Editor,
It’s interesting how the writer of Tuesday’s “welfare queen” letter makes a statement that has a touch of truth.
She then flips that truth like a burger, attacks the person she cited, offers no proof to support her attack statements, then wraps her monologue with a parting shot to reinforce her attack.
Well done, Ms. Kay Simmons.
Ronald Reagan did point out there were “welfare queens.” I was there. I heard what he said and read what he wrote. He never made it racial; Simmons did by attacking Reagan with a “straw man” argument. And Simmons’ backhanded attack portrays all who question welfare as racists. Why did she do this?
The reality is that the people who are on/qualify for welfare are in this position for three reasons supported by empirical research:
1. Unmarried moms. Most are high school dropouts, have neither the education nor work skills to justify being hired for anything but low-paying jobs. The cost to feed and clothe a growing kid means living on welfare at taxpayers’ expense. I did say most.
2. High school dropouts send a message to an employer: This person has little focus and self-discipline, and may have difficulty reading manuals and other instructions. Employers might question if these employees can communicate properly with customers.
3. Those with a criminal history, often involving drugs. Employers are responsible for the employees’ actions. If an employee has a history of theft, violent crime, drug use and commits a crime during work, the employer can face financial loss via a lawsuit. Just ask the law school folks who will argue the employer knew that employee presented a danger; hence he is financially responsible, not the criminal who owns nothing.
Reagan and others argue that any person who fits into these three groups is there by choice. Other than by rape, it is your choice to put yourself into these categories. It is the progressive/liberal ideology that denies this truth and demands that taxpayers give them our money.
Hubert Humphrey and Daniel Patrick Moynihan spoke about the deteriorating family because of expanding welfare. Humphrey spoke about the disintegration of the “negro family” as a direct consequence of the “Great Society” welfare programs imposed by LBJ. Reagan did not make it racial; Humphrey and Simmons have.
Job growth and the “welfare queen” have nothing in common, except for what Simmons has done: Take a fact, twist it and imply that Reagan — and by subtle implication his supporters — have racial bias as their issue rather than job growth. Simmons is quite clever. Is she running for office soon?
This century has seen the permanent loss of 8 million U.S. manufacturing jobs.
The EPA and state regulations, tax laws, the cost of mandates and liability are the factors that impact job creation and loss. The cost of natural gas used to fire porcelain sinks, tubs, toilets is less in Mexico than in New Mexico, and so is the cost of labor and benefits.
It is less expensive to harvest chile in Hatch and take the crop to Mexico and roast them than to do so in the U.S. Brazil will drill in the Gulf of Mexico using funding that comes from the export/import bank. Some of that funding is our tax dollars.
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We prohibit drilling and do not give that financial support to U.S. corporations. China will drill in the Caribbean.
Do you think those nation’s oil companies have to comply with U.S. law, pay taxes, provide benefits and hire U.S. citizens?
Simmons, rather than the attack you mounted, look at the serious problems our nation faces and their causes so you can offer constructive solutions.
Phillip Howel
Community member
