Welfare Reform

I was reading today about Paul Ryan, the new vice-presidential candidate for the republican party. He seems to be very high on reforming the existing entitlement programs. There is obviously many changes that need to be done, but I am not 100% confident he is the man to do it. As I was reading about welfare, I came up with some ideas.

Here is my idea: In order for someone to receive welfare, the government should require them to perform 20 hours of community service each week. They would be required to volunteer at any non-profit organization or other community organizations. If they want to go and volunteer at the animal shelter, cleaning up dog poop, that's fine. If they want to volunteer to serve lunches at their local elementary, fine. If they wanted to volunteer their time at the local food shelter, handing out food to other, or working in a soup kitchen, fine. If they are disabled and can't move around, set up a phone bank, where they can talk on the phone with lonely senior citizens. Or those that are at home disabled, give them information to read over the phone to people that call. Maybe give those that can't do manual labor, some supplies to learn how to knit or make things for troops overseas, or children in hospitals. There is even a webpage called onlinevolunteering.com where you can match your skills with organizations that need help.

Each place you volunteer would have a bar code scanning device. In order for your welfare to work, you need to have your barcode on your welfare card scanned for 80 hours a week.

Allow people the chance to make a positive change in our society to 'earn' their welfare.

Here we go with another political complaint

So here goes. Today I read about Harry Reid claiming that Mitt Romney didn't pay taxes for the last ten years. Reid claims that he is certain that this is true. My response would be that if Mr. Reid is so certain about this issue, that he should back up his assertion. Mr. Romney should tell Mr. Reid, if he shows his tax returns and they show that he has paid taxes in the past 10 years, the Mr. Reid will have to step down immediately. Since Mr. Reid is so certain about it, he would gladly accept this challenge. It would be interesting if more people in politics had the guts to call someone's bluff.