No, I’m not talking about postage; I mean food stamps.  This program is out of control.  It’s no longer a stopgap to keep people from starving, it’s a lifestyle for many who don’t need it in the first place.  In fact a rapper calling himself “Mr. EBT” has put out a rap video championing the use of “EBT” card (food stamps) and showing him sliding it through a reader at McDonalds!

Last year we took in a woman who was in “crisis” and needed emergency shelter.  Abused, homeless, out of work (she is a registered nurse). Turns out she’s been living off the public dole for more than a decade. We took her shopping – soda, snacks, and doggie treats at Wal-Mart (using food stamps), and a stop at the food bank where she came out with ARMLOADS of food, including ice cream that would melt before we got home (she didn’t care).  Friends even arranged a job interview for her; she didn’t go.  She spent ALL of her time preparing her “lawsuits” for things like sexual harassment, wrongful termination, etc., etc.  A year later we ran into her again – still living off the dole, still not working, still preparing on her “lawsuits”

According to the Department of Agriculture, the number of people receiving food stamps as of May 2011 was 45.8 million – up 1.8 million from the number in April, up 12 percent from 2010, and up 34 percent from TWO YEARS AGO!  Does anyone even know who these people are?  How many of them are like the one we encountered.  And this is just one, small example of government entitlement programs run amok.  No one seems to know where the money is going in many of these programs.  No wonder we’re going broke as a nation.

I’m all for helping those who are down and out, but it is a job for nongovernmental and local organizations who have a vested interest in keeping track of how their resources are being used.  After all, why should the feds care, it ain’t their money!

 

Joe Dion

Masonville, Colorado