You're right,..... that is in the regs. Although for decades Washington state has ignored that guideline, along with many others. There are literally thousands of cases that have been on the rolls exceeding 5yrs,...... all the way up to 20+yrs. This I know for a fact.

Conversely,....... the state began dropping 5+ cases off the rolls beginning February 1st of this year. They have a long way to go,...... but it's good start in my opinion. If you can't get your act together in five years, others shouldn't be required to shoulder the burden of providing you cash.

Also, I never made the contention that having children with multiple fathers somehow increased the benefits,........ that was AM. What I did say, and was correct about, was that having more kids equals receiving more benefits. If you think that women don't game the system and have more kids to increase their benefits, you are absolutely kidding yourself. Welfare fraud cases are not isolated incidents,.... they are rampant. The state could employ an army of investigators and never keep up. Not to mention many state financial workers don't care about reporting fraud to investigators because "it's all gov't money anyhow".

In your model you're assuming the 4 deadbeat fathers are all paying child support payments on time and in full. They are as much to blame here as any "welfare queen" ever would be. If she isn't receiving any of the support the state is picking up the slack. They can go after the fathers. Although the average number of cases on a support enforcement officers desk in this state is somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,...... maybe you can shed a little light on that considering your experience.

My earlier comments may have been harsh but they were also tounge-in-cheek. If you look back to my first comment on this thread I stated that we should be looking at the bloated war and military budget before we go attacking welfare mothers. Anyone who doesn't want to look at the ridiulous defense budget has got no business complaining about entitlements IMO.