Not in liquor stores.......

Yes, so many of people on food stamps use it to get drunk or high. Of course, since you "studied it", you can provide us with those numbers?

My numbers would be horribly out of date since I am a old guy. They are trying to make it more difficult with cards instead of stamps, but it still happens.

Anyone see the story about the Wal-Mart worker Ann Coulter wannabe who blogged about what could actually be more tragic, the poor loading up with high sugar/high salt food instead of the healthy alternatives. When will America reach a point where obesity related deaths outnumber smoking, drugs, and drinking? We could already be there.

And I know people want to blame Wal-Mart for offering more healthy alternatives, but if people were buying it, they would be selling it, as
Whole Foods demonstrates, you can make good money on produce and the like if your customers actually buy it.

WIC (assistance in-kind) is a little different than Welfare (assistance with cash).

I have few issues with WIC. There's clear criteria, and the qualifying items are relatively well defined
(admittedly, not perfect). There's a low probability of mis-appropriation, since it's in-kind assistance.

Welfare and unemployment benefits are entirely different.

Unemployment money belongs to the recipient. In point of fact, so does food stamp money and so-called 'welfare' (which hasn't really existed since the AFDC program, as we knew it, was killed under Clinton.)

What they choose to spend it on, (wisely or unwisely) is their business... Or is this another "compassionate conservative" outrage to "get government out of people's lives"?

Yes, the cards are a great way to prevent purchase of items not on the "approved" list. Are there ways around it? Yeah, probably... (About as many ways as there are to get around election laws that the GOP has found.) And there are those that will always look for it and find it... But for the 99% of the people who get the assistance to survive, they use the cards as they were intended.

I'm still waiting for numbers or proof if you have something other than your prejudice and your mouth.

??? LJ --- I think I made it clear that I'm not overly enthusiastic about efforts to curb welfare mis-appropriations.

I was simply saying that expertise in food stamps is a little different than expertise with other welfare programs.

I live in a very poor neighborhood in Denver, just moved there a few months ago. There's a few stores around, mostly small shopping centers and a few stores that are pretty obiviously there for low-income residents, and they all accept food stamps.

The first time, I was a little surprised but I'm perfectly okay with people using food stamps when they need them, on the things they need. I was surprised, however, to find that each time I go, I can give a pretty good example of something I don't like.

You can say it's their money all you want, but that's the rub... isn't it... if someone didn't take it from us under the guise of charitability and under the threat of persecution, they wouldn't have it in the first place. So, if I'm going to have money forcibly removed from my pocket and given to my neighbor with the idea that they will use it to keep a basic standard of living when they're in trouble, forgive me for being a little offended when, a month ago, I watched a lady purchase diapers, baby food, and toiletry items with food stamps ($60-something)... and then move the belt-separator from behind them and pay $100 cash for carton after carton of cigarettes she bought in her second load.

If you can afford $100 worth of cigarettes, you should be spending that cash on the items you need, and not collecting other people's charity to buy your necessities. When someone takes money from a bank saying they're going to use it to spruce up their house, and then spent it all on cigarettes, they'd be arrested because they're not producing the value the loan promised.

I consider providing someone else the necessities the same kind of value and return investment, and if it's being spent on liquor, gambling, and the like, that value and return will never materialize. I won't even get to feel good about "helping somebody out".

And, from my very small survey of my local community, there's at least two or three people out of ten I've seen doing this... Honestly I hope that the real number is somewhere around 1-2% that abuses food stamps, and I'm going to hold on to that hope. Someone please tell me I go to the store that defies statistics... I want to feel better about this.

Tell yourself that the lady who was buying stuff for her babies with the charity the union's citizens are compelled to provide was spending someone else's money on the cigarettes, or that she was using someone else's card to purchase the stuff for the baby because they couldn't get to the store and spending her own money on the cigarettes. Neither may be any more accurate than your perception of the situation was, but either one should help you feel better about what you saw occur.

Should providing someone with food stamps, or any other government assistance, give the government the right to dictate how they can spend any other money they make? How would that be enforced? Would you really want to pay for law enforcement officers to monitor them 24/7?

What if they made the money by trading purchases made against their card for cash such that they might purchase items with cash that the charity funds can't be used for? Does the government have the right to ensure that the compelled charity of the union's citizens isn't being misappropriated by those to whom it is disbursed?

Same response....just how much intrusion onto peoples lives is OK...and how much are you willing to pay to enforce the rules.