(MA)Welfare card can be swiped for booze, slots

Boston Herald ^ | 10/8/10 | Hillary Chabot

[GQuagmire]

Bay State welfare recipients can play the slots, pick up a six-pack of beer or nab a flat-screen plasma TV under loosey-goosey Bay State restrictions that allow those on the dole to treat taxpayers’ wallets as their own personal ATM.

Recipients of the Department of Transitional Assistance programs get Electronic Benefits Transfer cards that work like regular debit cards, allowing them to withdraw cash from ATMs and use it for whatever they want - all with scant oversight by the state.

[GQuagmire]

*sigh*

[ecsmceo]

What would you expect from the land of Deval Patrick and Aunt Zeituni! I am embarrassed to live in this state.

[MrB]

This is something that is going to have to be cleaned up if we can keep this wave going...
Charity needs to be totally private, through churches and ngo’s, through voluntary donations.

The charity will be responsible for making sure that its resources are used correctly, or the voluntary donations will go elsewhere.

Also, there should be NO national/federal charity program.
It should be done at the state level, and people can choose to live in states with more “services” or more economic freedom.

[fml]

Hey, who am I to tell welfare recipients how to spend other peoples money?

[icwhatudo]

Seen at my local steamed crab shack:

“Independence Card welcomed here”

[MrB]

Someone was arguing that yesterday about food stamps/SNAP -

we shouldn’t tell them they can’t buy sodapop or pre-prepared foods or lobster or steak.

[ClearCase_guy]

I support beans, rice and cheese for the desperately poor. No cash. No cards.

I don't think it's right for the government to tell people what they can and cannot eat -- but I don't want my money to be used to hand out goodies to people. The government needs to get out of the charity business, with the exception being minimal food distribution so that people don't starve.

[MrB]

Independence Card

Orwellian doublespeak anyone?

[Paladin2]

Money and equivalents are fungible.

In an open country, it's difficult to control everybody every minute. Just don't transfer the wealth int he first place and then you don't have to worry how it is spent.

[fml]

More than one, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

[Paladin2]

"Hey, who am I to tell welfare recipients how to spend other peoples money?"

Well put.

[FrankR]

Food Stamps and welfare are like obamacare, and even the progressive income tax...it's not about eating, it's about CONTROL.

The government gives out the money for food and living, now they're trying to tell you how to spend it.

obamacare is already rearing its ugly head and exposing the belly of the beast - the parts pelosi said would have to pass to see...well, we see and we NO LIKE.

Like another poster said, food stamps/welfare are the fodder given to the democrats' "cattle", who can be kept in herds and moved about at will.

They even call the cards "Independence cards" to make the recipients feel better about themselves - a real JOB would make them feel a LOT better about themselves.

Democrats should be spayed and neutered and not allowed to breed.

[kittymyrib]

If the government really wanted to help the hungry, they would let Walmart run the food program. Walmart would bill the government for the basic nutritional food stuffs that the welfare recipients would purchase with their food card. No booze, lottery tickets, guns, drugs, or whores could be purchased and the children in these families might actually get food from them. Walmart would make this work, something that our worthless federal government is unable to do.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

When the welfare recipients are shown to be “poor” in some study, the liberals will ask for an increase in welfare payments, which will be used for booze and leave them poorer, which will have the liberals asking for an increase, etc, etc.

When liberal “solutions” fail, as they always do, liberals always ask for a strengthening of the same liberal laws that failed, which fail again, which has them asking for a strengthening, etc, etc.

[SC_Pete]

Ah, but they’ll ban Coca Cola, like New York just did.

[markman46]

need to go back to the paper stamps and checks instead of the debit cards

[hoosierham]

Actually,microwaveable pot pies at less than $1 would be fine with me,but alcohol,tobacco,cable tv,etc. are not.

A more radical idea would be the elimination of the minimum wage AND welfare programs for American citizens and legal immigrants,coupled with mass deportation of all illegals.

[Above My Pay Grade]

If we are going to have welfare, welfare recipients should receive vouchers for weekly supply of rice, beans, milk, eggs, bread, peanut butter, oatmeal, plus small amounts of inexpensive meat, and a few fruits and vegetables. That is all.

Instead of banning men from living in welfare households, they should ban ALL designer clothes, iPods, cell phones, televisions, video games and other electronics, alcohol, tobacco, plus any other non-essential items. Even if these items are received as gifts, they should be confiscated and sold to reimburse the taxpayers.

Once the recipients realized that living off of other people's money is a dreary lifestyle, the vast majority would find a way to start earning their own keep, and get off welfare. Nobody would go hungry, but almost nobody would want to stay on welfare.

[WOBBLY BOB]

a special welfare-only store would be a good idea.

They could buy anything in the store and the items in it would be similar to dollar store stuff...no name brand and no booze,smokes and other such luxuries.

[SmartInsight]

(CA) $69M in state welfare spent in Vegas, Hawaii

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=7706290

SACRAMENTO (KABC) — Are millions of taxpayer dollars meant to help needy families in California being gambled away instead in Las Vegas?

A new analysis finds $69 million of the money the state gave out to people on welfare in just the last three years alone was spent in places like Las Vegas casinos, Hawaiian hotel resorts and Miami cruise ships. There’s a new push in Sacramento to make such spending of welfare money illegal.