April 23, 2011

GOP cruelty in Michigan too

Foster children would be allowed to get clothing only from second hand stores | Michigan Messenger

10 comments:

steves said...

This just seems stupid, but not that big of a surprise considering the source. I don't have a problem with second hand stores. There are some really good ones in my area and kids can be rough on clothes. Spending a lot of money on kids clothes is not a good idea.

Foster parents get a stipend for food and clothes. I am sure they are already using thrift stores, sales, and discount stores. This is just acqaste of time.

Streak said...

Right. No problem with second-hand stores at all. But to make foster kids wear only those seems unnecessarily cruel and communicates "second class citizen."

Bob said...

This clothing allowance (which might be a one-time per child deal.) is also being cut. At the same time, the adoption tax credit is being eliminated as business taxes are being cut.
When these kids are taken from abusive or neglectful homes, they often have nothing. They are stripped not only of their parents, (who they love, even if they are awful) as well as their home, pets, toys, clothes and everything familiar to them.
The LEAST we can do is put a decent pair of jeans on them for school the next day.

Streak said...

Well, God forbid we pay for services, right? And how easy is it to punish the disabled and the foster kids? Isn't like they are a big voting bloc.

leighton said...

Just another example of how pro-life means anti-life.

steves said...

The clothing allowance was never all that much. Most foster parents probably used their own money most of the time. Thankfully, there were also a lot of charities that stepped in and donated clothes and toys. That being said, it is sad that these stipends are being cut.

Streak said...

I am with Leighton on this one. I don't want to hear another Republican lecture me on how much they care about children when they are so willing to make life harder on kids who have enough on their plate.

steves said...

To be fair, my state is in trouble. While I agree that increasing revenue should be done, I still think that there will have to be some cuts. We are looking at serious cuts to a whole bunch of services, including K-12 funding. It may be that clothing stipends are one of those things that will have to be cut. I would rather see those get cut, as opposed to things like therapy for foster kids and other similar services.

Bob said...

"To be fair, my state is in trouble.

Yet most of that trouble is a manufactured crisis as a result of constant tax cuts, exacerbated by Snyders' proposed busness tax cut.

steves said...

I don't doubt that Snyders cuts have had an effect, but I worked in the foster care system back in the 90s and we saw cuts then. I think we would be seeing these cuts no matter who won the election.