On This Day in 1985

"We can make ours the land of the future, offering unlimited opportunity to all Americans who dare to live for their dreams." - President Ronald Reagan, April 13, 1985

President Reagan said these words when addressing the nation on a radio broadcast regarding a plan that would completely overhaul American’s tax code. He gave great hope of changing it from a code of confusion, to a code that would model simplicity and fairness.

April 15th, a deadline that the average American forgets about, until it’s time to gather the old receipts and the pay-stubs, to delivered to the IRS. It can be a painful process, yet it is a legal obligation that we must complete.

This January many checked their pay-stub looking for what tax changes went into effect with the taxmegeddon put forth by our current administration. This included 13 tax hikes that hit every American. Former President Reagan described our tax code to be mirroring Washington itself, a complicated frustrating mystery. I would say that it still a true statement.

Reagan’s goal was to keep America a premier job-creating nation and that should still be our goal. Obama has said that his tax rates are the lowest in history, even lower then Reagan. Ha! We can see during Reagan administration there were two tax rates. We now have six tax rates, and our corporate tax rates are higher than most other nations. That is a big deal, this can hurt American competitiveness and job creation. Our pay-roll tax jumped from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent this year. We have folks that are trying to earn money and get a job, to pay that so called "low tax rate" and they can't. Right now we are not competitive with the rest of the world. Americans are having a hard time keeping afloat. It is hard for me to see why people believed President Obama and President Reagan had the similar views on what taxes needed to be. 

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Welfare Reform Clinton and Obama

In 1996 congressional republicans and president Bill Clinton altered welfare for the better. The largest cash welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was altered by having work requirements added to the program, changing the program name Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). In the next five years of this reform, welfare decreased by 50 percent and child poverty dropped.  Clinton proudly declared that the reform would “end welfare as we know it”.  Millions of families have been able to move off of TANF because they were given the opportunity to work and support themselves with the programs work requirements and work training offered.

This past July 2012, Americans watched as Obama’s administration came out with a change to the successful welfare reform law of 1996. The Obama’s administration allows the states to waive the TANF work requirements, taking out the very element that made this reform so successful. In the establishing of the welfare reform, congress intended the work requirements to be mandatory, meaning non-waivable.  The Obama administration is illegally claiming authority to waive the TANF requirements by using section 1115 waiver under one of the social security acts, but I bet you didn't know that in order to use the section 1115 waiver, that what you want to be able to waiver must be listed in section 1115. As to our knowledge TANF is not listen in section 1115, making it illegal.

AFDC, was a one way handout. Government mailed checks to welfare dependents with no expectation of receiving anything back.  Under TANF, taxpayers continued to provide aid, but the dependents were required by law to engage in work, or efforts to put themselves into the work force, by obtaining their GED, seeking vocational training, or by attending college. 

With Obama’s administration pulling the work requirements out of the TANF, it leads to more government dependency. What expectation do we have for those on welfare with no work requirements, but the expectation that they will be back for more government aid through means of government checks and food stamps.

A few days later in July 2012, Representatives Jim Jordan, David Camp, and John Kline introduced H.R 6140, The Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Program Acts. This legislation would prohibit Obama’s administration, from removing the work requirements that made the 1996 welfare reform so successful.

As Americans we need to be active in this movement, every tax payer is paying into government aid. Let us better help out fellow Americans by expecting welfare dependents to give back. In return it helps encouraging economic growth as they begin to provide and get themselves off of the welfare system. Government aid is to help them get back on their feet and it is not intended for people to live off of for a long period of time.   

Turn in next time for more ramblings, 

Sunshine Girl in Red. 

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