@TheStonesEG@wpro Dan Yorke has been in a foul mood all week because his good pal McKee is behind in the polls. He's been ranting and raving and hanging up on everyone who disagrees with him.
Following up on yesterday's post, I'm seeing confusion about what happened when I helped Texas save a billion on waste and fraud.
Did that work deny benefits to those who desperately needed them? No. In the course of my company's prime contract with Texas to provide and maintain the software behind the State's Lone Star Card, we distributed well over $100 billion in benefits.
Where did the savings come from? With the move away from Food Stamp coupons that arrived in the mail, we stopped tens of thousands of thefts of those benefits. We found many individuals who were signed up multiple times and were improperly receiving more benefits than they were allowed. We stopped a significant amount of retailer-based fraud, in which stores that accepted the Lone Star Card were stealing or improperly using its benefits.
I am not aware of any benefit recipient who was improperly denied benefits, at least not due to any of the findings my company delivered.
When the benefits system works efficiently, everyone involved is better off. More benefits were used by individuals and families whose benefits were stolen. Store owners who scammed the system and the benefit recipients were stopped, and some were prosecuted for their crimes.
For those who were receiving double or triple what they were eligible for, yes, they ended up with less after we identified and fixed the issues. This was a proper reduction in benefits, bringing those accounts in line with legal and regulatory requirements.
Careful, proper review and adjustments to systems like this are good, not bad.
The social safety net is a critical need, without which many people and children would be in great trouble.
Please share.
Bill Maher asks how the government is “failing the poor so badly” when he pays “60 PERCENT” of his earnings in taxes.
“Last week was tax day… I paid the government probably almost 60% of what I earn. That’s a lot.”
“And I… wouldn’t mind if Bernie Sanders would stop saying the rich don’t pay taxes.”
“The top 10% pay 72% of all federal income taxes. And the bottom half, 3%.”
“The Democratic Socialists talk about socialism like we don’t already have a lot: Social Security, unemployment, Medicare, nutritional assistance, Medicaid, Obamacare, disability, housing subsidies.”
“How can you be soaking the rich and failing the poor so badly? How can it be that the federal government alone took in over 5 trillion in taxes last year, and we still need that?”
“Are we really this incompetent and corrupt?”
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers show us how it is done in this great rollerskating number from 1937’s “Shall We Dance”. The song is the Gershwin tune “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”.
Ben Sasse is so inspiring, moving, and brave. So brave to bring us all along on his journey—it’s a wow to me that he has the courage to do this. Thank you, @BenSasse.
@mariashriver@BenSasse I read/watched this last night. God bless Ben Sasse. What a wonderful, thoughtful man. I pray for a miracle. This world needs him.