability to navigate a complex bureaucracy, then they can get their kids into the "right" school- public or private.
Lots of families and individuals just aren't prepared, don't have time, and also don't have the social circle that talks about getting their kids into those schools.
I would love an episode like this about disability income. The more I look into it the more it's on this level of ew. Everything from the idea it gives you the same level of comfort as when you worked to requirements to keep it. And this "ticket to work" system they just started. Does anyone really want to be disabled?
the book, "Poverty, by America" talks about disability income and it's well researched
There is never any suggestion or implication that disability will support you as well as you lived when working. The same is true of Social Security - that alone will not support most people as well as they lived while working. They are safety nets, ie last resorts.
Because poor people won't work for slave wages if they have government benefits.
I'm 51, living in UK - in my life I was paid the least when I worked the hardest; as I started getting more I would work less and less, until the point I do hardly any job and I'm paid really handsomely - at least I don't bulls..t people about; that's why I'm all for helping people who live in poverty - no one should work as hard as I did when I was younger (100 + hours a week - no joke)
The woman in this scandal, Nancy New, was my high school’s superintendent. New Summit in Jackson MS. She also took funds from our public education system to buy herself a house in the richest neighborhood in Jackson. She was able to do this because our school got special funding. Why? It was a school to help kids with special needs. The school ultimately went under after she and her son were found out. Also, she just sucks in general. I remember at my graduation, she said that there was a typo in the play I performed. “Reagan’s favorite highlight of the year was performing in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Oh that’s wrong, I was an English major, it should be ‘Midnight’s Summer Dream.’” It was so embarrassing to watch an adult be so confidently wrong. She also always brought investors to the school and would prop me and other students up as “success stories” it felt very strange. She then made us go to the state capitol to bring our autistic students for an Autism Speaks event. The kids were very stressed out at this event and I felt awful that I had to be there. Even at 17, I knew Autism Speaks was a terrible organization. I hope this woman goes to jail for a long time.
Thank you for sharing.
They are looking at giving the son 75 years with a 17 year minimum and giving Nancy New 99 years with a 25 year minimum.
The 5 years I worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare I witnessed the humiliation applicants for TANF went through and many applications were denied.
Shameful
In Texas they actively tell you not to try for it and that they’ll take it out of your child support plus extra.
Maybe Pennsylvania needed the money to lure Brett Favre to play for the Eagles or the Steelers.
And if you're someone like Jeff Bezos and want government handouts, you just go to your nearest conservative politician with your head held high and start stuffing your pocket without any shame or resistance because they know the media will blame someone else for the waste and not them.
The only person I've ever known to receive TANF was my 55-year-old mom when she and her late husband, 78 at the time, had custody of my 4 nephews and this was only because a) they're white, b) he was a disabled veteran on social security, c) my mom wasn't working at all, d) my youngest nephew had been placed with them by CPS through a crisis plan when he was less than two months old, e) my stepsister-in-law, their mother, was paying TANF $50 a month towards what they received, and f) there was pandemic happening. All of these things combined only finally became enough to get them TANF because my mom had to quit her job at the beginning of the pandemic because there was no school and my stepsister-in-law paid off the money she already owed TANF and I guess they still wanted her $50 a month.
They very recently here in NY increased the amount of food stamps you get due to inflation, it was $10. Almost 2 decades worth of inflation, and it was $10. And they also don't count any sort of bills here besides rent and utilities, if you have a car payment that's a luxury even though they want you to have a job that you need that car to get to, it's crazy man.
The point is to perpetuate poverty.
I'm stealing that alligator description. "They look like someone put a dragon baby into a panini press." 😂
Dude I applied for help this winter in MA, I have 2 kids and a stay at home mom that I take care of and I got laid off, my unemployment benefits are like 2k a month which barely covers our mortgage and utilities, nevermins food, diapers, medicine, other bills... I talked to the person on the phone and they seemed hopeful I'd get benefits and so was I... well to my surprise they said 2,000 a month income was too high and instead of getting help THEY LOWERED our EBT benefits... so I literally lost money used to buy food for my kids because I asked for help. Our system is fucking disgusting and I at this point have no hope we will ever fix it.
That's absolutely horrible, I'm so sorry the system let you down so terribly. Literally taking food out of the mouth of children, what a disgrace our country is
keep trying. appeal, appeal, appeal. the system is designed to discourage, but perseverance absolutely pays off.
User name for this travesty of a story surprisingly checks out.
This is so damn frustrating. Lost my job in November, was told by welfare assistance case worker "you qualify for x, y, and z" (one of those being TANF). Ended up NOT qualifying after it took two months to get a determination, because unemployment pays too much - which as a single dad with 2 young children and majority custody...if I spent every penny of my unemployment check (20% of what I was making not on unemployment) on rent it still wouldn't cover the median rent for a 2BR apartment in my state, let alone anything else. Never imagined I'd be in this position, but it's been a hard year - and the amount of bureaucracy and bs I've had to go through for basic aid when knobs like Brett Favre can funnel millions of these funds into volleyball stadiums is beyond infuriating.
I feel ya, bro. Good on you for working so hard for your kiddos.
T'was a billionaire who warned other billionaires in a speech (it may still be in RUclips) : "Beware, the pitchforks are coming."
What's worse is that when we're working they take those taxes without remorse, and woe unto those who owe them but do not pay them, unless you're already rich. Then it becomes your turn to be the recipient of the money meant to "promote the general welfare" of the population (that phrase is in the very FIRST paragraph of the Constitution) and what do you get? A giant "fuck you." We have to beg on our knees for ANYTHING. I pay a LOT in taxes, but I don't feel bad about it because it's meant to help those who are less fortunate than me. But then I hear about how that's NOT happening and it's just as infuriating to me that you don't get help as it is to you! Here's hoping things get better for you and your kids.
Praying things get easier for you man. No one deserves to struggle like that. 🥺🙏❤️
I hope you weren't one of those, these people are lazy, kind of people
My family was lucky enough to get TANF (probably cause we were white in a southern state) while my dad was sick and dying and my mom was in college. My parents didn’t have us 3 young, my parents were both 29 about to turn 30 when my older sister was born. We just fell into an unfortunate circumstance, my dad got extremely sick and my mom had just gone back to college when we were old enough for daycare/kindergarten. This was all also smack in the middle of the recovery from the 2008 recession. Without TANF and the massive help my grandmother gave us, my dad would have died and we would have been homeless, even with just TANF and not my grandmothers support we would have been out on the streets. I can’t imagine how bad things would have been. We need to give more money to this program, give money directly to families without any requirements of how it should be spent, and make it with no work requirements. My mom had to look for jobs while looking after 3 kids aged 6-2 alone and going to college, it must have been hell on earth for her and contributed to a later drug issue she had. Real people, children especially, are being hurt by this program meant to help families. Get your shit together you corrupt fucking politicians and fix this.
Phil Bryant has remained untouchable because of the current governor. Perhaps they both have things to hide? It took an online news group, Mississippi Today, to call attention to these criminals through investigation. It is mortifying to learn what happens to our tax dollars. I want children to grow up in better health of mind and body. They will be with us for the duration of our lives. This is what we pay for with taxes. But our state governments do nothing but hinder that help to line their pockets and garner favors for the time they lose office. Now that the Feds are involved, let's hope they are all called out and punished with fines and jail time.
Back in the 70s there was a universal basic income pilot here in Canada. And guess what? Workforce participation went up, except for two specific groups:
1) new moms who didn't have paid maternity leave, and
2) youth who, rather than working, finished high school or went to university; in many cases they were the first in their family to be able to afford to do so.
Other than those two groups, the number of people who sought and gained employment increased, and virtually nobody outside those two groups quit their jobs.
People want to work. Making them less poor doesn't take that desire away, it just makes them no longer too poor to look for a job.
Also, when you say "but what about the cost", they saw a 7.5% drop in healthcare expenses across the region in the first year, a significant drop in crime rate (can't remember the exact number) and a significant drop in substance use issues, domestic violence, homelessness, and a number of other things that are, you know, horrible and costly.
The pilot was scrapped by a conservative government, and the data shelved for about 45 years, but early estimates suggest that the cost was near a net Zero, and possibly it even had a net negative cost due to the elimination of some of the consequences of poverty and the increase to the tax base when participants gained employment or got an education that would lead to more lucrative employment.
The reason conservatives oppose a guaranteed income is because then you couldn't force people to accept minimum wage jobs.
former social worker, applying for TANF was always degrading for my clients and not all of them got approved, waiting time is ridiculous if you get approved and the money people receive is a pittance. The corruption in the states is mind boggling and they've got it down to a science with the lobbying system.
This is another good point, how degrading the application process is. It discourages people in poverty from applying because it treats them like criminals, sluts, thieves, etc. My mom applied for TANF once but the application process was so demoralizing and the employees were so misogynistic, that she refrained from applying for ANY welfare programs unless it was absolutely necessary.
Not to mention the systemic racism
Before we bailout the wealthy we should make them listen to that album for 40 hours while writing out the lyrics 1000 times.
I'm sorry but that just isn't fair whatsoever....
Only 40 hours ?!
Lool, get a job. Lazy bums.
Make them do it for minimum wage. Every $7.25 they want, they have to listen and write for 1 hour.
@@ethanbiggs1217beautiful
I'm from Riverside and my Mom never collected TANF, nor did my father ever pay child support. We grew up dirt poor and at one point were surviving on potatoes. I also had a disabled brother. Thank you Last Week Tonight for giving this issue some much needed attention. We all live in Seattle now. Fuck Riverside.
8:38 Now I understand why the creators of South Park have been having issues competing with fact when writing fiction. Whatever you come up in your mind, history has a "hold my beer" moment.
One thing I realized about the US is that American actively hate the poor. Being poor is like a moral failing instead of being unlucky or a victim of circumstances for Americans. You can see it on how we treat the homeless or how we judge people on food stamps.
It's called just-world fallacy. It fuels American ideology.
Right ? I mean there’s plenty of good money to be misappropriated.. if people would just pull up their bootstraps and commit fraud they could be successful too.
@@ayela562 Seriously, just get a multi-million-dollar book deal or redirect funds from the charity you run to pay for your vacation home. People just don't want to work anymore, smh
Not only that but depending on where you are you can be arrested for vagrancy by being homeless.
Police will actively seek ways to arrest homeless people for the crime of being homeless and impoverished.
Most americans think they are temporarily embarassed millionairs. Brainwashed by those who rule to hate each other.
My family is compromised of two, adult, gay men who've been together for going on 21 years...
My husband survived a gay bashing in the 1990s thanks to 18 hours of surgery and then had a hemorrhagic stroke of the basal ganglia at 5:04pm, May 8, 2020. He is paralyzed and lives in a bed.
He receives Social Security ($15,000/yr) and we just waited out his 24-month Medicare process...
I am his 24-hour a day caregiver. I cannot leave the house. On a good day, I get four hours of sleep.
He has severe epilepsy, is totally incontinent, legally blind, and cannot bathe nor barely feed himself.
Our life is a literal nightmare every day.
We live FAR below the poverty line.
Do you know what we qualify for with regard to any other help?
NOTHING.
Not a damned thing.
He's 55 and I'm 46.
Thanks, Texas. Thanks, USA. We salute you...
Holding you and your husband in my prayers .
God, I’m so sorry.
I'm so extremely sorry. This system has failed you completely. :(
This is so cruel :(
Here in europe ppl taking care of a disabled spouse or family member would be entitled to tons of assistance, so your terrible circumstances seem so blatantly unneccesary.
This is why my mom always says she doesn't mind the high taxes in Germany because when her sister got paralyzed toward the end of her life, the state covered everything: Bed, wheelchair, diapers, a contraption to help bathe her, funds for a disability-friendly appartment... my cousins even got a stipend while taking care of her so they could complete their schooling.
Both of them are well to do now, but they probably wouldn't be if they had been forced to choose between finishing their education & taking care of their mom.
nowdays you cant turn on the internet without reading about some USAmerican being in suicidal despair cause there is barely any healthcare or unemployment money, and even if you have a job working conditions are so bad... & there is nothing we can do from over here....
its so unfair.
@@KendrixTermina yeah here in the states it's quite common to have to quit your job to care for your sick loved ones with no assistance.
In Florida TANF is literally a joke. I had to work about 30 hours a week just to get 120 dollars after a month.
Because poor people won't work for slave wages if they have government benefits.
My husband and I work our butts off and after being screwed over by another company we worked for, we are so in debt. We have tried over and over again to get help to get back on our feet and have been declined even though we were below the minimum wage at the time (I had surgery and walked into the office on crutches and also provided proof of a loss of hours and hourly wage). You can work all you can, but it doesn’t matter. I thought welfare was suppose to be people who needed help and as hard working people who don’t make the minimum wage over what they accept, you would think we would get help. We don’t.
It's worse than 🇨🇦. Because IF you become fortunate enough to have assistance in that country,no matter how hard you had worked,how many years you had our in. By blood, sweat,and tears,what DO the corporations and conglomerates do?
They get to keep the rest of the unclaimed money off of their own employees and their employers....for them.
There's no way for any former employee or employer to legally claim ANY kind of assistance in America.
What's ironic is now the Biden administration is now practically offering health stimulus packages.
To young and middle aged people who are under sixty-five, don't have medical insurance,and do not have medicare.
Even if you've never worked a day in their lives.
Or don't have a good employment resumé.
THAT'S what I don't understand.
20 years ago when my eldest daughter was a baby I had to go on cash assistance in MI. It was less than 100 dollars a week and I had to prove I was job searching for 40 hours a week. It was a special kind of hell with a toddler in tow, no money for gas, and living in rural area with no public transportation. I wasn't on it long before I was kicked off for "non compliance".
nothing has changed love
Ok.
I believe it
Yes THIS is the way😞
parenthood is proving for your kids. since you said you couldn't do it alone where was the father. is it everyone else problem fixing what happened to you, seems you didnt mention the families of the parents chipping in either. welfare was sit up for the kids, as he had shown. how many 35 year old women are now facing hardship since their kids have left the house.
"If I wanted the Government in my womb, I'd f***** a Senator"
-Someone brilliant
Brilliant indeed
@Titik Titik Filthy Spammer.
Here in Louisville a landlord agency was just caught working with our TANF program to turn down their tenants in exchange for money and favors so the tenants would go into the hole and have to be evicted and the houses can be re rented, and all of the houses they own take in thousands of dollars from applicant fees before they actually rent out. All legal so the agency is still open and the investigation has concluded and the tenants were told they would have to sue the agency if they would like to further pursue which they obviously can’t afford. Smh. America.
Ahh this got me. I was brought up as a poor white kid n south MS. I don't think my Ma ever heard of or applied for this program. My parents divorced in 98, not b4 my sperm doner took every cent out of their bank account and split. Agreed to a super low amount of child support and alimony. My mom worked 40 hours a week. She was not allowed to work while they were married. She made very little per hour. He didn't pay what he promised and was court ordered to. We had Medicare which meant we could only go to the doctor a certain number of times a year. Glasses once a year. If my brother broke his playing around....no new glasses til October. Food stamps were so low we ate at my memaws a couple times a week. When she got her taxes in she used to to catch up on all the bills. We couldn't play sports of join school clubs because we didn't have the money. The food stamp office staff told her "you're a white woman, go find a husband to help you". MS is a mess.
Wish John had mentioned Sarah Huckabee Sanders in his non-main segment. She rolled back child labor protections this week but also supported Arkansas' anti drag bill. Yaknow. To protect the children.
That's a big movement across a lot of red states, depressingly.
It's because they killed off so much of their base that their political donors need employees. Labor is labor when they want to keep their comfortable lifestyles.
What the hell?? Growing up (I'm 30) i would never have been able to imagine they'd become so deranged. I've known many great and kind conservatives and they're sickened by this.
"What is a children anyways"- GOP
@@i-love-comountains3850 I think deep down, they still exist, but a lot of them have turned into rabid dogs that scream about democrats being the devil and all you can do is put them down because there's no room for intellectual debate or convincing with actual facts
Considering how difficult it is for needy families to qualify for TANF, or any assistance really, this makes me beyond infuriated.
And sadly... this is by design... all because of greed, reckless spending, etc. by those in power, not by the impoverished.
There was $4/month available via TANF for 2 kids when I needed help. $4.
Tennessee, state with the largest pool of undistributed TANF funds, yet 25% of kids live in poverty. Should we be asking for money or integrity?
Wow.
My mom did manage to get public assistance when I was young after we left an abusive situation with my stepdad. Unbeknownst to us however the state then garnished "back child support" from my dad in an amount that exceeded what we had received in assistance. We didn't even know they were taking money from him until we got in contact again when I was 12. It caused a lot of bad blood between my mom and my stepmom because they thought they were sending me lots of money, and my mom was claiming she never saw a penny of it.
I hope this show goes on forever. This program is a national treasure.
Oliver reports the stuff the news shows dont
I'm watching this in EU and this show is quite hilarious from my perspective.
As is John Oliver!!!!
National resource
Me too! Except when the CIA made him misreport politics in South and Central America.
Ah yes, my weekly fix of "the US is falling apart at the seams but John Oliver disguises it as a comedy show"
What's that saying? 'Empires only last 250 years'? It's about time.
@@Nimoodles Whoever started that saying was a moron. Lots of empires have lasted much longer than that.
Good riddance
Shows like LWT and comedians like John Oliver are steam valves for corporate America to divert social unrest. Even if you enjoy the format, never forget it’s only available because it’s approved by capitalist.
The irony is, corporate America makes money from it
We laugh to prevent from crying 😢 😭
Seriously though...I just lost Medicaid and food stamps on March 31. I make about $300 more per month than my rent costs. That has to cover all of my bills. I have been a miserable wretch all month as I knew this was coming. I need to somehow come up with $100 for health insurance (forget my eyes and teeth, both in terrible shape) and at least $200 to pay for food. I don't know how I'll feed my cat, Sox, who is the happiest part of my life. He also needs shots that will be $40. I'm 41, don't have kids and have worked all my life since age 16, including 50-60 hour weeks while I was in college. Always full time. But I don't qualify (in Colorado, if you make more than $150/week you're dumped off of food stamps; Medicaid is a little better but I still make "too much") so I have no idea what to do. I require a couple of medications for bipolar and other mental health struggles. I'm going to slip between the cracks.
And in August, when they jack up rent, I may end up homeless and surrendering Sox to a shelter. Why is this my life? I went to school. I have a BA. I've always worked hard and helped my family or anyone else who needed it. I was raised to do so. Kroger doesn't pay anything close to what's necessary for their employees to live. I'm nearing the end of my rope and I don't know how I am going to continue to survive. I'm not suicidal...yet. Sox is snoozing next to me now and he has always had a good life with me, and I'm afraid I won't still be able to take care of him, especially if I'm on the streets. All of my "free" time is spent trying to figure this out, stressing and worrying. I lost 12 pounds in the past 2 weeks...my secret? I don't have enough to eat. My hands shake all the time because I don't eat enough. I hope they never see it at work because I'm sure I'll be out of a job. I work a 2nd job already, too. I don't own a car, and I'll be bicycling for the rest of my life at this rate. When is this going to end? How do I keep surviving? I'm a cheerful, loving, kind person. I try to practice compassion with everyone I meet, which is good in customer service, and it's also just how I am. I certainly have my faults...everyone does. I just don't see any way out of this anymore.
Where was this level of scrutiny for PPP loans?
I’m glad someone mentioned Brett Farve because media and sports media covered that for literally a day and then spent the next month talking about a coach who cheated on his wife as if that was bigger news instead.
Favre is still one of the leading headlines at most real news sections and what coach did that? That wasn't reported on at all.
@@verde7595 Celtics coach. And sports media hasn’t said a thing about the Farve story since it first happened up until Brett Farve sued a few people recently for talking about it when it initially was reported on.
Pat Mcafee talked about it a decent amount and now Brett is sueing him
Ok.
Favre is going after all the Mississippi journalists who've brought this story forward. He's suing them all.... for disclosing FACTS he didn't want public.
FROM A MISSISSIPPIAN THANK YOU! I feel like this story doesn't get enough heat. These people stole from the poorest of the poor. Brett is a national name and he stole from his state. This fact should be spread far and wide.
Took the words right out of my mouth. I was glad to see it being covered on the Pat McAfee show as well...
Write a bad check, get 5 years while people like Brett get nothing or maybe apologized to.
“College aid helps prevent out of wedlock pregnancies”
Me, being kicked out of my room for the fourth time this week so that my roommate can have sex: “Mhm. For sure.”
Why agree to leave? Just sit on your bed doing schoolwork and take pictures to post!
@@kathygann7632 Uh. What.
Thanks John for updating us on this. I was wowing when these criminals were going to be charged especially Brett Favre.
I tried getting food stamps while I was attending Community College. My state says "Your student loans should cover your expenses including rent and food." I was shocked. Loans and grants dont even cover books!
Time to go rouge, Cap.
Don't mention it. If they don't ask, don't mention it
They kick you off food stamps if you are going to school. They said, then you can’t dedicate your days 100% to looking for a job. That’s what the told me like 12 yrs ago when I was getting my Diploma and homeless.
Also legally your loans aren't supposed to go towards anything other than school
I was on Social Security survivor benefits as a kid, and then Reagan cut the college years portion of those benefits when he came into office. Literally just axed 4 years of benefits for orphans whose parents had earned the entitlements. So I lost out on that, but then to add insult to injury, during George HW Bush's term, they made it so that a student requesting grants would have to include their parents' income.
My mom was already gone, and I was estranged from my dad who never did anything for me, and I yet I had to include his income when requesting a grant. I was lucky that tuition was only 1100 a quarter at the time, because even though I appealed the grant denial explaining all of those points, they still rejected me.
Fortunately, I mostly ate food from my two places of work- a public school and a pretty decent restaurant.
In Nevada, TANF for a family of three with no other income is $386. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Reno's scariest neighborhoods is $1,391. But no worries! Workforce training will prepare you to be a CNA or caregiver, among other lucrative careers, with a beginning hourly wage of $9.50. Maybe we should adopt Riverside's catchy jingle.
That's Denver too. They teach you how to flip burgers and push brooms too. It's useful to put on your resume.
you and the people of Nevada should fix it.
PA too. Except our minimum wage is the federally required $7.35.
Hot tip: if you want a decent job that's hiring like crazy, is easy to get and easy to keep, pays well enough, often provides cheap or free childcare, usually has good benefits, trains you in a few weeks, and exists in every community in the country... Drive a school bus. If your license isn't clean enough, be a bus or classroom aid until you can be promoted to bus driver. It can even be an in to substitute teacher, which can be an in to private school teacher. My district even offers a free online college program (and with the split shift, there's 4 hours every day to study).
@@maidenthe80sla that is actually the only correct answer, organize and change the system, but in the mean time people need to survive, that is the part of the problem that isn't as easy
And don’t forget that as soon as you get a job you are now over income for childcare!
One of the things they could've done to help was not get rid of emergency allotment snap benefits which helped hundreds of thousands of families with food money. It's not cash but at least they don't have to worry about going hungry and having food money frees up money that would've been spent on food for things like gas, bills and other needs.
The reason we don't have robust welfare programs is because then nobody would work shitty minimum wage jobs.
I'm so glad you became a citizen of the U.S.A. Watching you get after it, makes me proud. Thanks and kudos.
Its crazy to see how much corruption is happening within our country. Imagine the things we don't know.
I think about this often… i don’t know if I want to know the kinds of crazy shit tho
How much is just manipulated propaganda, and how much of it is actually organic... And then how much don't we know. Boggles the mind to imagine that anyone is actually a capitalist.
„Imagine the things we don’t know“ is a sentence many Americans have taken to heart and I can’t say it’s always working out well.
@@btarczy5067 lmao
From an outsider: yes, it is.
I've heard TANF as "Torture and Abuse of Needy Families" and always think of it as such.
That fits better.
So perfect!!!!
Finally, I have an excuse to say something along the lines of "I'm under 30 and I know what both Chumbawumba and Tub-thumping are". Strange it's coming from a John Oliver video
Super informative and factual as always!!!! Keep it up John Oliver!!!
My family struggled and struggles my whole life, dad being a truck driver got paid very little but since he "owned" the truck it looked like we weren't even if all the money went either into the truck or taxes. They screamed at my poor mother who attempted to apply for food stamps. Never forgiven them.
Damn. When they made more than 1 episode about your situation you know you have it bad. ruclips.net/video/phieTCxQRLA/видео.html
Ah that's because you're white. Those are only for browns and negs
I wouldn't either! That's outrageous! What a country we live in!
Was he an owner operator? Explain his situation.
John Oliver actually did a show on truck drivers’ problems: m.ruclips.net/video/phieTCxQRLA/видео.html
This is all so frustrating!
I'm in Missouri and used to work at a nonprofit that helped with rent/ utilities and had a food bank. Over about 10 years, I only saw one family who had TANF because the requirements are so contradictory. At one point you had to work 20 or more hours a week, but if you did, that income put you over the income limits to qualify. The max payout was also around $230/ month and that family of 5 who actually received it got $177 FOR FIVE PEOPLE! And the mom kept having to take whole days off to "recertify," but they wouldn't give her an actual appointment so she'd just have to wait all day. I think she got it got about 3 months before those appointments caused her to lose her job and thus, she lost TANF. Stupid.
They are bringing back "work will set you free" unironically.
Bonus track on that album “Those Who Don’t Work (Don’t Eat)”
In 2000 when I was laid off and pregnant I couldn't even get food stamps or TANF with two children since they refused to use my unemployment status and no, I didn't have unemployment benefits. I was also placed on doctor's bedrest. Isn't help great?
The worst part about those marriage classes in Oklahoma? They were created because Oklahoma has a mandate for marital counseling before you get your marriage license. Most get it through their religious institutions, but this was the *only* option if you were secular/atheist. My hubs and I are largely atheist but still associate with our local synagogue and were grateful the Rabbi made it more of a meeting than counseling. From my vantage point as a licensed therapist, that's not something that should be forced on anyone ever.
Well, the 1st amendment of the US constitution supposedly bans that type of thing. But, the only religious "freedoms" that have ever been enforced by the 1st amendment is the freedom for Christians to control the lives of non-Christians.
Wow.
Had to do this when I got married there 25 years ago, but not when I remarried 10 years ago. Ironically, the first one, in a church, with a so called counseling session from the peacher, barely lasted 3 years. This one, no counseling, officiated at our pool by the Oklahoma president of the American Atheists, is still going strong. Oklahoma is slowly being drug into the 20th century, kicking and screaming.
That is utterly unconstitutional so it doesn't surprise me that it's legal in Oklahoma to essentially discriminate against *gasp* ...Atheists! The horror!
@@custosnox I'm glad to hear that requirement has gone out the window. It's been 12 years since I got married, so we must have just missed the quashing of it. I'm glad to hear you're in a better relationship and without the trappings of religious ideology. This state sure loves to trap people in it. 🫠
I'd like to also point out how being disabled and unable to work makes getting TANF even harder.
I second this. I'm disabled with 2 teenagers under my roof. We are allotted just over 1000 a month to live off of, and that is supposed to pay for food, shelter, clothes, electric, gas, heat, car payments, school fundraising, copays on insulin, insurance, etc. for 3 people. And I'm not allowed to own over 2k in savings or assets. Not allowed to get my teeth fixed bc no dental and too needy to be able to afford it. We do not qualify for TANF. #ThanksBrettFarve
Impossible. You can't get disability and tanf together. Ever. I had an infant after being raped in foster care and being forced to birth. They told me flat out disability is at least double tanf "be grateful" in 2006 it was about $500 a month. Honestly tanf are better off they are so poor every program helps them because they might be able to work. Meanwhile disabled people are labeled as unable to ever contribute because..government. sigh.
I had a friend who applied for assistance when she was a newly single mom. They wouldn't let her put her car bill down as a bill, because "she shouldn't have bought a car if she couldn't afford it." Like she planned to be a single mom when she bought the car, not to mention needing reliable transportation to get to work. And because they didn't see that as a necessary expense she made too much money to qualify for any assistance..... :(
That's messed up
Never let a show of this much importance die
You’re gonna love Some More News if you like this guy, check him out
Totally agree!
Definitely
Never say never
@@firstlast8258 Oh ur a troll. I see. Ur acct has only been open a year and u made comments like Go Bannon so a troll or a non thinking bot which is the same as a troll is what u are nonetheless. U like Bannon? The guy who grifted money from trump cultists to build the wall that Mexico was gonna pay for and then he took the money for himself? That Bannon? U must be a masochist.
That was brilliant, John. Thank you for telling like it is with a great sense of humour.