To hear some politicians tell it, America’s welfare system is facing a grave crisis: Millions of poor people, they say, are idling away their time eating lobster and relaxing on cruises.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, for example, recently signed welfare reform rules banning people receiving public assistance from using their $100 a week in benefits to buy steak or seafood, go to swimming pools, or take cruises.

Meanwhile, some members of Congress are taking aim at food aid for hungry Americans. They want us to associate “hungry” with “too lazy to work.”

Corporations that have reclassified themselves as “foreign-owned” received approximately $1 billion in federal contracts over the last five years. These companies profit from American tax dollars despite avoiding U.S. taxes themselves.

For the last 30 years, the Public Service Roundtable has sponsored Public Service Recognition Week as a way for citizens to learn more about the work of public servants and to create opportunities to honor the work of the federal, state, and local government employees. The Roundtable is made up of nearly two dozen public sector unions and associations representing current and retired government workers.

Last week, thousands of New York City residents completed an eight month-long participatory budget process in which they voted on how to allocate $25 million of their taxes in their communities. The city first experimented with participatory budgeting in 2011 when four City Council members allowed their constituents to decide how to use $1 million in discretionary funds provided by the city on community projects in their wards. This time around, 24 of New York City’s 51 Council members joined in the effort.