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LePage: Maine will no longer waive food stamp work requirements
pressherald.com ^ | 7/23/14 | Eric Russell

Posted on 07/23/2014 10:57:31 AM PDT by cotton1706

Maine’s Republican governor wants all able-bodied recipients of the federal food stamp benefit to complete work or volunteer activities.

Gov. Paul LePage announced Wednesday that Maine will no longer seek a federal waiver that allows some able-bodied adults to receive food stamps without working or volunteering.

“We must continue to do all that we can to eliminate generational poverty and get people back to work,” LePage said in a statement announcing the change. “We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient.”

According to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, able-bodied recipients are defined as adults between the ages of 18 and 49 who have no dependents, are not pregnant and are not disabled. DHHS has identified 12,000 current recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program who fit that definition. They account for about $15 million per year in benefits.

Currently, Maine receives a waiver from the federal government that allows food stamp recipients to receive benefits without meeting work requirements. Maine has used the waiver for the last six years largely because of an anemic job market.

Maine’s unemployment rate reached a high of 9.7 percent in early 2010 but has dropped to 5.1 percent as of June. The rate is higher in some rural areas of the state.

(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Maine; US: Massachusetts; US: New Hampshire; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: ebt; elections; foodstamp; foodstamps
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1 posted on 07/23/2014 10:57:31 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

Hopefully all the current bums will realize that this is mainly due to the giant influx of illegals that are eating into their pie.


2 posted on 07/23/2014 11:02:34 AM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: cotton1706

Good. We are tired of working to support people who are not disabled or elderly.


3 posted on 07/23/2014 11:05:23 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: cotton1706

Someone cue the Maine liberals to start crying and stomping their feet screaming ‘THIS ISN’T FAIR!!’ in 4.....3.....2.....


4 posted on 07/23/2014 11:05:40 AM PDT by Fedupwithit (If you never stop giving, they will never stop taking...)
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To: cotton1706

LePage is ME’s only conservative; there must be more conservative voters there than one would have thought. The state as a whole is very liberal and has been since Edmund S. Muskie with few exceptions.


5 posted on 07/23/2014 11:06:15 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: cotton1706

Not that I oppose the policy change but is that large drop in the unemployment number reality? What is Maine’s U6 number, I wonder.

And with a delicious sense of irony, will re-injecting those 12,000 potential employees in the workforce drive up that 5.1%?


6 posted on 07/23/2014 11:06:46 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("The Arab Spring is over. Welcome to the Jihadi Spring." Jonah Goldberg)
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To: cotton1706

Currently, Maine receives a waiver from the federal government that allows food stamp recipients to receive benefits without meeting work requirements.

Uh oh, I don’t think that the Holder injustice dept. is gonna let this happen,i.e., to have a work requirement.

And, BTW, aren’t alot of Somalis being dumped in Maine?

How’s that working out?


7 posted on 07/23/2014 11:10:20 AM PDT by bluedogpdx
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To: NonValueAdded

Dont think it has much to do w/ unemployment numbers. The real win is the enormous amt of $ each ‘recipient’ consumes. Once off the dole the budget can be reduced and hopefully a few state workers as well. Last time I looked the state was the largest employer....something that needs also to be corrected.


8 posted on 07/23/2014 11:11:30 AM PDT by 556x45
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To: cotton1706

Here come all those itty bitty violins, each playing the saddest sob stories you ever did hear. One trying to top the other. “If you think YOU got problems, listen to MY story!”


9 posted on 07/23/2014 11:12:42 AM PDT by lee martell
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To: cotton1706

When I hear things like a certain area has no prospects for jobs or industry aka an “anemic” job market, I often think “well go back to doing what people did when people first decided to live there.” I mean at one point there must have been a way to make a living or everyone would have died there or moved on.

In Maine’s case wouldn’t that be fishing or timber? I know the fed has made laws that in some cases make this prohibitive, and in those cases I suppose you have to move to where there is work. But, if not, I would just start fishing again and selling my fish to people. /shrug.

In the great lakes I would get a boat and open up a boat shipping company across the great lakes or something like folks used to do.

I could be off base here, maybe the gov rules are so regulatory in nature you can’t do these things competitively anymore, but if that is the case then more power to the argument for deregulation!!


10 posted on 07/23/2014 11:13:43 AM PDT by Individual Rights in NJ (I don't even know what to say anymore..)
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To: I want the USA back

And FAT is not a disability!


11 posted on 07/23/2014 11:16:13 AM PDT by 9422WMR ("Ignorance can be cured by education, but stupidity is forever.")
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To: All

Boy, is he in touble now!!!!!!!!!!


12 posted on 07/23/2014 11:20:54 AM PDT by Boonie
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To: cotton1706

Wait til the Justice Bros hear about this...AND the Dept of Just Us!

Good for this Gov...this needs to happen in all 57 states.


13 posted on 07/23/2014 11:22:58 AM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: cotton1706
able-bodied recipients are defined as adults between the ages of 18 and 49 who have no dependents, are not pregnant and are not disabled

I would be all for adding:


14 posted on 07/23/2014 11:32:18 AM PDT by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: Individual Rights in NJ

Maine’s rivers provided power and transportation

Every town has a mill

paper, shoes, lumber, clothing, etc.

Every town now has an empty mill.


15 posted on 07/23/2014 11:34:41 AM PDT by maine yankee (I got my Governor at 'Marden's')
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To: 9422WMR

Drug and alcohol addicts are not disabled either.


16 posted on 07/23/2014 11:38:02 AM PDT by DFG ("Dumb, Dependent, and Democrat is no way to go through life" - Louie Gohmert (R-TX))
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To: maine yankee

So really they got hit real hard by globalization and our regulations making those goods not fit to be made in the expensive USA?


17 posted on 07/23/2014 11:39:50 AM PDT by Individual Rights in NJ (I don't even know what to say anymore..)
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To: cotton1706

Why should welfare queens suffer the indignity of actually working? It’s hard enough sitting around living on the fruits of other people’s labor.


18 posted on 07/23/2014 11:42:47 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: maine yankee

The Moonbats in Saco were in full Koolaid Modeon Monday. They were having Gorbasms over MA Gov. Deval Patrick because he’s unleashing the Border Crashers on us. Of course they won’t be going to bucolic Saco anytime soon.


19 posted on 07/23/2014 11:44:18 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: cotton1706

They’re probably running out of other peoples’ money...


20 posted on 07/23/2014 11:45:54 AM PDT by FrankR (They will become our ultimate masters the day we surrender the 2nd Amendment.)
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