[matt04]

So the taxpayers can pay for someone to smoke, who probably doesn't pay taxes, then can pay for necessary medical treatment thanks to ObamaCare.

Time to get rid of cash benefits.

[Lady Lucky]

Don't know about her and her state, but in my state (PA) you can't even buy a barbecued chicken at the supermarket with an EBT card that accesses a food stamp benefit; never mind cigarettes. Something to do with the fact that the store has prepared and grilled the bird, as a restaurant would. When a customer presents a store-prepared grilled chicken at the register, they are required to pay cash, and cannot deduct it from a food assitance account.

While I'm not familiar with every state's rules, it seems most unlikely that ANY state would allow food stamps to be used to purchase tobacco products. However, if the EBT card has cash assistance rather than food stamps, it should not matter what is purchased, it's a cash account. If the employee doesn't know the difference, the employee needs training, not termination.

[bigbob]

Hey, the gummint needs that $1 a pack or whatever tax on them smokes! Oh,wait...gumming EBT paying tax to the gummint to pay for more entitlement programs...what’s wrong with this picture?

[X-spurt]

Remember the Commodity Program? Made too much sense. Then the grocers saw a lot of money slipping by them. Next thing you know the GD debit card is good anywhere for anything.

I remember Food Stamps were specifically for FOOD. We had a little country store lady who also happened to be a bootlegger, she still had to be real careful to make sure the charges all looked like food. The holder’s people who stayed nearby and shopped there would daily buy only enough to eat that day because the bucks that “stayed” with em would eat up all the chillins vittles.

[tbw2]

The only hesitation I would have on that is “how do you pay for diapers / wipes / soap / toothpaste”? Or should someone on EBT get a ration of that every month?

[Melas]

I have to agree with her boss. This is a call for the MA legislature to make, not a clerk at a convenience store. Most states have addressed it, and you cannot buy cigarettes or alcohol, but apparently MA has not.