WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN NEW MONEY THIS AGENCY RECEIVED?
Government in South Carolina operates on a remarkably simple, three-step “infinite repeat” cycle: 1) Politicians complain about a problem. 2) More tax money is thrown at the problem. 3) The problem gets worse.
Rinse, repeat … rinse, repeat.
Roads, bridges, schools, health care … you name it, this three-step “infinite loop” is always at work, delivering “less for more” with uncanny consistency. Seriously: State government has expanded by roughly $1 billion per year over the last seven years – and is poised to grow by $1.3 billion in the current budget cycle.
What are we getting in return for that investment? More expensive failure, that’s what … across the boards.
Nowhere is this failure more tragically apparent than at the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) – one of governor Nikki Haley‘s most woefully-mismanaged cabinet agencies.
SCDSS has been an unmitigated disaster since Haley took office in 2011 – most notably as it relates to vulnerable children being repeatedly placed in abusive homes. These problems – which are ongoing – ultimately led to the resignation of Haley’s “rock star” SCDSS director Lillian Koller in June of 2014.
They also led to a flood of investigations … and a ton of new taxpayer money so that the agency could (ostensibly) hire new case workers. SCDSS received $692 million in the current (FY 2015-16 budget) – an increase of $34 million from the previous fiscal year. That money was supposed to increase the agency’s full-time staff by nearly 300, thus enabling it to better manage its case loads.
Has it? Um, no.
Still, SCDSS is asking for even more money in the upcoming FY 2016-17 budget … and they are likely to get it, too.
Because it’s “for the children.”
This month, one state lawmaker – S.C. Senator Kevin Bryant – will try to get to the bottom of this bottomless money pit.
“Our state’s social services agency is fraught with issues, not the least of which is social workers in Anderson County with more than 100 cases in their case load,” Bryant said. “These workers are dealing with some of the most fragile family situations in our state, and we need to ensure they are capable of meeting the needs of those families.”
Bryant will hold a hearing into this issue on Tuesday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m. EDT on the campus of Tri-County Technical College (1776 Powdersville Road) in Powdersville, S.C. Joining him will be the current director of SCDSS, Susan Alford.
Will anything come of this hearing?
We’re not holding our breath … although hopefully Bryant, one of a handful of fiscally conservative members of the S.C. Senate, will ask some tough questions regarding how the agency is spending its money.
Somebody needs to …
65 comments
“Steal your wealthfaire”
This problem is only going to get worse. The decay of certain portions of our society has led to these problems. We have made certain socio-economic group in this country completely dependent upon the government.
What breaks this chain of dependency on government institutions for certain groups to even exist at the base level? It is not more government doing more of the same things that have not worked in the past. Hiring more people, throwing more money at the problem just makes a a bad situation even worse and more costly.
What’s the answer, damn if I know, but I do know what has not been done is working.
“certain portions of our society”
“certain socio-economic group”
It’s okay, we all know you mean black people, no use to hide it with dog whistles.
You are an idiot.
Maybe, but at least I’m not a racist.
I have not got time for you, all you want to do is lower the level of discussion to something your simple brain can understand.
How you got black people out of that statement is beyond me, I know your agenda. You need something simple to discuss because you can’t discuss the problem, only interject your racial bias.
You have time for me, that’s why you replied.
I don’t have an agenda. I haven’t made one statement on what I think of DSS or government in general. I simply heard the dog whistle and called you out for it.
I am done with you.
I’ll believe that when you stop replying.
Far from an idiot, WHM is trying to maintain the status quo of dependency from which they more than likely draw some sort of power. Just use the now useless word of “racist” to try to shut you down.
Yeah, WHM and his ilk are a dime a dozen and their opinions are worth the aforementioned dime.
If you can’t discuss, try shutting someone down by being offensive. Won’t work for him, he is an amateur.
I’m not seeking power or dependency or anything. Lots of people are on government dependence whether they like it or not. I think it is a terrible predicament but I don’t have any actual solutions to present. What I do know is that this isn’t a problem that the “decay” of only “certain portions of our society” is to blame for.
If you can’t see the benefit of able bodied persons being a productive person in society and our economy, which would be a sector, or portion, of our society that is failing. Unless you are trying to say only Blacks are the non-productive, able bodied people in society? That I would have a problem with.
There are more full-time able-bodied workers on food stamps than there are able-bodied people who are unemployed. 75% of households under SNAP have a person that was employed within the last year or got a job within the first year of receiving the benefit.
Moreover, erneba referenced not only “portions of society” but a “decay” as well. The odd thing about that is that SNAP benefits have been on the decline, so he couldn’t just mean poor people in general. Sorry, but in my opinion the dog whistle charge sticks.
First, being a productive person in our economy would mean you are taking care of yourself and your family W/O government assistance, and paying net taxes in. When I was young and not so bright I had kids at an age that was too young to easily support them in the manner that I wanted for them. The answer wasn’t food stamps, I worked full time plus OT, at Winn Dixie as a well paid Meat Manager, and then worked multiple side jobs, yard work, lakefront clean outs, and mechanical work. I didn’t expect to flip burgers and require that supports a family of five. I also had a garden in my backyard to help out. I often went on 3 hours a day of sleep, with a power nap between jobs. I was 37 years old before i was able to work one job only, roughly 50 hours a week, and then I went back to school at night for technical training. Culturally in my area it seems acceptable for young ladies to go out to work at multiple jobs while they support a manchild who has never had a tax paying job and sits on their couch all day smoking weed and playing video games. THAT is decay IMO, and more than likely what Erneba refers to.
“First, being a productive person in our economy would mean you are taking care of yourself and your family W/O government assistance, and paying net taxes in.”
So poor people aren’t productive? Wow, that’s a pretty dim view of poor people.
I’m sorry you had to work so hard just to make it, just a reflection of what a lot of poor people go through. I have worked with many people on welfare who worked multiple jobs just to pay for them and theirs, but that kind of whittles the viewpoint that welfare recipients are lazy.
“Culturally in my area it seems acceptable for young ladies to go out to work at multiple jobs while they support a manchild who has never had a tax paying job and sits on their couch all day smoking weed and playing video games.”
This isn’t something that is new, so don’t call it “decay”. Besides that, shitty parents doesn’t mean that kids magically no longer require food or access to basic health care.
“THAT is decay IMO, and more than likely what Erneba refers to.”
I think erneba can speak (or whistle) for himself though.
“I’m sorry you had to work so hard just to make it, just a reflection of what a lot of poor people go through.”
I don’t know that I ever considered myself as poor, and I surely wasn’t looking for pity. I am proud that I did what I had to do give my children the standard of living that I wanted for them.
“This isn’t something that is new, so don’t call it “decay”. Besides that, shitty parents doesn’t mean that kids magically no longer require food or access to basic health care.”
When Government subsidizes something you get more of it, when they tax it there is less. Basic economic principals.
Yeah, that makes senses. And I bet he was just itching to drop that Lee Atwater quote.
Actually, I had seen Lee Atwater’s interview with Martin Bashir years ago. Pretty interesting stuff, and Atwater was trying to be descriptive as possible about the way Southern Politics evolved in sixties thru the eighties.
Taken out of context, it is pretty damning. You have to see the entire interview to understand the context of that quote.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/martin-bashir-broadcasts-misleading-edit-of-lee-atwater-quote-to-portray-gop-as-racist/.
Bullshit. Only a racist themselves would see that in his comment. The decay of the family and drug use and general chaos is color-blind, an equal opportunity catastrophe.
Thank you, much appreciated. Up until about twelve years ago, I had been in every DSS office in this state.
And seen people hurting and children hurting of all shades, hues, and permutations of genetics. I know. It sucks.
Yes, it is spread across all groups. The causes are more or less the same, and so are the results. And it is color-blind.
I didn’t put words in his mouth, I quoted exactly what he said. I’ve seen enough racists on the internet using the same vague speech to refer to minorities that I don’t care what defense you present.
Lee Atwater would be proud of how his strategy has evolved:
? You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh,forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
Now, you are just re-affirming that YOU are the racist.
Sick bastard probably got a hard on typing that.
Then he whacks off to reading his own comments.
Only in your sick fantasies, sir.
What bothers me is this guy is taking himself seriously. His agenda here is to try to label anyone here he disagrees with a racist.
Quoting a racist makes me racist? That is actually what Lee Atwater said. Just like what I copied and pasted from your original comment is actually what you said.
You are deranged. We are allowed, with no approval or vetting from you, to discuss the societal problems that put children at risk–the mission of DSS, to protect vulnerable children and adults from abuse and neglect. Period. Your brain is so poisoned with toxic hate and racism you can’t even see people honestly engaging a discussion of generational poverty and government dependence, the bulk of whom are NOT “niggers,” without butting in and spreading absolute nonsense and bullshit. Why don’t you go protest outside the nearest school of social work, schools which are teaching curricula and having students learn precisely about “certain portions of our society” and “certain socio-economic groups,” in order that they may be helped? If they are not identified, they cannot be effectively assisted. See how long you last with your paranoid psychosis demanding that they stop identifying race-based health disparities and struggling school districts and faltering tax bases and under-served populations. While you are at it, go protest outside a scientific research center that works on developing drugs specifically for African Americans, like breast cancer treatments the success of which are predicated upon genetic profiles, the future of cancer treatment. Or maybe you should protest and name-call the people that are devoting their lives to stop the spread of AIDS in African American communities, who bear the lion’s share of new HIV diagnoses? While you sit on your ass and pester people. Who are you helping? Nobody, that’s right. All you are doing is creating a climate of hate and division, which sane people are fed up to the back teeth with, and some are ready to throw up their hands and say fuck it, apparently debate cannot even be had when someone like you is around, to spread poison and demand that people dislike you. You are a fucking imbecile. By the way, this discussion of DSS, which the sane adults are having here, while you vomit Tourette’s Syndrome idiocy, has absolutely nothing to do with Lee Atwater, other than that you were desperate to use a quote you found and pathetically tried to attach it to an unrelated subject. You have humiliated yourself. You are in yourself an under-served population, get some help.
Who said you had to get my approval to write anything here? It’s a free country, racists can say racist shit if they want to.
You say you are worried about children being put at risk when your original comment was just lambasting people being dependent on welfare? Even Tazmaniac was defending you attacking able bodied workers on SNAP. Don’t try to turn this back to an argument about children under the care of DSS because you never started it out as that.
I’m fucking rolling at the rest of your comment though. When are you going to be done with me? Because I’m not done laughing at your racist word walls.
your original comment was just lambasting people being dependent on welfare
WHERE did I say anything of the sort? Where? No where, except in your twisted feeble mind.
People like him have an agenda. And they will get to a starting point, one way or another.
I know it comforts you guys to write me off as some agenda-driven leftist but the reality is you said something racist and I called you out for it. All in all the children under the care of DSS needing help is apolitical, but you just had to blame the “decay” in “portions of the population”. I’m not going to let thinly veiled racism fly, sorry.
You really are some kind of simple. Bless your heart.
blah, blah, blah, “racist”! blah, blah, blah, “racist”. dude, that is all you “uppity leftists” (as you call yourself) have anymore. personally, that word means absolutely nothing to me as it has been bandied around so much that it has lost any sting that it may have had. to self-righteous democratsliberalsprogressives (as you present yourself to be) you seem think that calling someone a racist actually has meaning anymore. rest assured, to most of us, it does not. but feel free to have at it.
Very good, you nailed him, I don’t have your patience,
“You are deranged.”
This person does not know when to call it quits.
And while you are throwing around ugly quotes on behalf of your simple-minded partisanship, try this one: Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963, in reference to passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964… “These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give
them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference… I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years”.
The Lee Atwater quote came from an interview with Martin Bashir.
He accused Bashitr of taking his quote out of context.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/martin-bashir-broadcasts-misleading-edit-of-lee-atwater-quote-to-portray-gop-as-racist/
Indeed:
What Atwater is saying in the omitted portion of this interview is that, by 1980, overt appeals to racism had lost their efficacy. In the midst of a clinical evaluation of campaign strategy, Atwater digresses to contend that racism both exists and is no longer an effective tool for campaigners.
At the very least, an honest appraisal of what Atwater is saying is
that a racial strategy is not a prudent course for campaigners in the South. And this was 30 years ago. To misquote him in order to attest that he was referring to circumstances relevant today is misleading at best.
The whole interview must be taken in context.
Lee Atwater was a scum bucket of filth labeled as human by his fellow Republicans. Even in context that quote is simply a part of the strategy he advocated. I know Republicans like to pretend the Southern Strategy doesn’t exist, that way they can blame all the racist stuff of yesteryear on Democrats without reminding people they used to BE the Democrats. Just be proud of your heritage, don’t try to hide it!
From Wiki:
In the months after the severity of his illness became apparent, Atwater said he had converted to Catholicism, through the help of Father John Hardon[19] and, in an act of repentance, Atwater issued a number of public and written letters to individuals to whom he had been opposed during his political career. In a June 28, 1990, letter to Tom Turnipseed, he stated, “It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called ‘jumper cable’ episode,” adding, “My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood, and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything.”[6]
In a February 1991 article for Life magazine, Atwater wrote:
My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The ’80s were about acquiring—acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the ’90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.[20]
The article was notable for an apology to Michael Dukakis for the “naked cruelty” of the 1988 presidential election campaign.[20][21]
While he may not have been a guy I would want for a family member, it appears he was seeking improvement.
Yeah, that Atwater was a real racist, wasn’t he?
Heard he carried a “dog whistle” with him all the time.
“While he may not have been a guy I would want for a family member, it appears he was seeking improvement.”
Improvement comes after ripping the cellophane off the Bible.
Only Christians can find self improvement? Wow, just wow. Have a great evening, I can’t do a thing for you.
Try thinking for yourself. Read. http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-myth-of-the-racist-republicans/
I do think for myself, which is why I don’t have to consult think tanks like the Claremont Institute to form my own opinions. And you guys are accusing me of having an agenda?
So is Bill Clinton, who did more to ruin a generation of lives with mandatory drug sentencing laws which he had an opportunity to lift but refused to budge on, and his three strikes bill, which equated drug crimes with violent crimes, sending people to prison for life. Which further rips apart the social fabric and requires more need for social services like DSS. And does nothing to promote economic growth and create jobs, except for prison guards. Democrats own this. And just like Lee Atwater, what he cavalierly did when he was power was later regretted and publicly apologized for. http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/06/politics/bill-clinton-crime-prisons-hillary-clinton/index.html
This may come as a surprise to you, but I’m not a huge fan of LBJ. I’m sure that just destroys your stereotyping of me as the usual uppity leftist who thinks Democrats can do no wrong, but whatever. At least that level of ignorance isn’t as bad as blaming black people for welfare.
NO ONE HAS BLAMED BLACK PEOPLE FOR WELFARE BUT YOU.
I didn’t blame black people, I just heard the dog whistle that erneba blew.
Brigid, in case you did not know, Fits has banned “dog whistles”.
His defense is really pathetic.
Maybe it is your avatar that gives him these ideas?
Good one, never did think about that.
And not all people can hear a dog whistle.
“Brigid, in case you did not know, Fits has banned “dog whistles”.”
Really? How did yours get through?
Owwwwwwww!
JOBS. That would provide immediate relief. Won’t solve all of humanity’s flaws, but it is a start in curbing the chaos.
It would be good start, but you have to get people to break with the past and realize the importance of a good education. DSS can help, but the family is the motivator for that inspiration.
God forbid you name a segment of our society that underperforms disproportionately. I suggest you take a look at Charleston county school report cards when they come out. The reports break down testing by race and its pretty mind blowing the difference between the races at the same school taught by the same teachers with the same books, across the board.
But everyones the same and we will never talk about it, report those differences, nor actually act on the problem. We’ll just scratch our heads, blame the school system and throw more money at it. We should just quit wasting money on the school report cards because they’re racist.
DSS has never been a Thoroughbred
At its best it has been and currently is a C grade Plow Mule
Time to put a round in the mule’s head and start over again
DSS and DJJ are both in a full-on tailspin. It’s sad to watch the truckloads of money wasted in both agencies, when the problem isn’t funding, it’s management (or lack thereof).
Yesterday, I had occasion to be present in Family Court, listening to a DSS worker testify regarding a vulnerable child. This caseworker could barely string a comprehensible sentence together with 2 hands and the help of directed questioning. This alarmed me, but did not surprise me. Starting pay for a caseworker job is about $23k, and the caseload is unmanageable. For $23k, DSS will not be employing rocket scientists and English teachers anytime soon. So don’t tell me money can’t help. Theirs is a thankless job, one that would be a bit easier if parents like I heard testify yesterday weren’t actively seeking to have their unruly teenagers placed in foster care because the parents are unwilling to parent.
Not what I ‘m saying at all. Semantics, but I see your point.
Paying caseworkers who are tasked with the analysis of complex (and often dangerous) situations with the ultimate goal being the protection of children anything even resembling $23k is…bad management. Once they get the management piece under control, competent leadership can redirect the money where it needs to go. Waste and inefficiency are the order of the day there now.