A social-welfare state

During the past four years, President Obama's administration has heavily promoted easy access to free government programs and welfare.

Single women voted for Obama by nearly 67 percent and a report by the American Enterprise Institute, using information from Pennsylvania's Public Welfare Department, revealed the following: A single mom with two children is now better off with a job making $29,000 with government welfare, rather than a $69,000 job without government welfare.

By keeping the lower paying job, this mother has access to food stamps, daycare, child health care, school lunch programs, subsidized Section 8 low income rent, earned income tax credits and needy family assistance programs. She ends up with more disposable income at $29,000 than the mother who has worked her way up the ladder to the $69,000 job.

In a New York Times article by Nicholas Kristof, numerous poor parents in Appalachian hill country in Kentucky are pulling their kids out of literacy classes in order to keep a $689 monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) check per kid. These checks will continue until the children are 18, as long as they continue to struggle in school. A 2009 study shows that two-thirds of these children, after turning 18, will stay on government programs.

If we want Americans to regain their personal pride, independence and self-reliance, it's imperative that in 2014 we regain control of both the House and Senate and keep President Obama in check until 2016. Otherwise, we become a permanent European social welfare state.

WILLIAM PIERCEY SR., Jackson