Posted on 09/26/2012 7:04:57 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
BELLEFONTAINE -- Mayor Adam Brannon of Bellefontaine posted on Facebook that his family is receiving food on the W.I.C. program.
He was responding to Republican Presidential Candidate Mitch Romney's comment about the 47% of Americans.
He tells ABC 6/FOX 28 his salary is under $27,000 and he qualifies for the poverty level help.
W.I.C provides milk, cheese, fruits and cereals and is not food stamps.
His job as Mayor is part-time, but he feels the people expect him to work full time, so he has given up other jobs.
He was just re-elected, so he can't get a raise during his term.
Brannon says his wife applied for the W.I.C. program seven months ago.
She is pregnant and expecting their second son any time now.
A political blogger at Third Base Politics made an issue of it.
He says the Mayor's decision to use the program is just another example of how democrats encourage government dependence, and that the Mayor chose his situation.
Mayor Brannon says if he had it to do again he would not put it on out for people to see on Facebook.
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Reporter: Carol Luper Web Producer: Kellie Hanna
You know, I bet somewhere in the town’s original charter or statement of instantiation that positions like Mayor, etc. were intended to be part-time...meaning they expected the candidates to have another job.
If this man makes $27000 a year and it is his only job, why in the name of cowboy hell is he and his dependent having a SECOND kid? Let alone the first one. WICs isn’t food stamps.......well, he’s right about that, it’s in ADDITION to food stamps (TANF).
When you don’t have enough money, you don’t have more children. If you do, you can give up Facebook and the ISP service you pay for, or you can quit any number of discretionary things. The last thing you do is go to other citizens to have them for your needs against their will.
Disgusting man.
So, knowing they can’t afford to feed their one kid, they squirt out another, with the American taxpayers footing their bills.
Typical welfare queen mentality.
And would not be surprised if they are on other types of handouts - he should be ashamed of himself. What an example he is setting for his family and his constituents.
‘I can’t afford to feed my family, but you people love me so much and depend on me so I must stay to fix your screwed up lives or you will wither away without me and since you don’t pay me enough, I will still take money out of the system that YOU pay in and watch me come up with excuses so I don’t have to work another job to feed my family but no worries, I will be able to use this time on WELFARE to crow about ‘being one of the po folk and I feel your pain’.’
OH: Reporter feeling heat for ‘bigots’ remark
By Jon Cassidy | Ohio Watchdog
http://watchdog.org/57110/oh-reporter-may-get-fired-for-bigots-remark/
A reporter for the Bellefontaine Examiner may be fired for calling conservatives bigots during an e-mail argument about a small-town mayor whose family is receiving food stamps.
Nate Smith, a staff writer for the paper, sent a sharply worded email last week to Nick Mascari, the main blogger at Third Base Politics, accusing him of throwing “a bunch of red meat at a group of judgmental, conservative bigots.”
Third Base Politics is the state’s leading Republican blog.
We checked with the paper’s management on whether that sort of gross generalization about conservatives was acceptable. General manager T.J. Hubbard wrote back to say that “the Examiner apologizes for the unprofessional and offensive personal remarks made by Mr. Smith. Disciplinary action against Mr. Smith, up to an including employment termination, is being considered at this time.”
The issue started when Adam Brannon, the 27-year-old mayor of Bellefontaine (pop. 13,322), announced on Facebook that his family was receiving food stamps. Brannon was criticizing Mitt Romney’s controversial remarks about the 47 percent of the population that doesn’t pay federal income taxes. In particular, he objected to Romney saying, “I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
“I’m part of the 47 percent,” Brannon wrote, before telling how his mother got all kinds of government help with housing, food, daycare, and schooling, and that now he needed help, too.
“I have taken personal responsibility for my life, we purchased a house, we pay our bills, but we do need a ‘hand-up’ at different points in our lives and for my family right now, this is one of them,” he wrote.
Mascari heard about the Food Stamp Mayor and thought it was “an absolutely perfect example of the entitlement culture that is taking over America and bankrupting our country.” He posted several links.
“Brannon claims poverty, but his situation is entirely of his own making,” Mascari wrote. “Both he and his wife have college degrees, but have purposefully decided to live on only $27,000 a year. Fine. That’s his business and his alone. Until he demands that the rest of us actual taxpayers actually feed the children he decided to have.”
Mascari’s take may have been harsh, but his facts were correct.
Brannon was elected mayor right after graduating from the University of Findlay, which offers “Brain-Based Learning,” according to its homepage.
Being mayor is a part-time job that pays $26,840, and it’s the only one he has. The “position is considered a part-time position, however the responsibilities and obligations that are asked of the mayor make it a full-time position,” Brannon told Ohio Watchdog. “I have had other jobs outside of the mayor’s office, first a part-time first-shift job that competed with the time that I was to be in the City building. Second, a full-time, third-shift job that made it impossible to attend evening meetings and events due to needing time to sleep. I did leave the position voluntarily because of the time constraints and the fact that my first son was being born around that time. That was May 2011, my wife and I did not apply for any assistance until February of this year.”
The thing is, Brannon ran for re-election last fall, after quitting his a job at AGC Automotive after just four months. Then he applied for the food stamps.
Mascari tipped off Smith at the local Bellefontaine Examiner, and got an earful rather than thanks.
Smith told Mascari that he should be writing about “subsidies to oil companies, tax loopholes that allow millionaires to be taxed less than you or me, etc.”
“Your work is small-minded and simplistic; hate on average Americans, a public servant no less, for utilizing a decades-old federal nutrition program for children, but ignore the kinds of top-down abuses that have contributed to cratering the economy and keeping middle class wages flat,” Smith wrote. “What a joke.”
Hubbard, the Examiner’s manager, said that Smith’s email was unauthorized.
“The Examiner, a fifth-generation family-owned business, has endeavored since 1891 to produce a politically independent, family-friendly daily product, and deeply regrets this unfortunate incident,” Hubbard said.
Smith did not reply to a request for comment.
His job as Mayor is part-time, but he feels the people expect him to work full time, so he has given up other jobs.
No sympathy there! He “feels the people expect him to work full-time. He should never have given up the other jobs.
& you notice how he said he wouldn’t put it out there? (if he had a do-over)
Nice transparency, right?
btw, I spent a couple of summers at Camp Wilson in my yute.
Isn’t the city pronounced Bell Fountain? (I seem to recall)
Then quit being mayor and get a job to support your family. Me thinks this guy has been bitten by the political bug and wishes to become a professional politician.
“Mitch” Romney?
Democrat Ohio Mayor is a proud citizen of Entitlement Nation
by Nick (aka Bytor)
I agree and he is going to blame his decision on what he “feels” the residents want.
Not so shockingly, the city budget that this mayor oversees is difficult to find. But I suspect when it is found that we’ll learn that this $26,700 a year part time job comes with benefits - likely a gold plated health care plan that includes dental and vision and soaks the local taxpayers for nearly $20,000 a year.
I betcha also that he’s got a city issued car as well. And I’m also guessing that there’s a per deim involved that isn’t mentioned either. Nor any retirement provisions which seem to inhabit every level of elected position.
It would not surprise me if his entire compensation totals over $70,000 a year. Wish I had time today to actually dig out the numbers, but if someone has the time today to locate the city’s budget and take a gander at what the mayor’s office takes in, and does the calculations on the city benefits, I think we’d all appreciate a clearer picture at just how much this ‘impoverished’ man’s making.
Mitch?
“He was just re-elected, so he can’t get a raise”
Just reelected? Duh !!
How long does it take this guy to learn?
Get a second, third or fourth job.
That is how we made it.
That is how we earned enough money to make a down payment on our first home.
Of course, that was back in the days before 110% financing and no down payment required.
Well then GO GET A BETTER JOB!
Best day of my life was the day I passed a poster in a supermarket promoting food stamps. Was stunned to learn that if I had just one more member of the household I would qualify, and my wife was pregnant at the time. Really put the spurs to me to get off my arse and get a better job.
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Exactly right. On the Judge shows, Judge Mathis & Judge Joe Brown tell these welfare kings and queens off every time they get the chance. It is amazing how they too, especially Mathis are as fed up as we are.
Of course, Judge Judy does the same.
“She is pregnant and expecting their second son any time now. “
You’d think they’d know what is causing that now.
In an honest and moral society, that adage would prevail. In today’s America, having children you can’t afford is the ticket to the second round of entitlements. They are the extra spins on the welfare wheel of fortune, and they are the progeny that will populate tomorrow’s welfare citizenry.
Adam’s probably also proud of his country for the first time in his pathetic life.
His job as Mayor is part-time, but he feels the people expect him to work full time, so he has given up other jobs
In other words he made a CHOICE to give up other employment that would have prevented the need for Government assistance.
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