Having said all of the above, I must say that there are still things that should be done. I'm in my present job, because I needed a health care plan for my wife, and would end up getting laid off when a small companies premiums went up when I added her. I am not a fan of Obamacare, as now I have to wonder, where in the world will all the super rich Canadians and Europeans go to get quality health care. Yet protection against insurance companies discriminating against Pre-existing conditions is a valid problem in our system, with the caveat that the person with the pre-existing condition have been responsible to have insurance when it came up.

Remember too, my wife had a liver transplant, a horribly expensive operation. Although she was young when the original poisoning happened that damaged her liver (a drive by spraying by a farmer with pesticide) and covered by her parents plan, after that she could never get health coverage. SSI paid for that transplant, and indirectly therefore, the happy years we had together. So I'm not willing to throw out all of our programs that help people.

I also believe we should help unemployed people, but not without them trying to find work, even below their "station." If a management type is too proud to flip burgers until another good job comes along, why can't I be too proud to pay him to do nothing.

There has to be a line, and it should be on the recipient to comply with it. If you are on unemployment, as far as I'm concerned it is your job to find a job, and you should look all day, every day. When I was younger, I remember learning about a woman who wanted to be an oceanographer, a very closed profession, with far more people wanting in than good paying jobs. Additionally she felt she should have that work in Florida only. Of course there were jobs available in Washington state, Alaska and I understand even in Canada. (However I suspect these areas are not conducive to wearing a bikini at work and filing sexual harassment suits.) She wanted to be paid by the government and have her student loans paid until she found work in her chosen field, and in the area she wanted to work. I don't mind her career choice or area preference, but why should I have to pay for it. If there is no work where you are, and jobs are available elsewhere or in another field you should take them until your preferences are available. thats only fair to me, and others who are working, and have to pay for you.

We definitely should remove people from public assistance who lie to get it or lie to keep it. I like my departments definition here, Less than Truthful, which is defined as false, incomplete, or intentionally misleading. I would not even mind if we made that retroactive, and cut any one off who was less than truthful at any time in their lives from government aid, even during times no one cared. I should not have to aid those whose character is so poor they think anything is acceptable. It burdens me to carry them. But for the truthful, working, striving ones, I believe we should have that hand out, following an old proverb as best we can, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Sorry if this rambles, I guess I'm a little tired.