As much as I despise the false narrative and stereotyping of people who receive public assistance, there are plenty of examples who do give some credence to the stories spun by right-wing pundits. Granted, these people aren't rich, but they aren't necessarily struggling from paycheck to paycheck like I am. Depending on the type of public benefits they get, they might not have to worry about a grocery bill, phone bill, utilities, rent, etc.
I can't judge every single person, and neither should anyone else, but I do get irritated when I see someone like my ex-wife buy a brand-new smartphone, get her nails done fancy, and go on road trips in a nice rental vehicle. There's folks who are receiving public assistance who legitimately need it. I don't have a problem with that, and any reasonable person shouldn't either. However, it really grinds my gears when folks who could work find every loophole they can to not work and take resources from those who actually need it. Background on the ex? She gets disability for being bipolar although she is fully capable of working (we used to work at the same job) and collects every form of public assistance she can get, in addition to the approximately $700 I pay her monthly in child support. I remember when she stated how she couldn't wait to not have to work and encouraged me to find a way to go through the same attorneys to try to get the same deal.
Go into almost any grocery store and you'll inevitably see someone with a cart full of food who whips out an EBT card to pay for it as you wonder if there's enough change in your pocket to buy that pack of Ramen noodles. Most of us have been there at one point or another. I've been there as well, both as being the kid who was ashamed that we had food from the Food Bank in our lunches as well as being the one who still wonders if he'll make it to payday. I don't want to take EBT cards away from everyone, but I sure as hell would like to make sure that person really can't work and/or really truly needs that assistance.
Now you'll have all the anti-welfare people running with parsed bits of these statements and saying "See, see this is why we need to cut programs, drug test people, etc" but that's not where I'm going with this. The point I want to make is that those who abuse the social safety net, like my ex-wife, are free ammo for the likes of Paul Ryan and the rest of his Ayn Rand worshiping "screw you, I got mine" posse. It's also not fair to the people who legitimately need my tax dollars to make it from day to day.
Part of the problem with progressives and liberals is that we've gotten into a mode of protecting our ideas and people at all costs, instead of proactively taking a scalpel to the points of weakness. Admitting that there are problems with welfare and working with the opposition on a compromise that fixes it, that isn't weakness or letting the other side dictate your agenda, that's common sense. Don't let the falsehoods and exaggerations of the people who have a vested interest in shredding the social contract continue to run our political dialogue. Wars are rarely won by simply playing defense all the time.
I think your resentment toward your ex wife is skewing your thinking.
ReplyDeletewalk a mile in the other guys shoes before you judge.
Not for nothing, but you divorced her for being a crazy bitch, right? The state agrees.
ReplyDeleteI once wrote a rant against food stamps on my old blog that received a lot of criticism - because I was working as a cashier and witnessed a young able bodied dude buying $4 kombucha and organic chocolate with his EBT card.
ReplyDeleteI think if someone is using taxpayer money to buy their food, they should have a variety of healthy, inexpensive choices and that is it.
I understand where each of you are coming from. I worked as a cashier for 32+ years till I fell down a flight of stairs and injured my back to the point I can't stand for longer then 10 mins. I do receive food support for my 15 yr old daughter, 226. a month to be exact, and have to make that last a whole month because the 740 a month I get in child support has to pay for rent, utilities, and transportation. I see these people going to the food stamp office driving new cars, dressed nice, etc. and getting way more then i do in help. Yet when I got a 10 cost of living increase in child support, they cut my food support by 10 dollars. I don't see how these people are getting away with what they do. I wish to god these doctors would fix my back so I can get back to work, I miss it.
ReplyDeleteThe problem w/eating inexpensively,is what is creating another hamper to society...bad health!!! Cause all the cheap food is fillers,and unhealthy! All I see in the government commodities,and food boxes,is a lot of starch.....now we add other programs to fall on the tax payer!
ReplyDeleteWell said. I've heard the stories from both sides: EBT card user buying filet migon and expensive cheese, and another EBT buying junk food. At the same time, you can't buy rotissarie chicken becuase it's a "prepared food" but you can buy a box of frozen fried chicken that is twice as unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteThere are always going to be people who game the system and exploit loopholes. Some are doing it intentionally, some are doing it for sheer survival.
We need to shore up the loopholes and work together to make sure there that assistence goes to less people like your ex-wife and to more people who geniunely need it.
Every time someone complains to me about witnessing welfare fraud, I ask what did you do about it? You can report it just google REPORT WELFARE FRAUD and you can find out how to report in nearly every state (here's the one for California http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/fraud/pg269.htm)
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ReplyDeleteThe trouble with working with the other side on welfare reform or anything else, right now is, they WON'T compromise. They aren't interested in picking out the bad apples, they'd rather dump the whole bushel and let them all rot in the street. A "compromise" would mean only half the people who actually need assistance get thrown out.
ReplyDeleteThe other problem is that, even though there are a lot of people out there sucking money out of the system, all the welfare and disability cheats combined barely add up to a rounding error in the pork in the defense budget, let alone the other useless corporate subsidies and tax breaks.
It's frustrating to watch your neighbors swindle the government, and it certainly should be stopped. But if we don't address the far greater swindlers first, we're swatting mosquitoes while jackals gnaw off our leg.
Agreed.
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