10x04 - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

[bunniefuu]

LAST WEEK TONIGHT
WITH JOHN OLIVER

Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!
I'm John Oliver.

Thank you so much for joining us.
It has been a busy week.

The Manhattan DA
signaled that Tr*mp

may soon be charged
over the Stormy Daniels payments,

and Silicon Valley Bank collapsed

in one of the largest bank failures
in U.S. history.

But if I may quote God on judgment day,
I'd like to start with Fox News,

the network that answers the question
"What was on TV when Grandpa d*ed?"

We talked about the fact
that Dominion Voting Systems

is suing Fox over its false claims
that Dominion's machines

helped swing the election for Biden.

Thanks to that lawsuit, this week,
we learned that even Rupert Murdoch

was concerned about the tone
some of his anchors were taking.

In an email to CEO Suzanne Scott,
Murdoch wrote,

"Maybe Sean Hannity
and Laura Ingraham went too far."

When Dominion lawyers
asked during his January deposition,

"Have you ever believed Dominion
was engaged in a massive

and coordinated effort to steal
the 2020 presidential election?"

Murdoch replied, "No".

Just a straight up "no"
from Murdoch there.

Although he's Australian,
so it was probably more of a "nah."

I will say, of course Sean Hannity
and Laura Ingraham went too far.

That is their whole thing.

Laura delivers every monologue with
the energy of a concussed PTA parent

and Hannity spews bullshit
while looking like one big neck.

You made these monsters, Rupert.
You don't get to act surprised.

And it's not just Murdoch.
Texts from Tucker Carlson show that,

for all of his on-air
defenses of Tr*mp,

privately, he was telling
a very different story.

Fox hosts, including Tucker Carlson,
were increasingly uncomfortable

with the way that Tr*mp
was lying about the 2020 election.

"We are very, very close to being able
to ignore Tr*mp most nights.

I truly can't wait,"
Carlson texted an unknown person

on January 4th, 2021,
adding, "I hate him passionately."

First, I can't believe
I'm gonna say this, but girl, same.

But also, that is so harsh,
I'd almost feel bad for Tr*mp

if I wasn't so sure
he's incapable of feeling anything

besides anger, hunger and the lower
back of the nearest blonde woman.

And it gets even worse.

Because Tucker goes on to say
of Tr*mp's time in office,

"We're all pretending
we've got a lot to show for it,

because admitting what a disaster
it's been is too tough to digest.

But come on.
There isn't really an upside to Tr*mp."

And wow. A man on a news network
cannot be afraid to tell the truth

because it's too tough to digest,
that is what the news is.

If anchors didn't report
what was too tough to digest,

Walter Cronkite would have opened
his most famous broadcast

with "The president
had a lovely car ride in Dallas today.

His head feels better than ever!"

And I'm sure more details will spill
out of this case in the months ahead.

So for now, we're going to turn
to Tennessee, where this week,

the state legislature
made the worst kind of history.

This week, Tennessee
became the first state to pass a law

that will restrict drag performances
on public property

or anywhere a child
could see them.

Conservatives say drag shows expose
children to sexually suggestive content,

while performers here
say the law is discriminatory,

and feels designed
to push them back into the closet.

Yeah. Conservatives
have singled out drag shows

as exposing children
to sexually suggestive content.

Which feels like a very selective
application of outrage.

I'm just saying, unless they've
also called out Carl's Jr. ads,

this entire restaurant chain,

and Gloria's relentless butt
in the "Madagascar" films,

that feels pretty targeted.

This comes on the back of a number
of anti-LGBTQ bills,

all done under Senate leader
and lieutenant governor Randy McNally,

a man with a history of supporting
anti-gay legislation,

including restricting marriage
to between a man and a woman.

All of which makes what emerged
about McNally this week

especially hard to take.

Over the last three years,
the lieutenant governor

has been regularly commenting on these
racy pictures of an influencer.

Everything
from typing out fire emojis

where the male user
had posted his backside

to commenting that he has,
quote, "a super look"

and that he loves his content.

There is nothing wrong

with commenting on a 20-year-old
gay model's thirst traps.

But there is a problem
if you are, A, 79 years old,

B, are a sitting member of government
that helped pass anti-gay legislation,

and C, leave comments like, "You are
having a grand time, my friend".

Because yes,
he clearly is having a grand time,

but that's frankly no thanks
to people like you, Randy!

McNally's office rushed out
a statement, saying,

"As anyone in Tennessee
politics knows,

Lieutenant Governor McNally
is a prolific social media commenter.

Does he always use the proper emoji
at the proper time?

Maybe not. But he enjoys
interacting with constituents

and Tennesseans of all religions,
backgrounds,

orientations on social media" adding
"he has no intention of stopping."

Which, if it came from anyone else,
would be an iconic response.

"I am horny on main, and will stay
that way 'til the day I die."

It's exquisite.
But the best response to that statement

came from Franklyn, the young man
at the center of all of this.

Because the outlet
that initially broke the story

interviewed him
to get his reaction to it.

I like that he has no intentions
of stopping, I think that's nice,

but you know, I would just say,

why be kind to one gay person
and not everyone?

The idea that Randy
is now gonna hide behind,

"I'm a great-grandfather,
I don't know about emojis,"

I mean, you know
when you're looking at a butt,

Governor McNally.

And you knew whose butt it was.

But maybe he liked
the lime green color!

Yeah, maybe, Franklyn!

I've gotta say, McNally
is so lucky he was commenting

on the photos of someone so kind.

Franklyn even responded to McNally's
three hearts and fire emojis

with, "You are literally
always so nice, king,"

when he'd have been
well within his rights to say,

"You are 59 years older than me and you
are systematically trampling my rights.

Blocked, reported, and
I'm throwing my phone into the sea."

Incredibly, McNally actually sat down
for an interview amid all this,

saying, "I, you know,
try to encourage people with posts."

Which is certainly
a nice thing to do.

But doesn't seem to capture
all that was going on here,

especially when you consider
some of the posts in question.

There was also this post
where the man said he was, quote,

"Not a whore but a hoe!

One is a slut,
the other is a prost*tute,"

adding, "I'm the one
that gets free weed for giving",

then a reference to a sexual act.

And it was liked
by Lieutenant Governor McNally.

I don't know that,
a lot of times on people's posts

you see the name
and you see what they've written,

and you just press the button
that says "like."

So, you didn't read that post?

I don't recall reading the part
about the weed.

I know that.

But what about the "prost*tute?"

I might have read that.

Randy!

Did a witch put a spell
on you, Randy?

I appreciate the transparency, but you
know you could just say no, right?

Nobody would believe you any more
or less than they already do.

Also, for what it's worth…

the "weed" part of this story is just
not what anybody is interested in here.

I can't say for certain
what is going on with that guy,

but I will say,
whenever stories like this come up…

and they do seem to come up a lot…

of Republican lawmakers
championing anti-gay legislation,

only for it to emerge they may have,

let's call them "gay-adjacent
extracurricular activities",

it is hard
not to feel a mixture of emotions.

First, hilarity at the hypocrisy.
Then, anger.

Then, a slight sense of sadness.

Because these are men
who, you feel,

could have had happier lives if they'd
grown up in a different world.

But instead of helping
create that different world,

they've courted the approval

of h*m*
who are intent on holding it back.

And if that is the case for McNally,
it all feels like such a waste,

including the fact
that "Randy McNally"

just happens to be
an A-plus drag queen name.

But honestly, in the end, it doesn't
really matter what McNally's deal is,

if he's pushing
for laws that hurt people.

Or to put it another way, Randy,
if you'd invest half the energy

you spend commenting on photos
of q*eer people being happy

into making a world where that
happiness is not under constant thr*at,

that would literally be so nice, king.

And now, this!

And Now:

Happy International Women's
Day, From the Men of Local News.

Happy International
Women's Day to you,

and to meteorologist Stefanie Lauber,
who is with us.

My favorite girls.

It is International Women's Day.
I'm Kait Walsh.

And I'm Patrick Little.

Let's check in with the other woman
on the staff.

Every day is International Women's Day,
as far as I'm concerned.

You've been saying that.

Shoutout to all the wonderful ladies
in my life.

Okay. That's my wife, two stepgirls.

The two female dogs,
as well, because my mother.

Not only
is it International Women's Day…

- You haven't even said anything yet!
- What?

- For Women's Day.
- Am I supposed to?

- So rude.
- Is there an International Man's Day?

Happy Women's Day!
National Women's Day, my friend.

Yeah. You too.

- We're women, technical director.
- My favorite women. I am sorry.

But it's like… My girls,
you know, you guys are my friends…

- My peeps, my, you know…
- All right. Well.

Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns TANF.

It is a commonly used acronym
that in Britain stands for

"That assh*le Nigel Farage".

But here, it stands for Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families,

a federal program designed to help
families with little to no income.

TANF is an absolutely vital resource,
and also the program underneath

Mississippi's
spectacular ongoing scandals

involving former quarterback
Brett Favre.

NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre
is under growing pressure tonight,

as a new court filing says the
former football star waged

"a campaign to aggressively lobby"

for millions of dollars
from the state welfare agency

to finish building a volleyball facility
at his alma mater,

the University of Southern Mississippi,
where his daughter played the sport.

Brett Favre was involved in getting
$5 million dollars in TANF funds

funneled into building
this volleyball stadium.

And I'm a little surprised you even
need a stadium to play volleyball in.

I thought it was a sport
mainly played outdoors

by sexually frustrated men
who aren't wearing shirts

and sporty dogs
who unexpectedly are.

But clearly,
I was wrong about that.

But Favre's role in this scandal
went far beyond volleyball.

He's also alleged to have helped get
around two million of TANF dollars

routed to a pharmaceutical company
that he invested in,

and personally received
over a million more

for the promise he'd make
public appearances or record PSAs.

And in his text messages
to a central figure in the scheme,

a woman named Nancy New,

Favre seemed eager to keep
the details of his deal private.

Texts show Favre was worried
about how it might look.

He wrote, "If you were to pay me,
is there any way the media

can find out where it came from
and how much?"

New replied "No" but added

"I understand
you being uneasy about that."

Yeah, me too! But Brett,
I have some terrible news for you.

The media did find out.
That's what's happening now.

But the Favre part of the story
is just the tip of the iceberg here.

Because amazingly,
from 2016 to 2019,

at least $77 million
in federal welfare money

was stolen or misspent
in Mississippi.

Six people have been
criminally charged so far,

with most pleading guilty,

including the former director
of the state's welfare agency.

This scandal
is full of both bizarre details,

and a weird number
of former athletes,

including retired WWE wrestler Ted
"The Million Dollar Man" DiBiase,

seen here in his heyday,
looking very cool.

DiBiase and his ministry
apparently received nearly $2 million

to, among other things
"create a phone app

to reach troubled teens
and send them Bible verses,"

something that apparently
never happened.

Which is probably just as well,
given that it's hard to imagine

this man helping any teen
who is in trouble,

unless the thing
they're having trouble with

is figuring out
what it would look like

if Steven Seagal
somehow aged even worse.

And look, legally, I have to tell
you that both Favre and DiBiase

maintain they did nothing wrong,
and have not been criminally charged.

And Favre wants us to tell you

that he returned the $1.1 million
that he was personally paid,

and says that he didn't know the money
was coming from welfare funds.

Although it's not clear where exactly
he did think the money was coming from.

Perhaps he thinks
there's some pot of taxpayer money

that he can just dip his sausage fingers
into whenever he needs something.

He's been hit in the head a lot.
Not enough, but a lot.

But what is not in dispute here
is that, for years,

there were people in Mississippi
in dire need of help,

who just couldn't get it.

Tamara Edwards raised four children
on her own in Mississippi,

applying for welfare benefits just once,
for childcare while she worked.

When I reapplied,
I was not able to be on it again

'cause they told me that they
didn't have the fundings for it.

That is pretty infuriating to hear.

And it gets even worse when you
learn that, in Mississippi last year,

of roughly 190,000 children
living in poverty,

just 2,600 were receiving
money from TANF,

while, remember, of the roughly
one Brett Favres in Mississippi,


for this f*cking volleyball stadium.

It's enough to make you want
to see Brett Favre hit in the nuts,

and the good news is,
I can actually help you there.

He was on the practice field
this week

and got hit
in the not-so-friendly area.

Takes him all the way down.

Good. I'm glad that happened.
And, by the way,

kudos to the local news team for adding
the "boing" sound effect there.

Excellent journalism!

But it is important to know that
while what happened in Mississippi

rose to criminal charges,
in states all over the country,

the TANF program
has been abused for decades,

and completely legally.

In fact, nationwide,
for every 100 families in poverty,

"only 21 received TANF
cash assistance."

Meaning we have a program
that is supposed to give money

to families in desperate need, and four
out of five of them aren't getting it.

So tonight, let's talk about TANF.
Let's start with why it is so important.

TANF is the only federal
anti-poverty program

that provides monthly cash
assistance.

That makes it very different
from, say SNAP,

formerly known as food stamps,

because that can only be used to pay
for food, whereas TANF funds,

by contrast, can be used
for all sorts of other necessities,

from diapers,
to toothpaste, to utility bills.

So it can be an
absolute lifeline for families.

And the truth is, we've long known
how important cash assistance can be.

In 1935, FDR pushed for the
Aid to Dependent Children program.

And back then,
the idea had broad support.

The welfare of the nation depends
upon the welfare of its children.

To provide for children
who have lost their breadwinners,

the state and federal government
provide monthly cash payments

so that these children may grow up
at home with their own families.

Aid for children who,
as citizens of tomorrow,

need the security of home today.

It is genuinely refreshing

to hear that kind of voice
saying such nice things.

Although, given the time, I am guessing
that if he'd just kept talking,

he would've said something like,

"Also, nothing calms a hysterical child
like a good smack with a stick."

That program
continued to have support for years,

while, perhaps not coincidentally,
it was primarily white families,

like those you just saw,
who were the ones using it.

As barriers preventing Black families
from participating began to fall,

people suddenly began to panic
about whether these programs

might actually encourage laziness
and dependency.

To use America's official slogan,
Ronald Reagan made it worse!

Because conservatives
in the '70s and '80s, led by Reagan,

pushed largely bullshit or cherry
picked narratives of fraud and abuse.

It got to the point
where, by the mid-'90s,

one Florida representative found
this a completely acceptable way

to talk about welfare recipients.

We post these signs
for several reasons.

Because if left in a natural state,
alligators can fend for themselves.

They work, gather food,
and care for their young.

Secondly, we post these warnings

because unnatural feeding
and artificial care creates dependency.

When dependency sets in,
these otherwise abled alligators

can no longer survive
on their own.

I know people are not alligators,
but I submit to you

that with our current handout,
non-work welfare system,

we've upset the natural order.

There is a lot to unpack there!

From casually
comparing poor people to animals,

to claiming that alligators "work",
which begs the question,

the f*ck are you talking about?

Alligators don't have jobs!

Unless you consider a job

"looking like someone
put a dragon baby into a panini press",

in which case, yes,
they are indeed working 24/7.

At the time
that assh*le was speaking,

the federal government had already
begun allowing and encouraging states

to experiment with various so-called
"welfare-to-work" approaches,

with the aim being to get as many people
off government assistance as possible,

and into the workforce.

And back then,
both Democrats and Republicans

seized on what appeared to be
a successful program

in Riverside County, California

that "emphasized getting
a job above all else"

and was said to have increased
participants' earnings by nearly 50%.

The man overseeing that program,
Larry Townsend,

was celebrated at the time,
even dubbed "The Magic Bureaucrat"

and was brought before congress
to share the secrets to his success.

If you call Riverside County,
and nobody answers the phone,

you'll get a work ethic message.

We have posters
in the waiting room.

We have produced a compact disc
with work ethic music.

One of the pieces of music is "Welfare
Is Temporary, Not a Way of Life"

and it's a beautiful piece of music.

Now that is actually true!

Larry oversaw the production
of this album of "work ethic music"

that they'd play in the office,
and to people who were put on hold.

Now, is he right to claim
it was "a beautiful piece of music?"

Why don't you be the judge?
Here's a taste.

Welfare's temporary,
not a way of life.

Be proud of honest labor.

Have dignity and pride.

Make the difference. Start a career.

Success depends on you.

Get into gear.

You know, finally,

we have a recording
that answers the question

"What if 'We Are the World'
f*cked a cheap motivational poster?"

And if you think
every track on the album

was confined
to the genre of "pop soul ballad",

you are very wrong, they also
did a dance number that, fair warning,

really puts the "no" into "techno".

Welfare is temporary,
it's not a way of life.

Welfare, make it secondary,
have dignity and pride.

I hate it so much!

That song sounds like "Daft Punk" if it
turned out the people under the masks

were Kevin O'Leary
and Mark Cuban.

It is genuinely difficult
to stop talking about this album,

'cause what am I supposed
to do here?

Just move on to the rest of this story
and not play you the hiphop track?

That would be ridiculous.
Here it is!

Work for it, work for it.
Turn your dreams into reality.

Work for it, work for it.

Become a money saver.

Work for it, work for it.
'Cause you can get a job.

Admit it. You thought you knew
how bad that was gonna be, right?

Then you get to that last
"'cause you can get a job" bit,

and it somehow gets worse.

Interestingly, and importantly,
later studies found

that that man's program didn't
succeed because of that album,

or anything else he'd done.

Instead, research suggests
its success was a fluke,

and actually "the product of an already
stronger local economy

rather than any reforms."

But the problem was,
the whole concept of "welfare-to-work"

had caught on in a big way.

Bill Clinton campaigned
aggressively on welfare reform,

and once in office, worked
with Republicans to craft a bill

that, he bragged when signing it,
would move millions into the workforce.

Today, we are ending welfare
as we know it.

But I hope this day will be remembered
not for what it ended

but for what it began.

It's remembered for what it ended,
not, indeed, what it began.

It is genuinely hard to think
of a clip from the Clinton era

that has aged worse than that,

other than, of course,
this one from his inaugural ball.

We'll be there for you, we love you,
thank you, and God bless you all.

Thank you.

And thank you, Kevin Spacey!

Yeah!

Pretty remarkable, right?

That they let that sexual predator
anywhere near Kevin Spacey?

The point is, Clinton's welfare reform
created the TANF program.

And in doing so, it brought about
some major and catastrophic changes.

First, it shifted the funding
to a block grant.

Instead of the federal government
having oversight

and sharing the costs of the program,

each year, it would just give states
a lump sum of money.

It didn't establish any mechanism
to increase that sum over time,

meaning the amount that each state
gets "has not increased since 1996".

And because it hasn't been adjusted
for inflation or population changes,

the real value of the funding
has fallen by 40% since then.

It wasn't worth that much in the
mid-'90s, and it's worth less now.

Think of it like a cassingle
of Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping".

I know if you're under 30 you think
I'm having a stroke right now,

but I swear everything I just said
is a real word.

The big promise of these block grants
was that they'd give states

the flexibility to spend it however
they felt worked best for them.

The only real requirement
was that it had to be used

for at least one of four
incredibly broad purposes:

providing assistance to needy families
so that children can be cared for

in their own homes
or in the homes of relatives, fine.

Promoting job preparation,
work, and marriage, okay.

Preventing and reducing the incidence
of out-of-wedlock pregnancies,

seems a bit weird.

And encouraging the formation
and maintenance of two-parent families.

You can see that not only
is some of that incredibly moralistic,

it's crucially
a pretty broad mandate.

And states have taken advantage
of that latitude.

Some have appropriated TANF money
for college scholarships

that can end up
going to middle-class students.

Since 2007, Michigan has spent
around $100 million each year

in welfare money on college aid,

much of it benefiting families
well above the poverty line.

And the state has justified this

by "saying that college aid helps
prevent out-of-wedlock pregnancies",

which makes sense, doesn't it?

College is famously
a place where no one fucks.

Oklahoma was, at one point,

spending millions in TANF dollars
on marriage counseling classes,

including one called
"Forever. For Real".

Would you like to see an ad for it?
Too bad, here it is!

It's the most important decision
you can make, to marry somebody.

So, who wouldn't want
a closer and stronger relationship?

Once we decided that we were ready
to move forward in our relationship,

we wanted to protect what we had.

We decided to go to "Forever. For Real"
for an investment in us.

We know that our relationship won't
always be easy, but it will be forever.

Forever. For Real. Now relationships
come with instructions.

The chemistry between that couple
is very much on the charts.

And it doesn't help that they tried
to set the mood by lighting candles

when the rest of the room is lit
like the freezer aisle at a Kroger.

One reporter who attended
one of those classes found participants

were shocked to learn they'd been paid
for with welfare dollars,

because they considered themselves,
"pretty good" and "financially stable".

But because, remember,
supporting a two-parent household

is one of the four purposes
TANF funds can be used for,

what Oklahoma did
is completely legal.

And while they eventually
ended that program in 2016,

that was only after 17 years
of spending TANF dollars on it.

And at its absolute worst,
TANF money can be used

in actively harmful ways,
like funding crisis pregnancy centers.

We've talked about them
before on this show.

They are basically
fake abortion clinics

designed to persuade people
to see pregnancies through to term,

often by propagating misinformation.

And yet, at least 10 states

have siphoned millions of TANF dollars
to pay for them.

Up until last year,

Texas had directed $45 million
in TANF funds to these clinics.

Listen to some of the misinformation
that one of them was telling people.

At a center in the Dallas area,
a volunteer told our producer

they don't offer abortions, adding
"Abortions can cause infertility".

When asked about the abortion pill,
the volunteer said

"My job is not to scare you.
You never get over seeing that baby".

She then pointed to a small plastic
model like this saying,

"Can you imagine
one of these in your panties?"

Holy sh*t! Your tax dollars,
which were meant to help poor families,

instead went to someone uttering

the single grossest sentence
in the history of words,

the only proper response to which is

"Can you imagine how much
of a weirdo you'd have to be

to say the word 'panties' to a stranger

while showing them your collection
of Russian nesting fetuses?"

I'm not saying states don't give
any TANF funds to needy families.

But in many cases, they seem pretty
far down the list of priorities.

In Oklahoma,
site of those sterile marriage classes,

the state was spending just 9% of its
TANF block grant on cash assistance.

One way states manage to keep
their TANF rolls incredibly lean

is to set the barrier to access them
insurmountably high.

In more than 25 states,

a family of three living
at half the federal poverty line

earned too much to qualify for TANF,
which is just absurd.

Just listen to these women
in Mississippi,

who were told
they were too rich to qualify.

We are the people. We are who
those programs are supposed to help.

And they're not helping us.

When you were rejected
for TANF for making too much money,

how much were you making?

It couldn't have been
any more than $11 per hour.

I was actually making $9
and I was denied.

How do I make too much money
with three kids,

rent, utilities, transportation,
how do I make too much money?

Yeah. That is a great question!

It's ridiculous that a parent of three
struggling to make ends meet

has "too much money"
to receive TANF assistance,

while the state was more than happy
to shovel cash toward

both Brett Favre and Ted DiBiase,

a wrestler whose signature pose is
"Hey, everyone! I robbed an ATM".

But it's not just that the income
threshold can be prohibitively low.

It's that the application process
itself can be deeply invasive.

For instance,
states are required to offset

any TANF money
that they give to single mothers

by chasing down the biological fathers
for child support,

money that the government
then often keeps for itself.

So in some states, single mothers
applying for public assistance

are forced to identify the father
of their child, his eye color,

his license plate number, and the
exact date when they got pregnant,

often under penalty of perjury.

Which is the most humiliating way
to identify the father of your child

that doesn't involve
Maury f*cking Povich.

But there is one more twist here.

Because even if you qualify
and are able to get assistance,

it can be extremely easy
to then lose it.

Not only do some states set time limits
for how long you can get TANF,

Arizona kicks you off
after just a year,

the money comes with an obligation
to perform work activities,

like job searching and training,

that recipients have to engage in for
a certain number of hours each week.

But for struggling parents,
which this program is for, remember,

that can be very difficult, especially
if they don't have access to childcare.

And I've lost the cash assistance
three or four times

due to the fact that no transportation,
nobody to watch my son,

they want you to go looking for work.

How do you take a kid into a job
and ask for an application?

It's not easy to take your kid along
into a job interview.

That is why most job applications

don't come with a bonus
big maze and a crayon.

It's not like her state welfare office
is unaware that she has a child.

They know that.

They may even know the exact date
he was conceived, for some reason.

If you fail
to meet your obligations,

states can be pretty unforgiving
in cutting you off.

Just listen to one woman
who was kicked off assistance,

despite having
an objectively solid excuse.

Kimberly Thompson spent two and a half
months in the hospital last summer,

after an infection ravaged her body.

Nearly half of that time,
she was in a coma.

Adding insult to injury, though,
while she was comatose,

the county kicked her
off government assistance.

I was in a coma and I didn't report in.
I was supposed to report in weekly,

so, since I didn't report in,
they just cut it all off.

Finding out you've lost
your government assistance

has got to be one of the worst things
you could possibly hear

when waking up from a coma,

along with "Actually,
we call him President Tr*mp now",

and "Most of the dogs you knew
are dead."

The multiple hoops you have to jump
through before getting assistance,

and the requirements
you have to meet to keep it,

is for an abysmally
small amount of money.

In 15 states, cash benefit levels don't
even reach 20% of the poverty line,

which is about $386
for a family of three per month.

And if you're thinking
"Maybe states don't have the money",

not only have you seen the bullshit
that some of them spend it on instead,

but you should know,
perhaps the most shocking thing

that some states spend TANF money
on is absolutely nothing at all.

As of last year, states were sitting
on $5.2 billion in unspent TANF funds.

Tennessee alone
was hoarding $790 million,

the largest pool of unspent
welfare funds in the country.

And you know,
it's like the famous saying goes,

"Everything's bigger in Tennessee,
no wait, f*ck, that's Texas.

Oh no, why is someone
writing down everything I'm saying?

Scratch that from the record,
I sound like an idiot.

Why are you still writing?
Stop. I'm serious. Stop.

If you don't stop writing
I'll f*ck you up so silly

you'll be holdin' pens
in your mouth, bitch!"

Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

And when you put all of this together,
it's no wonder that most people on TANF

don't go from welfare to work.

In 2018, only one in four TANF cases
closed because clients found jobs.

The rest were kicked off

for one of the many bullshit reasons
that we've mentioned tonight.

Basically, TANF lifts people
out of poverty

the same way
one of those arcade claw games

lifts stuffed animals
out of the machine,

which is to say, it usually just drops
them right back where they started,

and in many ways, the whole process
is a giant "f*ck you" to kids.

The good news is, there are things
that we could do here, if we wanted to.

We've talked before
about some of the big,

broader changes that would help
alleviate the pain of poverty.

But even when it just comes to TANF,
there are options.

We could set a minimum benefit level
and loosen some of the requirements

that make it so easy
to lose assistance.

And if we're going to keep
doing block grants,

which I would argue
we absolutely shouldn't,

they should at least be adjusted
for inflation and population growth,

with a certain amount required
to be spent on direct cash assistance.

The wild thing here is,

our current system was created
under the assumption that poor families

simply couldn't be trusted
to collect welfare honestly.

But the past couple of decades

have proven that it's actually
politicians and government officials

who've been relentlessly
abusing this system.

To borrow a phrase, we've been feeding
the alligators in state government,

and that has bred dependency.

So we need to fundamentally
rework things so that this money,

and ideally much more,
can go where it is badly needed.

And if any lawmakers think
that that sounds too hard,

and are tempted
to take a pass on it,

I have a song with a powerful message
that I'm pretty sure will inspire you.

Work for it, work for it.
Turn your dreams into reality.

Work for it, work for it.

Exactly. And now this.

And Now: The Humble Beginnings
of Rachael Ray.

When I was a girl, I was
a fountain girl at Howard Johnson's.

Back in the day, I was a HoJo
fountain girl at Howard Johnson's.

I was a fountain girl
at Howard Johnson's.

When I was a kid, I used to work
at HoJo's, Howard Johnson's.

God! I feel like I'm working in,
like, HoJo's back in the day.

Big ol' ice cream scoop, just like
we used to do it back at the HoJo's.

I haven't worn nylons since
I worked at HoJo's as a fountain girl.

When I was a kid,
I used to work at HoJos.

I was a HoJo fountain girl.

When I got promoted to the fountain,
I thought my life would be amazing.

It was like Cinderella.
It was just so exciting.

And then I realized I was too short
to scoop the ice cream,

and there was a little faucet
that would clean the scoops.

So, there was a constant
stream of leftover ice cream

on the side
of the ice cream cooler.

When I'd push myself up
and throw myself,

hurl myself into the ice cream cooler
to get the ice cream,

I ended up
with a line of melted, sour,

every flavor that Howard Johnson's
served of ice cream across my boobs,

so I became the girl
with the ice cream boobs.

AND NOW

Thanks so much for watching,
we'll see you next week, good night!

- Work for it, work for it.
- Be proud of a new job!

- Work for it, work for it.
- Be proud of a new job!

Work for it, work for it.
Turn your dreams into reality!

- Work for it, work for it.
- Become a money saver!

Work for it, work for it,
'cause you can get a job.