Erosion of Human Rights in America: Economic Genocide

Human rights are being greatly eroded by the current welfare policies in place in the U.S.A. today. Economic sanctioning, formerly applied only to citizens in foreign countries, are now legal to impose upon American citizens. How did this policy come to be? It was part of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. It wasn't voted upon by the civilian citizenry, simply enacted by Congress. This was done during the infancy of the Internet. Such laws having been drawn up by legislation were not fully accessible to the public. Testimonies of people on welfare were not asked for in the deliberation process before the passage of the legislation. Testimonies that were given were those of the working scornful, those who stereotypically are "sick and tired of paying for people on welfare". You can check out the history of the Welfare Reform Act at Thomas, the federal government document search, as well as current legislation in progress. It can be said that equal time wasn't given to one side in the deliberation process. That one side was the most important one to be heard from: the voice of the people to whom the legislation was intended to effect. Perhaps you're hearing it now. Don't get us wrong. There's nothing wrong with people becoming independent of social service bureaucracies, and we have nothing against that ever needed growth and progress, which is always paramount, especially in our case. What we do object to though, is the authority to administrate such punitive and potentially damaging policies by people who haven't been elected by the citizenry. Just to refresh your memory or in case you didn't know, the agents of bureaucracies are unelected officials. Of course, the honor system is in full play here, and every benefit of the doubt has been and continues to be most generously given. This trust in these agents can and does easily work against clients of said bureaucracies, clients whose lives are often at their not-so-tender mercies. However, all is not hopeless. The law is built with the intention of helping people. When a law such as sanctioning is applied before exhaustion of other legal protocols that have been enacted as safeguards, (modifying IRP, grace period to resolve problems, etc.), then prejudice can be assumed to be occurring. For when considering laws that can harm people, as sanctioning can, through deprivation and diminished resources, there is a possibility that prejudice is applicable. These are not typical laws and people on welfare should not be treated as criminals. We have experienced abuse of the authority to sanction. Serious constitutional violations herein come to mind, but we need'nt go into a discussion on torts, now do we? As founders of the Welfare Reform Act, we're glad to have served as a model for the landmark legislation that was based upon our lives. Just ask this chick.