The "Dole" Ends in Michigan After 4 Years; Rep. Horn: "Make Your Own Job"

July 17, 2011
By: Dave Rogers

After four years, welfare recipients in Michigan are told by Rep. Ken Horn of Frankenmuth: "Go make yourself a job."

The idea is all-American, but unfortunately, is probably naive.

The corporate state that runs America has almost guaranteed that nobody, especially welfare folks, can scrounge up enough money to live on in this economy.

We all realize that this is a complicated global economic environment in which even college graduates cannot find jobs, let alone create them for themselves.

Screams from the liberal fringe are heard complaining that the 12,600 families who will lose their $511 per month beginning in October will turn to drugs or crime.

Sadly, they may have no other option. The sponsors of such legislation may not have figured the social costs attendant with enforcement of this edict.

If crime rises, or drug trafficking increases, we, the taxpayers, will have to pay higher costs. People in middle class neighborhoods will be affected.

Expect to see even more derelicts roaming the streets.

The already outrageous $2 billion a year tab for prisons in Michigan may go even higher.

Hospital emergency room costs will see hikes as more pathetic cases show up, boosting the ever-rising health care tab.

The state estimates that $77 million will be saved on the front end of this plan, but no one knows what the eventual cost will be.

Gov. Rick Snyder supports the bill that prevents the DHS from making allowances for those it determines should be exempt from work requirements.

The Senate did add language that allows benefit extensions for those caring for a disabled spouse or child.

Rep. Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, the bill sponsor, said welfare should be a safety net and not a "lifestyle." Of course, he is right. But we need to examine the conditions that led people -- many of whom really want to work -- to become dependent on welfare.

The steady drain of jobs, many going offshore and others eliminated by improvements in technology, has not been factored in by the legislators engaging in dangerous "social engineering."

The act wisely allows recipients to earn more money on the job without jeopardizing their benefits. A family with $950 in monthly earned income, for example, would still be eligible for $224 in assistance.

But human service advocates said the strict time limits would place vulnerable children at risk because economic conditions or personal barriers prevented their parents from becoming self-supportive.

Add the 48-month limit to reductions in the Earned Income Tax Credit is an additional financial burden to the lower income families. "We are really throwing new barriers in the way of families trying to work their way to independence," said Michigan League for Human Services analyst Karen Holcomb-Merrill. "We should be encouraging these families, not finding new ways to make it harder to reach economic independence."

Under the bill, households would no longer receive benefit credit for a full-time high school student living in the home. DHS would have to reassess a recipient's eligibility every 12 months instead of every 24 months.

Republicans rejected a Democratic amendment that would have provided for extensions for recipients living in counties where the unemployment rate exceeds 25 percent of the statewide average.

Legislators, and the governor, considering social legislation need to look beyond the seemingly obvious short-term savings and calculate long term financial effect. Otherwise, we all end up paying more in taxes and a dismal civic miasma is the result.

If we want welfare families to become self-sufficient through entrepreneurship, abruptly cutting them off the "dole" is not the answer.

A program of training and assistance is vital, and perhaps a small percentage can create their own jobs, as Rep. Horn and Gov. Snyder hope. But it won't happen without a plan, with just a draconian edict "you're outta here!" That kind of thinking costs us all more money and creates Third World conditions we all abhor.

The last thing we want to do is to create a "Pure Michigan" that looks great in television ads but in reality is a dreadful swamp for our citizens. ###