The “% Welfare” column (From the table posted in Part I of this blog yesterday) shows the percentage of the states’ tax revenue spent on welfare. The “Per Capita ($)” column shows how much welfare is spent on each person. Although the welfare spent per capita is going up, these numbers are negligible (fairly flat from 2005 to 2009 – the growth is less than inflation). The key statistic here is that the “% Welfare” statistic was going down immediately following Katrina until the recession hit in 2008. This means people were becoming less reliant on welfare, which coincidentally coincides with a quarter of a million people leaving the state (mostly from New Orleans) after Katrina hit in 2005.
The Heartland Institute did a study where they ranked each state in its ability to tackle poverty and welfare from 1996 to 2006. Louisiana ranked first in its ability to tackle poverty – which included an 85% reduction in the number of people on welfare. However, Louisiana received a failing grade (ranked 48th) for its welfare reform policies. Thus, Louisiana was successful in reducing the number of people reliant on welfare, but its welfare reform policies were bad. How can this happen? Katrina is a big reason. State and city welfare dependent blacks and whites fled their Katrina ravished neighborhoods and resettled in other regions around the country.
New Orleans offered residents, who needed work, job opportunities to rebuild the city after Katrina hit in 2005. Based on Census statistics, this did not happen. Instead, hardworking Hispanics (legal and illegal) moved into the city to take those construction jobs to rebuild the city. Even Mayor Ray Nagin has been outspoken about the influx of both legal and illegal Hispanics moving into the city. Nagin has been controversial by citing the city’s new multicultural mix may cause racial tensions.
Hence, it is easy to conclude that many of those government dependent inner city folks that were desperately trying to be rescued following Katrina, have turned down work in New Orleans in favor of showing up on the welfare payrolls in other states. Yes, this is also proof that illegal aliens will take jobs that lazy welfare dependent whites and blacks will not do at any cost. Thus, Louisiana and New Orleans are excellent examples of what happens when we create a welfare state. We create a population of people that not only refuses to work, but this mind set and philosophy is passed down to future generations. Hence, the number of people living in poverty dependent on government handouts increases annually. And more entitlements and freebies proposed by liberal politicians are not going to solve the problem of our growing welfare dependence. Meanwhile, the number of job opportunities for illegal aliens is increasing making border security issues more complex. For these reasons welfare is not only an economic problem bankrupting our nation, but a national security problem.
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