Posted on 04/02/2015 5:37:09 PM PDT by dynachrome
Anger toward those living below the poverty line seems to only be increasing. Maine and Missouri have proposed bills limiting residents’ food choices if they use SNAP. Missouri House Bill 813 would bar the state’s 930,000 food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy cookies, chips, soda, energy drinks, steak and seafood. (The legislature also implemented mandatory drug testing for TANF applicants in 2011.) If the bill becomes law, a Missourian can’t buy a can of tuna with an EBT card. Tortilla chips to go with salsa? Nope. Flank steak — tough, stringy and the only cut of beef I can afford — is off-limits, too. Who are these people, and what makes them think that what we eat is their business? And given that the average food stamp allotment in my state in 2013 came out to just $1.41 per person per meal, I wonder if they understand that recipients couldn’t buy lobster if they wanted to.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Is there some web based reports on that to send to ones favorite conservative outlet?
I can't tell you the number of times I've went into the grocery store and as much as I like/want something - no it's best not to spend the extra money. Meanwhile, the person in line in front of me has all manner of luxury foods, whips out their gubmint card loaded with my tax dollars and swipes without a thought. Then I watch as they waddle their morbidly obese carcass out to an Escalade or Expedition.
One instance in particular, I had $8 in my pocket. Granted I had more in my bank account, but money was tight and there was no need to pull out more that I may be tempted to spend. Instead, I would buy baby food with the $8 in my pocket and wait the next few days for my pay to hit my account and I could shop for more. I searched around trying to find the most I could get with my money in my pocket.
Much to my chagrin, when I got to the checkout line, an early 20 something, white, trailer park queen wearing the latest trends, jewelry, and latest smart phone........was berating the cashier because they only had 11 full size cans of baby formula instead of the 13. I mean actually cussing out the cashier for being "stupid" and how it was "b#llsh#t" thhey didn't have what she wanted......and then she pulled out WIC vouchers to pay for the more than $200 worth of formula.
Poor? "Food instability?" Uncle Sam has "vacationed" me in places throughout the Third World. In places like Iraq, we would often save our MRE "trash" (e.g. what we were't going to eat) to hand out to bedouins and other poor we felt compassionate for.....not as any command instituted program, or hearts and mind campaign, but out of true human compassion.....starving children with bloated bellies, parents with hollowed eyes and a haggard look - that's food instability.
Now, I'm not saying there isn't people who've fallen on hard times in this country, but from the overwhelming majority of people I've seen use EBT/SNAP/Sect 8 etc......their plight was due to their own poor decisions. And what's worse, they expect demand ever more taxpayer money to continue making poor decisions while someone else foots the bill for "necessities.".....That would be necessities like my Sect 8 neighbor who needed to go drinking at the hotel bar, who's chilluns had a PS 3 (that I myself couldn't afford), who was always able to go out and have a good time. - Wasting her money that when rent came due (her small share that came out of her pocket), there was always a sob story why she wanted to borrow money from the neighbors.
sorry Charlie.....sometimes the ants need to look after the ants, and the grasshoppers can figure it out for themselves.
/rant
when we were kids mom raised 7 of us alone. Gov’t food was very restricted. We used to laugh at the canned beef, but we ate it. Best times, actually, having the faith of a child.
Back in the early 70's that's how it worked...People weren't prohibited from eating cookies...But they had to make their own...
However, I wonder why these same politicians don't carry on like this about the hundreds of billions of dollars of my money they send to terrorists...China even gets a chunk of my money...It's difficult to take any politician seriously...
Sometimes the problem is a loss of hope and that cannot be made up for in mere dollars and cents. With loss of hope the only choices in view are poor and poorer.
That is another reason it is a tragedy that Caesar has elbowed out the church charity of old (and it began among other places with Social Security, which FDR shamelessly hawked to church pastors as a supposedly good idea... but it stripped the dollars and cents of the presence of the love of God).
Ones vision timeframe makes a huge difference. Plus the whole vision thing. Edjumacation is failing many. Especially the whole parential part. Making the vote contingent on being a maker or at least not a taker could be revolutionary.
Why should not all be compelled to contribute to the welfare of others if any are?
The church has itself become lazy and “let Caesar do it.” They won’t put themselves out for someone who has served honorably among them for years without scandal... and then when the economic tide turns is in a brutal pinch. Go ask Uncle Governor! Well I did, and that’s the deal. I paid for it in taxes and why are you giving me a hard time.
That's all true...But like they say, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater...Many people do need the help...
With deficit spending the govt has no stash to give you back your previous contributions.
The cheapest food is loaded with the most fat...
It would be better if churches did it all. Churches will even help unbelievers because they hope to present a winsome face of God to someone who is headed to hell... even though that is their own fault.
Mere dollars and cents with nothing more turns what had once been charity into a cold cynical game.
I didn’t force the government to carry on its affairs like this, but nonetheless it has gotten it from me on both ends, past and current.
Carbs are super cheap, partly due to government subsidy.
There used to be mutual insurance organizations that were functional. The govt it not one of those. Nor should it be.
In the blink of an eye...
Only a matter of time until your government has even more control of your menu too.
In the modern model it is serving as one.
Do I like it? No. It introduces cynicism into the game. Benefits are offered to those, not who are likely supporters of the fund, but those who are likely supporters of the politicians.
But even those who ought to know better are treating it as the only game in town.
Had there been a food stamp system in Job’s day, he doubtless would have gone on it.
He probably was sustained during his trials through the beneficence of friends who grudgingly admitted he was no bum, although unleashing no small amount of moralism on him. Aaaaah Job! You have to have sinned to deserve this!
I do not like these government schemes. But I do kind of like to stay alive and not freeze. Sometimes I wonder if the government in spite of its waste is like the dogs who licked the sores of the beggar since nothing better was available for him. And that is why God has shown such great tolerance to it. Better that than to torpedo grace altogether in a country that is sinning madly but still knows rumors of God’s name.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.