Commercial Appeal reports government giving poor households $35,000 per year

    The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports on how federal poverty payments are helping to keep that city float.
    According to the story, 100,000 Memphis households are receiving about $3 billion annually in federal aid plus an additional $500 million in state aid. I'll save you the trip to the calculator: that's $35,000 per household in poverty. These figures apparently do not include unemployment payments as well as some additional federal aid.
    Doesn't that seem a little high? Isn't it time to cut back on the amount we're paying to these so-called "poor" families, who in fact are receiving more in free stuff from the federal government than an average man who goes to work every day can provide?
    We've got a mess. One part of the solution is to tell these households that they payments would decline by 25 percent each year for several years but they will be allowed to work or change their living arrangements in any way they wish without it affecting their eligibility for a monthly furnish.
    The second part is for the Republicans in Congress not to agree to any tax increase. Do not fund this beast! There is no need to raise taxes on either working people or millionaires when there are hundreds of thousands of households across America getting $35,000 per year for doing nothing.