More than $125 million of taxpayer money is earmarked to be used as no-strings-attached “guaranteed income” for low-income families across the U.S., a Daily Mail analysis revealed Sunday.
Such programs have “surged” in popularity in several Democrat-controlled cities, handing families “up to $36,000” in cash handouts, the U.K. publication reported.
As progressives cheer on these welfare schemes as victories for those with financial struggles, some recipients have proven that they can’t be trusted to make economically savvy decisions when given large amounts of money.
RELATED VIDEO — Jimmy John: Welfare Destroys “A Man’s Soul” and America’s Businesses:
Jack Knudsen / Breitbart NewsA Washington, DC, mom of three spent thousands on a lavish vacation after receiving money from the city’s program that gave more than 100 low-income mothers a lump sum of $10,800, Breitbart News reported in February.
Canethia Miller, 27, spent a whopping $6,000 on a luxury Miami trip, including money for new outfits, haircuts, and more for herself, children, and partner.
A Washington Post article detailed how Miller’s lifestyle choices led her to be reliant on multiple forms of welfare:
She was a stay-at-home mom when her third child, Nazir, was born in summer 2022, making things work financially through a host of public benefits. Her two-bedroom apartment in Anacostia is subsidized, and with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) as her only income, her rent payments are about $120 a month. Food stamps and WIC, a program that offers nutritional support for low-income mothers, offered another lifeline for Miller to provide for her infant and two older children, ages 5 and 8.
“I wanted to blow it. I wanted to have fun,” Miller told the Post. She also amazingly acknowledged that many people in the community “don’t know the financial gain of credit, saving for your kids; that’s why we’re broke, that’s why we don’t have nothing to pass down or no house to give down.”
RELATED VIDEO – Axelrod: The Pro-Biden Spin Is Wrong, People Have Poor Views of Bidenomics Because Food, Gas Prices Are “Still High”:
Similar programs in other progressive-run cities such as Los Angeles and New York offer payments of up to $1,000 per month for three years that people can spend on whatever they like, the Daily Mail found.
“Ongoing projects will deliver more than $125 million to nearly 10,000 Americans nationwide across more than 30 programs that last up to three years,” the outlet stated, citing data from the Guaranteed Income Pilots Dashboard.
Critics have lambasted the handouts for trapping people in “a cycle of poverty.”
“A permanent and society-wide system to provide for everyone would destroy fundamental elements of the social contract and create the wrong incentives for people as they make choices about their life’s course,” said Oren Cass, executive director of the American Compass think tank and Financial Times writer.
Heritage Foundation economic research fellow Joel Griffith also told the Daily Mail that “quite often these handouts actually trap people in a cycle of poverty. This is not helping people build long-term wealth and to have long-term economic prosperity.”
