EBT Abuse: The Cash-for-Drunkards Program

Townhall.com ^ | January 11, 2012 | Michelle Malkin

[Kaslin]

From New York to New Mexico and across the dependent plains, welfare recipients are getting sauced on the public dime. Drunk, besotted, bombed. But while politicians pay lip service to cutting government waste, fraud and abuse, they're doing very little in practice to stop the EBT party excesses. Where's the compassion for taxpayers?

You see the signs everywhere: "We accept EBT." Fast-food restaurants do. Clothing retailers do. Auto repair shops, liquor stores and even sushi joints are joining the club. "EBT" stands for the federal government's electronic benefits transfer card, which is intended to provide poor people with food stamps and cash assistance for basic necessities. The two separate programs were combined into one ATM-like card designed to reduce the "stigma" attached to Nanny State dependency, and -- voila! -- an entirely new method of mooching was born.

If the idea was to eliminate the embarrassment of life on the dole, the social justice crowd succeeded phenomenally. Last weekend, the New York Post blew the lid off scammers who brazenly swiped their EBT cards "inside Hank's Saloon in Brooklyn; the Blue Door Video porn shop in the East Village; The Anchor, a sleek SoHo lounge; the Patriot Saloon in TriBeCa; and Drinks Galore, a liquor distributor in The Bronx." Out: Cash for clunkers. In: Cash for drunkards!

My home state of Colorado has seen similar abuse. Last year, local TV station 9NEWS reported that more than $40,000 was withdrawn from ATMs in metro-area liquor stores despite prohibitions against such spending. Colorado EBT users also splurged at Denver's Elitch Gardens amusement part, Disneyland, Universal Studios in Los Angeles and on the Las Vegas strip.

In New Mexico, Jim Scarantino of Watchdog.org reported that in just a three-month period, EBT cards were used at multiple liquor stores, girly bars, smoke shops and casinos both inside and outside the state. Californians are notorious EBT fraud artists; some $70 million in EBT funds were withdrawn from outside the state's borders over the past several years, including nearly $12 million taken out in Las Vegas. Watchdog.org kept tabs on government workers in Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin nabbed in EBT fraud rings and schemes.

Several state legislatures have barred EBT spending on these vices, along with tattoo parlors, lottery tickets and cigarettes. Last February, President Obama signed GOP-backed welfare reform measures into law aimed at closing the so-called "strip club loophole" and preventing welfare recipients from blowing their cash benefits on booze, porn and gambling. But that law doesn't go into effect until next year. And many politicians are just shrugging their shoulders, muttering "Whaddya gonna do?"

Here's a radical idea: How about making taxpayer protection a priority for once and, yes, getting serious about strengthening the stigma on bottomless entitlement dependency and entitlement abuse?

According to the Department of Agriculture, illegal food stamp use costs the public upward of $750 million a year. A report by the Government Accountability Institute last fall revealed that "few security measures are in place to monitor EBT card fraud. ... Nationwide, the USDA has approximately 100 investigators policing over 200,000 authorized EBT retailers." In Florida, the report noted, 63 investigators carry the burden of policing more than three million EBT users.

Excuse-makers for the welfare-takers emphasize that both eligibility fraud and EBT card trafficking fraud are minuscule. But a bottle here, a case there, a pole dance here, a lap dance there, and soon it all starts to add up. With food stamp rolls exploding under both Republican and Democratic administrations while enforcement resources shrink nationwide, EBT has taken on a whole new meaning: Exploitation of Broke Taxpayers. Shame.

[traditional1]

EBT’s and the whole welfare scheme is simply buying the votes of inner-city tribal parasites with Taxpayers’ money....it’s simple wealth-redistribution, period.

[DeaconRed]

"EBT’s and the whole welfare scheme is simply buying the votes of inner-city tribal parasites with Taxpayers’ money....it’s simple wealth-redistribution, period."

That is exactly how the low life won. He used OUR money to buy votes. . . . . .

[dsrtsage]

When I’m president, food stamps will only be redeemable in government run stores. These stores will sell only milk, eggs, vegetables, fruits, rice, pasta, and beans. The 400 pound woman with the gaggle of morbidly obese rude and obnoxious 5 year old children will no longer be in front of you in line with 50 pounds of prime rib, 30 lbs of lobster, 200 pounds of frozen dinners, and 50 gallons of soda pop, while they make the the poor 16 year old bag boy carry their groceries to their lexus.

Have I secured any votes yet? I have more ideas

[PGalt]

Music to read this thread by...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o64Fz-KW1Dk

[PGalt]

EBT has taken on a whole new meaning: Exploitation of Broke Taxpayers.

"Socialism Is Legal Plunder" “Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation.” - Bastiat

[PGalt]

dsrtsage for President. An improvement over the dirtbag dictator current POSOTUS.

[PGalt]

Where's the compassion for taxpayers?

LOL! Work harder productive people. The unproductive socialists are counting on you. Congress will redistribute your possessions/wealth/time-of-life as they see fit. Psychopaths have no compassion for you. You are something to plunder/kill.

[dsrtsage]

POSOTUS...I do not recall seeing that acronym before, but perhaps I have as I am the most unobservant person on the planet....but I can definitely say that I approve of that acronym.

[dinodino]

You might get my vote if you pledged to eliminate welfare entirely. Your proposal is fine but doesn’t go far enough, IMHO.

[silverleaf]

add that all sperm donors must be identified by DNA and required to pay child support or lose all entitlement to any tax returns, “earned credits”, or any other government subsidized programs, such as student loans or FHA mortgages

[SeminoleCounty]

Secured my vote...

[hans56]

I posted this a while back.

I do think it still applies:

Warning on the language

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=ebt&source=video&cd=2&ved=0CEQQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNzspsovNvII&ei=NfbETqX8OcTnggf48MDuDg&usg=AFQjCNG_QItXwHugbx7goXL8wCFjqarQ-g

[hans56]

I posted this a while back.

I do think it still applies:

Warning on the language

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=ebt&source=video&cd=2&ved=0CEQQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNzspsovNvII&ei=NfbETqX8OcTnggf48MDuDg&usg=AFQjCNG_QItXwHugbx7goXL8wCFjqarQ-g

[Twinkie]

LIQUOR STORES ??!!? L-I-Q-U-O-R S-T-O-R-E-S ????!!

[I want the USA back]

This EBT crap is just a high-tech redistribution of money from those who work hard earning it honestly, to those who go on daytime TV and make out they don’t know who the Baby Daddy is, and vote democrat.

[haffast]

Welfare cards used for cash withdrawals at strip clubs, porn shops and liquor stores
PUBLISHED: 01:24 EST, 9 January 2013 | UPDATED: 01:24 EST, 9 January 2013

"A bill to bar EBT withdrawals at places like strip clubs and bars passed the New York state senate, but was shut down in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, the Post reports."
The Daily Mail

They could just get cash from program approved ATMs or cash back with purchase at approved locations, then spend the cash any way their "needs" require.

Credit/Debit/EBT cards mean $$CHA-CHING$$ for the banks.

Now that's "smart".