As I sat this morning drinking my first cup of coffee, following my usual routine of trying to get some of the "news" (and I use that word lightly) I go back and forth between CNN and Morning Joe. I know I'm a glutton for punishment but I take a sincere interest in what goes on around me and what's going on in our country. Being left to get some of that information from the biased media I watch them anyway and then decide what's important and what's not. Through out this process I must admit I get extremely angry at many of the horrendous things that are said by so many of them. Even though I usually scream at the TV in the privacy of my own home, today I cannot hold in the idiocy and arrogance of Mika Brezezinski. Here's my letter
Dear Mika: (and I use dear in place of the term I would really like to use)
Watching you this morning discussing the current stimulus plan you had the audacity to make a statement, on more than one occasion, referring to the word "welfare". To someone like you who were blessed enough to be richly provided for and never had to do without.
First, Let me explain the term "welfare" that you threw around so freely this morning. Today the term is called public assistance. Of course you wouldn't know that because you have never been in need and therefore have no understanding of people that are.
This is the definition of the term you use so arrogantly and insist shouldn't be part of the stimulus plan.
Welfare: Government programs that provide services or support for disadvantaged people.
Here's a list of public assistance programs that you consider a waste of money:
Child care assistance for people that couldn't otherwise be able to work. Each family participates in the cost of that care by making a co-payment based on family income.
CHIP:is a low-cost, private health insurance plan that provides coverage for eligible children up to age 19. Parents are in charge of the health care their children receive, and in some cases they are expected to make small co-payments.
Energy Assistance:
The department offers two programs aimed at helping low-income individuals
reduce their heating costs.
The Weatherization Program helps participants to improve the heating efficiency of their homes and thus reduce their energy consumption. The Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) pays PART of winter energy bills for eligible people. Most utilities offer discounts to LIEAP recipients. (that is provided their electricity doesn't go out caused by bad weather)
Eligibility for weatherization and fuel assistance is based on income and assets.
Food Stamps:
The goal of the Food Stamp Program is to help eligible people (meaning those who otherwise do not have enough income to eat) eat a more nutritious diet by supplementing their food budget. Income, resources, and household size determine the amount of food stamps a household can get.
Without food stamps many children, elderly and disabled people would go without any warm meals.
The above list are some of the programs involved in what you call the "welfare" system.
The largest recipients of these programs are children who through no fault of their own are brought into this world and deserve well being and a decent quality of lifestyle.
Another category that qualifies for public assistance are the handicapped and elderly.
We can add one more category due to the dire economic crisis we're in, the unemployed.
So before you so lightly throw around the word "welfare" as if it's a bad thing and make statements that it should not be in the stimulus plan think again.
I would like to try and explain to you the belittling, degrading and humbling process that one has to go through to receive any of this assistance, but your lack of compassion for the system makes me believe it would be beyond your comprehension.
Now let's compare the tax cuts that were put into the stimulus plan to pacify those who voted against the stimulus plan. The house republicans.
Here we can use the term "Corporate Welfare"
Definition: a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment on corporations.
Now let's weigh the two and you look Americans in the face and tell us which are stimulus and which are waste.