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Reporters ask questions of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee, as he walks to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the GOP effort to overhaul the tax code, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 1, 2017. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
Tax Scam

With Tax Bill Looming, GOP Takes Aim At Anti-Poverty Programs

Hawaii May Soon Become The First State To Implement Universal Basic Income

The move “boldly declares that all families in Hawaii deserve basic financial security,” said State Rep. Chris Lee

(Photo: Russell Shaw Higgs/Creative Commons)

Hawaii has become the first state to officially begin exploring the possibility of a universal basic income (UBI) after a bill requesting the creation of a "basic economic security working group" recently passed both houses of the state legislature. A UBI would, if passed, guarantee every resident a fixed income, regardless of their employment

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Trump Budget Includes Huge Cuts To Food Stamps & Billions For Border Wall

Trump’s budget includes $1.7 trillion over 10 years in cuts from programs such as Medicaid, federal employee pensions, welfare benefits and farm subsidies.

In this May 4, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump talks to House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, after the House pushed through a health care bill. (AP/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump's budget would drive millions of people off of food stamps, part of a new wave of spending cut proposals that already are getting panned by lawmakers in both parties on Capitol Hill. Trump's blueprint for the 2018 budget year comes out Tuesday. It includes a wave of cuts to benefit programs such as Medicaid, federal

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Texas Lawmakers Renew Push To Drug Test Welfare Recipients

While the Lone Star State already has some of the strictest eligibility requirements in the country, Republican lawmakers have been determined to take advantage of a federal provision that would allow them to drug screen applicants and ban those who fail drug tests.

A women sits with her son for dinner in their new sparsely furnished apartment, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015, in New York. After leaving her husband who beat her for years, she and her little boy spent the next three years homeless because she couldn’t afford New York City rents. About one third of American children are now living in poverty. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

In the past eight years, Texas lawmakers have tried nearly a dozen times to pass a law requiring drug screenings or testing for applicants for state welfare benefits. Ahead of next year's legislative session, supporters are hopeful momentum is finally on their side. As of October, fewer than 63,000 Texans — less than 1 percent of the state's

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Bill Clinton Triggers Storm Of Critics After Touting Welfare, Prison Legacy

‘You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter,’ former president tells racial justice activists who interrupted campaign rally

Though nobody likes getting interrupted during a speech, Bill Clinton is not getting many rave reviews for his confrontation with racial justice activists on Thursday. (Image: ABC News/Screenshot)

Riled by protesters who repeatedly interrupted a speech on behalf of wife and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia on Thursday, Bill Clinton is now under fire (and trending on Twitter) for how he responded to those challenging the political pair's record on criminal justice and welfare reform passed under his presidency in the

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Drug Testing Welfare Applicants Costs More Than Twice What It Saves

The seven states with existing programs — Arizona, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah — are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to ferret out very few drug users.

In an ostensible attempt to combat the increasing welfare state in America, the conservatives moved to begin drug testing applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The program was hailed by the right as the be all end all to those “lazy welfare recipients sitting at home and smoking their drugs all day. ” Advocates of the

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Finnish Politician Suggests People Be Embedded With A Chip To Prevent Misuse Of Social Welfare Benefits Abroad

“We don’t know in what situations people go abroad. It is possible that our social benefits are used to provide for a lavish lifestyle in a country with lower cost of living. I hope for a change to this.”

Pasi Mäenranta of the True Finns Party.

In the last few days paying out social benefits to citizens living outside of Finland has been in discussions. A politician from the True Finns Party, Pasi Mäenranta, is also worried about the abuse of the benefits. He published a post on Facebook, where he suggests that all Finnish citizens leaving the country be embedded with an identification

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