New Mexico tells burgeoning ranks of freeloading Food Stamp recipients to go to work

Any kind of welfare should, firstly, not be coming from the Feds at all, it’s a State/City function if not private charity.

Work should be required. If they can’t find a job, then they can either go to city-approved community service sites, or other city-level work like picking up trash along highways or such, since jailbirds no longer do that. Just ‘searching’ for a job isn’t enough. They can also put in some hours for the city.

Food should be limited to basic foodstuffs, staples. And disbursed directly, not given out as stamps or ebt debit cards. The city can run its own warehouse, or maybe partner with a couple grocery chains to disburse the food. GROCERY STORES.

Time limits. There’s no way someone needs to take 3-4 years to find a job. (And get welfare for all of that!) If they really are that lazy/unemployable, there’s a mental problem there, no work ethic, knowledge of how to act in public. If so, they can start going to private charities after that time.

Welfare is out of control and riddled with fraud and abuse.

The last time California did and audit of the LA county welfare rolls they confirmed that close to 50% of the recipients falsified their incomes to illegally obtain welfare payments, were receiving multiple benefits under different identity information, were illegal aliens or were otherwise fraudulently receiving welfare benefits.

Many unemployed people stay on welfare because it's to their advantage because they make more on welfare for not working than they could working a low wage job. A large percentage of these able bodied welfare recipients are also making money on the side via working for under the table for cash jobs or by criminal activity such as drug dealing and prostitution. Lots of people, perhaps even a majority, make a very good(and tax free) living on welfare supplanted by drug dealing and hustling other illegal and illicit activities

Requiring that welfare recipients apply in person and provide finger print verification and be re evaluated for benefits on an annual basis would stop a lot of the fraud and prevent people from receiving multiple benefits under several false identities.

Requiring those able bodied professional welfare recipients who are now riding and milking the system because they make more money on un taxed welfare benefits by not working than they would by working and paying taxes like the rest of us than they make working would provide incentives for them to actually get a job.

An added plus it that the physical act of having to show up to a job site would occupy the time they now spend working on the side in the same huge underground cash based economy that serves the illegal alien population or spend getting cash illegally by drug dealing and other criminal activities. This would put a crimp on their under the table incomes and make actually working for a living a more competitive option for them.

They should get rid of EBT. Use a pickup site (really, no more difficult than going to a store), and provide food basics—ceral, grains, processed cheese bricks, canned meat, powdered milk, beans. Things that get the job done, that keep well, but that aren’t tasty or tradeable.

I think the original idea behind the EBT was to eliminate the shame of food stamps, but it has been abused beyond my tolerance.

“Requiring that welfare recipients apply in person and provide finger print verification and be re evaluated for benefits on an annual basis would stop a lot of the fraud and prevent people from receiving multiple benefits under several false identities.”

Now wait just a minute there. This would require goobermint workers to actually WORK! That is simply not feasible.

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