Is it “Modern Day Welfare”, when cities give free funds to low-income families?

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
And welcome to Frankie has a bigMouth twice a month. To make sure
that you find us on the YouTubechannel. Definitely like us on Facebook and
the Life. My name is FrankieDarcel. You'll find the entire podcast as
well on the iHeartRadio Network, RealTimes Media, and the Black Information Network.

(00:22):
So today we're gonna have a greattopic on top of what people know
as aid to dependent children or welfare. We're gonna talk about whether or not
it is a good idea, butnot only states, but cities to finance
poor and low income residents. We'regonna get to that. But first before
we start, let me introduce myguest. He is the host of Grow

(00:44):
Talk. He is a proud HBCUgrad as well. Dexter Stuckie is joining
us. Hey Dexter, Hey Frankie. Great to be here with you guys
again. I love it very good. There's still a conversation as to whether
or not Lincoln University, where youget undergraduate degree, is the first HBCU,
but that's debatable. We'll talk aboutthat. I don't know why there's

(01:04):
a conversation now with me. Heis a political strategist as well, has
worked as a Union leader as wellhas served for two congressional members in Washington
TC. He is absolutely an insiderright now running his own business to Ron
Marshall is my guest. Hello torun. It's great to be here,

(01:26):
Frankie, and I don't know ifthat's a discussion. I'm sure Morehouse was
around the beginning somewhere. I don'treally know, but we accept Lincoln in
this historical fashion see as the MorganState University grad. We don't have to
brag. We just get it done. I'm just saying we've had a number
of HBCU conversations as we bring infor the very first side. She is

(01:49):
a woman that I absolutely adore andlove to life. She is brilliant.
She is definitely on the pulse ofthe country. Canadas Sportman is joining me.
She is the executive director of OutlierMedia. Welcome to Frankie has a
big bound for the very first andI hope not the last time. I
certainly hope it's not the last time. But I'm so happy to be here

(02:10):
now. Ferris State, right,yes, yes, a log in college,
a log in college, that's right. So an agricultural institution alright,
alright for those in the know.It is also but it is also the
home of the country's only Jim CrowMuseum, started by doctor David Pilgrim,

(02:30):
which is an incredible museum that looksat the history and legacy of Jim Crow
in this country. Oh that's awesome, And I have to say it's a
footnote as well. I'm one ofyour proud graduates, the honorable former Congresswoman
Carol Kilpatrick honorary doctorate degree from FarrisState. So yes, yes, I

(02:52):
love some Fairs State. And Iremember driving from Detroit to Fair State to
do any event and I thought itwas gonna be a two or three hours
driver. I was like, amI gonna drive off into Canada to you?
So that's true? Wow, Well, thank you for joining us.
We're gonna start first. Uh.Former Mayor of Atlanta, Kesha Lance Bottom

(03:15):
served in the White House under theBiden administration. People were excited about that
once she decided not to run formayor of Atlanta. Clearly Georgia if we
go back just two years, andthe role the city of Atlanta played getting
the Biden administration into the White House, and then she uh pretty much for

(03:36):
some on the inside, not surprisinglystepped down and resigned, but she is
now going to be serving as theprincipal National Adviser to a committee on International
Trade? Duran. Are they justtrying to find a title for the sister
to be in Washington? And Iguess this this opportunity to keep her more
in Atlanta with her family because shedoes have growing children. Absolutely, absolutely,

(03:58):
you know, Keisha Lanz Boom isa dynamic young lady. When she
came in to be mayor of Atlanta, she came in with a great deal
of you know, fanfare. Alot of people were excited. I think
her low point might have been theGeorge the George Floyd situation and the riots
that occurred, and some of that, you know, was being you know,
pushed in by the Republican Party becauseremember they were trying to position themselves

(04:21):
for the next election, so theywanted chaos and disruption in order to win.
When Georgia it took, it tookher heart, I think, and
having young kids, she had tomake some other decisions right and so at
a seventy percent approval rating, shechose not to rerun for office, and
she chose to come you know andwork on behalf I think her first position
was a public engagement advisor, whichalso takes a lot of time. So

(04:46):
you know, it's not you know, almost still requires you to go to
DC. Well, that isn't workwell with your husband and your children back
in Atlanta. So her movement outand then now her new position still allows
her the flexibility but still be engagedin the office. And of course it's
mutually a beneficial for the administration tohave a deep connection in Atlante as well.

(05:06):
Yeah, now, Candice, you'vebeen in the media game for very
long time. The other side ofthat conversation is for elected officials once they
step down, you're no longer married, you're no longer president, you're no
longer congresional member, you're no longersenate. It's hard nown to be a
regular citizen with just the title.So there's a learning curve, not necessarily

(05:28):
just about Keisha Lance's bottom, butjust elected officials making that transition to be
in the title. You have someprotections. Donald Trump, when you're president
and you're no longer president, you'rehaving to answer questions, candide your thought
on that. You know, Ithink that sure, you lose the title,
but do you really lose the power. I don't know if that's one
hundred percent accurate. I think thatpower tends to follow the powerful, no

(05:51):
matter whether they have the title ornot. And so in her case,
while she certainly might not hold thetitle of in the White House or in
the Mayor's office, she certainly iswell connected enough to be able to get
things done as she might see fit. But I do want to address one
thing. I think it's very interestingbecause she is a woman that the sort

(06:12):
of earnest of raising her family sitson her. You know, if this
was a conversation about a man herfamily, his family would never come up
right. You know, he usedto stay home to raise his kids.
So I just want to call thatout and sort of like an interesting bias
that we started off immediately with.You know, I'm sure that they have
enough resources to ensure that their childrenare well taken care of regardless of whether

(06:36):
she's at the White Now, Iwill tell you part of that conversation for
me is when I saw her withgreat respect, because I think she is
dynamic. But it's a different levelof pressure. People really don't know how
stressful it is when you are underthe camera or in front of a camera

(06:57):
on a national stage like that,And I thought that that level of pressure
when you are a the sitting president, because one of the things I remember
the Honorable Coleman Young saying that theday he stepped down after it was Dennis
Archer who succeeded him, and hesaid he kept looking at his phone waiting

(07:20):
for it to ring. So youdon't necessarily lose a lot of relationships,
you do lose a lot of power. I can tell you it's a radio
talent. I know that eighty percentof the people I deal with it is
because I have a microphone in myphone. If I don't have that,
if I don't have that microphone inmy face, a lot of folks don't
have they don't need the conversation.And I'm coming from that perspective, Candids,

(07:40):
there's some beauty and peace, youknow, if you can get it,
take it, and especially what you'vedone the work. You know,
if you've done the work. Andmaybe Keisha feels different, I don't know,
but if you've done the work,and she, I mean, she's
young, she has plenty of opportunitiesahead, including if she wanted to run
from Mary again. Quite obviously,Yeah, she wanted to pick that back
up and do it again. I'msure there are enough incredible strategies that could

(08:03):
get that done for her. Yeah, so that's true. Your thought on
that, Orana, I'll come backto you on the fact that she is
now going to be the national advisoron a committee Committee to trade and clearly
coming out of COVID when we couldnot get baby formula, Candice, we
do need a mother to understand thebabies need to be fed, clearly,

(08:26):
you know. Honestly, I thinkCandice and Dean did a really good job
summing it up because both of themlike put out amazing points, like I
didn't know that she had a seventyseventy cent and seventy percent approval rating because
it was really funny because when shewas and I do think this speaks to
her being a woman too, Likewhen I saw the COVID stuff and the
George Floyd's stuff, she was onTV screaming Atlanta go home, like I

(08:50):
saw it, like they were atthe CNN building destroying it and she was
like enough is enough, Like I'mdone with this over someone and it was
like it's like damn, Like thatis really intense and I do think that
speaks to her being a woman.I also think Candis made a really good
point where it's like, oh,like, because she's a woman, she
has to be home rocking the babiesand stuff. Because if this was a
man, either the family will moveto DC or they will be fine with

(09:13):
her, you know, with himbeing in DC doing when he has to
do something. I am woman here, rare right, I will say.
And I do take Candi's point tremendously. I think that she has four adopted
children, and so it was atremendous effort, I think to be away
from them and flying home every weekend, which is what she was doing when

(09:35):
she was here and her family hereand her husband had decided not to actually
move to DC to disrupt their lives, I think. So. I think
her mom at home was still inthe concert, will be taking care of
the kids, and so I don'twant you Candis to believe I was inferring
that they needed to be there becausethe husband is also being a dynamic husband
as well at home with the kids. I've already put up the Facebook statusis

(09:56):
too though. All Right, Solisten, here's a contact that has turned
into policy around the country where theyare already initiatives in place Los Angeles,
parts of Louisiana, which was surprising, especially being a Republican state. But

(10:18):
they're looking at it in a citylike Philadelphia, and is going on in
Los Angeles where they're calling the programwhich is to subsidize low income our families
and for pregnant women. We knowthe term welfare or aid to dependent children,

(10:39):
but the program is calling no cashattached, right, So what it
is is it is an opportunity forlocally cities to subsidize and give residents,
low income residents income money that theydon't have to pay back. It sounds

(11:01):
just like a tow dependent children oras some still call it, welfare,
and they don't have to give thismoney back. And most of these individuals,
as I've kind of researched it,live in low income housing. We
know that cities like Philadelphia are someof the biggest sports cities, Chicago,
Los Angeles, and the light andthe question will start with especially around with

(11:22):
you with your political background. Um, is it a good idea? You
know, give a man a fish, you know, eat for a day,
teach him how to fish, he'lleat for a lifetime. Your thought,
well, a couple of things we'renot gonna forget. In the last
presidential election, there was a discussionabout having a baseline income for all citizens,

(11:46):
and the discussion was because you know, certain cities, the problem is
is that the tax base became peopleare not working a tax based so how
do you then take care of this? The streets, the lights that comes
to off of the tax base.So if you if you just believe everybody's
just going to get their own money, you also you know there's ramifications to
that where there's not taxes being madeand things and services not being taken care

(12:09):
of. So creating a base incomeactually helped in many ways because if you
start talking about low income, theyactually spend that money. India County,
which flips and begins to do youbelieve that it is a good thing that
you believe that local municipalities should continueto give these individuals. It's a great

(12:33):
idea. We have no problem givingthat same dynamic to corporations. We have
no problem giving tax breaks without streamsto corporations, no problem, or so
many of them pay no taxes.And so now now when it comes to
citizens, the actual baseline in thiscountry. We're gonna say, Oh no,
maybe it's too much for them,but it's not too much for IBM.

(12:54):
When IBM paid no taxes, it'snot too much for other corporations who
paid. So I just think thatin those corporations they spend their money overseas,
those individuals in the community they actuallyspend their money at the grocery store.
Really, where's the cost benefit analysis? I believe the ROI happens with
the citizens more than they will corporateAll right, jexture, I'm want to
come to you. You know nowyou already enough. This is this is

(13:20):
ridiculous. It doesn't make no senseat all. Like I'm not going for
who's funding this? Oh I knowwho's funding this me. It's coming out
of my pocket. So basically,what you're saying is if I want Philadelphia
to give me some extra money,I should just not work at all because
they'll take care of me. Thisis another system like welfare that people will
abuse and stay on for generations likethis. Absolutely not and I will say

(13:43):
this too, Yes, I doagree with what you're saying to run is
like these people will absolutely spend thismoney in the city. They one hundred
percent will the same way. Thesesame individuals got those PPP loans and spent
that money within the city on Lamborghinisand BMW's, And people are going to
poorly use this money, like theypoorly use the loan money, and like

(14:05):
they poorly use their their welfare money. And there it's not a good idea.
I think that if we want totake care of our citizens, we
should come up with ways to doit. But giving them tax free money
that they don't have to pay backis insane, all right, candidates that
come to you, um so Ithink that we do it regularly. Oh

(14:26):
Dexter, I absolutely don't agree withyou, and the data tells me not
to agree with you. So thenarratives that you're throwing out that people abuse,
well, for the people abuse PPPloans, certainly, there are cases
in both instances. People abuse allsorts of systems. And I think it's
really important to remind to remember,particularly our conversation to top about corporations,

(14:48):
if you talk about abuse of welfaresystems, really that's where you should be
looking, because what you're talking aboutis pennies compared to millions and billions of
dollars. But I also think thatwe have really good research that already exists
from other countries that have tried auniversal basic income, not just for folks
living in poverty, but also forlike the entire um city. Right.
So it didn't matter what right exactly, it didn't matter what income level you

(15:11):
said that you got an extra thousanddollars a month to do with whatever you
want, and you can see thingslike childhood um UM issues go up start
to decline. We also saw thatsame thing when we were um getting checks
during COVID. You start to seeI got zero. Oh so sorry,

(15:33):
Uh, I'm gonna bring up thatas an angel advocate for finish your point,
Candid, Sure might, I mightI encourage you to work in nonprofits.
So but I think that, youknow, we see good research with
what happens when people live at abaseline. Right. So we're not talking
about making people wealthy. We're nottalking about people being able to by Lamborghinis.

(15:54):
What we are talking about is peoplebeing able to beat their children,
clothe their children, provide good healthcarefor their children, get their kids back
and forth to school, and inplaces like Detroit and Philly and Baltimore and
Memphis, it is really imperative becausewe are talking about black children at that
at that point right in black family, Frank, you can come up in

(16:14):
debts to your comment. Almost soundslike Ronald Reagan welfare mothers. I mean,
we just has been disproving, rightare we want to look at a
few subsets and make that the narrative. And that's that tends to be the
problem when we talk about things,we find the worst extreme and we make
that the narrative. Thinking, maybeall of us on this on the screen
income was over the amount that wecould have gotten some pp people. Let

(16:37):
me tell you who did get it? Your beauty salon person who because you
gotta go get your hair done,your nail tech maybe they got it.
Maybe your car service that you use. They received it because they had employees,
because if they'd not been for thatextra money, they may all went
out of That's true, and thena larger ramification of that. What I
disagree with it a hundred percent agreewith that. I do agree with that,

(17:00):
but I and I do know thatit. Obviously corporations are abusing and
we even did bell out to acorporations before we even received money from the
government. I completely understand that butI just think that when we have these
conversations, we tend to like pretendlike this stuff is not happening, and
we'll say, oh, it's asmall amount of people. There are millions

(17:21):
of people who are on a listof PPP loans stuff like that, and
I know them, I'm related tosome of them who like never owned a
business in their life. Like theydid not do it. They took advantage
of the system. And we're pretending, in my opinion, we're pretending like
this doesn't happen, and it does. I don't I don't think that anybody's
pretending. I think we're looking atdata and you're saying that you know a
couple of people, but you're talkingabout millions of people. So you see

(17:41):
how you're inverting those numbers yourself.That is literally what the system does,
right. The system likes to letus believe that because we know two people
who did something, then millions ofpeople are doing somebody. And also,
you know two people who did that, did you turn them into that people?
I will go for I would sayto each of you. And when
we look at these types of whenwe look at the types of programs and

(18:03):
the millions of dollars that was givento cities, and when we think about
this is like a little slightly tothe left to deal with crime prevention.
Major cities across the country who areable to get that money, and it
has not really put a dent inthat issue. However, when we talk
about those kinds of programs, I'dlike to also include the conversation of better

(18:25):
opportunities for education in the communities andimproving some of the schools in those areas.
So I get that. I getbecause people at the end of the
day need to eat today, theyneed to be able to get to and
from work today. But I dothink that there should be some regulations with
that. You know, there shouldbe some you know where you receive this.

(18:48):
Have you looked for a job thisweek? Yes? To you?
To your point, and I thinkyour point is valid, and I think
there has to be strings attacked.But I think there needs to be strings
attached to all money. And wecan't let we can't allow corporations to define
how we think of the public.So they want no strings. We don't
challenge that. That's billions and trillionsof dollars, But when it comes to

(19:14):
the common citizen, that we dealwith every day that we happen to see
that we want them to. Yougotta go out and get a job.
I believe that people. I've workedmy whole life. I believe people.
I believe it has a larger ramificationtheir children. Their children need to see
them work. There's a larger butthe subset of people that are not working
and not trying to work, it'sa small people, yea. And most

(19:34):
people want an opportunity and they're tryingto get into it. But we've allowed
I'm a labor I'm a former laborleader. We've allowed a corporate thinking in
order for us to evaluate each other, but not evaluate them well. And
let me just say, we dotalk about those companies and those individuals,
including elected officials who receive you know, right off to them their PP pedal

(19:55):
to here on. Frankie's got abig mount. We did talk about all
those people out. I'll say thatlisten, we're gonna give you. I
want to give each of you anopportunity for closing comments on this and whether
or not you agree or disagree withthis program, and then what's on your
mind. I'm gonna start with you, Dexter, I don't necessarily agree with
it. I do love. Ilove to be schooled by Candid in the

(20:18):
rund. I thought that was Icommend you guys. I think that was
great, and I do think maybemaybe I should do some research outside of
the people that I know and thisstuff that I see on social media.
However, until I do that,I'm still gonna say no, I don't
think this is a good idea.I think that they already have welfare and
they can stick with that for now. And closing comments, there's a thing
that's been going around and I thinkwe really need to put a stop to

(20:41):
it when it comes to the birthdaydinners, when it comes to like going
out to gatherings with friends and whatnot. We're not paying for the birthday person
anymore. Like you come out withyour money just like we did, and
we're all going to just pay ourparts, and I will give you a
twenty five dollars gift card and you'regoing about your way because I wasn't planning
to pay for his lobster and shrimpfor you. We're not listen to the

(21:03):
exigent's point. I'm just curious andI want people to understand what I'm saying
this that we have moved the needleof what is just basic etiquette so far
to the left. Graduation season,I always get the graduation invite. I
always get the announcement about they callthem trunk shows in Philadelphia, they call
them open houses in Michigan, orwhatever you call it. I always get

(21:29):
that. And most of the time, and listen, I want to say
this for anybody watching this that Iknow personally, you know who you are.
Okay, said that, But Ialways get that, And most of
the time I know the parent andnot the kid. Sometimes I might be
in an organization and I don't knowthe person that will so I can I
can navigate through all of that.But I'm saying what happened to sending a

(21:52):
good old fashioned thank you card.If you've thought enough of me to send
me a invite and text me,and I send you a gift, send
me a thank you card, donot send me a text. Do not
send me an email, because mygift was not an email. Yeah,

(22:14):
I and and and you know,and I'm not totally blaming the kids on
that. I'm blaming the parents.You shouldn't blame the kids. It's it's
the parents. My mother was theperson that made me sitting down. You
know, you can't go out tonightuntil these thank you cards are done.
Absolutely absolutely. I bought Palla whenshe went to college. Listen, Candice,
almost ten years ago. Can youbelieve it? I can't believe that.
Can you believe it? And thatwas only what that means. I'm

(22:37):
twenty five, right, um,but but but I just want people to
know that that etiquette is still athing. I had a young person say
to me about this very conversation aboutsending a thank you card? Is that
a thing? Yeah, chick,it's a thing, and the post office
still operates. It does it's itdoes, all right, thank you for

(23:02):
that sin thank you cards. Itis. It is a wonderful thing to
do. Dan, I'll go toyou. So, just to follow up
with our previous conversations, then addinto this last discussion, I think that,
you know, it's good to haveskepticism in the midst of conversation.
It's not good if we're all onhere and it's all monolithic. It's a

(23:22):
problem. You know. We needto have different perspectives that allows us to
moderate and really look at what wedo. No matter what we give out.
It should be monitored. You can't, you know, you you the
government has left with the responsibilities ofthose tax dollars from you and I.
They have to make sure that thosetax dollars are spent wise, which is
the reason a lot of Dexter's friendsmight he might not have to turn in

(23:45):
because many of them are being prosecutedby just right so, you know,
but but none Nonetheless, you know, I think that I'm hoping that through
a lot of the discussion that's takingplace with particularly as in regards tots,
you know, and we always havethe surface discussion about mental challenges and veterans

(24:06):
dealing with, you know, comingback home. But now we have a
different dynamic. It's not just abunch of men coming back looking for jobs.
So many women are also in thatdiscussion. And so this large discussion
has taken place in DC where we'reholding up you know, military advancement of
men and women, particularly many casesminority and minorities in the India military.

(24:30):
Because you're worried about someone who maybe serving in Texas going and having an
abortion somewhere else, maybe where they'refrom where it's legal. It is ridiculous.
And then the other side says,well, you guys are making woke
is no, it sounds like you'rethe one that's trying to be more woke
than anything. And what happened tothe separation of church and state. We're
doing too much and so as asociety, we got to speak out and

(24:52):
we gotta let these guys know nextelection. This is way too much and
we're starting to change our future becausebecause we're allowing them to stick up,
you know, a plank in thepad. All right, great, thank
you to that. So Canadics agree, disagree on the nose streams and tap
to pay out in your clothes incomments? I don't know if I can
agree and disagree as a operating journalist, but I will say that the research

(25:15):
shows us that there are real benefitsto people living under a fair and living
wage, right, so that Ican absolutely agree with that people should have
a living wage, and however theyget to that living wage, we need
to make sure that most of ourresidents are living under that wage. And
that will I will say the thingthat is on my mind right now,
and actually this conversation brought it home. I need everyone listening to find a

(25:38):
trusted news source, particularly a localtrusted news source. And I don't care
if it's a news organization or alocal journalist that you just really trust and
to fact check your information against factchecked, accurate, valuable journalism. So
I'm not talking about both sizeism.That's not what I'm talking about. I'm
not talking about political coverage. I'mtalking about like basic information you need to

(25:59):
understand how your city, county,state, region works. It is so
valuable. And I am really fearfulthat you know, we know what social
media has done to people's ability toprocess information, and much of that is
because we're processing too much. Sowe're really losing our ability to be able
to figure out what is, youknow, fact from fiction. And so
I just want everyone listening to makesure that you look up and find a

(26:22):
local trusted news service where you arePhilly. There are at Frankie and Philly.
There are a lot of great organizations, including Resolve Philly, and I
bet you I can find one inevery single place, including Capital b which
is a nonprofit newsroom launched to servecommunities of color just a couple of years
ago. So please everybody find anewsroom. Support that newsroom. All right,

(26:44):
Great, I appreciate the conversation.Always good to appen here Kansas.
Cannot be your last time. Wehave some incredible conversations and as we move
forward, kind of somewhat on ahiatus because the summertime and people are getting
out there, but I want tomake sure that incredible voices are always heard
right here on Frankie's Got a BigMouth, Dexter, Stucky, Darn Marshall,
Candice Sportman. I appreciate you.Don't forget go to YouTube, click

(27:07):
like, join us there and definitelylisten on the iHeartRadio app, Black Information
Network, and of course right hereon Real Times Media. I'm Frankie Darcil.
Will do it again next time