Sorry, no, I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you because of the manner in which you have referred to people such as myself with venom and contempt. You can say you love us all, but your words tell a different story. You despise certain categories of people, and I happen to fall into those categories.
So please, if nothing else, stop declaring you’re all about “love”. You’re not.
Or did you think there were no military people here, no young people struggling to make their way in the world, no people who have used SNAP to keep their families fed? They let poor people post on the Dope, too - judging by the wordings of your posts you were completely unaware of that.
You want poor people to stop receiving aid, even if that means they or their kids starve. As Broomstick says, some of those people are right here on the Dope. Your suggestion - the removal of SNAP benefits, would hurt people. A lot more people would be hurt than would be fraudsters foiled.
How is that caring, again?
I want accountable leadership in government too! I want my government leadership accountable for helping provide assistance to the poor, the ill, the disabled, and the struggling.
So yeah, I love “welfare”–particularly including SNAP–and I work for its expansion.
But since you “relish on debate,” I’ll have to ask: How *much *SNAP fraud actually takes? Do you have *any *idea?
I understand. However, it’s not right. You know that there is something called self reliance. You know that right? Do you want the government to do everything for you? Is that what you want? Is that what you call grown-up? Do you want to be on the taxpayer’s dime? I don’t. I understand that some people really need it. I get that. I understand it. However, it should not be used for fraud. Plain and simple. It’s just increasing dependency in my opinion. I want to have debate and discussion.
There are lots of hard-working people with children who, if they didn’t have SNAP, would starve, and their children would starve. Hard-working people. Maye there are some people who take advantage of it too, but I’m not willing to have those children starve (along with the children of the lazy… do children deserve to starve because their parents are lazy?) just because some people are taking advantage of it.
Are you? Which is worse – malnourished children, or some people get some extra food assistance they may not need? I think malnourished children is much, much worse, which is why I wholeheartedly support the availability of food assistance for poor and struggling people.
I fear that it creates dependency. Once you are on the system, you don’t feel the desire to actually work.
The people that are on it, should get a job. If you cannot, then try harder. America is about work.
The people who have children I understand. However, if you cannot provide for yourself, why make children? Obviously, children should not go hungry at all. There is something called self-reliance.
Charitable food banks are good. I’ve given to charity.
I was once one of those needy people who utterly depended on SNAP to keep my family fed on a daily basis. It was essential, and even then it wasn’t enough which is why I also cultivated an extensive garden.
By saying that people using SNAP are fraudulent you have described me as a criminal. By saying that I needed to work rather than accept benefits you disregarded the 40 and 50 hour weeks I put in working crap jobs while simultaneously looking for better work, while also spending hours in the garden or preserving the produce of that garden and called me lazy despite the many, many nights I dropped into bed exhausted, sore, and having to get up with too little sleep to do it all again the next day, and the next day, and the next day. You have called me “wrong”. You have described me and mine as something other and less than yourself. By implying that we have been dependent on the government all our lives you completely disregarded - nay, trampled and spat on - the 30 years of working I put in before I was laid off in 2007, and likewise treated with contempt the effort I put in to climbing out of the hole to where I currently am, employed full time at a permanent, stable job with promotion prospects and sufficient earnings that we no longer qualify for benefits.
These are NOT loving acts.
You claim to love, but you demonstrate hate. Thus, I do not believe your claim to “love” and “care” about people.
That aid was ESSENTIAL to our survival. That is what put food on our table 2-3 times a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Had the program been abolished during that time we needed it we would have either starved, or been driven to desperate measures I’d rather not discuss. You honestly think I should believe your claim that you “love” me when you seem quite willing to condemn me and mine to starvation? Honestly? Is that love? Saying people should do without food? Does someone who love you take the food from in front of your family?
What I really want to say to you would require the BBQ Pit so I will restrain myself here, but you are not a loving person, nor do you have love for those less fortunate than yourself.
Since the odds are good you consider yourself a Christian I’ll leave you with Matthew 7:15-20 and end with your fruits are rotten.
Then why have a government at all? Be self-reliant. Build your own roads, or pay to use someone else’s. Someone steals from you? Just find him and shoot him! A perfect society! (Well, non-society.)
Some people really need firemen. But some people light fires to commit fraud. By your logic, we should disband fire departments.
I just realized my previous post was kind of gibberish, my apologies. I’ll ask again, more clearly:
How *much *SNAP fraud actually takes place? Do you have *any *idea?
It sounds like you’re suggesting that any fraud at all, even the slightest bit, makes the entire program worthless. Is that correct?
.
That’s not what you said earlier. You said that SNAP should be abolished because there is fraud. You said it should be abolished because it encourages dependency. Those statements are the complete opposite of “Obviously people who really need it, should receive it…”
Gah! Look, I’ve already said this, AND encouraged you to do your own research.
If you are an able-bodied adult your SNAP benefits can be terminated after three months unless you are EMPLOYED, a FULL-TIME STUDENT, or can PROVE YOU ARE ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR WORK.
In my state, if you do NOT have a job in the first 3 months then 20-35 hours per week you are REQUIRED to report to a job search facility where people will look over your shoulder as you spend those hours actively looking for work. 8 hours a day sitting in a beat-up cubicle while some person constantly tells you to fill out applications quicker and more of them and apply for ANYTHING, even jobs that you are clearly in no way qualified to do. If you do not work enough you will be required to this *in addition to *having a job. Ask me how I know this.
You have fallen into the fallacy that poor people are always poor. This is untrue. What do you recommend if a family that was formerly middle-class falls on hard times? They should sell the children, perhaps? (That used to actually happen in the past)
So… what are you saying? A 5 year old should get a job and feed herself?
Charitable food banks typically only give grants once or twice a month, and in my experience do not provide enough to feed even a single person in between grants, much less a family. Sure, there are soup kitchens and free meals, but it kind of sucks if you have to be at work during those times, doesn’t it? Then there is compulsory lecture you get from the ones sponsored by Bible-thumping churches about how Jesus is going to make it all better (only if Jesus is hiring), or the “counselors” who quiz you endlessly about drugs or whether someone in the household has a drinking or gambling problem… no, NONE of those problems here, I was laid off and being over 40 am finding a hard time getting hired because ageism exists and it’s a lot different looking for work than the last time I did so 20 years ago. Don’t offer me counseling, offer me a JOB. Preferably one with a living wage.
You know who actually HELPED me get a job? It wasn’t a private agency. It wasn’t a church. It wasn’t Jesus. It was the state government that realized there was a contingent of people like myself with decades of work experience that were having a hard time getting hired in the Great Recession. So they set up a program where we were taught how to effectively look for work in today’s environment, or set up our own business, and most of us in the initial group never finished the full program because we got hired that quickly.
In other words, state aid got me a full time job with a private employer. And now I’m off state aid. So no, I don’t for one minute buy the bullshit that it’s all about making people dependent on the government.
So yay, state aid. Yay, government “interference”. I say the more the merrier because it sure helped me and mine.