Posted on 02/19/2016 10:38:02 AM PST by nickcarraway
The concept of the food-stamp queen was first proffered by Ronald Reagan during a 1976 campaign speech. "In Chicago, they found a woman who holds the record," he told the assembled crowd. "She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans' benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year." Reagan's story turned out to be a gross exaggeration of a minor case of welfare fraud, but since their patron saint conjured her up, conservatives have been unable to rid themselves of the image of the food-stamp queen. And despite her nonexistence, they've tried over and over again to stamp her out.
Their latest attempt takes the form of a bill introduced by New York senator Patty Ritchie designed to keep people from using New York's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to buy things like expensive steaks, lobster, decorated cakes, or energy drinks. "The goal of this legislation is to improve dietary quality and reduce obesity," as well as to "restrict the abuse of the program," reads the bill's memo.
Even if it passes the Democratic-controlled senate, the bill is unlikely to accomplish either goal. According to a 2007 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, "no evidence exists which indicates that food stamp benefits directly contribute to poor food choices and negative dietary outcomes, such as obesity." The majority of food-stamp recipients still buy a portion of their food with their own money, with which they can make as many unrestricted choices as they want.
The Republican fear of "abuse" of food stamps to purchase "luxury items" is founded on a decades-old and highly unrealistic stigma. Last April, when Missouri politicians introduced a similar bill, Representative Rick Brattin told the Washington Post, "I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs with their EBT [Electronic Benefit Transfer] cards. When I can't afford it on my pay, I don't want people on the taxpayer's dime to." Similar outrage flared up in Kansas when a bill was introduced to limit "a long list of items, including alcohol, cigarettes, concert tickets, theme park tickets, or cruises," and in Wisconsin, where another aimed to strike "crab, lobster, shrimp, and any other shell fish" from the list of available foods. Yet in studies of the diets of people on food stamps, they're shown to eat less seafood than the rest of us, and about the same amount of beef. (How they would buy cruise tickets with their benefits is unclear.)
"It's seeking to legislate urban myths in our society," Milwaukee representative Evan Goyke told WSAU when Wisconsin's bill was in the spotlight. "Forty-one percent of the people who receive food stamps are under the age of 18, and the next largest chunk are the elderly. And they're not eating lobster; they're struggling to get by."
I would not be surprised if welfare women are working off the books as housekeepers. Her employer gives her a shopping list, she buys her employer's food with her EBT, her employer reimburses her in cash.
Meanwhile, the welfare woman can get all her staples from the local food bank, which is also subsidized with government money.
One thing the next president should do is have somebody root out all the duplicate programs, merge them, and eliminate double-dipping.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched someone use their money for beer and cigarettes and my money for food. The system is fraudulent by nature.
As an aside... this is also why Donald Trump can’t fund “the wonderful things Planned Parenthood does” without also supporting abortion.
The post to which you replied and the thread had NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUMP. This is a thread that has to do with Food Stamps and EBT fraud
...nothing about Trump, nothing about Abortion. Sheesh!
I actually CHOSE TO READ THIS THREAD AS A BREAK FROM PRIMARY POLITICS...You know, there is somethingelse going on besides Cruz campaign... like defrauding of American people and loss of liberty....Anyway, thanks for ruining the break for me.
Please just go find one of the hundreds of threads posted today that are talking about Trump to post your vitriol.
Stop with the THREAD HIJACKING here :(
I think the way it works is that the lobster cannot be live, but refrigerated is ok.
I isn’t even a myth out here-the nearest grocery store-20 miles away-is in the only real town-population less than 900-in the county. I’ve seen a few fat welfare queens-all Caucasian-waddle up to the checkout, unload a cart full of steaks, shrimp, frozen foods, cookies, cakes and other dainties from the deli/bakery, giant bags of chips-not a fresh veggie or fruit in that cart-then they whip out and swipe a Lonestar card to pay for all that stuff-and I’m supposed to believe what a New York magazine has to say on the subject?
Restaurants have “We Accept EBT Cards” signs in their windows. Excuse me, we can’t afford to eat out but we’re paying for these lazy low lifes to. That is a major problem, imo.
Well, yeah. Think of the debt that poor woman was in! Do you know how much Escalades cost?
We should probably make luxury car dealers take EBT cards and cut to the chase...
Hey, at least they saved $8 on Diet Mountain Dew.
—Everyone I see at the Food Lion that uses EBT usually drives a new car.—
A couple months ago I was standing in the “No more than 12 items†line behind a minority woman. She had at least 30 items in her cart. Paid with an EBT card. I had one item so I was right behind her out the door. She was parked a couple spaces from my 15 year old Highlander. She got into a giant black Caddy Escalade. It still had the stickers in the back side window and temp plates! EBT!
so after your customer in the Caddy EBT’d her 30 items in the 12-item line, she probably went on over to the vision place next :(
I have good vision, but was fearful that I might need classes to pass driving test...So I went to a Pearl Vision (large national chain) located by our DMV for a quick test, and the doctor told me there is much fraud with glasses...Tho she did not have a lot of time to elaborate, she said unbelievable they types of cars the people with medicaid drive—she mentioned Escalades!
Makes me furious, but 35 years ago, someone once told me that foods stamps are the best for of riot control we have—that was 35 years ago, and I am sure the numbers were small by comparison :(
The lobster has to be refrigerated. It can't be cooked or live so grocery stores have actually created a category for the EBT's.
For example, Walmart by me actually takes hot fried chicken and tosses it in the refrigerator and slaps a label on it saying EBT eligible.
Every able bodied person should be entitled to one 6 month period of welfare and that’s it. After that, if your kids go hungry then you go to jail for 5 years per child and they go into foster care.
A few decades ago, there were only certain foods you could buy with food stamps. No processed junk food, beer or tobacco. Only real juice and cheese and not the imitation stuff. If there were rules back before the use of computerized cash registers, there can certainly be rules today.
I’m still waiting for my obama phone, for someone else to pay my rent and that purple sparkly unicorn I was promised 7 years ago.
Buying stuff to be resold is too bothersome. Decades ago, they had already figured out how easy it was to just sell the card.
I remember seeing a sign in a FURNITURE STORE window:
WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS.................
Form of reparations, they go to thier local food mart or bodega exchange the food stamps for cash to buy alcohol, cigs lotto and drugs
The phone was given to them by Obama
It isn’t urban myth. Welfare cons routinely sell their benefits to buy whatever they wish. It has been going down for decades and the lying parasites and their politicians know it.
Who ya gonna believe - your own lying eyes or - the New York Magazine and Claire Landsbaum?
I have seen receipts show on on different websites that have shown this. It is not an Urban Myth.
These things would require them to cook! Far easier to grab something you can eat right out of the box or the bag.
One of the things I've noticed is the prodigious quantity of soda pop they buy.
That crap is poison.
Why should the parasites and moochers get all the benefits? Why not some for the people that supply the leeches?
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