500K+ to lose SNAP benefits as 22 states bring back work requirements

[Derpist]

This work requirement was one of many many right-wing things that Bill Clinton signed into law.

Ironically, I defend the work requirement after my family got tossed off of TANF in the 90's...because of the new work requirement.

[youngohioan216]

I work at a grocery store as a cashier and I can tell you that there are WAY too many people on food stamps who don't need them.  I had one customer recently who bought $200 worth of porterhouse steaks and crab legs all on an EBT card.  That's an extreme example but almost every day I get someone paying EBT for a $20 steak, or a $15 sushi platter, or a $5 pint of Ben & Jerry's, and of course they have cash for beer, wine, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  And this is in a middle class area, I can't imagine the kind of fraud that goes on at stores in poor neighborhoods.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

I work at a grocery store as a cashier and I can tell you that there are WAY too many people on food stamps who don't need them.  I had one customer recently who bought $200 worth of porterhouse steaks and crab legs all on an EBT card.  That's an extreme example but almost every day I get someone paying EBT for a $20 steak, or a $15 sushi platter, or a $5 pint of Ben & Jerry's, and of course they have cash for beer, wine, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  And this is in a middle class area, I can't imagine the kind of fraud that goes on at stores in poor neighborhoods.

Yes, but what about the welfare queens driving by in their Cadillacs?

[Antonio the Sixth]

This work requirement was one of many many right-wing things that Bill Clinton signed into law.

Yup. That's one of the reasons why any self-respecting leftist ought to utterly loathe Clinton.

[Derpist]

This work requirement was one of many many right-wing things that Bill Clinton signed into law.

Yup. That's one of the reasons why any self-respecting leftist ought to utterly loathe Clinton.

BUT DONT YOU KNOW ITS TIME FOR A WOMEN PRESIDENT DON'T YOU KNOW THAT NOTHING YOU DO TO WALL STREET WILL MEAN WE HAVE A WOMEN PRESIDENT DONT BE ON THE WORNG SIDE OF HISTORY HEY DIDNT YOU KNOW ITS 2016 OMG I CANT EVEN!!!!111

[Antonio the Sixth]

This work requirement was one of many many right-wing things that Bill Clinton signed into law.

Yup. That's one of the reasons why any self-respecting leftist ought to utterly loathe Clinton.

BUT DONT YOU KNOW ITS TIME FOR A WOMEN PRESIDENT DON'T YOU KNOW THAT NOTHING YOU DO TO WALL STREET WILL MEAN WE HAVE A WOMEN PRESIDENT DONT BE ON THE WORNG SIDE OF HISTORY HEY DIDNT YOU KNOW ITS 2016 OMG I CANT EVEN!!!!111

To be clear, it's a reason to utterly loathe Bill. Which, of course, is itself a reason to be highly suspicious of Hillary, but those aren't quite the same.

[Derpist]

To be clear, it's a reason to utterly loathe Bill. Which, of course, is itself a reason to be highly suspicious of Hillary, but those aren't quite the same.

Point taken - I loathe Bill far more than Hillary. But that's only because she hasn't been President yet and maybe there's a 1% chance she's not the same person. But at the end of the day, they are cut from the same ruling class, the same economic class, the same social class. Clintonworld is a real social institution and a festering wound on our nation (much like Bushworld). Except Clintonworld might actually get their candidate into the White House.

so hey, then again, maybe there's a .000001% chance that Hillary Clinton is secretly a Dark Knight-style hero who has just been suffering the indignity of being married to Bill Clinton because that's the only way she can get to the White House and save America. Damn, that would make for a good personal drama.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Time to get off the couch and pick up a shovel, poors.  You thought that 7/11 gravy train was to last forever? 

Hopefully Barry O is working on some sweet, sweet executive action to get around this nonsense as we speak. 

[Indy Texas]

I work at a grocery store as a cashier and I can tell you that there are WAY too many people on food stamps who don't need them.  I had one customer recently who bought $200 worth of porterhouse steaks and crab legs all on an EBT card.  That's an extreme example but almost every day I get someone paying EBT for a $20 steak, or a $15 sushi platter, or a $5 pint of Ben & Jerry's, and of course they have cash for beer, wine, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  And this is in a middle class area, I can't imagine the kind of fraud that goes on at stores in poor neighborhoods.

When I was growing up, my grandfather was the first person to complain about that sort of thing anecdotally (of course 10% of the time it was him actually witnessing what you describe and 90% was "Oh I heard about...") and my grandmother would always say you can't judge someone if you don't know their whole story and if you briefly encounter someone in a store you're getting maybe 5% of their story.

"This person is on unemployment and drives a Cadillac!"
They probably bought the Cadillac when they had a job and didn't need unemployment benefits.

"This person bought ice cream with food stamps!"
Because that's the closest she comes to anything resembling "escape" from her unemployed, impoverished, isolated life. But yes, a $5 pint of cookie dough ice cream is the source of the problem here.

"This woman was already a single mom with a kid and now she's pregnant again. Didn't she learn her lesson the first time?"
What if you knew the first pregnancy only happened because she was raped by her mom's boyfriend?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This work requirement was one of many many right-wing things that Bill Clinton signed into law.

Yup. That's one of the reasons why any self-respecting leftist ought to utterly loathe Clinton.

BUT DONT YOU KNOW ITS TIME FOR A WOMEN PRESIDENT DON'T YOU KNOW THAT NOTHING YOU DO TO WALL STREET WILL MEAN WE HAVE A WOMEN PRESIDENT DONT BE ON THE WORNG SIDE OF HISTORY HEY DIDNT YOU KNOW ITS 2016 OMG I CANT EVEN!!!!111

To be clear, it's a reason to utterly loathe Bill. Which, of course, is itself a reason to be highly suspicious of Hillary, but those aren't quite the same.

"You get two for the price of one" - Bill Clinton

[Ebowed]

I work at a grocery store as a cashier and I can tell you that there are WAY too many people on food stamps who don't need them.  I had one customer recently who bought $200 worth of porterhouse steaks and crab legs all on an EBT card.  That's an extreme example but almost every day I get someone paying EBT for a $20 steak, or a $15 sushi platter, or a $5 pint of Ben & Jerry's, and of course they have cash for beer, wine, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  And this is in a middle class area, I can't imagine the kind of fraud that goes on at stores in poor neighborhoods.

Just trying to parse what you mean in that last sentence there- because you see what you perceive to be fraud in an area where people are comparatively better off, there must be more fraud in an area where people are, from your perspective, "really" struggling?

[Doimper]

Even if people were "poaching off the system," what's wrong with that?

Nothing if you like big government and are okay with our debt continuing to skyrocket.

oh for f**k's sake

^^^

Anyone who thinks that the national debt in any way resembles household debt is sorely mistaken.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Until it crapped out, my Mom drove a Lincoln Continental, precisely because it was all she could afford. A relative sold it to her for litterally pennies on the dollar. We had no vehicle and no way of gettng around without that. It is the only way that I was able to keep my job from 2014 until now. Especially after we moved and ended up 35 minutes away from where I work. There is no public transportation this area.

For a while she was on food stamps while driving a Lincoln. And yes, we have purchased some things some might consider luxury food items.

She is 63 and both of her legs are shot. She cannot work, period. She also doesn't qualify for disability.

I work my a** of and it isn't enough to cover the bills and food.

It is nice to say get a job, but I can tell you the jobs pay crap and if they don't have vehicles or a place to live or both, that is essentially impossible in rural areas. I know how the management thinks. PEople in such circumstances are unemployable. And then you have a situations where health precludes it, and in which case that strive to weed such people out since they are inconvient if they do decide to work through and littearly drive their bodies into the ground.

It is nice to say its only 1% and wave it around like it is some kind of absolution, but I can tell you I have lived through falling through the cracks into that 1% exception many times. It is precisely why I am a conservative, because the goverment is so unrealiable. I am not denying that there are people abusing these programs, but I am saying that there are numerous limitations that make it far from as simple as you guys make it out to be.

If you are going to do this in the absence of investing in infrastructure, eduction etc and working to keep the labor market tight, you are essentially bleeding people to death.

[youngohioan216]

I work at a grocery store as a cashier and I can tell you that there are WAY too many people on food stamps who don't need them.  I had one customer recently who bought $200 worth of porterhouse steaks and crab legs all on an EBT card.  That's an extreme example but almost every day I get someone paying EBT for a $20 steak, or a $15 sushi platter, or a $5 pint of Ben & Jerry's, and of course they have cash for beer, wine, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  And this is in a middle class area, I can't imagine the kind of fraud that goes on at stores in poor neighborhoods.

When I was growing up, my grandfather was the first person to complain about that sort of thing anecdotally (of course 10% of the time it was him actually witnessing what you describe and 90% was "Oh I heard about...") and my grandmother would always say you can't judge someone if you don't know their whole story and if you briefly encounter someone in a store you're getting maybe 5% of their story.

"This person is on unemployment and drives a Cadillac!"
They probably bought the Cadillac when they had a job and didn't need unemployment benefits.

"This person bought ice cream with food stamps!"
Because that's the closest she comes to anything resembling "escape" from her unemployed, impoverished, isolated life. But yes, a $5 pint of cookie dough ice cream is the source of the problem here.

"This woman was already a single mom with a kid and now she's pregnant again. Didn't she learn her lesson the first time?"
What if you knew the first pregnancy only happened because she was raped by her mom's boyfriend?

I get what you're saying--you can't judge someone based on what they're buying.  But I see it often enough that it makes you wonder what's going on. It's not that I have a problem with people on food stamps eating well, but when you see them purchase several expensive items it makes you suspect that the money they get would be better off going to someone who really needs it.

[youngohioan216]

I work at a grocery store as a cashier and I can tell you that there are WAY too many people on food stamps who don't need them.  I had one customer recently who bought $200 worth of porterhouse steaks and crab legs all on an EBT card.  That's an extreme example but almost every day I get someone paying EBT for a $20 steak, or a $15 sushi platter, or a $5 pint of Ben & Jerry's, and of course they have cash for beer, wine, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  And this is in a middle class area, I can't imagine the kind of fraud that goes on at stores in poor neighborhoods.

Just trying to parse what you mean in that last sentence there- because you see what you perceive to be fraud in an area where people are comparatively better off, there must be more fraud in an area where people are, from your perspective, "really" struggling?

What I meant was in an area where more people are on food stamps, there will be more fraud relating to food stamps.

[youngohioan216]

and of course they have cash for beer, wine, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.  

Now that I think about it I shouldn't be so hard on people who buy cigarettes.  My grandparents were almost lifelong smokers and it took them several tries before they were able to kick the habit.  It's not like people who smoke can just quit when they're low on money.

[Famous Mortimer]

Good. People need to learn that you have to work in life, you shouldn't be able to just sit and poach off the government while telling your kids that that's the way to live. The young, disabled, and old are exempted, so don't try that argument.

Okay, but...in many communities, and for many people, there simply aren't jobs to be found. Do you honestly think there's a significant constituency of people who would rather live on SNAP than work and get paid decently? And don't give me this 'TEACHING THEIR CHILDREN A ~BAD WORK ETHIC~' bullsh**t; the people this is affecting don't have dependents to TEACH A ~BAD WORK ETHIC~ to.

I have the interesting situation of having a parent who teaches in a poorer part of the state capitol. I'm not going into details, but I can assure you that people on welfare do have kids, and it is not unheard of for those kids to literally look forward to living on welfare. Granted, MN is more generous than a lot of states when it comes to welfare, but still.

In NY (and I'm guessing most other states) these work requirements don't apply to people with children, because that would be cruel. They mostly apply to single men.