Lawmakers seem to think that those on food stamps ball out of control. That’s the only explanation for some of the ridiculous restrictions that are being placed such as Kansas only allowing recipients to take out $25 a day and even detailng where they’re allowed to take their money out, barring spas and cruise ships:
Some states have tinkered with food stamps in other ways, seeking to limit purchases in a similar fashion to limits on welfare recipients. A bill in Missouri would ban food stamp users from purchasing seafood, steak, chips, soda, cookies, and energy drinks. One in Oregon would ban them from buying junk food. But federal reports have consistently found that people on food stamps are less likely to eat sugary drinks and salty snacks than people with higher incomes.
Because we all know that those welfare queens use their checks to dine on lobster on their cruise ships.
Team Blackness discussed big changes in Ferguson, Missouri’s election board after the recent voting, a prison hunger strike for Eric Garner’s videographer, and Obama’s call to end conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth.
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J C
You guys always miss their real objective. The point is to get people who struggle to get by to start thinking the poor are living the high life on the welfare. The gullible will think they only banned it because tons of poor people were doing those things. That makes it easier to cut benefits later. Cutting benefits to hungry kids is a hard sell. Cutting benefits to welfare queens is easy.
It’s a very deliberate strategy and many on the left always miss this.
Calouste
Kansas wants to make government so small that it fits in your wallet.
chopper
@J C:
the real objective is to get regular shmucks distracted with hatin’ on poor people so they don’t see the rich people robbing them blind.
germy shoemangler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wdtmElcIA0
NYPD cop caught stealing money during untaxed cigarette raid
Ian Cyrus, a 12-year veteran of the department, was helping his fellow officers conduct the raid after a store employee allegedly sold loose cigarettes to an undercover officer. They took $593 from the cash register as well as packs of cigarettes as evidence, WABC-TV reported.
But deli owner Ali Abdullah noticed something else was missing — about $2,650 in rent funds hidden in a box under the store’s counter. After looking at the security footage, the money appeared to have disappeared into Cyrus’s pocket. The moment comes around the 1:20 mark in the video
chopper
these are the more insidious ones because totebaggers everywhere will go along. “well, i don’t think my tax dollars should subsidize such unhealthy food!”. it’s all poor shaming. god forbid some poor asshole should be able to eat something enjoyable, should have even a few seconds of pleasure in their lives. fuck no.
Pen
The part that really pisses me off is that at my poorest the protein sources I could stretch furthest were shrimp, cheap cuts of steak, chicken breast, and beans. This takes away half of those for no better reason than “fuck you, that’s why”.
Keith P.
I’m surprised they didn’t include rims and platinum grills in the list of things welfare recipients can’t buy.
But WTF is the deal with banning food stamps for buying seafood? It’s not like seafood is inherently luxurious/expensive…a million Asian restaurants would likely disagree. Jesus probably would, too. I don’t doubt that someone (probably in Arizona) will introduce a law requiring welfare recipients to only buy nutraloaf (and NO bottled water. Tap water for the poor. And NO water filters…what, government food is good enough for you but not government water?? CRETINS!)
cckids
@chopper:
I took a nutrition class in college (in NE), and this subject came up. The professor told the class the reality about living on food stamps, an extremely limited income & all the stresses & deprivations involved. She said “You know, sometimes there are needs beyond the physical. Maybe the children need to, now & then, have the Twinkie in their lunchbox like all their friends. Maybe the parents get a decent (God knows, not great) steak for their anniversary, because going out to a restaurant is unthinkable. The food stamp allotment is not & will never be, big enough for people to eat really well all the time. The energy spent judging them would be better applied elsewhere”.
This was 30 years ago & I still wish I could get her speech to every member of the Congresses, state & federal.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Someone pointed out when JC brought this up the other day that people are probably using the ATMs at casinos because they don’t charge use fees. If it costs you $5 to get $40 at 7-Eleven but it costs nothing extra to get $40 at the casino ATM, why wouldn’t you use the casino?
I would say that companies shouldn’t be allowed to charge ATM fees or user fees for welfare debit cards, but I’m sure that’s why those companies were willing to provide them in the first place — so they can hoover up taxpayer dollars.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
D’oh! I am in moderation for pointing out why people would be using ca$1no ATMs (no user fees). Can I please be unmoderated?
cckids
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): What palaces of gaming do you know of where there are no user fees? Here in Vegas, the fees are way higher than bank fees (and, of course, your bank stacks fees on top.
chopper
@cckids:
besides, even if you agreed with the idea that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t subsidize that sort of stuff, is the idea of poor people getting a bag of chips every so often really the sort of thing to lose your shit over?
when we spend half a trillion on an airplane and people focus on a poor person getting a steak it goes to show you what their real motivation is.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@cckids:
Apparently, it is the case here in California, but it may be because all such places are officially on Indian reservations, where they can have different rules.
Cervantes
Last time I looked at that bill, even swimming pools were off limits.
Frankensteinbeck
@J C: and @chopper:
It’s the people being robbed that created this strategy, spread it most virulently, and demand their leaders use it. Yes, it’s a justification so that the poor can feel good about shafting the even poorer. There are a few people in power callous enough to use it and not believe in it. But the rich didn’t create this monster. They’re riding it because it’s going where they want anyway. A large portion of our society are mean, resentful people who want to be told that blacks are lazy and live high off of the white man’s hard earned dime.
CONGRATULATIONS!
The point of such legislation is not because the poors are doing any of those things – it’s to make people believe they are.
“Your tax dollars are going so that some strapping young bucks can stand in line ahead of you to buy a T-bone steak, while you are waiting in line to buy hamburger.” (As close to the actual quote as I can find)
Never happened but by the time the votes were counted and Reagan was president, most people in the US thought it was simply what the poors did. With your money.
Frankensteinbeck
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
It was what they already thought and wanted to believe, Reagan phrased it in a way and from a public podium that made a solid majority of Whites agree that they could think like that and not be racist.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
has there been an epidemic of welfare cruises that my wingnut cousin forgot to forward me the email about?
I wonder if this includes things like farm raised catfish and tilapia, cheap, nutritious and sustainable, and I’m guessing there’s more than one fish farm in Missouri
gene108
It is a bit more than just pissing on the poor.
If you look at what right-wingers talk about, with regards to helping the poor, they keep saying it should be the place of Churches and private entities.
I think part of this is to destroy the social safety net, so the Churches will have greater power in society, as they are the social safety net for people and therefore they get a captive audience to increase their numbers.
Keith P.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Shrimp, too. And thankfully the linked article mentions that banning “steak” is ridiculous if for no other reason than what exactly *is* a steak beyond a flat cut of beef. A filet is a steak, but so is skirt…or blades. And what about the grade? Even Select (or worse) is out if is just “steak”.
Peale
So they’re counting cans of tuna, fish sticks and sardines as luxury fare?
Next up, that nice suit you had when you were employed and were planning to wear to an interview must be given to someone more deserving.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
And cookies, because Jeebus.
“No cookies for you! Cookies are for children smart enough to be born to parents not committing the sin of poverty!”
scav
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The poor should undoubtedly be prevented from obtaining those omega-3 fatty acids.
germy shoemangler
Rand walks out of an interview with the Guardian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2z6nf99WSE#t=60
Peale
@germy shoemangler: I guess he thinks that it worked for Bush Senior, so he’ll repeat that until everyone knows he is tough.
germy shoemangler
He must be pissed as hell about being asked specific questions. He wants to just talk in vague generalities until he is elected president. And then continue talking in vague generalities while turning us into a libertarian paradise.
Peale
@germy shoemangler: If I were Ted Cruz, who am I not, but if I were, I might start a rumor that Rand is short tempered lately because he’s stopped freebasing coke in order to run for president.
germy shoemangler
@Peale: “Let’s make the bastard deny it!”
Mike in NC
Rand Paul is just creepy. Looks like a junkie who’d rob you at knifepoint for his next fix.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
I forget the state, but some contemptible excuse for a lawmaker proposed a shaming law that would require foster care payments to be spent only at secondhand stores. Because foster kids haven’t suffered enough. thankfully, that one didn’t pass.
Spending welfare money on cruise ships – is that a huge problem in Kansas?
germy shoemangler
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: They spend their time dreaming up solutions for non-existent problems (welfare recipients buying luxury cruises! Voter fraud!) and ignore real problems.
germy shoemangler
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Their arms must hurt from the repetitive motion of continuously punching down.
West of the Cascades
@chopper: Eeew, it is a Democrat proposing it, too, saying it’s a “conversation starter.” I hope we end the conversation damned quickly (with a “no”) – from the linked article:
Edwards also says he has a bill in its “infancy” that would start a conversation about how to discourage people receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps) benefits from purchasing junk food. Edwards says he personally doesn’t think it’s good policy to let people use SNAP to buy things like Cheetos. He says since many people on the program are also enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan, it would be beneficial to direct consumers towards whole foods with higher nutritional content.
germy shoemangler
@Mike in NC: I get a vibe of smoldering rage. Anger always right under the surface. Bubbles up when he feels he’s being…. disrespected.
Disrespected by being asked direct questions about policy.
germy shoemangler
@West of the Cascades: It would never occur to them to propose a bill requiring healthier snack foods.
West of the Cascades
Pretty soon there’s going to be a bill that limits SNAP payments to purchasing rice, beans, gruel, and fruit and vegetables from the “expired produce” section.
And after each use of the benefit, to be allowed to receive further benefits, the recipient has to appear before a legislatively-designated Shamer of the Poor and say “please, sir, I want some more.”
gvg
The junk food thing also ignores that the poor have a grocery store access problem. Grocery stores don’t make as much money in poor neighborhoods and real and perceived higher crime rates mean they often leave so that the nearest food stores are convienence stores. That costs more which is one of the ways the poor get robbed but they often have transportation issues like no car or a worrisome one so they don’t go a couple of miles to a grocery store.
I live near a gas station store in the country. There is a small mobile home park in back of it off a main road. Most of those people get almost all their groceries at that corner store. It doesn’t have a lot of choice, the choices cost more but it doesn’t cost gas nor as much time which working people often also don’t have.
In the poor black section of town there are no mainline grocery stores left that I know of. There are however 2 stores, a meat market and a seafood market. We are about 50 miles from the sea and I know people who are fishermen. Anyway, those stores are pretty good fresh food pretty well priced, and they are availible. Why say no? I prefer the convienence of getting it all at one store but I am not poor. A lot of other people agree with my choices who can afford to. I suspect the reason those 2 specialties of the past are still going is that the poor can’t pick the same. Now I don’t know if this exact situation applies in any other place, but every place has their own little ways of dealing. Fools in the legislature just haven’t bothered to people watch and care enough. They watch and make up all kinds of horrible stories about people.
The Golux
@gene108:
And yet, it is my understanding that private charities were among the biggest proponents of a social safety net before Social Security was passed, because they were overwhelmed and couldn’t provide help to everyone who needed it.
chopper
@West of the Cascades:
this is Krusty Brand “imitation gruel”. 9 out of 10 orphans can’t tell the difference.
Peale
@West of the Cascades: And then they’ll get rid of the beans because too many illegal immigrants were caught cooking beans.
Tommy
@cckids: I am a foodie. I am kind of frugal when I buy food. I find you can have nice meals and not spend a lot of money. But a nice steak or some crab legs, well that meal is good for the soul. Something everybody should have even if they are living on assistance!
Tommy
@gvg: I used to live in an area where I was the only white dude around. NE DC. There were no grocery stores in the area I’d shop at. To buy healthy food much less fresh produce was almost impossible. It was a food desert. I could get fast food of any kind but had to get in my car and drive to get anything fresh. I can’t imagine being on food stamps, not having a car, and being forced to shop in that environment.
Tenar Darell
@CONGRATULATIONS!: @Frankensteinbeck: You know the worst thing about the origins of this myth? The woman who Reagan was talking about was a con-woman, kidnapper and probably a murderer. But because the authorities were intent on her minor frauds, they ignored that evidence that she was an extremely dangerous criminal. This article horrified me at the serial stupidity.
WaterGirl
@gene108: That’s a creepy thought. I’m not saying it’s not true, though.
WaterGirl
@Mike in NC: One of these nights on an open thread, we should start with a list of 10 republican candidates who are running or who we expect to run, and then each of us can rank them according to creep factor, with 1 being the most creepy and 10 being the least creepy.
WaterGirl
@germy shoemangler: I think it’s his sense of arrogance and entitlement. Who are you to question ME?
Waysel
@J C: This.
Waysel
@chopper: And This.
JaneE
Back in the early 70’s, I lived in an apartment complex that had about half of its residents on welfare. Back then it was cash benefits plus commodities – before food stamp days. The kids would all seem to wind up at my house after I came in from work. Probably because I had cookies and junk food, and they would always ask if they could have some. One day I made the mistake of saying “help yourself” and by the time I got back into the kitchen an entire unopened package of Oreos was gone. There was one kid who never asked for cookies or chips – she wanted a hot dog, or piece of bologna, or a piece of fruit. Her mom, on welfare, would buy cookies and chips and all sorts of junk food, but never seemed to buy meat, or milk, or fruit, or vegetables.
I mentioned what the little girl wanted to eat to one of the other welfare moms, and she decided to have a talk with the kid’s mother. She had to teach a 20-something mother of 2 kids about nutrition, and how to cook, because the woman didn’t know anything. She showed her how to make bread with commodity flour and dry milk, and how to buy the big jar of yeast because it would be cheaper. She showed her how to make soup. She had to show her how to cook oatmeal. She even showed her how to make oatmeal cookies, and read recipes. She would go shopping with her to show her how to pick the least expensive fruits and vegetables, and how to check the bruise fruit bin for usable items without too much loss. The woman was a little slow, but the bigger problem was simple ignorance. It was incredible to us that she could not know even basic things about cooking and food, but she didn’t. It took several months, but she did learn to feed her children reasonably healthy home-cooked meals, without any help. And she was amazed how much more food they had than when she was spending her cash on chips and cookies. One day we were all talking, and she was thanking us again for showing her how to make her own bread, because the kids would eat sandwiches and it tasted so much better than store bought, and was so much cheaper to make than to buy. She kept saying that she wished she had learned that sooner. There are people who make really bad choices about how to spend money, but the only one I knew personally, just didn’t know any better. And she could and did learn as soon as someone tried to teach her.
Steve
This past saturday I watched a mother and daughter shop at Walmart. Probably aged 50 and 25. They had two young kids with them below age of 8. They were in the line in front of me with a two carts full of stuff including 4 large Pre packaged Easter baskets of absolute junk. They were taking a long time so in spite of Murphy’s rule I moved to the line to the right which didn’t move much quicker. I had the pleasure of watching them during their checkout. I finally realized that each of them had a benefit card from the government with about 150 dollars each. They pulled items from the two carts watching as the tally rose and when it reached 150 they paid with the card. When they were done they turned away leaving a half full cart of groceries for the cashiers to deal with. He had to ask them to move it. It occurred to me these two ladies filled the cart with their wants and left presumably with their needs leaving the cashier to deal with what they didn’t want. They took the Easter packages full of junk with them and left some much needed nutrition in the last cart.
ThresherK
@Tommy: “Food Desert” is another in the long list of terms I should be able to hear on the media without calling them up and explaining it to them.
I drive by seven megamarts on the way to work. I can reach two Whole Foodses in under 15 minutes. And since we moved, the closest driveway to ours is a 363-days-a-year farmer’s stand. On a real farm! When their native strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, basil and corn come in, I can walk to get them while I’m drunk.
These circumstances are representative of a good number of middleclassers like me and very few people on TANF.
WaterGirl
@JaneE: Thanks for taking the time to write that.
WaterGirl
@Steve: I haven’t really been reading your comments because I have a pretty good idea where you are coming from and I don’t want to waste my time. I did take the time to read this comment just now.
Shorter Steve: They’re not just poor and irresponsible and making bad food choices, they’re also thoughtless and inconsiderate!
I guess the upside is that now I won’t have to wonder if I it’s worth the time to read your comments. I hope you’re getting paid by the comment because I would put your chances of winning anyone over to your kind of thinking is right at zero.
Brachiator
@J C:
We get it. If you cut off welfare, the Invisible Hand of Free Markets will slap some sense into these people, and they will get up off their lazy asses and find jobs. Scrooge would approve. “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”
RSA
@Keith P.:
How about Soylent Tea?
Steve
Watergirl- I’d be interested in knowing where u think I’m coming from.
WaterGirl
@Steve: Where do I think you’re coming from? A completely different value set than mine.
I’m just going to end my side of the conversation here because I don’t think there’s any middle ground to be reached. I will be ignoring your comments, feel free to ignore mine.
Steve
Watergirl- you never tried to reach middle ground. Not surprising
Steve
Hey Watergirl how old r u? Where do you live and are you college educated?
Cervantes
@Steve:
Even if we posit that you have identified a real problem, there is still the question of how to address that problem.
If you have looked at possible solutions and evaluated them, show me where.
Steve
There is no solution. Not for those two ladies. They are too entrenched in the system. And the cycle will continue with the two little kids with them. One girl one boy. The ladies obviously lacked respect for the poor walmart cashier who was going to deal with their leftovers but most importantly I could tell by their actions and body language they lacked respect for themselves. Inasmuch as they likely serve as the role models for those kids, it will all continue to the next generation.
Waysel
@JaneE: I find your story very moving, and illuminating. There are probably hundreds of thousands of moms that would do better by their children who simply have no clue. If only our sorry excuse for a culture would provide a program to educate folks about this. May I cut & paste your comment to my Facebook page? Spreading it around could make a difference.
J R in WV
@Steve:
You are at the wrong blog, you need to go to redstate or Erick son of Erickson. No one here wants to hear about your prejudices and Walmart stories. Poor kids aren’t allowed to have baskets of candy? Fuck you!
You sound like you need to be wearing flip-flops to count to 20.
Steve
Lol at the immaturity of jr