Welfare

Bread and circuses? Welfare and Democrats! JERRY CAO San Pedro

Los Angeles County supervisors gave a six-month extension to a citizens' commission that was asked to recommend reforms to the county's frequently troubled Department of Children and Family Services and other agencies responsible for child welfare. The Board of Supervisors voted in June to create the 10-member commission, which is made up of educators, child advocates, retired judges and law enforcement officials, and includes former DCFS head David Sanders. The move was prompted by the death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez in May. The boy's mother and her boyfriend were charged with murder and torture.

Re "Healthcare bill targets big firms," June 1 I take great exception to the notion that a large retailer whose employees are on Medicaid "puts a burden on taxpayers. " Offering a job to an adult should not impose a societal burden on the employer to care for the adult. By proposing to penalize employers for employing people without providing health insurance, legislators are likely to incentivize employers not to hire as many people. What would this accomplish? If a burden is placed on the taxpayers, it is placed by the Legislature.

The college application essay was the tipoff. It was beautifully written but painfully rendered; a high school student's story of her family's tumble from middle-class stability into homelessness and addiction. It helped Danielle Stone earn a spot at UCLA. But it also drew her family into a yearlong odyssey through Los Angeles County's child welfare system. A teacher who read the essay notified social workers. They visited the family in the San Pedro motel they moved into after a string of evictions.

Effective justice: The federal judiciary rejects welfare cuts because they affect poor families (July 14)--yet sanctions retroactive income taxes that negatively affect the general welfare of almost every family. HUGH GLENN Irvine

Re "Nightmares are coming true," Column, June 8 George Skelton has indeed penned a tear-jerker, but he somehow missed the gorilla in the room. Eighty years ago, Americans were in the habit of taking care of themselves and their own. Families rallied around unfortunates like "Jean," as did their friends and neighbors. Private charities abounded. Now, after four generations of welfare, millions of Americans look to government for the necessities of life. Wards of the state, they are at the mercy of politicians who promise more than they can deliver.

In response to Charles Krauthammer's Column Right, "Pull the Plug on Welfare to Solve Poverty," Nov. 21: Decent jobs that provide day care for poor mothers will stop poverty, not denying them and their illegitimate children health benefits, school lunches, and money with which to survive. Krauthammer's narrow-minded solution does nothing to solve the real problem of illegitimacy: namely, the lack of a father in the home. Instead of penalizing children, why not force men to take equal responsibility for the kids they father?

A blue-ribbon commission on child protection, set to meet Thursday for the first time, was formed in response to the death earlier this year of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez of Palmdale after county Department of Children and Family Services workers missed or ignored warning signs and complaints that the boy was being regularly and severely abused. This week, county officials announced that they had taken steps to fire four workers involved in the Palmdale boy's case, and that others had received warning or reprimand letters.

Under the Supreme Court's wrongheaded Citizens United decision, corporate spending on independent political advertising may not be limited. So it's not surprising that Democrats are organizing two so-called super PACs, similar to ones already created by Republicans, that can raise huge amounts of money from corporations and wealthy individuals. The best that can be said about these new organizations is that they must make some disclosure of the identities of their contributors. That isn't the case with another sort of organization, known as a 501(c)

Kilpatrick should be pleased to learn that real welfare payments (in constant dollars) have been falling since the late '70s. Thus, there should have been a decline in the poverty rate, but the opposite has been observed. This less-than-pleasing result should serve as a caution to all those interested in reducing poverty. If the wrong figures are used, one can "prove" that business cycles cause sunspots, or that welfare causes poverty. Kilpatrick is right to be suspicious of statistics, given how poor his analysis of them seems to be. His credulous reporting of the differences in poverty between the 10 highest- and 10 lowest-benefit states is hard to take at face value.

Frank Tripucka Broncos quarterback in first AFL season Frank Tripucka, 85, who quarterbacked the Denver Broncos in their inaugural AFL season and later allowed his No. 18 to be unretired so Peyton Manning could wear it, died Thursday in Woodland Park, N.J., the Broncos announced. His family said he had congestive heart failure. A former standout at Notre Dame, Tripucka played for the Detroit Lions, Chicago Cardinals and Dallas Texans in the NFL and for Saskatchewan and Ottawa in Canada.

Michael Tanner's provocative Op-Ed in The Times on Thursday tries to make the case that welfare benefits are too generous because they leave the recipients better off than they would be if they held a job. His argument is undermined by a number of important factors he leaves out of his calculations, such as the benefits available to low-income workers. Still, he (unwittingly) makes a good case for the provisions in the 2010 healthcare law that make insurance coverage more available and affordable to low-income Americans.

“Why get off welfare?' was the provocative question posed by an opinion piece that ran in The Times on Aug. 22. “While poor people are not lazy, they are not stupid either,” writes author Michael D. Tanner of the Cato Institute. “If you pay people more not to work than they can earn at a job, many won't work.” Times readers got right to work crafting their wry and impassioned responses. A few backed Tanner and his findings, but more seconded the observation by Ken Feldman of Chino Hills : “The conclusion that Tanner reached from his exhaustive analysis appears to be the wrong one. Instead, he has made the perfect case for an increase in the minimum wage.” Among the other reactions: Jay Smith of Bakersfield wrote spiritedly: “Boy, you sure have to hand it to the Cato Institute.

Contrary to stereotypes, there is no evidence that people on welfare are lazy. Indeed, surveys of welfare recipients consistently show their desire for a job. But there is also evidence that many are reluctant to accept available employment opportunities. Despite work requirements included in the 1996 welfare reform, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says less than 42% of adult welfare recipients participate in work activities nationwide. Why the contradiction? Perhaps it's because, while poor people are not lazy, they are not stupid either.

California does its best to keep plenty of distance between food stamps and the people who need them and qualify for them, as The Times' Evan Halper's detailed Saturday . That story reminded us on The Times' editorial board of the many foolish laws and policies the state has regarding food stamps, and the number of times we have criticized those laws and policies. For example, in 2010, we said it was silly for the state to make recipients be recertified every three months instead of every six, the way most other states do it. "The attempt to squeeze every penny is understandable, but this is a heartless decision - and pound-foolish as well.

It's not a typo: The South Central L.A. Tea Party exists, and Jesse Lee Peterson takes a bow for founding it. He's also president and founder of the 23-year-old black bootstraps group Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, or BOND, and serves as pastor for a nondenominational congregation at its headquarters. As his public pronouncements make clear, he detests Planned Parenthood and legal abortion, welfare and the California-born black holiday Kwanzaa. He used to hold a "national day of repudiation" against Jesse Jackson; he has his doubts about women in high places.

As a developer of shopping malls, including 22 in California, Westfield Group clearly takes its responsibilities to the consumer economy seriously. The Australian company's malls are typically well-designed and anchored by the finest department stores, such as Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom. The firm spends gobs of money to refurbish its older malls. As a California taxpayer, you should be proud of Westfield's efforts. That's because you're paying through the nose for them. Over the years the company has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in favorable tax assessments, as a recent study documents.

Moreno Valley Councilman Marcelo Co resigned Tuesday, a day after he was charged with fraudulently collecting $15,000 in home support services for his mother while she lived overseas. Co, 64, was taken into custody Monday afternoon after the Riverside County district attorney's office filed eight felony counts, including grand theft, fraud and making a false claim. The 4th District councilman submitted his resignation from the seat he won in November 2010. In a letter to Mayor Tom Owings, Marcelo tendered his resignation, adding, "I wish you and the City continued success and I want the opportunity to thank you and my colleagues...