Why do conservatives whine about welfare when its only 1% of the federal budget?

With remarks like?

why does the federal government have to feed the homeless and poor?

(working or otherwise) my add

got news for them ...the federal government doesn't....not to the extent that these people do

these are the people that feed the homeless and poor in Seattle.....

http://www.scn.org/crisis/meals.html

church outreach groups.

secular groups

radical nutjob vegan group:)(food not bombs)

But the conservatives don't know this.

And don't care to know this.

It's more fun to listen to Limbaugh mock the poor.

Or O'Reillys denials of Homeless Vets

excerpts from link

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

June 7, 2005

Mr. OBAMA introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

Congress finds that--

(1) homelessness is a serious problem in the United States;

(2) veterans, who have served and defended this Nation, are especially at risk for homelessness;

(3) the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that more than 250,000 veterans are homeless on any given night;

(4) an estimated 1 out of every 3 homeless men served in the Armed Forces;

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s.1180:

To hear the "conservatives" on these forums talk you would think that poor people are living in two bedroom houses with 1 1/2 bath with a late model car in the garage ....on the publics dime.

And they are eating steak and eggs for breakfast on food stamps.

food stamps?

or nowadays...the card that you have to enter pin with.....

for one person

40 bucks a month

not a great deal of money to keep somebody working at the minimum wage job at the labor contractor(Labor Ready for instance).

Go to any day labor place and if you don't find that half them people are living in shelters or in their cars...I would be surprised.

I could go on but you get my drift

it's fun to mock the poor...for god fearing conservatives that say they love Jesus:)

add: and some readers might want to know if I am getting any benefits?

The answer is no

except about two months ago when I had pay or quit notice slipped under my door and King County vets cut me a 350 dollar voucher to get the landlord off my ***.

http://www.metrokc.gov/dchs/csd/veteran/

which is financed by funds APPROVED by the VOTERS of KING COUNTY, WA

excerpt from link

The Veterans and Human Services Levy was passed by the voters of King County in November 2005 to generate much needed funding to help veterans, military personnel and their families and other individuals and families in need across the county through a variety of housing and supportive services.

http://www.metrokc.gov/dchs/Levy/

feds got nothing to do with this

tax dollars are safe

i am a conservative and i am not against ALL welfare. welfare has it's place, but it needs to be administered sparingly and as an emergency. not because i have no heart, but because i know if i sit in the living room and have my food brought ot me, i will stop making the trip myself. i am not against welfare so much because it takes my money, but because it isn't the right answer, the right answer is to get the person over the issue, not pave the way for the issue to continue. secondly..i am not for farm subsidies, or only to a limited basis. whenever you subsidize, you are tricking the market and there is a price to pay somewhere else, i am for things living and dying on their own merit..if the product is impoprtant enough, it will make it, a way will be found, if not, it wasn't a viable product, but there are times (when you are dealing with the food supply of the nation) where you may have to help out. the line about the percentage of the budget that welfare takes is not that much is a flawed argument. your dollar in the bank is not much either, i could take it and you wouldn't notice it being gone...if 10,000 of us all take a dollar, it means something. the government is full of "1 percent" issues..if those are controlled, the whole thing is controlled...and sometimes you do have to look at the actual amount and not just percentage.

The thing about welfare that Republicans don't like- is how many people used to live off welfare for their whole life.

Many believe welfare has failed- because we have 4th generation recipients.

I can attest to food stamps because i used them- the thing is though i only had to use them for one year, because i supported my dad,sister, and brother at 5.90/HR at walmart and moved us out of the city. My dad was alcoholic, and my sister was a lazy person who did nothing to help.

And ever since i experienced this- i find welfare recipients of over 10 years to be a disgrace- when i at the time a 18 year old person who never had a job before- worked for 63 hours a week at walmart for 5.90 a hour- supporting a family of 4- got us out of the city and into being financially secure, and self sufficient.

Now i did almost have to drop out of high school (i still had 1.5 years left) but i managed to graduate all the same at just after turning 19 a little less than a year ago.

So now, i am a avidly against the "once poor always poor" America is one of the few countries where hard work gets you into a good financial position.

But what i hate (As a ex-Republican yes at my age..lol) are people who do not get jobs, and live off tax paid welfare- which where originally implemented to help people become self sufficient- not sustain their lifestyles of addiction, and laziness.

When i lived under the poverty line in Newark Ohio (witch has a 50% poverty rate) I was astonished as just how big of a impact addiction has on fanatical life- out of 10 people in poverty- probably around 7-8 was because of addictions of one sort or another.

If we really want to end people's reliance on welfare- we need to provide jobs, and drug testing to welfare recipients.

Now jobs where lacking in Newark (Ohio) witch unsubtly contributed to the problem- but from what i saw was overwhelming drug addictions.

A sad thing was, my dad (when he was sober) ran across a 15 year old prostitute working for the sake of her drug addicted father.

If we spent half the money on finding cures for addictions, then we do with Medicare or the price of maintaining long-term welfare- we would find ourselves in a less state-aid depended state of mind.

@zuezug

He is right, every Sunday 2nd prez (2nd Presbyterian Church) had a extremely large amount of food- and open doors all costing nothing.

I can't say how many times i had a good beef sandwich their, and listened to the word of the Lord. Even if you do not wish to listion to the after dinner serman- you are free to come in, get a bite to eat and leave.

Churches by far do the most good- charity organizations. Although the government does a vital service- i believe Churches do a much better job- for a fraction of the price.

Now, you must take into account that Churches (as much as they try) can not feed everyone, nor should ever be expected to- i believe we should instead of spending so much on welfare- give some of that money to Churches who provide aid to people 1st hand- instead of sending a food card to them over 4,000 miles.

But what i do not agree with him on (when i read the rest of his statement) is that Conservatives are somehow 'detached' from the reality of this situation- mainly because I'm a Conservative! Wouldn't I have a much better account of what the problem is, considering i lived at a 10k Capita in a rather bad city?

I lived only a few steerts away from MT vernon for Gods sake! , its the drug dealers housing lane!

How could i possibly not "understand" the problem? I think i have a much better understanding of what it's like that you could ever possibly have.

Ok well I am a not so rich Republican and I have seen through my work (I used to be a case worker for an aid organization) that people on Welfare tend to abuse it. Now I am not saying everyone is there are some who use it as it wass intended and even more who need it who don't use it. I think Welfare should be severly reformed so that it is used as intended and not as a crutch.

Well they can't whine about the "rebate", billion dollar war tab, unemployment bennies for displaced workers, or money going to those who've lost their homes, so they have to blame the deficit on somebody-and the perfect somebody is the poor, who have no one to stand up for them.

Conservatives so like that self-righteous rant like: "I work for a living and deserve my rebate and social security; those are not social programs, since I'm getting them". Plus, the ever compassionate "If you're poor you deserve it and are lazy, unchristian and unAmerican".

I agree, why do they whine? there all about being conserative; spend little, "family values"(when did invading nations become a family value and helping out the poor and disabled isnt?), mild intervention policy, etc. Now look at them, you have one of them that has sex in airport bathrooms, drug abusers, and spent $10trillion on iraq. Only, i repeat ONLY reason why democrats are not in charge of house-senate-white house is BECUASE the democrats were the only party that helped the civil rights campiagn(No good deed goes unpunished).

Now, before you say "oh your wrong, republicans didnt gain power that way" do your research.

Democrats are the best political party,they have actual "values"; help out minoritys, help out disable, help out poor, wont limit your rights (republicans limit constitional rights).

Obviously you've been day dreaming with Obama..And, you like he, have no clue as to what "work" means...I feel very sorry for those of you who must rely on a government to think for you and who knows what is best for you!

People on welfare, and who deserve it, should get it..And those of you who used them as your rallying cry, are the ones who do the most injustice to human integrity!!

yes i've always wondered this too,i don't know if the federal budget is 1% but i do know that welfare account for 3% of all government spending,this is federal,local and state government combined

I don't give a crap if its .00001% of the federal budget. I still don't support a system that gifts my inferiors with the wealth and privilege of a productive life.

They whine about welfare because it's a good distraction from what they are really doing.