Food stamps; do you think one's purchases/taxes should be looked into?

Wow! Look at those amazingly specific and well-cited figures!
If I could do math like that, maybe I wouldn’t be poor!

No, but it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. What about people who blow their money on gambling or drugs and then turn to the government for help? I’ve MET people like this.

I’m assuming that you mean prepared salads that you put into a container from a salad bar set-up. The issue is not that its not pre-packaged - it’s that it is prepared and ready to eat.You can use food stamps for things like a pound of apples or a head of lettuce or two red peppers. It’s just like you can use food stamps to buy a loaf of bread and a pound of ham - but you can’t use them to buy the sandwich already made.

So your cousin wasn’t a fraud, you just can’t stand her? Is that it? Really, why are you so angry she got assistance. You think you should have kept your .3 cent tax that went to public assistance while she starved because she had kids you don’t think she should have had?

P.S., no, there was no grandfathering. Once the new law went into effect she had two years to find a job. Period. You yourself admit you do not know what her exact circumstances were. You only know she had kids and you didn’t like it one bit because she was poor.

What kind of help are you talking about? There is no government help that just doles out cash to people with poor judgment.

So we shouldn’t pay for the oxygen tank for the woman who smoked for 40 years? :dubious:

If you can’t afford to take care of your kids, don’t have them. Don’t have as many kids as your heart desires but expect the rest of the population to subsidize them. Don’t like it? Tough. If you have kids you cannot afford, you should have to juggle raising them with as many jobs as you need to take care of them.

As it was pointed out before, maybe she was employed when she had the kids, but lost her job.

Yeah, and ketsup is a vegetable.

But the point of these programs is (largely) so that kids don’t starve. Feeding them Cheetohs isn’t taking care of their nutritional needs. That’s a friggin waste.

Everyone should have a right to food. No one has the right to potato chips.

My mom got assistance off and on growing up. She’s now a paramedic. She hated being poor. We all did. But in some places, there is an accepted culture of being poor and lying on your paperwork.

Nothing makes me hungrier than an angry child. Well, except for welfare fraud.

That was not what I was addressing. That is different and I fully support welfare as a viable option to help people in need, such as your example.

My issue is with someone who is already in debt popping out three children and then expecting the government (i.e. tax payers) to pay for their needs.

Yep - angry toddlers really help me work up an appetite too. Welfare fraud is more of a ‘peckish’ feeling I guess.

You do not know her circumstances. If you do know her circumstances and she is committing fraud then you should report her. Your anecdote is not data. You have also shown that you know nothing about welfare rules and regulations but you do have a very high sense of indignation that you like to spread around those who you believe are beneath you.

Spending all your money does not make you eligible for assitance. That is not how public assistance works. You do not know what you are talking about.

Let me reiterate: If this best friend of yours is a welfare cheat than you should turn her in. Every state has a welfare abuse hotline. Use it. But, again, anecdote is not data and the only data provided by you people with your panties in a twist about all the Welfare Queens have been pulled out of your asses.

:stuck_out_tongue:

Yeah, 114 cases that got*** caught.*** In one state. How many do you suppose went on and didn’t get caught?

Oh, yes! Educate me, master! I’ll throw out all my junk food and whip myself with an extension cord til you’re happy!

I don’t want to put words in Master’s mouth, but this sounds a lot like ‘Them darkies are lazy and cheat the system rather than work.’

I do know her circumstances but according to others on here even, blowing your money on useless junk is not considered fraud, and this friend makes well under the poverty level.

You don’t understand, Doc. When Jane was poor and needed assistance she didn’t get it so, therefore, everyone who does get it is a cheat.

Ah, I may have misread the poll question. I interpreted it as “Do you think that people applying for food stamps should have their spending habits etc. scrutinized more than they currently are?”. I imagine that additional scrutiny would cost the system more than it would save.

But most welfare recipients are white.

Again, no one has the right to potato chips. I don’t think that just because you are poor, you can’t treat yourself. I don’t have an issue with restricting what you can purchase with an EBT card, however. The original welfare programs were meant to take farming surpluses and put it into the hands of poor city folk.

There’s a correlation between obesity and food assistance. I think that some food benefits should be increased - like access to healthy food, for example.

edit: Post aimed @ Doc

edit again: Of course if I point out that some people abuse the system or whatever, it means I’m against the system entirely. :rolleyes: Right? Because it’s impossible to have a well-thought out nuanced opinion on the Dope.

The most they can hope for is two consecutive years of assistance. Kind of a pitiful thing to have a houseful of kids for.