MorahRach, I never said Romney would end all welfare. However, every serious analysis of his budgetary and tax proposals concludes that he would drastically cut spending for the needy. That shouldn’t be surprising, because that the mainstream Republican position at this time, touted by everyone in the leadership of the party, is to cut taxes for the wealthiest and pay for it with deep cuts to social spending. Look at the bills the House Republicans have proposed or passed, including Ryan’s budget plan, and you’ll get an idea of what I mean.
I don’t think it’s the case that there are loads of people laying around living off your dollar. Benefits in this country are generally much lower and less available than they are in other Western industrialized countries, including Israel. Food stamps and other benefits aren’t a huge amount of money. Most of them go to people who are working, but whose salaries are so low that they are under the poverty line. Most of the poor are the working poor. For those who aren’t working, often the problem is that they are taking care of children, are uneducated and have no job prospects, are sick or disabled, or have psychological or addiction problems. Lots of people need more help than they’re getting, especially more education, job-training and treatment for health and addiction problems. So our system certainly needs reform, but that’s not going to happen by drastically cutting everything.
MorahRach, working off the books is illegal — I certainly don’t approve of that. The law of the land is the law of the land, and we are ethically and halachically bound to follow it. And I think there should be some kind of relief for people like yourself who are double-taxed.
By the way, I don’t rely on the NY Times. I only cited a news story that quotes Romney’s ad about abortion. You can find the same news story in numerous sites on the Internet, including on pro-life and conservative sites.