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FReepathon Day 50!!
Posted on 11/19/2011 7:27:23 PM PST by BBell
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., joined last week with three other conservative GOP senators to propose caps on means-tested federal social welfare programs. It would require that funding for food stamps and 76 other federal welfare programs be capped at pre-2007 levels by 2015 or when unemployment falls below 7.5 percent, whichever comes sooner.
It would require that food stamps be limited to essential foods such as milk and bread, as the senators said the program was originally envisioned, not, as it is in four states -- California, Florida, Arizona and Michigan -- for purchases at fast-food restaurants.
"One of the most significant substantive accomplishments coming out of the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress was welfare reform," Vitter said. "But as significant as this reform was, we are overdue to renew welfare reform efforts and make additional gains because the welfare state has grown enormously since then -- even factoring our recession."
Democrats have said that the reason that food stamp use is up substantially is because of the current high unemployment levels and pay cuts for many Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
shaddup and eat your peas. with no ham.
I checked out behind a woman with $300. of steak, pork and lobster, gatorade, soda, prepared meals, ice cream, candy, etc. etc. First she used her WIC card and got some of the stuff FREE. Then she paid the rest using her EBT card.
The people in line with me were all muttering, as we shuffled our spam and eggs along the checkout, readying our coupons...
here’s my new favorite video...
Judge Judy “here’s who you support with your taxes”
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=15915
Bread and milk? It should be confined to rice and beans-a complete protein. Just think of all the fatties who will lose weight rather than eat the boring stuff.
EVERYONE is yelling about the outrageous behavior of Congress and their meaningless vote buying spending.
The best Vitter can come up with is CUT FOOD STAMPS in the middle of 9% unemployment.
I mean save us from the brain dead Repub members of Congress.
I can’t believe Vitter is THIS stupid.
So, yeah, you can walk in a Safeway or Giant around here and when crabs are in good supply, and cheap, you can get them steamed ~ all the stores have giant steamers to handle seafood here.
I'd suggest you stay away from crabs (which will leave more of them for those of us who live here where we can get them fresh).
But you’re still means testing it, and still need your poverty auditors.
Milton Friedman pointed out that the only redistribution program which does not create perverse incentives by “subsidizing poverty” (as Jack Kemp used to say, if you subsidize something, you get more of it) is a guaranteed minimum income paid to everyone, regardless of other income, but then treated as part of one’s taxable income.
If being “poor enough” is the criterion for getting money for nothing, folks who are almost “poor enough” will not do anything to earn money to insure they are “poor enough”.
Under Friedman’s scheme, there would be no disincentive for working. Of course, besides abolishing all the other poverty programs, and tossing out all the poverty bureaucrats, one would have to jigger the tax code, esp. at the bottom end, to pay for it — among other things abolishing the earned income tax credit, cutting probably personal exemptions (after all everyone’s getting the monthly check, why have exemptions?) and probably raising the bottom marginal rate slightly.
Food stamps are swipe cards today. If it’s an all food purchase the customer can get in and out as fast as with a normal debit card.
The slowdown comes when the customer is unfamiliar with the nomenclature or system used by the particular store’s point of sale terminals, and when it’s a mixed transaction. Walgreen’s for one, does not know how to do “use up my Link (Illinois food stamp) card on this all food purchase, then present me with a balance due in cash that I will pay.” You have to say exactly how much you want to use from the Link card, and it won’t show you what you got. Ah, and Spanish speaking customers only add another level of difficulty navigating the system. Do any of these terminals have a “mash this button for Espanol”? I think Wal-Mart does but I’m not positive.
Fast-foods, it depends on what the fast food is whether it’s a frugal buy. Some are, like WhackDonald’s $1 double cheeseburger with only one piece of cheese, as are beverages that can be endlessly refilled on that visit.
Several years ago, the USDA supposedly found that food stamp users were virtually no more likely to buy particularly junky foods (like salted snacks) than the ordinary cash customer. That makes sense, because the monthly limit on the card is denominated in dollars, and such foods are not usually frugal purchases. Even bums aren’t spendthrifts when their budget is fixed. So the USDA recommended forgoing the overhead required to supervise the types of foods purchased with food stamps.
She’s either planning to put on a spread, or will quickly discover no more food for the rest of the month.
Dumping 75 of the bureaucracies would leave a lot of people available for the the auditor jobs, lol.
I don’t like the idea of a “guaranteed minimum income” because who is paying it? The government? He$$ NO. I want to get government out of the business of handing out money to ANYONE personally. My idea of merging all welfare is just one step.
Who’s paying for your means-tested cash dole?
Ideally, Friedman’s plan would be implemented in such a way that the net cost would be about the same as your suggestion, but the mechanism would be different — no need to check that folks qualify, just recollect a lot of it in taxes, and (the important thing) it creates no disincentive for the poor to get work, because unlike a means-tested dole, getting work doesn’t cut off their benefits, just obliges them to pay taxes.
It’s not actually ideal. It would be better to have the government not in the income-redistribution business at all. But it might be politically feasible to get to from here, whereas just abolishing poverty programs probably isn’t.
*sigh*
Any plan that basically puts everyone on the government payroll is anathema to liberty. My idea is to step phase out all transfer payments to individuals.
In the real world once you start a “guaranteed minimum income” it will be increased by politicians until those who choose not to work are better off than those who work. Then we’re even worse off than we started.
Any politician who calls for stopping the checks will never get elected.
Conservatism in any form will be OVER.
Vitter is indeed that stupid. I seriously think some of these GOPers want to stay in the minority
or, as is also common, will sell the stuff for cash....
Common scam unfortunately. Some are owners of small stores and can turn a profit. It’s hard to know what kind of monkey would be on someone’s back to starve but sell $200 worth of food for $100.
‘Bread and milk? It should be confined to rice and beans-a complete protein. Just think of all the fatties who will lose weight rather than eat the boring stuff.’
Wild curiosity compels me to ask: where are the homeless people supposed to cook the rice and beans? There are more people living in their cars than you might think.
HOW ABOUT TEACHING THEM TO CUT coupons.
Every EBT card should have the recipients face on it and merchants that don’t check ID should be fined heavily. A few undercover stings leaked to the media would stop this.
This would also cut down on the EBT cards being traded for crack and heroin.
Heroin abuser needs to “get good” so they trade the balance on their EBT card to the local dealer then report it lost. They then get a new one with a new pin number. It’s a racket and with no end in sight.
That or WIC. I got behind a gal and her boyfriend or husband that had 3 kids in the basket and one in her belly.
I gripe and moan to the cashier every time.
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