Justice Scalia on 60 Minutes

"poor education? without the option of choice? that's just ignorance talking. of course you have a choice. don't like the school in your district? MOVE. don't want to move? put them in a PRIVATE/CHARTER SCHOOL. don't want private school? HOME SCHOOL. not smart enough to home school your kids? put them in PUBLIC SCHOOL."

We aren't talking about me, are we? We're talking about the inner city kids that the left has trapped in inner city schools and refuse to allow them to leave. Private school and homeschooling are not usually an option but the left refuses to let them take some of the tax payer money and try a better option.

You're the elitist because you could care less about their education.

Michele, you seem to think that the whole idea of 'government grants to the poor is bad' only exists on the national level for conservatives.

It IS the STATE that have been conducting the cutbacks, and the elimination of programs, etc. that have led to our shelter likely going under in very short order.

We aren't social services. We connect people TO resources. Lord knows we certainly don't have the money to provide medical care, monthly food and such for our tenants. We're lucky to be able to provide a roof, utilities, which provides an address, and such.

As for the amount we 'spend on welfare', it is literally a single digit percentage of our national budget. Usually the same for most state budgets. Pennsylvania, for instance, spends 4 percent of its budget on welfare. It boosts up to 11 percent for Georgia. I think you'll find it is far less than most people think.

In 1992, this is before Welfare reform, the rolls have been greatly reduced since then, AFDC and Food stamps comprised a big... ONE PERCENT of the federal budget.

By way of comparison (and this comes from the Cato Institute, hardly a bastion of liberal apologetics) corporate welfare welfare (government subsidies to private companies), was 87 billion dollars a year.

Where does THAT money go?

"Too bad that's none of your business, isn't it? How I minster to the poor is really no concern of yours because I don't puff myself up by strutting my acts of mercy for all to see. It sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?"

i'd say "convenient," but i'll just give you the benefit of the doubt. however, it's hardly fair for you to judge others and then hide behind this sorry excuse... as the saying goes, put up or shut up. explaining your "acts of mercy" does nothing to defeat their purpose, and might actually inspire others to do what you've done.

"We're talking about the inner city kids that the left has trapped in inner city schools and refuse to allow them to leave. Private school and homeschooling are not usually an option but the left refuses to let them take some of the tax payer money and try a better option."

the left has trapped kids? like i said, republicans have had the chance to change things (and didn't)... conservative charities, free markets have the chance to change things (and haven't). private schooling and home schooling and moving to another area are options (show me a case where none of those are options and then show me how it is that liberalism has made it so). and the best option of all is to elect local officials and politicians who will work to improve the public schools... this isn't communist russia. and if they're not usually an option, as you say, then what good would it do to bleed more tax money away from public education for the options you say don't exist? by the way, there's no credible evidence that proves that private/charter/home school education is any better than public education.

"Are you honestly saying that we haven't spent billions on welfare over the last 40 years? Federally? Do you know how much California alone has spent on welfare this year? How about the federal government?"

no, i'm not saying that. i'm saying that you're a dope when you spout off naive, biased, right-wing opinion crap like "...if you think the democrats care about the poor then you are pretty naive."

"Also what about the last federal budget, how much money was spent on welfare, do you even know? Where is that money going if no one is getting welfare?"

of course i do. so do you think that by cutting social service funds out of the budget will fix the problems of poverty, education, blight, cost of health? because that's what republicans do all of the time - increase spending on military and decrease spending on medicare, medicaid, public education, job services, social services, etc.

"What market? Do you think there is a way to make money from serving the poor?"

my point exactly. this is why the capitalist market system will never solve the problem of poverty, because greedy people can't make money by helping the poor, so the market ignores them.

"Why would the left pay to help the homeless when they send millions to put Obama or Clinton in the WH to take care of the problem for them."

i promise you, i'm doing both. take the millions that have been given to the republican and democratic campaigns... now what do you expect that money to do, michele? how far will it go? maybe one cup of soup and a cracker for each person living in poverty in the u.s. today? no, we're looking for policies that will make a change for a longer fix than that. use that noggin and think.

"You're the elitist because you could care less about their education."

first of all, that makes no sense. secondly, i volunteer a good part of my time and money (on top of taxes) to public schools to help improve education. i've worked at a non-profit organization to improve education for kids with disabilities (and just so you know, most everyone there was a liberal, too). i'd ask you to prove somehow that you care more about their education, but i suspect the answer will be "none of your business." i do know that you'll cause way more harm to these kids by dismantling the public education system than by trying to fix it.

finally, i would like to know what credentials you have to make the outrageous claims that you have. without having relied on any of these "failed" programs for your own welfare, without having worked in the public education system, without showing us that you have any experience at all trying to address these problems, then you're an outsider, a big mouthed whiner, an elitist. let's hear your better, proven alternatives.