Easily addressed. Just make it a prohibited item for food stamp purchase.
They’ll never do it, because this program is really about CORPORATE WELFARE, not feeding people.
Even if they did, they’d just spend them at the casinos instead.
“Easily addressed. Just make it a prohibited item for food stamp purchase.”
I remember when soft drinks, candy, chips, ice cream, deli items and many other things were verboten with food stamps.
Nothing but staples were allowed. Fresh produce, meat, seafood, dairy (milk, cheese, eggs), frozen vegetables (no frozen dinners or pizzas) and canned goods.
That system worked great. Families on food stamps bought nutritious food. They scraped their change together for soft drinks and chips.
Another example of something not broken being fixed.
Years ago, there were items that were prohibited from food stamps. Soda was one of those items. Then, someone decided the government had no right to tell recipients what foods welfare would or would not pay for -— that it was demeaning to treat adults like less than paying customers. How dare we! I remember when most people thought it was demeaning to have to be on food stamps. But then it became a right to not work and collect benefits. There are legitimate reasons for some people to be on food stamps and other forms of welfare, but of course, the number of people on assistance because they cannot work, or there is no work, is pretty small, compared to the number who are on welfare. It’s good to see the government of many states requiring work for welfare, even though the number of hours they must work, is absurdly low. Now, if we could just get those people who fake a disability in order to receive benefits, back to work, that would be progress. Much of their benefits comes from social security, which fund cannot afford to pay for fakers. I have a family member who has never worked for more than a few days. She finally got disability for ptsd, which though she had had some hard knocks in life (as most of us have), was really not incapacitated at all. She did fairly well, until her children reached the age of 18, at which time benefits for them ceased. (She would not allow them to work when they turned 16, as it would decrease the family’s benefits, other than her disability, and decrease her influence over them). Now, they’re all over 18, but she is actively trying to get one of them on disability, one has a job (but “can’t” get enough hours to make more than about $100/ week). The government just paid for training for her and one of the kids to be certified for jobs that would give them the earning capacity of at least $12/hour, but she has found a counselor who is willing to say she needs more counseling for her ptsd, and more training, to get a better, less stressful job; and the child who was also trained, is afraid to take a city bus, alone. (I’m thinking mom’s hoping to get some kind of disability for panic disorder, for that one). This woman has gamed the system, and taught her children to be victims. Even as adults, they are treated like children -— not allowed to have a social life, never had a friend over, (never really allowed to HAVE friends), told what time to go to bed, where they can go (basically, nowhere, without her). It is heartbreaking to see what she has done to those children. When one of them tried to have a life, and got a full time job, she counseled him that he was being taken advantage of, and so he demanded, at her insistence, that he be given a promotion, at which time, he was fired. While he WAS working, he was made to give her 1/4 of the household expenses, which was roughly the amount she had been collecting in welfare for all three kids, before they turned 18. The kid, (who like his siblings, had never had any friends or a girlfriend), went off the deep end, and started huffing, (the only “drug” he could afford), and had a breakdown, and ended up on the psych ward) He’s one of the ones, who she’s trying to be designated “disabled”. 25 years old, and still being told what time to go to bed, and how much food he can eat, etc. It’s pathetic and heartbreaking to see how she has crippled those kids. Sorry for the long post. I needed to get all that off my chest.