It is easy to apply (you can do it on line) and it is easy to meet the eligibility requirements. Half of the city of Detroit is using food stamps. 45 million Americans are receiving benefits, according to a report from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. This federal-assistance program is costing the tax payers $60 billion and is increasing at the rate of 14% per year! After you qualify, you can sell your food stamps and use the money to buy booze and cigarettes. What a country! You can eat well without working. It is such a great program that generations are using it. It has created an entitlement mentality for millions of people. Once people get on food stamps they tend to stay on them for the rest of their life.
The program has gone way beyond its original intent and become a general welfare program with significant abuse and fraud. The government has become too involved in helping those who do not really need help. Adversity is a good thing that helps people to learn how to take care of themselves. Yes, there are people who genuinely need temporary help. These people can be helped by private charities and churches. The federal food stamp program should be abolished. We should constructively think about designing a program that eliminates/minimizes fraud and abuse. Does this country really have 45 million people who need help buying food? I don’t think so!!
I know it's frustrating, but food stamps is part of the government program to keep the unemployment numbers down. No one receiving food stamps is counted for anything useful.
ReplyDeleteSome states, Texas is one I know about because my sister-in-law helped institute it, use a credit card like system. This really cuts down on the misuse of the food stamps program.
Cleansing the rolls is another story. Don't get me started. How about a blog on how to do that.
TsarPat
My dear friend Patrick,
ReplyDeleteThe way to cleanse the rolls is to abolish the program.
Almost all states now use debit cards to pay out the benefits. Actual stamps have not been used for many years. The debit card system increases misuse because it is easy to "loan" your card to friends and relatives. Or, you can sell your card for fraudulence use. The program stinks and should be buried!
Dear Mr. Scrooge:
ReplyDeleteBut then what will happen to those who really do need the support? Church? C'mon, churches aren't there to help the poor. They exist nowadays to help the ministers get rich. Friends, family. They've got their own problems.
I believe the answer is to greatly tighten the system; make it as impossible as possible to game it. In that way we can still save a lot of money . . . and a lot of lives, rich and poor, if you get my drift.
TsarPat
Dear Tsar with a bleeding heart,
ReplyDeleteThe current system is beyond tightening. We need a new system that works. To quote myself as stated in my blog, "WE SHOULD CONSTRUCTIVELY THINK ABOUT DESIGNING A PROGRAM THAT ELIMINATES/MINIMIZES FRAUD AND ABUSE". Somebody has to be a scrooge to save us from ourselves. $60 BILLION for food stamps is insanity!
Dear Scrooge: $60B - Think of it as a support program for U.S. American ag. What would the farmers do without it? (Grain is used in booze.)
ReplyDeleteTo quote myself above: How about a blog on how to fix it. What's the answer, O Omnicient One (OOO)?
The Bloody Tsar
Farm subsidies are also a boondoggle that I will abolish when I become a benevolent dictator. The way to fix it is to abolish it and start over. Anything would be better than what we have. Come to think of it, having no program would be better than the one we have. Feed cake to the hungry masses and tell them to stop complaining!
ReplyDeleteDon't get me started about "food stamps", now known as a Bridge Card. As a cashier at Target, I can't tell you how many people are scamming the system. All I know is it is A LOT! When you mention half the people of Detroit, I hope you aren't thinking of black people, because most of them pay in cash. The scammers are the Chaldeans. They own 99% of the party stores and probably 85% of the dollar stores in the Detroit Metro area. As business owners they can falsify their income tax earnings, presenting themselves as "poor". Everyone in the family will have a bridge card. They proceed through the checkout buying 12 cases of pop (Target's limit) per person, paying with the card. Sale prices of pop, usually $2.50-$3.00 a case is cheaper than buying it through a distributer. Then they jack up the price when they resell it and make pure profit. When I say everyone in the family has a card, I mean everybody, including the Gramma's that can't speak/read English and can't figure out that the gallon of milk she's buying is "food" or "cash". The only 2 choices on the keypad. They try scanning their card, grunt at me, expecting me to help. I just say FOOD or CASH, YOU have to choose. Then I tell them, "Well you knew enough English to fill out the form to get the card you should be able to figure out HOW to use the card." Don't forget that the Bridge card also has a cash back option. At Target you can get back $40, just like a Debit card. So, many card users will buy a pack of gum, then ask for $40 cash back. Some will do this repeatedly until all of that month's allotment of cash has been depleted. There is also a segment of this population that will purchase very expensive items, then return the items, so they can get cash back. The Chaldeans are also known for buying a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff, most of it covered by the bridge card and after swiping the card they pay for the remaining total (usually $20-$50) from the giant roll of $100 bills they pull out of their pocket.
ReplyDeleteIt's very depressing to be working for barely $10 an hour, 30% of my pay going for taxes and having to ring up jokers with bridge cards all day.
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