When Conservatives' Fortunes Sag, Haul Out Some Old-Fashioned Welfare Bashing

The Walker administration has hit a bad patch again, what with officials having their homes raided, computers seized, reputations immunized, and focus John Doed - - to say nothing of a recall movement heading Walker's way (what is his magic number again?) - - so what better way to flip the news and cause a distracting commotion for the entertainment of the base than a little old-fashioned, over-reacting welfare-bashing.

Some Social Development Commission board members said Monday they were surprised to learn the state has threatened to terminate part of the agency's $24.8 million Wisconsin Works contract if it doesn't correct continuing problems and complaints in providing emergency assistance to needy families...

If the plan does not satisfy the state, or if there are any more complaints, the emergency assistance portion of the grant will be terminated, said the Sept. 12 letter from Kristiane Randal, administrator of the state Division of Family and Economic Security...

The emergency assistance program provides money to needy families with children who meet poverty income guidelines, especially families facing eviction and possible homelessness because of a financial crisis.

It's so easy. 

Because the poor are not organized to fight back with the same PR machinery that a Governor and his administrators control.

And winter is approaching, so throw the fear of God into the unemployed, the homeless and struggling parents - - not with a reasonable request for plan improvements, but with an ultimatum, in writing, for a fix in one working day.

That'll teach 'em what compassionate conservatism is all about, score some political points at the same time, and continue the fiction that our economic problems have more to do with poor people, not hedge fund manipulators, real estate sharpies and job-creators sending work to low-wage countries.

These Walkerites are big fans of Ronald Reagan's, and he's the one who set the poor-bashing bar high with his "welfare queen" whopper:

Over a period of about five years, Reagan told the story of the "Chicago welfare queen" who had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and collected benefits for "four nonexisting deceased husbands," bilking the government out of "over $150,000." The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him.  

Scapegoat found. Problem solved.