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Arianna Talks Safety Net Benefits On CNN's Your Bottom Line (VIDEO)

Posted: 02/13/2012 9:15 am

Arianna appeared on CNN's "Your Bottom Line," to discuss the growth of "safety net" benefits like food stamps and Medicaid.

"It's a sign of what a terrible state our economy is and how the impact of the financial disaster is still being felt very widely," she said. "Food stamps, for example, are no longer just for people who are out of work, a lot of families are supplementing their income with food stamps."

She also discussed how this shift has affected socioeconomic mobility.

"There is something fundamental happening which is the downtown mobility trend in America which is the exact opposite of the american dream which immigrants like me were the beneficiaries of," she said.

Watch the clip below, courtesy of CNN.

 
Arianna appeared on CNN's "Your Bottom Line," to discuss the growth of "safety net" benefits like food stamps and Medicaid. "It's a sign of what a terrible state our economy is and how the impact of...
Arianna appeared on CNN's "Your Bottom Line," to discuss the growth of "safety net" benefits like food stamps and Medicaid. "It's a sign of what a terrible state our economy is and how the impact of...
 
 
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02:18 PM on 02/13/2012
They should investigate the way poor workers are enslaved by uncertainty. They have to seek work to get benefits, yet to get work, they often have to sign, in their employment agreements or applications,...an agreement to not sue & to instead do arbitration (by someone designated by the employer, lol) ...in order to be considered for the job. It's like a very lop-sided prenuptual agreement in marriage.

Also, there is so much danger to workers for whistleblowers, as seen in the documents shown in the website, "Supremely UNjust". That poor man lost his career, his new car, & has been living in a tent after exposing corruption at work it seems. He tried for justice, and the courts simply violated the Law & Constitution in apparent cronyism against him, running him out w/out a jury trial. The safety is gone for the "have-nots". The safety net is absolutely necessary.
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T Trump
Sarcasm / Freedom / Truth
01:23 PM on 02/13/2012
Come on folks, why do we need a safety net, trickle down economics has been working just fine the last thirty years. Or has it?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Candide33
I heart Bernie Sanders
12:56 PM on 02/13/2012
That is what happens when you let the rich cheat workers out of the wages that they owe them... the government has to step in and make up the difference while the rich get off scot-free.

Raise taxes back to 90% on the rich and let them 'EARN their tax cuts through paying workers decent wages, providing benefits, reinvesting in the companies, bring back jobs from over seas....

The rich have gotten a free ride for much too long.. now it is time that they be forced to be good citizens.
02:10 PM on 02/13/2012
If my income was taxed at 90% I'd see that I either moved to another country with a reasonable tax rate, or I'd stop making enough to be taxed at 90%. I don't consider the govt entitled to any of my money, let alone 90%.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
frank day
Republican = FAIL
02:37 PM on 02/13/2012
You would not be missed.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Candide33
I heart Bernie Sanders
05:18 AM on 02/14/2012
So you would rather cheat your workers out of a fair wage than get a tax cut?

You could could leave and someone not quiet as greedy would take your place because they would no longer have you to compete against... they would still be rich... just not filthy rich.

You do not consider the government entitled?

So you want everything that comes with a civilized society for free and be a leech like all conservatives?

That is why conservatives are not good citizens, they never want to pull their weight.
bluejaykira
Vote Democrat to SAVE the American Dream
02:30 PM on 02/13/2012
Exactly Candide33!!
12:48 PM on 02/13/2012
The solution is a two tiered private and public system that competes with each other. A government safety net for those not working in the private sector filling government jobs or industry. One fifth of America's poor could be trained as lower paid Post Office workers, Whitehouse lawn cutters, Police dog training personnel, government employee haircutters. The list and need is endless. If citizens are getting public benefit, subsidized housing, subsidized food, subsidized transportation then they can accept lower wages. Why wouldn't the government compete in factories of foodstuffs, diapers and jam? Leave the costly high end things like space exploration to private companies without taxpayer subsidy welfare. The money the government generated would more than offset the cost of entitlements. If the money was well managed and not pilfered, government safety net workers could take care of the poor and disabled. The problem is really the Republicans tout that they want to get rid of entitlements but they really don't. They like the cheap labor and free government money to pad their bank accounts. The only difference in the two systems would be that when Republicans need to go into a nursing they would have to pay a high private cost to someone to wipe their butt while the government worker could have it done for free.
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Ipanemagirl
progressive
12:43 PM on 02/13/2012
The fact that republicans are allowing the 1% to take all and pay zero is forcing the middle class and the poor to get less and less and can no longer dream of the american dream.
The banks should be offering no interest student loans to students after being bailed out by us tax payers at 0% interest! But intead, they are gouging the students to the point they can no longer afford to get an education and so the rich can rule over the uneducated masses. Thats the plutocrat's dream which the republicans are making sure turns into a reality. The GOP and Fox news is toxic to America!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
frank day
Republican = FAIL
01:07 PM on 02/13/2012
Let the banks fail and allow the Government to take over their function.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ipanemagirl
progressive
01:13 PM on 02/13/2012
thats a good idea, and also break the banks up into smaller banks so they are not to big to fail. or too powerful to control and regulate. More competition , means better customer service, and if one fails , we still have others, so we dont have to bail anybody out.
12:12 PM on 02/13/2012
I've read that posts about the misuse of these programs. Because the government is responsible as the safety net and demands emergency room care regardless of means, to me, the solution is a single payer medical system for all, without means test, that is funded through general taxation. Using employer funded tax exempt to provide healthcare insurance to those receiving such plans costs the society too much. (I believe if McCain's tax on healthcare over $5k/yr had been enacted we'd have or be close to having single payer now) If one favors private corporate funded system we would need to allow means tests at the point of service with perhaps tax funded accident care. Most of the current Republican candidates while deploring the Affordable Care Act do not offer an alternative of which there are some. My opinion is that we can not continue with any of the healthcare funding systems including the Affordable Care Act as they are all much more inefficient than any other Industrial Nation's system and hence make us less competitive. Only single payer for all funded by progressive general tax revenue offers a solution that is competitive.
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Taterhead McGobstopper
Paddle faster, I hear banjos ...
12:11 PM on 02/13/2012
A third of Americans live in households getting assistance? Is that counting those Walmart owners, who's corporation gets more in subsidies than it makes in actual sales? Are they counting those receivers of assistance, too?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Runey
anti-religionists, converge and amass
11:54 AM on 02/13/2012
what is a downtown mobility trend?
11:38 AM on 02/13/2012
1 in 5 Americans, that's 67 million, depend on federal aid programs for housing, food, income,health care and education.

The fed govt spends 2.5 trillion annually on entitlement programs, 70% if US budget. The average recipient fo federal assistence get $32,750 which is more than average per capita disposable income of American citizens.

We have seen the enemy, and it is us.
10:16 AM on 02/13/2012
We need to stop all these entitlements in this country for the people who know how to work the system. There are the honorable poor and low income who deserve help, but we have too many that have worked the system and don't need the help and were able to get it fraudulantly. Yesterday there was a report that the government pays 1.6 BILLION DOLLARS on phones for Medicaid and low income people. Why are we giving them phones to begin with but the bigger problem is that they were only to get one phone and many of them have multiple phones. This is idiotic. I work in a doctor's office - we have patients that come in with 3 and 4 medicaid cards. How is it that these people know how to do this? Where are the inspectors and who has confirmed the information people give at the medicaid offices? We don't have enough inspectors confirming the fraud in the system. The government should hire these "thieves" because they are able to figure out how to get around the system more than the people in the 3 piece suits. Hire them to help them show the gov. how to cut down on fraud!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ipanemagirl
progressive
01:07 PM on 02/13/2012
Yes there is a lot of fraud and abuse , and we should regorm the system in order to elliminate most of it ...but this is still peanuts comapred to the lost revernue we have by giving rich people huhge tax beaks ...those are the real FRauds in our society.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
frank day
Republican = FAIL
01:09 PM on 02/13/2012
Quit Bailing out Banksters!!!!!!
03:47 PM on 02/13/2012
that too, but this kind of abuse needs to be addressed too.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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09:55 AM on 02/13/2012
The safety net has become an acceptable way of life for millions from one generation to the next. It is their "job" and is an expectation. The growing chronic dependents will strangle out taxpayers ability to pay for their keep. In the meantime, the definition of "rich" will continue to be downgraded.
10:22 AM on 02/13/2012
Read the above comment and do the math yourself. Could you survive on that with a family?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Salty too
2 Timothy 4:1-5
11:51 AM on 02/13/2012
Then get a secound job, or cut the cable, don't have a $500 cell phone for everyone in the family, play stations, internet, 50inch flat screens. It's called priorities.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jim NLN
Obama 2012 and beyond!
11:31 AM on 02/13/2012
Get the facts and stop repeating republican myths.
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jkkFL
microbio refusé, je vous refusez
12:46 PM on 02/13/2012
Absolutely!!
09:32 AM on 02/13/2012
What are the solutions?
pitako8
The mind is a terrible thing to waste.
11:30 AM on 02/13/2012
Start with JOBS!!!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
frank day
Republican = FAIL
01:10 PM on 02/13/2012
You just made Boehner cry....