The story of how Wisconsin threatened to take away a pregnant woman's medical coverage and food stamps unless she quit her part-time job.
When I was finishing school in Michigan, I had some trouble making ends meet. The summer months were especially bad: I had no roommates to help pay rent and utilities, and my modest on-campus job dropped me down to less than 15 hours a week. Applying for a state welfare program had never crossed my mind--I never thought of myself as a welfare sort of guy. Then a friend told me about the magic of food stamps.
I was a little nervous; As I said, I had never applied for any sort of welfare before. But the process was fairly painless. The people at the department of human services (i.e., the welfare office) were non-judgmental, pleasant, and fast. I got my Bridge Card (the food stamps of the future) and was eating government-subsidized ramen noodles within about a week... and with my food stamps, I could even afford to have luxuries like chicken and ground beef again!
And to think that my application for food stamps was almost denied! No, it wasn't because I had a job; quite to the contrary, it was because I wasn't working enough. It was only after I verified that I was also a full-time student that I was granted those delicious food stamps. Apparently, in Michigan, you don't qualify for food stamps unless you're doing something (like work or school) for at least twenty hours a week.
It makes sense. Michigan wants to help only those who help themselves. They don't want to give every lazy deadbeat who walks in their door $150 in food stamps every month. (And of course there are other welfare programs in Michigan for those who simply can't work.)
That's why I was so surprised this year when the State of Wisconsin threatened to take away my pregnant fiancé's food stamps and state-sponsored medical insurance unless she quit her part-time mall job.
The money from that job was really helping. We had a lot of bills and a baby on the way. But once the government had given her that ultimatum, she had no choice--the state insurance was too important. Being married wouldn't have helped since I don't have insurance myself (but hey, I'm not the one who's pregnant.)
The Wisconsin government telling my fiancé to quit her job had implications that went far beyond financial. Quite simply, it's depressing to be out of work. (It's extra depressing in Wisconsin, but I digress...) Can you imagine "the man" telling you to quit your job? That's what "the man" does in Wisconsin. How would you feel if the same government who asks you to pay into social security and welfare programs every time you make a dollar turns around and tells you you're doing the wrong thing by trying to make a decent life for yourself and your unborn child? But alas, at thirty hours per week, she was working "too much" to qualify for food stamps and medical assistance by Wisconsin standards. It's not as though she was making a six-figure income and trying to scam some bonus welfare on top of it... we're talking about a central Wisconsin retail job with no benefits package whatsoever (unless you count the lucrative in-store employee discount.)
I get it. Really, I do. Welfare and food stamps are supposed to be for people who can't support themselves at the moment. That's true whether you're in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Cuba. But can Wisconsin justify punishing a pregnant lady for trying to better her situation? That's what systems like Wisconsin's amount to: punishing people who are semi-productive members of society and rewarding people who want to abuse welfare systems. Between medical, dental, vision, prescription coverage, and food stamps, it would be very lucrative for my fiancé to keep getting pregnant, stay on Wisconsin welfare and never work another day in her life.
It wouldn't be that hard to fix welfare up a little bit in Wisconsin and other states. Remember Michigan's food stamps system I was telling you about? It seems pretty foolproof: help decent people who need a hand up and tell the deadbeats they aren't getting help unless they start helping themselves a little bit. At least it doesn't encourage people to be scumbags the way Wisconsin's system does.
Or what about the option of having eligibility for food stamps and other welfare based on how much money a person made last year? The state already has everybody's tax information, so this would be even easier than asking somebody to prove how much money they are (or are not) currently making.
Somebody who was out of work and racked up significant bills in 2007 could benefit greatly from having a full-time job and government welfare simultaneously in 2008. Maybe we'd even see an end to the debt epidemic in this country if our welfare and food stamps laws were a little more thoughtful. I know it sounds far-fetched that a basically-good person who made a few bad choices or fell on hard times should ever be able to 1) have easy access to welfare and food stamps, or 2) get out of debt without filing for bankruptcy, but it'd actually be a pretty realistic goal with a little bit of welfare reform.
But who am I kidding? The government (Wisconsin and federal alike) wants us out of debt about as bad as the banks themselves do. It's just one more way to keep the masses oppressed and broken. Thanks, Wisconsin.
