Personal Responsibility And Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act

Question: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996? Is this Act constitution? I thought this act expired and Bush never reactivated the law. Could you sue on the government on this matter?

Answer: The Act did indeed expire. However, the act permanently did away with some of the open-ended welfare programs that existed before 1996, so the expiration of the Act doesn't take us back to where we were in 1996. Although Congress has not renewed the Act (It would be up to Congress to do so, by the way, *not* the President) it has continued to fund the two replacement welfare programs (TANF and JOBS) that it created. Richard

Question: Discuss the major provisions of the personal responsibility and work opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996? AP Government.

Answer: https://powerofsocialwork.org/advocacy/w…

Question: I know that Clinton signed the welfare reform act that Republicans pushed for, did Clinton have a...? ...alternative solution. Also Obama was elected in the senate in 1997 a year after the bill was passed, but what did he have to say about it during his campaign and during the time that he was community leader in Chicago. I am referring to the: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act

Answer: As I recall Clinton was on-board with welfare reform - no need for a plan B. Obama was in the Illinois State Senate in the late 90's so welfare reform would not have been something he dealt with.

Question: anyone a lawyer willing to sue county hospitals? County hospitals in texas are paying for care of illegal that is not allowed by law. The law states they can only pay for non-emergency care if its done with money from the fed's only. Not with local money. Parkland hospital in Dallas doesnt ask ones legal status and gives free care to illegals. Here is a letter from a senator in Texas who says its illegal. Anyone a lawyer? I want to sue! Dear Thank you for contacting me regarding recent federal legislation and its impact on local entities administering non-emergency health care to illegal immigrants. The federal Deficit Reduction Act, passed earlier this year by Congress, requires states to verify the citizenship of applicants for Medicaid benefits. Prior to the Act, illegal immigrants were not eligible for Medicaid benefits. Illegal immigrants remain ineligible for Medicaid benefits under the new provisions; however, the number of illegal immigrants unlawfully receiving benefits could now conceivably decrease because of the more stringent verification requirements. The federal Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 provides that illegal immigrants are ineligible for state and local public benefits unless a state enacts a law affirmatively providing that they are eligible for certain benefits. In Texas, local hospitals are permitted, but not required, to provide non-emergency public health services to illegal immigrants who are otherwise ineligible under federal law. However, the local entity may only use local funds for this purpose and is prohibited from using state or federal funds. The federal Deficit Reduction Act does not impact a local entity's right to provide non-emergency benefits to illegal immigrants since no state or federal funds may be utilized and the hospitals are not receiving Medicaid reimbursements. I would encourage you to share your concerns regarding local hospitals' decisions to offer non-emergency health services with those that have chosen to do so, and will also remain mindful of your inquiry as I continue to closely monitor this issue. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me again regarding any matter of importance to you. Very truly yours, Senator Jane Nelson

Answer: My husband is a lawyer, but is licensed in California, Utah, Missouri and Kansas....if you need advice on the process, the wording...or whatever....he can give you direction....Many people can conduct a lawsuit themselves if they keep all the paperwork going in the right order. Contact the Minutemen organization in your state. My husband works for the Utah Minutemen pro bono....usually there is someone in each state who will do this....Arizona also has some good attorneys and they might be also licensed in Texas...dual licensing is common near the state borders. You can write me at my address on my page.... I am under the impression you are anti-illegal....if you are pro-illegal and pro-spending for people who have no busines here...we are not on the same page.....

Question: are illegal immigrants a threat to our public health? With the new strain of TB we keep reading about, malaria, chagas disease and all these others illegals are bringing in, how is it not a public health issue? How much does this cost the taxpayer yearly? While the president said he was opposed to providing health care coverage to illegal aliens, he did note a caveat: "The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children, partly because if you've got children who may be here illegally but are still in playgrounds or at schools, and potentially are passing on illnesses and communicable diseases, that aren't getting vaccinated, that I think is a situation where you may have to make an exception." (CBS News, July 21, 2009). The federal government has already addressed this issue. Section 403(c)(2)(E) of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) allows illegal aliens to access "[p]ublic health assistance…for immunizations with respect to immunizable diseases and for testing and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases whether or not such symptoms are caused by a communicable disease." (Public Law 104-193, August 22, 1996). In other words, it is not necessary, as President Obama has suggested, to further expand illegal aliens' access to taxpayer-funded health care in order to provide illegal alien children preventative care.

Answer: First Case of Highly Drug-Resistant TB Found in US It started with a cough, an autumn hack that refused to go away.Then came the fevers. They bathed and chilled the skinny frame of Oswaldo Juarez, a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English. His lungs clattered, his chest tightened and he ached with every gasp. During a wheezing fit at 4 a.m., Juarez felt a warm knot rise from his throat. He ran to the bathroom sink and spewed a mouthful of blood. I'm dying, he told himself, "because when you cough blood, it's something really bad." It was really bad, and not just for him. Doctors say Juarez's incessant hack was a sign of what they have both dreaded and expected for years — this country's first case of a contagious, aggressive, especially drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. The Associated Press learned of his case, which until now has not been made public, as part of a six-month look at the soaring global challenge of drug resistance. Juarez's strain — so-called extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB — has never before been seen in the U.S., according to Dr. David Ashkin, one of the nation's leading experts on tuberculosis. XXDR tuberculosis is so rare that only a handful of other people in the world are thought to have had it. "He is really the future," Ashkin said. "This is the new class that people are not really talking too much about. These are the ones we really fear because I'm not sure how we treat them." Forty years ago, the world thought it had conquered TB and any number of other diseases through the new wonder drugs: Antibiotics. U.S. Surgeon General William H. Stewart announced it was "time to close the book on infectious diseases and declare the war against pestilence won." Today, all the leading killer infectious diseases on the planet — TB, malaria and HIV among them — are mutating at an alarming rate, hitchhiking their way in and out of countries. The reason: Overuse and misuse of the very drugs that were supposed to save us. Just as the drugs were a manmade solution to dangerous illness, the problem with them is also manmade. It is fueled worldwide by everything from counterfeit drugmakers to the unintended consequences of giving drugs to the poor without properly monitoring their treatment. Here's what the AP found: — In Cambodia, scientists have confirmed the emergence of a new drug-resistant form of malaria, threatening the only treatment left to fight a disease that already kills 1 million people a year. — In Africa, new and harder to treat strains of HIV are being detected in about 5 percent of new patients. HIV drug resistance rates have shot up to as high as 30 percent worldwide. — In the U.S., drug-resistant infections killed more than 65,000 people last year — more than prostate and breast cancer combined. More than 19,000 people died from a staph infection alone that has been eliminated in Norway, where antibiotics are stringently limited. "Drug resistance is starting to be a very big problem. In the past, people stopped worrying about TB and it came roaring back. We need to make sure that doesn't happen again," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was himself infected with tuberculosis while caring for drug-resistant patients at a New York clinic in the early '90s. "We are all connected by the air we breathe, and that is why this must be everyone's problem." This April, the World Health Organization sounded alarms by holding its first drug-resistant TB conference in Beijing. The message was clear — the disease has already spread to all continents and is increasing rapidly. Even worse, WHO estimates only 1 percent of resistant patients received appropriate treatment last year.

Question: What can we expect from a Clinton president, will history repeat itself? • Democrats in House and Senate • • 1993-02-05 - Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 • 1993-08-10 - Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 - Raised income tax rates; income tax, top rate: 39.6%; corporate tax: 35% • 1993-11-30 - Brady Bill Democrats lose House and Senate to Republicans • • 1994-09-13 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, part of an omnibus crime bill, the federal death penalty was expanded to some 60 different offenses (see Federal assault weapons ban) • 1996-02-01 - Communications Decency Act • 1996-02-08 - Telecom Reform Act: eliminated major ownership restrictions for radio and television groups. • • Clinton pressured by Republicans to sign welfare reform after 2 veto’s to win reelection • • 1996-02-26 - Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, a welfare reform bill • 1996-03-14 - authorized $100 million counter-terrorism agreement with Israel to track down and root out terrorists. • 1996-04-09 - Line Item Veto Act • 1996-04-24 - Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act • 1996-08-20 - Minimum wage Increase Act • 1996-09-21 - Defense of Marriage Act, allowed states to refuse recognition of certain same-sex marriages, and defined marriage as between a male and female for purposes of federal law • 1997-08-05 - Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 • 1998-10-28 - Digital Millennium Copyright Act • 1998-10-31 - Iraq Liberation Act

Answer: Come on. You're cherry picking items from the legislative record to try and make the republicans look good and and the Clinton's look bad. I'm not going to bother going through them one by one except to point out that many of them were purely symbolic and some were overturned by the courts as being unconstitutional. In addition the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 is what lead to the budget surpluses at the end of Clinton's term (you didn't include that in your list). It's also something that Newt Gingrich tried to take credit for even though it was passed before the republicans regained control.

Question: Challenge: have you read...? The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 - otherwise known as 'The Welfare Reform Act' - Have you read it? even heard of it? did you agree with it? why or why not? The Challenge is - if you haven't read it - why not give it a try; it is 251 pages long, and effects poor people in the US on every level of their domestic affairs - from child support to domestic violence - etc, etc, etc.

Answer: wow

Question: Is this sexist? Is this sexist? On this forum, some ppl think VAWA is sexist b/c it has the word "women" in the title (yet VAWA funds programs that serve men). Based on that logic, are the Responsible Fatherhood Acts sexist? Based upon the growing interest in increasing father involvement with their children, Congress included measures in its welfare reform legislation to address the access and economic problems of noncustodial parents. In 1997, 1998, and 1999, Congress appropriated $10 million to states to promote the development of a variety of programs designed to alleviate the problems associated with access and visitation. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act also requires states to have the authority to order noncustodial parents who are delinquent in child support into work activities if their children are receiving public assistance, and approximately 18 states have developed programs to provide employment and training services to low-income noncustodial parents who are delinquent in child support into work activities if their children are receiving public assistance, and approximately 18 states have developed programs to provide employment and training services to low-income noncustodial fathers (Sorensen, 1997). Congressional interest has remained high, and in 1999, the House of Representatives passed the Fathers Count Act of 1999 (H.R. 3073), which proposes spending $140 million over four years to support and evaluate projects to help fathers meet their responsibilities as husbands, parents, and providers. To date, no corresponding bill has been passed by the Senate. These eight programs, collectively referred to as the Responsible Fatherhood Projects. My brother worked in a jail. VAWA does NOT put innocent men in jail. IN fact, there is still a problem with jailing abusive men. Next lie? DV, rape and stalking were NOT adequately covered prior to VAWA. Up until the 70s, most cops walked away from domestic calls. So, only half the population was getting justice. VAWA helps ensure crimes against the other half get met. Moreover, services that rcv money often serve both genders. Programs that receive money from VAWA often serve BOTH Men and Women. Proof otherwise of WIDESPREAD agencies getting money for women only? All the nonprofits I know (and I know many, living in a city) serve both genders.

Answer: it's all sexist to our anti-fems on here. just think of all the delusional circular thinking, not to mention the blatant hypocrisy. they blame single mothers for every horrible thing thats happened in society, yet don't want to pay child support and don't support any act that would enforce men to be included in their child's life. they want a traditional woman, but make fun of women that are SAHMs or women who are homemakers. they also act as if they work they don't have to do anything around the house, and that includes raising the kids....YET they whine about women initiating divorce. and let's not even get started on the rape jokes, etc. these men hate women. period. so, yes, to them it is sexist. personally, i am pretty fed up with arguing with them...it goes nowhere.

Question: If illegal immigrants have been banned from most Government programs since 1996? Why do people insist that they drain our benefits and services? Are they angry because they think that they eating up all the soup at the soup kitchens? Because that's only one of the few services they are entitled to. FYI - Emergency Hospital visits are not welfare, nor are they free. http://americanaffairs.suite101.com/arti… Illegal Immigrants and Benefits Illegal immigrants have been banned from most Government Programs since 1996 when Congress passed (and President Clinton signed) the welfare-reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. From then on, only citizens or legal immigrants, such as those with a Green Card, were eligible for federal benefits. Federal law also bars states and local governments from extending those benefits to undocumented immigrants. Benefits for the Undocumented: the Exceptions Few, narrow exceptions apply. For example, undocumented immigrants are eligible for certain emergency medical treatments. They may receive short-term disaster relief. They may be immunized against communicable diseases. They may be served at soup kitchens or seek refuge in homeless shelters. Children of undocumented immigrants may attend public schools. But those same children are not eligible for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers children of the working poor not eligible for Medicaid. @ Docar, you always quote the FBI, but never include a direct link....Hmmmm!

Answer: people who continue to insist that the MYTHS, such as immigrants are a drain on social services, are true are seriously turning a blind eye so that they can remain ignorant and continue to hold their misguided views. i guess remaining in such a state pleases them...i do not know.

Question: If illegals have been banned from Gov't programs how could they recieve benefits? People keep claiming that illegals come here for welfare and other Gov't benefits, but they have been banned from most programs since 1996. How exactly are they recieving these benefits? FYI - benefits their babies recieve when born here are not benefits for them. Please provide some sources, no opinions or rants please! I'm just trying to understand why people would say this. Do they mean that they are eating all our soup? ==================================== Illegal Immigrants and Benefits Illegals banned from most Government Programs since 1996 when Congress passed (and President Clinton signed) the welfare-reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. From then on, only citizens or legal immigrants, such as those with a Green Card, were eligible for federal benefits. Federal law also bars states and local governments from extending those benefits to undocumented immigrants. Benefits for the Undocumented: the Exceptions Few, narrow exceptions apply. For example, undocumented immigrants are eligible for certain emergency medical treatments. They may receive short-term disaster relief. They may be immunized against communicable diseases. They may be served at soup kitchens or seek refuge in homeless shelters. Children of undocumented immigrants may attend public schools. But those same children are not eligible for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers children of the working poor not eligible for Medicaid. Read more at Suite101: Illegal Immigrants and Benefits: Undocumented Aliens Do Not Overburden Government Programs http://americanaffairs.suite101.com/arti…

Answer: Those are bogus claims just to anger people.

Question: Do you think this plan would rationalize the "immigration issue" is the U.S.? The plan would be to educate the people on a few issues regarding illegal immigration. So if we educate more people on the topics below, then they would learn that the "immigration issues" isn't as bad as the media and Politicians want you to believe. Do you agree? 1. You can't believe every negative story on illegal immigration. A lot of Anti-illegal immigration groups are linked to Racist Organizations, and their plans are to spread hatred by promoting lies. Saddly, this includes groups like "The American Legion". American Legion Pushes Nativist Falsehoods http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelrepo… Anti-immigration groups linked to Racist Organizations. http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelrepo… Immigration Report Being Released Today Linked to White Supremacists http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/04/08… 2. Illegal immigrants DO NOT overburden Government Programs, especially when they have been banned from most programs since 1996 when Congress passed (and President Clinton signed) the welfare-reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. From then on, only citizens or legal immigrants, such as those with a Green Card, were eligible for federal benefits. http://americanaffairs.suite101.com/arti… 3. Illegal immigrants pay BILLIONS in taxes every year. Those taxes help Social Security and Medicare stay afloat. They help retired citizens get retirement checks, and they also help the maintenance of our road ways. And they actually pay more into the system then they use in services. Illegal immigrants pay BILLIONS in taxes. http://www.azcentral.com/business/articl… 4. It's a MYTH that immigrants bring a lot more crime to the U.S. It's even reported that immigrants actually make the U.S. safer. Immigration: No Correlation With Crime http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/… 5. Many U.S. companies now rely on illegal immigrants, or they wouldn't be fighting for immigration reform. Defeat Worries Employers Who Rely on Immigrants http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/washin… 6. Illegals do the work most Citizens and especially their children refuse to do. The jobs Americans won't do? http://www.slate.com/id/2157483/?nav=tap… Immigrants do the jobs your lazy kids won't http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/border/9… "Yapoo censored", any links? or are you making this up like always? Joel W.....PLEASE provide proof that the Mexican Government pays for such things as you say....LMAO! Docar, calling them "illegal, immoral, criminal invaders" all the time does not help your arguements, and we've told you over and over again.

Answer: Tony, you'd think that the points you've brought out would make any intelligent, unbiased human being rationalize that immigration is good for the USA. Unfortunately, the "freedoms" that this nation has is not so good for the way people feel about of immigrant friends. Especially here on YA. The bashing that goes on here is incredibly disheartening and discouraging, and I hope that this is not how the majority of people in this country feel. Good plan though Tony.

Question: "Illegal immigrants get free benefits!"? Au contraire, Pierre: "Illegal Immigrants and Benefits Undocumented Aliens Do Not Overburden Government Programs May 30, 2008 Pierre Tristam Undocumented immigrants in the United States may create problems for some. Burdening government programs isn't among those problems. It’s a widely held misperceptions: Undocumented immigrants pay no taxes but take advantage of a slew of taxpayer-supported federal benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare (the health care programs for the poor and the elderly), Social Security, housing and hospital services. In fact, federal law bars undocumented alien access to all those benefits, with very few exceptions. A Nation of Immigrants As of 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, some 37 million foreign-born people lived in the United States. That’s more than 12 percent of the population, the highest level in the nation’s history. An estimated one-third of those are undocumented, or “illegal,” immigrants, although the real number is unknown. Before 1986, many social programs — health care, education, nutrition, welfare — did not specify that recipients had to be American or legal immigrants. A Congressional Research Service report notes that that began to change in 1986, when Medicaid recipients were required to certify under penalty of perjury that they were legal immigrants or citizens. Eligibility requirements were further tightened in 1996 when Congress passed (and President Clinton signed) the welfare-reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. From then on, only citizens or legal immigrants, such as those with a Green Card, were eligible for federal benefits. Federal law also bars states and local governments from extending those benefits to undocumented immigrants. Benefits for the Undocumented: the Exceptions Few, narrow exceptions apply. For example, undocumented immigrants are eligible for certain emergency medical treatments. They may receive short-term disaster relief. They may be immunized against communicable diseases. They may be served at soup kitchens or seek refuge in homeless shelters. Children of undocumented immigrants may attend public schools. But those same children are not eligible for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers children of the working poor not eligible for Medicaid. How do federal and state government agencies keep track of eligibility? Through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement system, known by its ironically termed acronym, SAVE. The program was authorized in 1986 and requires almost all federal agencies to use it to determine applicants’ eligibility for social services. Scant Evidence of Fraud Still, perceptions are such that many Americans believe undocumented immigrants are abusing the system. There is little evidence backing up the claim. What scant evidence exists contradicts it. A 2002 Government Accounting Office report found that an estimated $1.33 billion in unemployment compensation was paid out to ineligble recipients. But just $30 million of that was paid out to illegal aliens, the GAO noted, or less than 0.001 percent of the $53.8 billion the Department of Labor paid out in unemployment that year. Undocumented Immigrants and Taxes Similar misperceptions about undocumented immigrants abound, especially when it comes to taxes. The perception is that the undocumented pay no taxes. In fact, they pay sales taxes like everyone else, most pay Social Security taxes, which they will never recoup, as well as income taxes: one is not required to be documented to pay taxes. Debates rage over whether undocumented immigrants benefit from the American system more than they pay into it. Evidence is divided over the matter, depending on who’s making the estimates. What’s more certain is that the American economy would be severely hampered by the sudden vanishing of every undocumented immigrant, and that, when it comes to tax-supported government programs, the undocumented likely contribute more than they benefit." http://www.suite101.com/content/undocume…

Answer: Illegal Immigrants Costs to the Tax Payer 1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments. 2.$2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. 3.$2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. 4.$12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! 5.$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. 6.$3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. 7.30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. 8.$90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. 9.$200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. 10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US. 11.During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. 12.The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.' 13.In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. 14.'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.' The total cost is a whopping $383 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

Question: illegal immigrants have been banned from Gov't Programs, so what free stuff are they getting? I've heard some people ranting and raving about illegals coming here for all these so-called free benefits and handouts, but they have been banned from most Gov't programs a long time ago. Do they mean that illegals are eating all the free soup at the soup kitchens? because that's one of the very few things they can get. What is all the free stuff these people say that illegals get? --------------------------------------… Illegal Immigrants and Benefits Undocumented Aliens Do Not Overburden Government Programs Illegal Immigrants have been banned from Government Programs since 1996 when Congress passed (and President Clinton signed) the welfare-reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. From then on, only citizens or legal immigrants, such as those with a Green Card, were eligible for federal benefits. Federal law also bars states and local governments from extending those benefits to undocumented immigrants. Benefits for the Undocumented: the Exceptions Few, narrow exceptions apply. For example, undocumented immigrants are eligible for certain emergency medical treatments. They may receive short-term disaster relief. They may be immunized against communicable diseases. They may be served at soup kitchens or seek refuge in homeless shelters. Children of undocumented immigrants may attend public schools. But those same children are not eligible for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers children of the working poor not eligible for Medicaid. Read more at Suite101: Illegal Immigrants and Benefits: Undocumented Aliens Do Not Overburden Government Programs http://americanaffairs.suite101.com/arti…

Answer: That's a crock! Read about the lies some writers spread in this article. Immigration and Welfare The immigration debate is roaring again, and we're happy to join the fun. One place to start is a myth that has become a key talking point among restrictionists on the right -- to wit, that immigrants come to the U.S. for a life of ease on the public dole. Leading this charge is the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector, who argues in a new study that "the average lifetime costs to the taxpayer will be $1.1 million" for each low-skilled immigrant household. Hispanic immigrants and their families are a net national drain, he says, because they "assimilate into welfare." Mr. Rector and Heritage have done some good social science research in the past, but this time they have the story backward: In most cases immigrants will pay at least as much in lifetime federal taxes as they receive in benefits. One basic flaw in the Heritage analysis is that, as a study by the Immigration Policy Center points out: "The vast majority of immigrants are not eligible to receive any of these [welfare] benefits for many years after their arrival in the United States. . . . Legal permanent residents cannot receive SSI [Supplemental Security Income], which is available only to U.S. citizens, and are not eligible for means-tested public benefits until 5 years after receiving their green cards." Illegal immigrants are also ineligible for any kind of federal welfare benefits -- with the exception of emergency health care. Many of the Congressional proposals to legalize this population would not allow these workers to collect welfare until waiting up to eight years for a green card and five years after that. The "welfare" charge is also refuted by the experience of the federal welfare reform passed 11 years ago http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news…

Question: Republicans: Why do you think a large percentage of minorities vote Democrat? Specifically blacks. Note: You are entitled to your opinion, but I have a feeling that many people will state that welfare attracts minority voters to the Democrats. Statistically speaking there are more Caucasians on welfare than there is minorities simply because there is a higher population of Caucasians. Also, former Democratic president Bill Clinton (who is still well liked by minorities) signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Which took A LOT of people OFF welfare during his presidency. Also, it's not the Democrats giving out welfare it's the government as a whole. Only reason I am stating this is because I often witness Republicans stating that only reason why minorities are Democrats is because of social welfare. But if you believe that is the reasoning, then you are entitled to your own opinion. But I really don't believe that's necessarily the case. Opinions please. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-welfareb… http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1… http://salt.claretianpubs.org/stats/welr… http://www.nytimes.com/specials/issues/m…

Answer: I think it's the same reason that they voted Republican for so long after the Civil War. Voting habbits lag party policy. Lincoln freed the slaves, and for generations after, the Republicans reaped a bit of a winfall in votes, even if thier policies at the time weren't particularly in the interests of those voters. The Democratic party hitched it's wagon to the civil rights movement a decade or so after it got rolling, and they're still reaping 'gratitude votes,' from minorities, even though that movement and it's issues have largely run thier course at this point, and it would make more sense to base voting on current issues or future expectations.

Question: How would cutting welfare and other Gov. benefits help curb illegal immigration? When illegal immigrants have been banned from most Gov. programs since 1996 when Congress passed (and President Clinton signed) the welfare-reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act? http://americanaffairs.suite101.com/arti… Illegal Immigrants and Benefits It’s a widely held misperceptions: Undocumented immigrants pay no taxes but take advantage of a slew of taxpayer-supported federal benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare (the health care programs for the poor and the elderly), Social Security, housing and hospital services. In fact, federal law bars undocumented alien access to all those benefits, with very few exceptions.

Answer: It wouldn't. The people screaming about this don't actually understand anything about anything. Try talking to them for more than a minute and this becomes obvious.

Question: Are illegal immigrants a drain to the health care system, or is it a myth? We hear over and over that illegal immigrants are a drain to the U.S. Health Care System, but how is this possible when they have been banned from most Government programs since 1996 when President Clinton signed the welfare-reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Do you think these are only myths created by people who have another kind of agenda? http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2… Immigrants in the U.S. Health Care System Five Myths That Misinform the American Public These myths about documented and undocumented immigrants’ use of U.S. health care services need to be examined in detail if our nation is going to have a true understanding about the immigrants in the U.S. health care system. The five most prevalent of these myths are: U.S. public health insurance programs are overburdened with documented and undocumented immigrants. Immigrants consume large quantities of limited health care resources. Immigrants come to the United States to gain access to health care services. Restricting immigrants’ access to the health care system will not affect American citizens. Undocumented immigrants are “free-riders” in the American health care system.

Answer: that's a definite myth, Our health care system doesn't even help it's own citizens.