dr_frankenstein56:almost to the point of where this is old news. Yea, i think its fairly well accepted that welfare people live better then most. I can say ive seen it for my own eyes on service calls. Just depressing. The worst part about it is where it creates strife and conflict. As it rarely has any effects on upper class americans - while the middle class supports the bottom half and suffers dearly for it. Aj
jd50ae: dr_frankenstein56:almost to the point of where this is old news. Yea, i think its fairly well accepted that welfare people live better then most. I can say ive seen it for my own eyes on service calls. Just depressing. The worst part about it is where it creates strife and conflict. As it rarely has any effects on upper class americans - while the middle class supports the bottom half and suffers dearly for it. AjI can't afford to go on vacation and I don't qualify for a card. What am I doing wrong?
jgibv:WOW!!!! 3.8 million$ withdrawn out of state .... dang! the actions of this small minority of welfare recipients obviously represent all welfare recipients nationwide. this just proves that we should abolish welfare! hell, while we're at it....since the system's so corrupt and abused by so many, we might as well cut all social security programs nationwide! yeah. that's it. let's cut OASDI, TANF, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and SSI. that'll teach these no-good, lazy, moochers. gotta know when to send a message and say enough is enough!! get those welfare recipients off of Uncle Sam's payroll !!!!! seriously though. can you believe all those welfare folks living the high life, traveling on their private jets and yachts, taking months long vacations to exotic lands! jeesh!!! can hardly believe the nerve of all them!!! thanks obama!!! and here i'm stuck at work slaving away, just to pay for their fun. hell when do i get my turn!!! man, nevermind the fact that this only represents "about 2 percent of Colorado welfare ATM withdrawals". And the fact that "About $882,000 amount occurred in states neighboring Colorado, which may make sense if the recipient lives near the border. So yeah, that "leaves about 1.7 percent of nearly $170 million, or $2.9 million taxpayer money, in withdrawals from Colorado’s traveling or vacationing welfare recipients in the past two years. This 1.7% obviously represents everyone and shows why welfare is such an evil and corrupt system. thanks obama. i mean yeah, it's only a small percentage that abuses the system. but eh, better get rid of it entirely and let people fend for themselves (hunger games style). this is absolutely ridiculous. this would have never happened if george bush was in office. /s
jd50ae:I think I would vote for a president if he made a promise to create "The Department of Bean Counters that Can Arrest You".
jd50ae:Staff it with nonpartisan ex investigators with a numbers fixation. The first thing they should do is a complete financial investigation of every congressmen and senator.
jd50ae: After the new elections to replace the ones that went to prison
jd50ae: they should attack the departments that so freely hand out our tax money to every tom *** and harry with their hands out.
jd50ae: Just think of all the new jobs at all the new prisons and jails, not to mention the job vacancy's.
jd50ae: sorry, I was hallucinating.
Vulchor:People will believe what they want, even when facts are put in front of them----but Ill throw this out there any way....take it or leave it, I realize I wont change any minds.I am an employee for the state and for just over 1 year I worked in the economic services division----giving out the food stamps, medicaid, and cash assistance. Cash is RARELY given in Florida, and more then 75% of it is for kids in foster care or whose parents lose custody (and yes, the parents then pay child support)---so I wont speak as to the cash people. Medicaid is only for expectant mothers, or parents of a child under with no income. Once they have income, they lose the medicaid.....and while some may lie, it is tied into tax roles, sooooo. Lastly the food stamps. I saw people here and there with a nice car, a nice cell phone, ect. WELL OVER 90% of the people I saw had on average to ratty clothes, could use a shower, cars hardly ran, kids had clothes given to them at Goodwill, ect. The majority could not find work, and those that could-----then they couldnt afford day care, or after school care, or the bills they have because they lost their medicaid.I am not saying people should not be responsible for their actions. I am not saying people should be given everything. I AM SAYING, the majority of people "on welfare" do not live better than the majority of us here------as we sit in type on our laptops, smoking a cigar, in the air conditioned house.
raisindot:I'm always amazed at how many people complain about people they think are abusing the welfare system for a hundred here and a tenner there, while right now dozens of U.S. companies--including GE--have made billions of dollars in profits but have paid almost no corporate taxes in years. I'm always amazed at how many people complain about people on food stamps buying alcohol or (heaven forbid!) driving a car, when thousands of wealthy Americans spend thousands of dollars on lawyers and accountants to create tax shelters that keep them from paying anywhere near their marginal rate. I'm always amazed at how many people complain about people getting government aid when right need we taxpayers are giving $34 billion a year in corporate welfare, as well as bargain basement drilling leases on federal lands to oil companies, who use these breaks to give their overpaid CEOs multimillion dollar bonuses and huge dividends to wealthy investors, while doing nothing to lower gas prices, in spite of the fact that U.S. is about to become the world's largest oil producer. I'm always amazed at how many people focus their wrath on the poor, rather than on the multinational tax-dodging, job-exporting, profit gouging monopolies and their overpaid, tax-sheltered multimillionaires who, unlike the poor, pull the puppet strings in government, Congress and the White House.
webmost: The heck's all that got to do with it? Either it is, or it isn't an abuse. I am always amazed how often a Liberal hollers "So's yer old man!" and thinks that he's made a persuasive argument. None of which is the real abuse of welfare. The real awful abuse is the creation of a perpetually dependent class, at public expense, all beholden to one party. A huge and ever-growing solid block of votes bought by the millions, bought with debt which jillionaires get rich on the interest from. Many people genuinely need help at some time in their lives. To get them hopelessly hooked on help, generation after generation, at the expense of our grandchildren, just to bolster a party which constantly promises more and more and more dependence... that's what's wrong.
jimmyv723:Unfortunately any system is going to have those that abuse it. For a time I had to get assistance for food and for a couple months when I first moved back here rent too. The jobs I had lined up before moving back here fell through and I was in a bind. I had to jump through so many hoops and did everything by the book and even told them immediately when I found a job but got an awful lady the day I went in to do that and she tried to say I didn;t tell them soon enough and was just a real piece of work. The sad thing is they are making the system so that the people who do take advantage of it are the only ones who can get assistance. I was basically told that they were trying to eliminate things for single people like myself and increase benefits for married people. That and the fact that you get more for each kid and you can see why the people who shouldn;t be married or having kids are the ones on the system who are taking full advantage of it. I cringe every time I see things like this because then everyone comes out of the woodwork bad mouthing everyone on public assistance without taking the time to realize that there are some good people who actually need it sometimes and they actually do things by the book and still get lumped in with all the cheaters. I just hope no one has to go through what I did because it's definitely a humbling experience and just remember that not everyone who is receiving help is abusing the system.
SleevePlz:Yeah, it sucks. I work in Flint, I see the abuses all the time. I've been offered a Bridge Card (our welfare debit card) with $100 on it for $50. They just tell you the PIN and then claim they lost their card and get a new one the next month when the next payment gets released. How are you going to stop that? Trust me, I think it is infuriating to watch some of my students stocking up on junk at 7 Eleven and swiping that card. But what is the solution? It's easy to be mad, but now what? Shouldn't our discussion be focused on solutions?
Bob Luken: SleevePlz:Yeah, it sucks. I work in Flint, I see the abuses all the time. I've been offered a Bridge Card (our welfare debit card) with $100 on it for $50. They just tell you the PIN and then claim they lost their card and get a new one the next month when the next payment gets released. How are you going to stop that? Trust me, I think it is infuriating to watch some of my students stocking up on junk at 7 Eleven and swiping that card. But what is the solution? It's easy to be mad, but now what? Shouldn't our discussion be focused on solutions? How are you going to stop that? That's not a rhetorical question is it? With all the electronic advances in welfare distribution you would think it would be much easier these days to curb fraud. Lets look at your example. How can they (the welfare recipeient) make the claim that their card was lost/stolen AND the secret pin was later used to make purchases? There has to be an electronic record of all the transactions. Right? Unless they were robbed at gunpoint and forced to reveal the pin then their claim would be an obvious lie. I assume that the pin is only given to the intended recipeient. How do you stop it? Well, if the money on the lost/stolen card was spent using the secret pin after the reported loss of the card then the authorities should treat any such claim as fraud because it would be rediculously obvious that the recipient committed fraud. Is that a reasonable solution to your specific example?
webmost: Bob Luken: SleevePlz:Yeah, it sucks. I work in Flint, I see the abuses all the time. I've been offered a Bridge Card (our welfare debit card) with $100 on it for $50. They just tell you the PIN and then claim they lost their card and get a new one the next month when the next payment gets released. How are you going to stop that? Trust me, I think it is infuriating to watch some of my students stocking up on junk at 7 Eleven and swiping that card. But what is the solution? It's easy to be mad, but now what? Shouldn't our discussion be focused on solutions? How are you going to stop that? That's not a rhetorical question is it? With all the electronic advances in welfare distribution you would think it would be much easier these days to curb fraud. Lets look at your example. How can they (the welfare recipeient) make the claim that their card was lost/stolen AND the secret pin was later used to make purchases? There has to be an electronic record of all the transactions. Right? Unless they were robbed at gunpoint and forced to reveal the pin then their claim would be an obvious lie. I assume that the pin is only given to the intended recipeient. How do you stop it? Well, if the money on the lost/stolen card was spent using the secret pin after the reported loss of the card then the authorities should treat any such claim as fraud because it would be rediculously obvious that the recipient committed fraud. Is that a reasonable solution to your specific example? Technical solutions are perfunctory compared to the political solutions required to employ them. A vast dependent class is the foundation on which our modern liberal movement absolutely depends. Democrats can hardly win election without these bought votes, but are virtually guaranteed overwhelming success wherever this class dominates an urban environment. So long as this condition persists, the slightest mention of the least abuse of welfare will only provoke indignant accusations of heartless callousness, baseless imputation of racism, rock certainty that you must be a hillbilly ignorant mis-spelling tea-bagger flag clutching gun waving reactionary loon, as well as every other species of subterfuge and sophistry, anything to evade the subject, anything from outrage at Big Oil to anecdotes about Sarah Palin's sister. Anything but the point. As we have seen here. I am very pessimistic that any solutions, however simple, can ever be implemented, so long as bought votes dominate our political landscape.
webmost:> I am very pessimistic that any solutions, however simple, can ever be implemented, so long as bought votes dominate our political landscape.
SleevePlz: webmost:> I am very pessimistic that any solutions, however simple, can ever be implemented, so long as bought votes dominate our political landscape. I'm not trying to be combative, but I'm really curious what the simple solutions are to this problem? In MI, we have a Republican congress and governor. Nothing is standing in their way. They have had no problem cutting funding for schools to pay for corporate tax cuts, despite how horribly unpopular it was. So what can they do to "fix" the welfare system? Honestly, I tend to vote Democratic, but I want to see some more welfare reform. I worked my a$$ off from the moment I could get a job at the age of 11 (putting flyers under windshield wipers in the tourist part of town for a local restaurant), so I don't agree at all to people working the system for an easy buck.
