As an activist for low income people and as a low income wage earner myself for 35 years, I have seen much about this issue. With half the nation in poverty, there is a reason there is more involvement with DSHS among people in poverty, often much of it involuntary. One might question why it would have to be childfren should be traumatized for life and a family destroyed out of a desperate need for food, medical assistance and housing assistance, which these needs are growing as well.

The funding mandates from Title IV and the massive cuts in any “discretionary” funding for services assisting the disabled, the elderly, families and individuals in need, is causing fraud, waste and quite a bit of corruption within CPS agencies across the nation. As someone who spent some time in Iowa with family there, let’s face it…Iowa is full of people who hate and blame the poor.

Much of this is because of the ignorant perception among haters of the poor that poverty is a “choice” when in fact poverty is an ensconced institution where the upper classes benefit off the backs of the poor. I can write about that forever but one trip to your nearest Walmart where employee are paid lower than poverty wages, or look at the taxes your poor pay compared to the rich in your state and you’ll get the picture as to how most benefit. While Iowa is actually better than most for the burden of taxation on the poor, take a look here if you look up Iowa:about taxes: http://itepnet.org/state_reports. /whopays.php

CPS is profiting as well off the poor. They actually get money every time they take a kid from a poor person and their workers get bonuses for taking a kid and not returning them home.

Title IV’s mandates say that, “The more kids you take the more money you will make and if you return them home, you will LOSE all present and future funding for all returned children…” I am not making this up, go ask for yourself from the US Ways and Means Committee and they will tell you the same.

CPS uses the poor to make money from their kids and as setting legal precedence in court so when upper classes are falsely accused they have to go into bankruptcy to adequately defend themselves.

Worse, besides the $ billions they receive as mandated from Title IV (out of Social Security), CPS also goes in and takes even more for themselves out of the “discretionary” funding, (TANDF, Childcatre, food styamps and Medicaid) literally “out of the mouths of babes” from badly needed services to (mostly working for a wage) people. As an average depending on the state, CPS will take about 1/3 of this funding as well.

Then they cry they have to cut those services to families. THEN they go in and TAKE those kids for “maltreatment and neglect” instead of helping them. Mr Wexlar below will back me up to say CPS spends literally 1000% more on taking kids than they would for helping the families. And while most states make it illegal to take kids from their parents because of poverty, the CONDITIONS OF POVERTY are direct definitions of “maltreatment and neglect”.

CPS officials well know it is better for the child, the child has a better chance of thriving and these kids would not chance the possibility of the 5-7 X more likely abuse happening in foster care of they stayed in their home with services, even when the parent is chemically dependent. But there is money to made and, “the best interest the child” really means, “the best interest of our bank accounts”.

More to say but this is too long already except poverty is merely used as n excuse, the truth is they are profiting from the taking and selling of low income children by literally “harvesting” them from their low wage families who cannot defend themselves.

Cat in Seattle