HiSTORY HAS BEEN MADE!!!!

One last comment: A LOT of argument has gone on regarding "lazy unemployed people taking advantage of government welfare checks." Here's all I have to say to that:

Proof? I've heard this contention for years now and have never seen one statistic or figure showing the number of people who truly fall into this category.

I have first hand familiarity with them, having been involved in disabled services and having lived in government housing during childhood. We had more than one neighborhood babysitter who sat at home because she was "too fat too work" or w/e, got paid to not work and then took in money on the side doing things under the table like child-care for half the neighborhood, laundry services and so forth.

I've had the specific conversation before that, being deaf, a friend could make more money staying at home than dealing with a job, and know of other friends who broke up friendships and relationships for being on opposite sides of that divide - In both the deaf and blind communities there's a nasty polarization over those who want to be an accepted part of the work force and those who want to be "taken care of" and both groups feel the other undermines them.

I can assure you they do exist, and you won't find mamy statistics on them for the simple fact them being provable disqualifies them - Their livelihood really is dependent on not being public. Doesn't make them any less a needless leech. Also doesn't mean I condone cutting such services because someone's going to abuse them. Abuse is human nature, and should be dealt with or prevented where possible but not at the expense of those who really need it.

The Department of Human Services has an entire division for hunting them down - You can see http://dhs.dc.gov/dhs/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q...7C30980%7C there's a wellfare fraud board http://www.ucowf.org/ and this lovely article tries to explain why it's hard to tell http://www.corporatenarc.com/WelfareFraudStatistics.php