Guaranteed income programs let participants use funds however they see fit. Critics argue they’re not a good use of taxpayer dollars.
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Guaranteed income programs have become more popular since the pandemic as dozens of cities across the country launched pilot programs using federal COVID-19 relief funds. Whereas other welfare funds like food stamps and housing vouchers provide assistance for specific expenses, guaranteed income programs allow recipients to decide how they spend the money. Researchers have found them to be an effective way to combat poverty.
In recent years, a handful of Texas cities and counties have piloted their own guaranteed income programs for low-income households. Financed by a combination of federal, local and philanthropic funds, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso County have collectively issued about $9 million in payments to roughly 1,500 households since 2020.
But the notion is facing stiff opposition from conservatives who say these programs are a bad use of taxpayers’ money and amount to government overreach. Attorney General Ken Paxton recently sued Harris County to block its guaranteed income program, Uplift Harris. The Texas Supreme Court indefinitely paused the pilot while the case goes to trial. Financed by funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the program would have provided almost 2,000 households in the area’s poorest neighborhoods with $500 a month for 18 months.
“I don’t want none of MY tax dollars going to the poor and needy! If we’re gonna give anything away it needs to go to chickenshit police departments, global corporations, and the obscenely wealthy.”
Don’t forget the military!! If we spent a penny less than 2 trillion dollars per year that would make Jesus very angry!!
Jesus would NEVER stand for this! Helping the poors? Not on Jesus’s watch!
I think Jesus would remind you that if we give to the poor they won’t have the incentive to “stop being lazy and pull themselves up by their bootstraps”, you’re only making it harder on them by helping…
Give me the money instead, I’ll invest it.
Thanks Supply Side Jesus!
https://www.beliefnet.com/news/2003/09/the-gospel-of-supply-side-jesus.aspx
Meanwhile, 90% of the people are poorer than they would have been if the poorest could afford to participate in the economy.
These people are either idiots who don’t know anything about how a consumerism-based economy works, awful people who consider cruelty towards those who already have less than themselves more important, or both.
The cruelty is the point. Who are they going to feel smugly superior to, if there is nobody to look down on?
Their entire lives/belief system revolves around punishment.
Yeah, I was always leaning heavily towards “both”.
It has only been proven to be effective every single time it was tried, but who cares about reality.
Trickle down economics will work this time for sure!
“Those taxes should be going to line my buddies pockets so I get some kickbacks, not to help improve this state and the lives of the citizens in it!”
R is the party of taking things away. You can summarize very nearly everything they do this way.
It’s almost like they don’t want to help people prosper. That stance is going to cost them dearly at the polls most likely.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Texas turns inexplicably purple. :)
Love your optimism
That stance is going to cost them dearly at the polls most likely.
Hahahahahahaahahaa!
They don’t. They want ‘em desperate and needing to work for money, that way their labor can be exploited. Why do you think prison labor is still legal?
You can’t just help people, that’s against Christian values! Jesus never did that kind of thing
Christians: Give your money to the poor and love your neighbor as yourself.
Also Christians: Those lazy illegals are taking our jobs! We shouldn’t be taking people’s hard-earned money and just GIVING it to people who have PROVEN they can’t manage it! What about MY bootstraps!
“Lets fix a problem” -literally anyone
Conservatives with fists clenched: “no”
Letting people do as they see fit is “government overreach”. FFS. That fits right in with “war is peace” and “freedom is slavery”!
I hate conservatives so much, and that goes double for Texas Republicans.
Trump won TX in 2020 by only 631,221 votes. If we have better turnout this year, we could make TX blue! The polls are only busy on the final day to vote, even though we have a 2 week long voting period with the polls open during the same hours as election day during the entire 2nd week of voting. Don’t wait until the last day and check if your local polling places are open on the weekend!
For those in TX, the last day to register to vote is Oct 7.
Voting goes from October 21-Nov 1, with one final day to cast your vote on Nov 5.
Applications to vote by mail must be received by Oct 25.
Check your registration status, local polling locations and hours, important dates, and other election information at the link below.
And ofc Ken Paxton, the scummiest skin bag to ever ooze out of the Tea Party’s corpse, thinks it’s a bad thing. Probably because he doesn’t get to line his pockets from the programs’ funding before poor people get paid.
One thing I really don’t understand about America is how it’s one of the most charitable countries on earth - but when it comes to proven government run charity there is usually strong pushback.
Like I understand how it happens I just wish people would evaluate their politicians more and think about whether or not their values actually align.
If you’re referring to dollars given/promised to “charity,” a huge amount of that is done in a way that protects assets from taxes but primarily benefits the donor or the donor’s offspring.
Example: Warren Buffet has billions he has pledged to charity. However, when he dies it goes into a private charitable trust that conveniently employs his children and pays them millions a year for “administration” duties. The trust can donate stocks to charities, and there is a tax exemption for the “value” of the donation, reducing the tax burden of the trust further. Billionaire charity in the USA is a nearly-complete fiction which is actually more in line with the behavior discussed in this article.
