Shut Down - NC wields the welfare axe.

North Carolina is first state to cut welfare amid federal shutdown


http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/16/us-usa-fiscal-northcarolina-idUSBRE99F00Y20131016


(Reuters) - North Carolina has become the first state to cut off welfare benefits to poor residents in the wake of the partial federal government shutdown, ordering a halt to processing November applications until a deal is reached to end the federal standstill.

More than 20,000 people - most of them children - receive monthly benefits aimed at helping them buy food and other basic supplies through North Carolina's welfare program, called Work First, which is fully funded by the federal government. Recipients must reapply each month.

The state's Department of Health and Human Services told its local offices in a letter dated October 10 not to process applications for November benefits until the federal government reaches a deal to restore normal operations.

"We are heavily dependent on federal dollars," said Julie Henry, spokeswoman for the state HHS department. "When these kinds of things happen at the federal level, it has an immediate impact."

Other North Carolina programs funded through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant also will be affected. That list includes childcare subsidies that cover more than 70,000 children and have already ceased being distributed in some parts of the state.

The federal agency that oversees TANF, the Office of the Administration for Children and Families, urged states to continue funding the program, saying in a letter that the states would be reimbursed unless Congress specifies otherwise.

Critics note that a state "rainy day fund" has $650 million for emergency use and say it's politics, not finances, that drives North Carolina's position on federal programs. The Work First program cost about $4.8 million for September in North Carolina.


rest at link

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“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

How awful for the many, many working poor who pay taxes in support of the never-employed, always-pregnant high-school-dropout Moo Cow. I see so many fifty or sixty-something women, and men, working menial minimum wage jobs and you KNOW they pay taxes because .....

There are truly the struggling poor who don't get all the housing, food, healthcare and cash freebies available to these brood sows. I feel awful they go hungry while MOOO hordes food on her welfare card.

Meanwhile, unemployment benefits were slashed last summer, in a state that ranks #5 in that category and the governor decided that he needed to remodel the executive mansion bathrooms, to the tune of almost 1/4 million dollars

Update the toitees