Came across this blog today - 20 things the poor do every day. It is a must read and one everyone should reference when speaking to TeaPublicans. I dont want to repost the entire thing but go below the orange squiggle for some of the highlights.
5. Work longer and harder than most of us.
While it’s popular to think people are poor because they’re lazy (which seems to be the whole point of Ramsey’s post), the poor actually work longer and harder than the rest of us. More than 80 percent of impoverished children have at least one parent who works; 60 percent have at least one parent who works full-time. Overall, the poor work longer hours than the so-called “job creators.” (Source: Poverty and Learning, April 2008)
Probably my second biggest beef with the poor hating TeaPublicans. "Get a job!" Hey asshole, I had three jobs when I was poor and the BEST one paid $4.25 an hour.
9. Pay more than their fair share of taxes.
Some conservative pundits and politicians like to think the poor don’t pay their fair share, that they are merely “takers.” While it’s true the poor don’t pay as much in federal income tax — usually because they don’t earn enough to qualify — they do pay sales tax, payroll tax, etc. In fact, the bottom 20% of earners pay TWICE as much in taxes (as a share of their income) as do the top 1%.
(Source: Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, January 2013)
17. Receive less in subsidized benefits than corporations.
The US government spends around $60 billion on public housing and rental subsidies for low-income families, compared to more than $90 billion on corporate subsidies. Oil companies alone get around $70 billion. And that’s not counting the nearly $60 billion a year in tax breaks corporations enjoy by sheltering profits offshore. Or the $700 billion bailout banks got in 2008.
(Source: Think By Numbers)
My Biggest beef with TeaPublicans. For some reason in TeaPublican world the only tax that matters is Federal Income tax. And public assistance to the rich makes public assistance to the poor look...poor. Heck my PERSONAL public assistance is going to be close to $1000 a month this year just in mortgage interest credit and 401K. Toss in tax credits for college tuition for my daughter, 25% of my income being tax exempt (military housing and food allowance) and Tax exempt gains to my Roth IRA and I am well over $1500 a month. How many SNAP recipients get $1500 a month?
18. Get themselves off welfare as soon as possible.
Despite the odds, the vast majority of beneficiaries leave the welfare rolls within five years. Even in the absence of official welfare-to-work programming, most welfare recipients enroll in some form of vocational training. Why? Because they’re desperate to get off welfare. (Source: US Department of Health and Human Services)
I went off on a coworker about this last week. I asked him if he had ever been poor. if he had ever gone to sleep hungry. Ever had to choose to not eat so his children could. I received WIC when my daughter was born. I worked full time. My wife worked full time. We lived in a low cost area. We were still poor and WIC was the difference between everyone in the family eating or not. 14 months. Once in my life for 14 months. I can NEVER give enough back to my country, to you all, to thank you for feeding my family. Despite that I could not wait to get OFF assistance and never want to be there again. I never again wan to have to go get interrogated about what I fed my daughter, what I bought at the store and how I should be doing it differently (from someone with no kids no less). I never want to have to endure THOSE looks when I pulled out my WIC certificates. Even at Food 4 Less I would get THOSE looks.
Please read the rest of it and send people the link. It pretty much rebuts every TeaPublic talking point about there poor and taxes.
And thank you.