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The New Welfare Swindle
The American Spectator ^ | 11-17-11 | Christopher Orlet

Posted on 11/17/2011 3:41:53 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic

Ever since I moved to the inner city one thing has puzzled me more than any other, and that is how my low-income neighbors get by. Assuming they aren't doing anything illegal, how do they afford their homes, their meals, their gadgets, their cars?

Few seem to work, even part time, for they are home in the morning when I leave for work, home if I stop by for lunch, and home when I return in the evening. They can't work the graveyard shift, for they keep me up half the night with their raucous music. I am left to conclude that they seldom, if ever work. Therefore, their funds must come from elsewhere. And none of them strike me as a trust fund baby.

The best I can figure is they make do with a patchwork of welfare programs. Besides, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which expires after five years, there is housing assistance, WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and Medicaid.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: scam; ssi; welfare
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Here's one for you: WIC recipients’ bottom line income threshold is 40K.

I don't make that much myself. I never regarded 40K as anything like a hardship level of income.

Also, these people never see a doctor's bill. I described this before:

My brother and his wife owned a collection agency, years ago. He said 80% of the accounts were for the local emergency room facility. Most of this hospital outstanding money was for treatment of indigent and other people who could not/would not pay.

He said most of the people were eligible for government assistance and were either too lazy or too stupid to apply for benefits.... they just went into the emergency room for treatment and walked away. PERIOD The ER was their family doctor.

So, the hospital paid the agency to collect the accounts and received pennies on the dollar for the debt. Paying patients at the hospital absorb the cost of the collection service and also have their own cost padded to cover what the hospital cannot collect from everyone else.

There you are:

1. You pay your OWN insurance premiums
2. You pay taxes so indigent and others can have treatment for free
3. You pay for office visits to your own doctor
4. You pay deductibles on your OWN policy
5. You pay extra at the hospital so they can cover treatment for people who won’t access benefits you have ALREADY BEEN TAXED to provide for the indigent and others too lazy to apply for them

You already paid F I V E times and the doctor hasn’t touched you yet…ain’t it grand!!??

And every single election these f&^%ing Liberal morons come out and say that Conservative Americans (read: taxpayers) are greedy and lack compassion because they oppose more and greater entitlements for all the losers in this country who WILL never pull their own weight!!! Angry yet???

21 posted on 11/17/2011 4:30:06 AM PST by SMARTY ("The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings. "Henri Frederic Amiel)
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To: GatorGirl

They already consider themselves lucky when a child is diagnosed with some kind of disorder.

I’m waiting for the day when they start maiming their children so they can collect bennies for them as “handicapped.” This is something gypsies do in Eastern Europe. They will break a child’s back or his (or more often, her) limbs so that they can put the child on the street with a can and people will give because they feel sorry for the child.

People who want to live by begging are willing to do anything to anyone in order to keep the free money flowing.


22 posted on 11/17/2011 4:31:27 AM PST by livius
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To: Jonty30
It is in a social worker’s best interest to keep welfare recipients dependent.

Ansolutely correct. In the mid 60's I worked as a caseworker for Public Assistance. It became apparent that the policies and regulations made it impossible for a recipient to get off the dole and become independent.

The system created dependence and sustained it. It did one more thing. It required illegal activity in that it was insufficient to get by on it alone and any activity resulting in additional income was expressly prohibited.

I wrote in my letter of resignation, "The Welfare system creates and sustains dependence. It prevents as a matter of policy recipients from becoming independent."

23 posted on 11/17/2011 4:34:05 AM PST by Louis Foxwell (Government must be taken back from the thieves who have stolen it.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Why did this fellow (writer) who has a job move to the “inner city?”


24 posted on 11/17/2011 4:34:53 AM PST by Lion Den Dan
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To: Graybeard58
” but with E.B.T., how do they do it?”

Buy expensive things that can be easily resold at a discount for cash.

25 posted on 11/17/2011 4:36:01 AM PST by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: Graybeard58

See 9 plus some of them have more than one identity. We had a couple of fraudsters here in WI who were pulling down incomes in the high 6 figures as childcare providers. They were on record as working for each otherwhen they weren’t. The centers received subsidies/tuition for children who were not enrolled, etc..


26 posted on 11/17/2011 4:37:11 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic
My social worker friend visits several severely mentally handicapped persons who work menial jobs rather than accept government largess. They take pride in going to work every day

My friend Larry is such a person. He's 48 years old and has worked for Wal-Mart for 25 years, mainly as a cart pusher. He has Down's Syndrome. He does get support from social services however, they have someone helping him manage his money. Due to his longevity at W-M, his pay is about $16. per hour. He shares an apartment with another Down's Syndrome person and social services people pay their bills...out of their own money.

When Larry takes a vacation, that his employer forces him to take, he hangs around the store and his supervisor has to keep him from working voluntarily. He says that W-M people are his "family"

What a contrast to all the fakers out there on the tax payer's dime.

27 posted on 11/17/2011 4:39:55 AM PST by Graybeard58 (Of course Obama loves his country but Herman Cain loves mine.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

My wife and I are close to a dear couple (now in their late -70s) who just confided in me that they qualify for food stamps.

They both worked productive careers, but their downhill roll started 12 years ago when their youngest son was diagnosed with terminal cancer. They had moved “up north” a year earlier. In a flash, they sold their home (at a huge loss) and returned to care-take their son in his last months.

I asked: “So why don’t you go down and apply?” Their answer: “We’d sooner drive our car into a canal than suffer the shame of asking for a handout.” I know they’re serious.

This Saturday, my group is volunteering at a giant pre-Thanksgiving “turkey and all the fixin’s” giveaway. Having volunteered after hurricane Andrew, I know who I’ll see there.

I pray to the Lord that some of the stuff actually gets to someone who is needy.


28 posted on 11/17/2011 4:43:19 AM PST by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: Graybeard58
Ever wonder why there seems to be an epidemic of ADD and other, so called, childhood diseases?

It is because the schools get a ton more cash for each one, and the parents get a gov check for them. The schools even have names of doctors to sent them to that will confirm whatever is required.

29 posted on 11/17/2011 4:51:20 AM PST by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: El Laton Caliente
You are forgetting the "Obama Phone" as they call it.

30 posted on 11/17/2011 5:06:51 AM PST by TSgt (whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive...it is the Right of the People to abolish it.)
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To: livius
They don't have to do that. As a teacher I have witnessed delighted parents having their children classified as disabled because they did not learn to read by age 17. Not incapable of - just failed to - learn to read.

Often the schools are complicit in the fraud.

31 posted on 11/17/2011 5:14:24 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (Can we send a drone after a hostile leader on foreign soil - even if he is ours?)
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To: Beagle8U

In Texas you can only buy food with your EBT card.


32 posted on 11/17/2011 5:16:45 AM PST by gopheraj
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To: afraidfortherepublic

AH, come on, these people have to wipe their own butts. All because the 1% aren’t paying their fair share.


33 posted on 11/17/2011 5:17:35 AM PST by all the best (`~!)
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To: Graybeard58

Someone explained this ro me just last evening. Say someone gets $600 food stamps on an EBT. They sell $50 FS for $25 cash...$100 FS for $50. All they need to do is loan the card and give the pin number. No one checks for signatures if you have the right pin. In and out. So someone gets an extra $25 free food for their $25. And the recipient gets cash for whatever. No skin off their nose because the FS were free.
So if you sell $400 of your $600 it’s $200 cash. Very lucrative. That is the minimum. Some places they sell for more.


34 posted on 11/17/2011 5:19:45 AM PST by MestaMachine (obama kills)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

BOHICA - “Kinder and Gentler” edition.


35 posted on 11/17/2011 5:19:50 AM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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To: doodad

Selling dope part-time, burglarising homes,prostitution,all of these are good ways to make a few extra bucks on the side.


36 posted on 11/17/2011 5:19:50 AM PST by Venturer
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To: BuffaloJack
It was redistribution and it was co-opted... is is 100% pure marxism today... but you are absolutely correct.

LLS

37 posted on 11/17/2011 5:20:13 AM PST by LibLieSlayer ("Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness." Ronaldo Magnus)
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To: gopheraj

Steak and lobster is easy to sell.


38 posted on 11/17/2011 5:24:09 AM PST by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: hans56
Sort of like this angry DC pigeon - who's been render too fat and lazy to fly:


Where's muh EBT Pie?

39 posted on 11/17/2011 5:29:13 AM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Fifty one Percent.

“Warning - the option to override self-destruct has now expired”


40 posted on 11/17/2011 5:31:17 AM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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