Pols demand overhaul after EBT(food stamps) bust(MA)

Boston Herald ^ | December 14, 2011 | Dave Wedge and O’Ryan Johnson

[GQuagmire]

Beacon Hill Republicans are calling for a massive overhaul of the state’s welfare system after a crew of alleged Lynn grifters was charged with scamming thousands from taxpayer-funded EBT cards — including some who allegedly took the public money as payment for crack.

“I want to see major reform here in Massachusetts,” fumed state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell, a Taunton Republican heading a legislative panel reviewing the EBT program. “You can spend that money on anything you want. There’s no oversight.”

[GQuagmire]

Our tax dollars at work....

[GQuagmire]

related article....

http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2011/12/14/news/news01.txt

[GQuagmire]

Howie Carr ping material.....

[Fedupwithit]

Nothing like waiting for the bomb to go off to start diffusing it...

[AU72]

Go back to the Surplus Food Program where indigents got flour, cheese, honey and lard in bulk.

[Buckeye McFrog]

didn’t Lynn Grifters co-host the morning show on CNN?

[CaptainAmiigaf]

Like HELL our “Tax dollars at work” This is our tax dollars being STOLEN and flushed down the toilet. The dollar figures, to this citizen, sound like GRAND LARCENY.
I truly understand the reasoning behind helping those who really truly need assistance, but I also DEMAND that our stupid state government politicians accept the responsibility that comes with their offices and see OUR money isn’t wasted, rather then using OUR money to buy votes.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

And another related article. This is a story told by a college student working as a cashier at a Wal-Mart in Maine and the fraud she directly experienced. I was elated to see this story put out by a college student.

My Time at Walmart: Why We Need Serious Welfare Reform

[Mortrey]

It’s FREE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII&feature=player_embedded

Other “selections” on site: Can EBT pay fo my “weave”?

[Maverick68]

sad

[Flash Bazbeaux]

They still have that. Mrs. Flash knows an elderly Chinese lady who every now and then gives us cheese and powdered milk, neither of which she would ever eat.

Yup, at one time not long ago there was actual genuine government cheese in the Flash family fridge.

[wbill]

About a million years ago, My Mom used to work for a program that distributed the cheese. We were getting by on $3.78/hr, so she gladly accepted the "rejects" (box might have been crushed a little on one end, or something. Nobody pickier than people on welfare...).

Anyway, that gov't cheese was GREAT! Flavor like Cheddar, melted like Velveeta. Haven't been able to find anything like it in the stores, ever.

[Oatka]

At Ace’s Wholesale Foods, a corner store in downtown Lynn, authorities said EBT sales topped $524,000 in the past year — far eclipsing sales at a nearby major supermarket.

Back in the 90s wife and I worked in Macon, GA. She was a teller and soon noticed one guy, who always came to her (think it was because she was a Newbie). He ran a small 7-11 type of store and each week he'd bring in fistfuls of food stamps. They were all in numerical order, ripped out of the books wholesale. The amounts were more than what he had in inventory (we visited the store).

Wife, and then another teller, reported him to the authorities. They were told "We're working on it." When we left three years later, the guy was still bringing in fistfuls - and the authorities were still "working on it."

[FreeDeerHawk]

This is a great article and many of the comments following are also great.

People on public welfare should never have a higher standard of living than those who are self supporting.
They should not have better or more food,medical care,educational opportunities,child care,housing,transportation or clothing benefits.

This is a travesty. A disgrace. It’s theft against the working people of this country.

My still independent parents-in-law are pushing ninety. We cannot afford to purchase all of or even most of their meals. They do not want a lot of help,yet they could use some. They tire easily now. We help them but we cannot be there nor can we afford to provide everything for them.

I was looking around for any meal programs like meals on wheels that they might use and I discovered that in their state,MA,there is a food distribution charity that provides ten pounds of produce and sometimes pastries for free to those in need.

However,this food distribution is given out only in urban housing projects and community centers. My in-laws live in a tiny house in the suburbs where they have lived all of their married lives while they worked in factories. This charity is not any where near available to them.

They cannot use meals on wheels because many of the dishes are chicken based and my father-in-law developed a severe allergy to chicken when he got food poisoning while serving in Europe in the military fighting the Nazis during WWII.

Also,many of the dishes are unfamiliar to them,so many are Mexican or Chinese. They are almost ninety years old. They don’t like those things. Those things aren’t what they have eaten all of their lives. They say they will never get food stamps. They have too much pride.

Once again,hard working Americans are used and pushed out when in need.

[raccoonradio]

thanks GQ—yeah I pinged the list to the original news via Herald yesterday

HC list ping

[GOPsterinMA]

That’s nothing compared to this...notice that M. Stanley Dukakis is mentioned:

http://thecollegeconservative.com/2011/12/13/my-time-at-walmart-why-we-need-serious-welfare-reform/

[raccoonradio]

>>were used to buy cocaine

I’m reminded of how in ‘04 Kerry-Edwards had a slogan of “Hope Is On The Way” and there was a pic of a sign at a K-E rally saying that. After news broke of some kind of drugs being bought with campaign or ACORN money or something (can’t remember) it was photoshopped to read DOPE IS ON THE WAY
(I think it was part of the whole registering-fake-voters-in-the-name-of-Mickey-Mouse ACORN deal, somehow.)

I note one of the accused has the first name Jean, French for John of course. The guy who wrote “A Christmas Story”
was Jean Shepherd—yes a man, but with a name that makes you think it could be a woman. Jean’s friend Shel Silverstein got a kick out of how Jean’s first name
spelling made people think he could be female and he
penned a song about it...Johnny Cash’s classic A Boy Named Sue! (My name is Sue! How do you do! Now you gonna die!)

[raccoonradio]

They’re saying there probably won’t be a White Christmas in the area but there seems to be a lot of snow in Lynn. (City of my birth...as funny folk singer Don White puts it, “I’m from Lynn, What Can I Say?” Grew up in Nahant though)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D8_F-_2mmk

[steve86]

Best wishes to your parents-in-law. I hope they can find a solution to their food problem. My mother, 94, did use Meal-On-Wheels for about a month earlier this year. It worked out well, but then she was the first in our family to adopt ethnic-type cuisine some decades ago. Note to self: Try to keep up at least nominally with dietary trends so something like this doesn't happen. I wish your relatives wouldn't let pride in being self-sufficient get in the way of legitimate need and help from others. It is possible to be too extreme in that orientation.

[old and tired]

Here in Pennsylvania, the Meals on Wheels type programs are administered through the county - you might want to give that a try. ANother thought is to try some local churches, the larger ones especially. Many Catholic churches have programs where they drive the elderly around. Ours does, and it has evolved into bringing meals at least weekly to many shut ins. Catholics generally won’t proselytize either, so a difference in religion shouldn’t be a problem.