Welfare queens
Easter Sunday I watched an MSNBC TV segment with Melissa Harris-Perry where the subject was the now infamous ‘welfare queens’. Remember Ronald Reagan demonizing those he said milked the system and drove Cadillacs while cashing welfare checks and receiving perks from government? Some, without a hint of having done an hour of work, the ex president said, managed to receive six-figure compensation from an overextended government welfare system. It needed fixing, we were told. And fixing they did. The money was sent upwards instead of to those most in need.
It turns out those welfare queens do exist. They come in the form of Bank of America, Target, Walmart and others. Right here in Miami we recently turned over hundreds of millions, of what we now know are wasted dollars, to the Miami Marlins organization; we’re headed down another slippery path with the Miami Dolphins. Our local and beloved football team is requesting that WE pay for upgrades and a new roof on THEIR stadium. A structure that sits on OUR land for which they pay one dollar a year rent for a century. In return they’ve promised Super Bowls, jobs and more jobs. Ask Little Havana residents how many real jobs were created after the baseball stadium was built. And other than clogged traffic, and for 10 lucky people who get invited to the million dollar parties they lavish on these bullies, how do I (Joe Citizen) benefit from this football game I watch on TV? Who can afford the almost thousand dollar prize tag per ticket?
Take the case of Dasani water in northern Florida. Owned by Coca Cola, it pays no taxes in exchange for keeping their bottling business here.
For someone with the time, I suggest a project adding up how much corporate welfare reduces the Florida coffers. When added up, the tax dollars lost, together with dollars given away, is larger than the actual tax dollars collected on a yearly basis.
Let me repeat this: more money is exempted and handed over to RICH corporate citizens on a yearly basis than what we end up collecting! But we keep doing it while being told the state is in a money crunch. No kidding! Our politicians and “leaders” keep giving it away to those who least need it.
The argument for continuing to fund these welfare queens is jobs. They ask for the breaks and get it in exchange for the jobs that will be created. Those jobs numbers are never checked and hardly ever proven. As time goes by and those leaders and politicians notice they’re not getting the bang for their buck, they approach the welfare queens with their complaints and the question: Where are the jobs? But by now the queens have the system by the neck (it’s really another part of the male anatomy…). Their answer is simple: no tax breaks (remember they’ve already spent the money we gave them) and we’ll pull our store out after our lease is up. Leaving the few people who are employed without jobs – and a big empty hole or structure in the middle of Downtown Miami.
Think about what you just read the next time a politician tells you they’ve got to cut a government program meant for our elderly citizens or even our children. Their reason will probably be that they can’t afford it. Of course they can’t, it’s in the pockets of the real welfare queens Ronny Reagan created when he went on his rampage against the poor.
If you’ve got a few minutes watch the Melissa Harris-Perry segment that follows.
Alvaro F. Fernandez
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