Our whole welfare system needs overhauling. The way it is now, the only difference between many working families or single persons Vs. those on the welfare wagon is self respect and pride. When I see perfectly healthy and able people in their 20's and 30's buying sandwiches, chips, and soda for lunch at the corner store near my workplace with their government issued debit card, it makes me sad to think that we as a country have evolved to the point of actually promoting and protecting this crap. Helping the elderly and those in need is one thing, this broad based BS is another.

agree with garysavard but if legislature can't see how messed up the program is, maybe they should be overhauled as well.

"Unfairly targets low income families?????" That is so much BS! No-one is targetting anyone here. No-one is saying these people can't have soda and chips, just that they have to get the money from somewhere else....like earn it, perhaps. I can't believe this crap, either! I pay my taxes and would like to feeling like the food stamp program isn't using those tax dollars to pay for junk!

I agree with garysavard, downeast goddess and brainchild! DHHS needs to be overhauled big time. They can justify anything if it means they keep their jobs. If you feel "unfairly targeted" and the "stigma" is so bad " get off the food stamps and GET A JOB! Be thankful you are getting any help at all. You don't need soda and snacks to survive and if you do pay for it yourself! My question to the state is - Why can't the food stamp program be set up like the W.I.C. program. They get a check for each week that states what they can get, how much, what size package and even what brands! That way the state would know that they are getting the proper foods needed to feed a family! NO STIGMA! I have been behind some of those "foodstamp families" at the grocery store and they eat a hell of lot better than my husband and I do and we both work for a living! I also feel that the people that make welfare their profession should have to go for random drug testing! If alcohol, tobacco or drugs show up...you're off the program! If you can afford to buy those items, buy your own food!

garysavard makes a good point, but self respect and pride will not ensure adequate housing, nutrition and healthcare for individuals and families who need these. Perhaps you are one of the few who have the personal or political connections to ensure these needs for yourself, but many do not and never will. Until it is the law that employers have capped profit margins and must, thereafter, provide jobs with excess profits earned, then the taxing of these excess profits will continue and will continue to be redistributed to unhired workers in the form of government issued debit cards. You seem to agree with the idea that we, as Americans, have no legal duty to care or share with anyone but ourselves and our, so-called, nuclear familys. You're probably the first to ensure your children are kicked out of the house and your parents are shut away in lonely extended care facilities. Without you to care for or share with them, they are likely some of the ones with government debit cards. Far too many people have been groomed by churches and coporations alike to think exactly that way. The "forsake your mother and father and cleave to one another", bullcrap is just that, bullcrap. Nothing like promoting the breakdown of the family clan system by the church to promote dependence upon it in times of family trouble, especially with caring for the young and the old. Nothing like promoting the breakdown of the family clan system by corporate merchandizers to promote an end to clan sharing and unnecessary consumerism by and financial enslavement of psychologically and culturally isolated, nuclear families. Think about it gary.

Now this is coming to and end, fortunately. Since the revolution of November 4, 2008, caring and sharing, and responsibility by the rich and poor, alike, are now the new watchwords in both our society and around the world. Our people have spoken and we have, in a real sense, become an American tribe where government and corporate excesses are being revealed and punished, and sharing and caring, in the form of increased taxes of these corporate profit mongers of the past 8 years, is being funded to return these ill-gotten profits back to the people, from where they came. Truly, Robinhood Obama is taking from the rich and giving back to the poor and no one can stop him, nor should they. This is all part of the great healing and the bringing into balance that which was unbalanced in our great ship of state.

We need to replace the existing welfare system with something far more broadbased. We need to do this now and to ensure poeple are no longer programmed and subjected to corporate financial slavery, humilation and, instead, can have their self respect restored today and in the future. In my view, it is essential that we return to the roots of our respective tribal cultures, that we step around and strangle corporate influenced consumerism and waste, and that we enact laws requiring we care for and share with each other, in the form of a guaranteed national income or GNI based on providing a constitional standard of need. Above which, if one wants more, then one must work for it. This guaranteed national income eliminates the welfare system completely. It provides enough for mothers AND fathers to stay home with newborn and the young. It provides enough for families to care for ELDERS, the sick or the dying and eliminates $4,000 a mont, taxpayer funded old folks homes, and the imposed lonliness these prisons represent for our ELDERS.

The GNI, again the guaranteed national income, eliminates the excuses, eliminates the lonliness and eliminates the control of our lives by business and government alike. Supplement the GNI with home grown crops of food, livestock, chickens, etc... and shared meals, transportation, education and healthcare and ....well, just use your imagination.

AmbroseBear,, your a deep thinker.

AmbroseBear, You're kidding, right?

Public assistance, welfare, TANF, whatever you want to call it, for those who really and truely need it is a beautiful thing. The problem is that too many people abuse the welfare system, in its current state it promotes laziness. I think that the entire system needs to be completely restructured... I know that many people may disagree with my ideas and that is fine since we all have our own value system. Before I rant let me just say that I work 3 different jobs and go to school full time and my wife works full time as well... We work our butts off to be able to provide the lifestyle which we desire, I am 30 years old...we own our home, motorcycles, snowmobiles and a couple of antique cars outright we were able to do this without any help from the state or outside our own family. How you ask, by working for it, setting goals and doing whatever it takes to meet them. I dont understand how some people can be so lazy that they sit at home on their butt all day feeling sorry for themself unwilling to take a less than stellar job or two or three that pays only minimum wage to be able to make their own way in life. Sure I would rather not have to work so hard or so much and yeah I sacrifice time with my family in order to be able to provide for them but isnt that part of being a good person?

NOTHING that I am about to say is meant to insult those who truely need assistance, only the freeloading welfare kings and queens that mooch off of my hard earned tax dollars. My plan to "fix" the welfare system would include :

1. Ok so a residency restriction is unconstitutional no problem lets set up a federal system that is the same for every state so that one state isnt more appealing thus influxed by free loaders and over burdoning its system, or if that isnt acceptable if you move to a new state your welfare benefits would mirror that of the state you moved from for the first year of your residency. That may make it less desireable for freeloaders.

2. Ok so you are on welfare and cannot support your existing family that you have, sorry but now you are on mandatory birth control lets say something like the Depo shot that you cant "forget" to take so that you can get pregnant and produce even more of a burdon on society. Once you are off welfare and able to support your own family feel free to make babies but dont expect any future welfare aid if you decide to increase the size of your family, hey I know accidents can happen but how many capehart queens go out and get pregnant by some random guy just to extend their TANF??? I know of at least a handful who live on state aid who have 3 or more children all by different fathers.

3. Mandatory drug and alcohol testing (regularly and randomly) and absolutely no smoking....If you get caught with any of this buh bye welfare check...I'm sorry but if you are living off of my tax dollars then you dont need to be spending money on booze, drugs or even cigarettes for that matter....NO VICE's until you are able to support your self.....SHOULDNT SUPPORTING YOUR FAMILY COME BEFORE ANY VICES?

4. If you are recieving welfare you should (unless medical reasons prevent you) be required to work a minimum 30 hour week (I dont care if it takes 3 jobs to get that many hours) and the welfare should only supplement the income you EARN

5. I totally agree with the comment food stamps should be like WIC and there should be very strict limitations on what you can purchase, I dont want to hear the whiners who say its unfair, SHOVE IT! PUBLIC ASSISTANCE IS A PRIVELEDGE AND NOT A RIGHT.

6. If you are recieving welfare you should be held accountable for every penny you spend, no shiny new cars if you are on state aid, no big screen tv's, you get the picture. If you are living off my tax dollars then I want to know where my money is going.

I really am truely sorry if I upset anyone I know that a lot of this probably is way over reaching and I understand that probabably less than 30 percent of those on welfare are doing so fraudulently. But you all need to REMEMBER those who fraudulently recieve this aid are STEALING FROM YOUR TAX DOLLARS. The statistics are staggering look them up! If I had them right infront of me I'd repost but just what is stolen in one year at a fraud rate of 10% (which is way low) would wipe out our national debt and make our dollar stronger in turn improving our economic situation.

I AM NOT SAYING GET RID OF WELFARE I'M SAYING FIX IT!!!