A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook a clip from a local Michigan news station that told of a 24-year-old woman who had won $1 million in the state lottery yet continued to receive and use food stamps.
She was videotaped purchasing Mountain Dew and other snacks at a convenience store using what that state calls her “bridge” card, essentially their version of Maine’s EBT — or electronic benefit transfer — card.
In the driveway of the new home she had just purchased with cash, she was met by a camera crew who asked her if she felt it was right to continue to use food stamps after she had won $1 million.
She noted that because she took a lump sum, actually her winnings were reduced to $750,000 and then, of course, there were taxes.
“I mean I kinda do,” she said. “It’s OK because I have no income. I don’t work and I have bills to pay. I have two houses.”
I found it troubling, just as I find it troubling when people use their EBT cards to purchase dozens of cases of bottled water to dump and return the empties for cash for cigarettes.
It’s insulting and injurious to those who so desperately and genuinely need the help.
Like the woman I stood behind in the checkout line at the grocery store a few months ago. She was an “extreme couponer.” She had a 5-inch-thick binder organized with colored tabs. I watched in amazement as the clerk rang in the coupons, deducting nearly $60 from her grocery bill. The $35 left she paid with her EBT card.
I complimented her on her savviness, her organizational skills, her money-saving tenacity.
She works full time, she said, but her husband had been laid off from his job. With three kids they qualified for some food assistance from the state.
“When I’m not working, I’m clipping and organizing coupons,” she told me. “It doesn’t take so long once you get the hang of it.”
So there’s her and her extraordinary sense of responsibility on one end of the spectrum, and the water dumpers and that Michigan lottery winner and the 20-something woman in front of me at Irving on Main Street last Friday night who used her EBT card to buy three Slim Jims and what appeared to be a nearly gallon-size blue Slurpee.
It’s not so difficult to see the divide. It’s nearly as wide as the gap the city of Bangor is facing now that Gov. Paul LePage has used his right to the line-item veto to slash through what was thought to be a budgetary compromise in the controversial, but mandated, general assistance program.
As a result Bangor is facing a $1.1 million reduction in state funds to its GA program, yet left with the state statute mandating it provide essential services to its poorest residents.
Some may say LePage took his campaign promise to reform the state’s welfare system to an extreme by using the legal — but never-before-used — line-veto option.
Perhaps, but he has proven himself to be somewhat of an extreme governor, so that should come as no surprise.
On Thursday night at the Bangor City Council’s budget workshop, there was some discussion about the council going “nuclear” by refusing to fill the $1.1 million gap.
That option would most likely involve providing assistance until the amount of money the city allocated for its share of GA was gone and then closing the doors.
That option would involve instructions to Shawn Yardley and the rest of the city staff at Health and Community Services to essentially break the law.
That option seems a bit extreme, as well.
Yardley has not commented about what he would say to such an instruction, but I’ve known him for quite a few years and I’m betting I could guess.
Welfare is an emotional subject. Those who want cuts and reform are often labeled as heartless and greedy. Those who are committed to ensuring the needy are cared for are seen as bleeding-heart liberals wanting to spend others’ money.
Unfortunately, we are in the midst of extreme economic hardship and the resolve of both sides has strengthened — perhaps to a point beyond reason.
I believe there is such a thing as common-sense welfare policy, but it will never be implemented by those governing in the extremes, and right now the federal, state and, I’m starting to think, even local governments are operating in those parameters.
And that way of governing has a way of trickling down to the rest of us.
Take this response from one of my Facebook friends to my post about the Michigan lottery winner.
Indicating that I was “impugning fraud” onto an entire class of recipients, she wrote: “That’s how stories like these are used to attack a program. But, then, I like the other children in my kids’ classes to have access to a healthy diet.”
The suggestion, it would seem, is that I, and others who object to such abuse of the system, have no use for children from low-income homes and care nothing about whether they have healthful food to eat.
Seems a stretch to me. I don’t feel that way at all, and I’m guessing she probably doesn’t agree with what the Michigan lottery winner was doing. But it got emotional and it got extreme and it got just a bit nasty — it accomplished absolutely nothing, and governing by the same logic won’t, either.
I don’t usally agree with you on most things, but you hit the nail right on the head. Too many people
feel entitled. Nothing is free in life, and the people that pay, can’t afford the free loaders anymore.
The people that truely need the help, can’t. How can that be right?
I find it insulting when I work hard to support my family only to be taxed so others can live off my hard work. Welfare is a pimple on the nose of this country that has grown to a abscess that is eating away at our our values and work ethic.
The things I’ve noticed about the younger crowd today is work ethic and not understanding the difference between want and needs. This takes away from the truly needy for there’s only so much help to go around. I overheard a young gal in a grocery line saying she needed to find a job, but would never be caught working at McDonald’s….and then swiped her EBT card for junk. I was brought up and also taught my kids as well…never be ashamed to work hard and do your best in any job. After working their way through high school and college are now successful young adults.
Just like a over a week ago I was complaining to the Libs on here . That I saw someone who is on Food Stamps at Hannaford’s buying Powerball & Mega Millions lottery tickets, but 5 mins later using her Food Stamps & EBT Cash money paying for groceries. The Libs on here thought it was no big deal that its acceptable to have folks gambling while on Welfare. Maine has a major problem that if Democrats regain control of the Legislature will go back to the way it was before. With Welfare Expanding everyone jumping on the wagon. With Taxes going back up and jobs , businesses and working Maine Taxpayers leaving for better opportunities.
to Lady Luck -Mc Donalds pays a extremely low wage, that will not get her off foods stamps, or add to her resume to get her out of the system for good. It would be a place she could work, but she would likely use more state money for daycare at a low end job then we would save from her working.
working might give her some self esteem and self confidence, more so than watching TV all day & couch surfing
Did you people not READ the article? Ordway cites an example of a woman working full time, whose husband has been laid off, who needs to feed her children. Are you arguing that this family, who has fallen on hard times, should not have support in feeding their kids until they can get back on their feet? This is exactly what this article is talking about… common sense reform… a safety net that functions as just that, and not as a lifestyle. I hardly think that anyone would argue that working is a bad thing, as some here have asserted that liberals believe. The simple truth of it is – when you are down and out, it is a struggle even WITH help to get back up again. Taking away welfare completely would put money back in our pockets, sure – but it would not help the economy at large, it would not help the middle class, and it would create more poverty.
Why can we not work together to make welfare work? To encourage people to get back into the work force? To keep healthy food in the mouths of children? To stop placing blame and just get the job done?
It’s not our responsibility to pay for these folks. This state and now this country under Obama has a mentality that we should be providing for everyone that they are entitled to handouts. That working and having a job is a bad thing. Why should all of us who work hard everyday get punished by having our money redistributed through very high taxes. For those who are too lazy to get away from the couch away from the tv (digital cable/satellite) , and away from computer facebook etc.. It’s not our responsbility for those who are too lazy, unmotivated and make bad choices with their lives. You don’t see any of us running to the DHHS, LIHEAP, WIC, Social Security (SSI, SSDI) crying to have other folks helping us. You don’t see any of us becoming lazy. It’s time to put these programs on the chopping block for total elimination. It’s time to pass laws like South Carolina has and making these folks head to the career center mandating they spend certain amount of time there to help get a job. Have them either get a job with in a certain time period or lose their freebies.
The welfare issue is a smokescreen for right wingers like the Koch brothers. It’s a way to gain support for politicians who tilt the nation’s economy toward the already wealthy. In Maine Paul LePage had his strongest support from Washington County, just about the poorest county in Maine. He pitted the working poor and lower middle class against the non-working poor and had the working poor and lower middle class happily voting against their own economic self-interest.
A friend of mine pointed out that the working poor and lower middle class hate welfare recipients and welfare recipients don’t vote. Looking at Washington County, I could see that he was right. It is about the poorest county and also had the lowest rate of voter turnout.
Also one of the highest per capita on the dole in the state. It is not about rich or poor. It is about those that do and those that do not. All one has to do is look at the generations in Washington co. The older folks will still WORK all day even when off doing things. The younger folks not so much. Hire a person to do a job and see the difference. It boils down to self respect and a work ethic.
The problem is not the poor! IT is those who CHOOSE to do nothing because they where taught in school or by there parents they are OWED something and do not have to EARN there way in life. Many many people get through life without any welfare at all it can be done if you have respect for your self and a work ethic to base it on.
More of the same…http://wot7.com/?p=121.