The latest conservative talking point

[melm00se]

get ready folks, in case you haven't heard, the right will start using this chart:



as their latest "anti-entitlement" evidence.

This chart, whose provenance is unclear, "shows" that a family of 4, who earns minimum wage, after all the entitlement/government programs are factored in has more disposable income than a similar family who earns $60K.

let's start ripping this one down so as to be able to cut them off at the knees.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. This is easily fixed...

Universal Single-Payer health care fixes it.

Then the "Medicaid and CHIP" line will be zero in all columns, and the economic world will be returned to "normal".

:hi:

[fasttense]

2. It only goes to $60,000?????

If they did it all the way to $5 million (which is according to John McCain middle class) it would show a whole different picture.

[democracy1st]

3. Kick for later

[Hannah Bell]

4. i hate these sons of bitches. absolutely hate them. it's wrong, i know, but they

personify evil to me.

[mwb970]

5. Not sure why it's "wrong".

It's wrong to hate evil? If it helps, I hate 'em all too.

[Hannah Bell]

18. it's wrong because i assume the worst of each & every person in that group. prejudice.

also, i don't like it when others call an entire group of people "evil".

but i can't help it, i believe those mofos are evil, & it heartens me to hear you do too.

[Erose999]

6. They are trying to count Medicaid and Food Stamps as "disposable income" though. And to my

knowledge you can't spend food stamps on anything but food, School lunch consists of 2 meals eaten by the kids only at their school, and medicare money pays out to the hospital rather than the beneficiary. None of that is "disposable" income.

[uncommon]

13. This is another point to be noticed --

presumably they include it in order to say that you are not spending all this other money you have on food and health insurance. You know, that huge $14K a YEAR.

I've lived on that and was eligible for few benefits, took even fewer, and definitely had negative disposable income.

[liberal N proud]

7. Are there people who are receiving all those entitlements?

[hobbit709]

8. I don't know of anyone getting $500+/mo in food stamps.

[melm00se]

9. ran the numbers

thru the FNS SANP Eligibility screen tool and got this:



and it appears, that using the numbers from the table, the family would qualify for between $419 and $429/month.

[hobbit709]

11. That's still lower than the $528/mo figure they're citing.

and that is the maximum.

I guarantee you that here in TX, it's nowhere near that.

[w8liftinglady]

15. you are correct.And-looking at the table-the poverty level in Tx is 21K/Yr

for a family of 4.

In my partner's county,median salary is 31K/yr.MOST of the residents are on some sort of assistance...or medicare/Medicaid...or all of the above.


And they're all good Christians.

And,they all voted Republican.

sigh.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. Medicare is not 'assistance' it is the Health Insurance for the

elderly and disabled, for which ALL recipients pay premiums, co-pays, deductibles out of pocket just like anyone else.
Medicaid is assistance, it is means tested, and there are no premiums or co-pays in the States I deal with.
At 31K I do not see how they get Medicaide. If they get Medicare while earning in retirement, well, of course the retired pay taxes on income, including SS income.
Terminology is important. Virtually all retired or disabled Americans use the Medicare they paid into, and continue to pay for. You seem to be saying that 100% of the elderly are on 'asssistance' because they have insurance they bought and pay for. Very naff.
No such thing as Medicare/Medicaid they are different, utterly and totally.

[LiberalLoner]

14. Exactly, me either. Usually more like between $100 and $200 at most. n/t

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. If your support to the poor is cut-off rather than phased out, you get things like this.

If your attempt to tackle poverty is "we will give everyone earning less than $20 a bonus $5" rather than "we will give everyone earning under $15 a bonus $5, and everyone earning between $15 and $25 a bonus $(25-x)/2" then people will try desperately to avoid earning more than $19.50.

I don't know if America is doing things like this or not, but if it is then the conclusion is not "don't provide support to the poor" but "don't provide mathematically illiterate support to the poor".

[uncommon]

12. I saw this yesterday and laughed. To get ALL of the possible benefits, you can't work AND

you would need to sit on a subsidized housing wait list for years in most areas.

This is just disingenuous at best.

[zbdent]

17. people like that can make statistics dance, sing, and pull a rabbit out of a hat ...

I remember one time our personnel office putting out a statement of our "benefits" (county government) ... which included many benefits as shown as 52 weeks ... and THEN they added the "two weeks vacation" into the calculations (which skewed the facts)