Guaranteed income programs let participants use funds however they see fit. Critics argue they’re not a good use of taxpayer dollars.
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Guaranteed income programs have become more popular since the pandemic as dozens of cities across the country launched pilot programs using federal COVID-19 relief funds. Whereas other welfare funds like food stamps and housing vouchers provide assistance for specific expenses, guaranteed income programs allow recipients to decide how they spend the money. Researchers have found them to be an effective way to combat poverty.
In recent years, a handful of Texas cities and counties have piloted their own guaranteed income programs for low-income households. Financed by a combination of federal, local and philanthropic funds, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso County have collectively issued about $9 million in payments to roughly 1,500 households since 2020.
But the notion is facing stiff opposition from conservatives who say these programs are a bad use of taxpayers’ money and amount to government overreach. Attorney General Ken Paxton recently sued Harris County to block its guaranteed income program, Uplift Harris. The Texas Supreme Court indefinitely paused the pilot while the case goes to trial. Financed by funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, the program would have provided almost 2,000 households in the area’s poorest neighborhoods with $500 a month for 18 months.
“I don’t want none of MY tax dollars going to the poor and needy! If we’re gonna give anything away it needs to go to chickenshit police departments, global corporations, and the obscenely wealthy.”
Don’t forget the military!! If we spent a penny less than 2 trillion dollars per year that would make Jesus very angry!!
As jesus said “
the meek shall inherit thee earth” “The military shall conquer the earth”
Jesus would NEVER stand for this! Helping the poors? Not on Jesus’s watch!
I think Jesus would remind you that if we give to the poor they won’t have the incentive to “stop being lazy and pull themselves up by their bootstraps”, you’re only making it harder on them by helping…
Give me the money instead, I’ll invest it.
Meanwhile, 90% of the people are poorer than they would have been if the poorest could afford to participate in the economy.
These people are either idiots who don’t know anything about how a consumerism-based economy works, awful people who consider cruelty towards those who already have less than themselves more important, or both.
The cruelty is the point. Who are they going to feel smugly superior to, if there is nobody to look down on?
It’s both. They’re very stupid and cruel. They vote for Donald.
Studies have shown its 100% of the people are poorer than they would have been if they paid thriving wages. It’s just that the 90% now have needless suffering, while the 1% can revel in their cruelty.
It has only been proven to be effective every single time it was tried, but who cares about reality.
Christians: Give your money to the poor and love your neighbor as yourself.
Also Christians: Those lazy illegals are taking our jobs! We shouldn’t be taking people’s hard-earned money and just GIVING it to people who have PROVEN they can’t manage it! What about MY bootstraps!
“Lets fix a problem” -literally anyone
Conservatives with fists clenched: “no”
“Those taxes should be going to line my buddies pockets so I get some kickbacks, not to help improve this state and the lives of the citizens in it!”
You can’t just help people, that’s against Christian values! Jesus never did that kind of thing
R is the party of taking things away. You can summarize very nearly everything they do this way.
