Misinformation And Straight Up Republican LIES

I just heard the Meg Whitman ad on the radio yesterday and about swallowed my teeth. (Good thing they're still original equipment!)

Have you heard the garbage she's spouting about welfare reforms?

Ummmm, did she miss the fact that we've had Welfare Reform over 10 years ago now?

From her own website:

MEG: Some people worry that we're creating a welfare state. The fact is, California is the welfare state.

ANNCR: Meg Whitman talks about the California welfare system.

MEG: Did you know that California has twice the population of New York, but five times as many welfare cases? 32 percent of all welfare caseloads in America are here in California.

We provide among the highest cash welfare checks of any state.

But only 22 percent of our recipients work for their benefits.

The system is broken.

But we can fix it…

Let's cut the lifetime welfare benefit from five years to two.

And let's put able-bodied welfare recipients to work. Looking for employment, performing community service or working toward a GED.

If they don't, they lose their benefits.

Welfare can't be a way of life. We need to help those in need, but we need to do it in a way that's accountable, sensible, and strengthens our communities.

ANNCR: Paid for by Meg Whitman for Governor 2010.

MEG: It's time for A New California. What do you think? Share your ideas and read my plan at TalkToMeg.com.

OK, now let's just look at this. Except for cutting the 5 year lifetime limit to 2 years, what she's spouting is WHAT WE'RE ALREADY DOING!

Sorry for shouting, but she's spouting garbage. It's all political gobbledygook to make people get all hot and bothered about "those people".

Well, you know what, with approximately 12.5% unemployment* in California, there may be good reasons why welfare recipients aren't working. They can't find jobs!

Use your heads people! If your highly skilled next door neighbor got laid off and can't find work, what makes you think that someone with a GED, two kids, and an ex that refuses to pay child support, is going to be able to bounce out the door and find a job that will make him/her and the family self sufficient? Get real!!

Meg is pushing out the usual Republican pap to get the right wing masses all hot and bothered about "those lazy welfare recipients".

Bad news Meg, reality bites and the garbage you're pushing out is just that, garbage. A pack of misinformation and straight up lies. Too bad that the conservatives will bite, sucking up the party line instead of using their heads, doing a little research, and realizing that you're just Arnie in a dress.

Yup.

I fear for my state, if Meg gets in, we're looking at four more years of the same tired BS. We might as well vote Arnold in again. It'll just be more of the same -- blame the poor and the liberals instead of rolling up sleeves and actually doing some work.

Oh. I didn't mention something about our welfare recipients, did I?

The biggest welfare recipients are our elected representatives, sucking at the government teat while spending OUR money, trying to steal OUR pensions, and then blaming US for their mismanagement of this beautiful state.

Well, they're right about one thing. We are to blame for voting them back in, year after year after year.

This next election, let's make a REAL change.

Vote them all out!

Every
Single
One

Start over with some new blood. We can't do any worse than we already have!!

And in the meantime, since Meg is already lying in her ad campaign, if I was you, I'd be really suspicious about everything else that comes out of her mouth. Leopards don't change their spots and liars don't stop lying. Even when they've been busted for it.

Especially when they've been busted.

Think about it.

And don't take my word for it. Look it up.

From 1997 - when Welfare Reform began: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/rb/RB_297TMRB.pdf

From 2003 - The stats used by pundits like Meg:
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_wel_cas_tot_rec-economy-welfare-caseloads-total-recipients

BUT looking further on the same website: http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_wel_cas_tot_fam_percap-caseloads-total-families-per-capita

Unemployment - January 2010:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

And by state - November 2009:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

* California unemployment in November 2009. Recent news reports are putting the actual unemployment rate at nearly 25%. (But we all know how the media can distort a simple statistic!)