Working your way off of welfare, and into a successful job that earns a family income that makes ends meet is an American responsibility three of the five San Diego House members have tried to stop the Obama administration from making amount to nothing for American on welfare who take home a TANF payment. The Preserving Welfare Work Requirement Act that passed the House this Wednesday the 13th on an overwhelming Republican vote would fund the cash assistance program until the en of the year, but go above the President's head and prevent the Health and Human Services secretary from giving block grant money to state that fail to get welfare recipients to work.
Breaking the cycle of poverty by getting welfare recipients into a job makes the TANF payment worth the money to Republican Duncan Hunter who voted for the end to the waiver on the work requirement Clinton made national policy in 1996, with Rep. Darrell Issa (R) and Rep. Scott Peters (D). Throwing out the requirement he proposed to change to a more full requirement, by raising the hours per week to 40 necessary work hours instead of 30 hours, and raising the count states have to get off the rolls and into a job from 50 percent to 70 percent, would be a blow to the welfare reform he gives credit for raising the employment rate among the poor. The high road, to him, takes a commitment to not letting children stay in poverty because their parents do not marry, and the father fails to give the child the family support that makes fatherhood a labor of love.
Hunter lined up behind the bill's author, Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), who, motivated by the 83 percent of American survey respondents that support a work requirement, said on the floor, the "best way out of poverty is a job." President Obama's July 2012 memorandum that gave the states the opportunity to ask the Secretary to waive the work requirement gave Camp a justification for citing a another number on the floor, the 16 years no one from either party tried to meddle with the requirement and waive the need to get those on welfare into a job.
In San Diego, the welfare to work policy is not settled.
New representative Juan Vargas (D), a no vote on Wednesday, plans on San Diego having a steady recovery in an economy that keeps fewer and fewer workers out of a job. The above 25 percent unemployment workers in his district in Imperial County still experience has slowed down productivity that can lead to any rags to riches stories. A drop in federal job creation investments might keep the employed count down. A drop Vargas is trying to guard locals against by opposing the House Republican budget he says is a master stroke against job creation that would lower jobs nationwide by 2 million jobs.
Is this the proper time to force the unemployed, and the underemployed, to find a job that fits their family needs?
Workers have to prove they can support their family. Income inequality, the other no vote, Susan Davis (D), says, makes fully supporting a family rough. Moving up the minimum wage to above 8 dollars an hour keeps the incumbent legislator at work. Rep. George Miller's (D-CA) latest Fair Minimum Wage Act is in her plans for helping minimum wage workers succeed during the recovery. This week, she said, "earning mimimum wage should not mean living in poverty or struggling to pay the bills."
Cutting TANF payments to the states that fail does not fit in the two Democrats plans to save labor in San Diego.
Sidestepping the work requirement fits the recovery times, for now.
This is an On The Watch Take.
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