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Welfare Purchases need to be changed

Should Welfare be changed to only purchase Nutritional Foods?

  • YES

    Votes: 15 44.1%

  • NO

    Votes: 13 38.2%

  • OTHER

    Votes: 6 17.6%
  • Total voters
    34
  • Poll closed .
earthworm said:
You, ''Hellhound'', seem to think most of us are evil .. whereas, I think, most of us are good . . But, guess who receives all the media attention . . .
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That's because people doing what they are supposed to is boring...and doesn't support the good Rev's stance that anything that scares him or costs him money should be destroyed.

The reality is, the majority of folks on social assistance are not scamming the system. To suggest otherwise is the same as suggesting all guns should be banned because a few criminals use them for evil. Too bad some on the right aren't as concerned about defending regular, law abiding citizens when it comes to social assistance, as they are when it comes to guns.
 
ReverendHellh0und said:
So here's how it goes down. you take your wic check, or card or whatever you have and you bring it down to the bodega, you sell them the card/check which say has 100 bucks on it for 50 cash, you get a receipt stating you bought $100 of wic approved goods.


you take that 50 and you buy beer, smokes and lottery tickets.
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I think you could do that with the EBT card, but WIC would be a pain in the ass. At least paper food stamps are gone. I've seen dudes use them playing poker.
 
roughdraft274 said:
My brother was on WIC for a little while due to the terrible economy back in 2008-2009. I went to his house and wondered why they had nothing but beans and rice in the pantry. It's because WIC pays for them and they are the cheapest and most nutritional meal you can make essentially. They didn't buy them because they loved beans. They wanted to make sure that the WIC money stretched far enough so that they could provide formula for their daughter and so that they could eat a warm meal before bed.

The amount of fraud probably pales in comparison to the help the program does. If any kind of food stamp program is found to be commonly cheated or pays for luxuries, then of course we should fix it.
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I think that maybe you're brother wasn't aware of what WIC will pay for:
http://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/HEALTHYPEOPLEFAMILIES/WIC/Documents/1001-food-list-engl.pdf
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DWICSN/CDPH Document Library/WICFoods/WAFLShoppingGuide.pdf
 
faithful_servant said:
So because you can't think outside the box, we should allow people to use public funds to buy crap food?? The solution is a VERY simple one - foods that are not available for payment using public funds get a shelf tag that is yellow, all others get a normal white tag. The registers already handle filtering out the stuff you can and can't use SNAP, EBT, etc. to pay for, so all that's needed is to make it clear what those programs will pay for and what they won't pay for. If you're not smart enough to know to shop for the white tagged items, then maybe you should be in a "special home" someplace where you can be cared for without having to know colors.

Using TANF, you can buy anything, since it's just a check. So public funds are most certainly used for buying beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, etc.
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Haha, good luck with that. Have you ever been a cashier at a grocery store. Suck it up and quit your whining about poor people getting your precious tax dollars rather than fat cat GOP donors.


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faithful_servant said:
I think that maybe you're brother wasn't aware of what WIC will pay for:
http://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/HEALTHYPEOPLEFAMILIES/WIC/Documents/1001-food-list-engl.pdf
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DWICSN/CDPH Document Library/WICFoods/WAFLShoppingGuide.pdf
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He was aware. They purchased other things like bread and milk etc. Also, it varies state to state. Like I said, they bought beans because they were very nutritious, very affordable, and on the WIC list. He couldn't go and buy little debbie snack cakes. Not that they would do that, but he couldn't even if he wanted to.
 
Winston said:
Haha, good luck with that. Have you ever been a cashier at a grocery store. Suck it up and quit your whining about poor people getting your precious tax dollars rather than fat cat GOP donors.


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The registers now handle all of that. They will ring up the stuff that you can buy using public funds and only charge your EBT/SNAP for those and then you pay for the rest separately - all in the same transaction. Welcome to the 21st century!! You can park your horse and buggy around the corner by the big green dumpsters.
 
Marco Montana said:
I submit to you, people on welfare / EBT / Snap / WIC / Food Stamps need to purchase meats, fruits, dailry, vegetables, breads....


Not cases of mountain dew, boxes of donuts, twinkies, gallons of ice cream, cigarettes, beer, scratch tickets!!!! Then they get Diabetes and we have to pay more for them!
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I have said many times on here that SNAP should only be able to be used for whole foods, not processed junk. That said, you would have to increase the amount of money people can get with SNAP for food purchases because whole foods are often more expensive.
 
americanwoman said:
I think that's pretty rare. I was on WIC and I knew a lot of people on WIC and I've never seen that kind of abuse. They actually make the checks with your name on it and a lot of places ask for ID and you still have to buy the specific kinds of food of the checks.

Now SNAP/EBT, that one does need to be revamped. A debit card that anyone can use with a pin and buy pretty much whatever food, what could go wrong?
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They exposed a big scandal with that here, I dont think it's that rare, they pointed out that it was just the largest 'organized' one.
 
Perhaps the OP meant that all public assistance program $$ should only be allowed to pay for nutritious food? Not just WIC?

But really, if they use any of those programs, it enables them to use whatever cash they do have to buy more of the snacks, sodas, etc.
 
How about adding a 100 bucks to every EBT for the occasional splurge? No matter how poor you are, now and then your kids want that pop or that ice cream, and may be Mom and/or Dad like a sip of wine or beer. It is human to want a bit of luxury. Women want to feel pretty, guys like guy stuff, kids love sweets and treats. Have some compassion.
 
Lovebug said:
How about adding a 100 bucks to every EBT for the occasional splurge? No matter how poor you are, now and then your kids want that pop or that ice cream, and may be Mom and/or Dad like a sip of wine or beer. It is human to want a bit of luxury. Women want to feel pretty, guys like guy stuff, kids love sweets and treats. Have some compassion.
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@_@

..
 
I made a thread about this exact topic almost 5 years ago now. https://www.debatepolitics.com/poll...tamps-bulk-staples-and-basic-ingredients.html

faithful_servant said:
The registers now handle all of that. They will ring up the stuff that you can buy using public funds and only charge your EBT/SNAP for those and then you pay for the rest separately - all in the same transaction. Welcome to the 21st century!! You can park your horse and buggy around the corner by the big green dumpsters.
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Yeah Winston seems to be kind of balking and making it up as he goes, claiming something that is extremely conceptually and technologically simple is actually impossible.

SouthernDemocrat said:
I have said many times on here that SNAP should only be able to be used for whole foods, not processed junk. That said, you would have to increase the amount of money people can get with SNAP for food purchases because whole foods are often more expensive.
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I dispute that's necessarily true, these types of claims are usually based on clusters of small anecdotes. If the food assistance were restricted to single-item healthy ingredients, I really doubt the purchasing power would be less. I think it could easily be more. But if it were actually true that the program needed more funding in order to provide the same level of food assistance despite being newly restricted to single ingredient items, then that should certainly be on the table.
 
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Lovebug said:
How about adding a 100 bucks to every EBT for the occasional splurge? No matter how poor you are, now and then your kids want that pop or that ice cream, and may be Mom and/or Dad like a sip of wine or beer. It is human to want a bit of luxury. Women want to feel pretty, guys like guy stuff, kids love sweets and treats. Have some compassion.
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Sure, if it gets the conversation going, let's include that idea. If it would bring left wingers and Democrats to the table to talk about this, definitely throw that in there.

What we have now is a continuous corporate subsidy in exchange for poisoning the poor with junk food. There is literally zero need to allow for wide open eligibility criteria the way we do, except for the profit of those major brand junk food corporations.
 
Neomalthusian said:
Sure, if it gets the conversation going, let's include that idea. What we have now is a continuous corporate subsidy in exchange for poisoning the poor with junk food. There is literally zero need to allow for wide open eligibility criteria the way we do, except for the profit of those major brand junk food corporations.
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We shouldn't forget that it isn't always easy to find fresh fruits, veggies and other healthy foods. People make due with what they have. It is so easy to sit on a high pedestal and judge the less fortunate. Not everyone can afford to grow their own food. Living in the sticks and being less affluent leaves you a few more options than living in the inner city and relying on the overpriced neighborhood bodega.
 
Marco Montana said:
I submit to you, people on welfare / EBT / Snap / WIC / Food Stamps need to purchase meats, fruits, dailry, vegetables, breads....


Not cases of mountain dew, boxes of donuts, twinkies, gallons of ice cream, cigarettes, beer, scratch tickets!!!! Then they get Diabetes and we have to pay more for them!
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Well yes and no

your post is way to dramatic and inaccurate for a real vote besides "other" for me

some of those things are already regulated and I FULLY support some regulations but it simply matters how much. to say ONLY nutritional food seems pretty broad and who is deciding? Who regulates it and how and we'd have to make sure they people have access. Make the list TOO restrictive and it defeats the purpose if the person cant get to those approved foods easily.

Im all for more regulations IF there needs to be some more.
 
40% of America?s lowest-income families? consumption goes on luxuries - MarketWatch

Then you have the idea that 40% of low income spending is going to luxuries. Obviously a nationalized welfare program doesnt work. These programs should be run entirely by local communities who know their residents and can hold them accountable. Not faceless bureaucracies who just send out checks to numbers in a computer who submitted a form.
 
Lovebug said:
We shouldn't forget that it isn't always easy to find fresh fruits, veggies and other healthy foods. People make due with what they have. It is so easy to sit on a high pedestal and judge the less fortunate. Not everyone can afford to grow their own food. Living in the sticks and being less affluent leaves you a few more options than living in the inner city and relying on the overpriced neighborhood bodega.
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Its easy not to live in the sticks. People make choices. If you choose to live in the sticks then you have to accept a differnt lifestyle, not expect society to bring the one you want to you.
 
Lovebug said:
How about adding a 100 bucks to every EBT for the occasional splurge? No matter how poor you are, now and then your kids want that pop or that ice cream, and may be Mom and/or Dad like a sip of wine or beer. It is human to want a bit of luxury. Women want to feel pretty, guys like guy stuff, kids love sweets and treats. Have some compassion.
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Absolutely! I go grocery shopping weekly, and I see a woman with 2-3 kids and a carriage filled I mean filled with junk! This is an already huge family too, I see tv dinners, donuts, cakes, frozen pizza, tons of soda, cheese, bags of candy bars, chips, cookies.........

Its nauseating! This same family will be touting how great Bernie Sanders is and wanting free Health care for the type 2 diabetes and gout
 
Neomalthusian said:
I dispute that's necessarily true, these types of claims are usually based on clusters of small anecdotes. If the food assistance were restricted to single-item healthy ingredients, I really doubt the purchasing power would be less. I think it could easily be more. But if it were actually true that the program needed more funding in order to provide the same level of food assistance despite being newly restricted to single ingredient items, then that should certainly be on the table.
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I eat a strict whole foods diet and have for most of my adult life. While I agree that many whole foods are not that expensive, examples: brown rice, sweet potatoes, eggs, plain greek yogurt, bananas, and so on, others are. Most fresh fruits and produce are more expensive than processed foods. Lean meats and cold water fish are more expensive than processed foods. Quality whole grain breads and pastas are more expensive than refined and processed versions.

I am not talking about shopping at Whole Foods versus Kroger, I am saying even if you get most of your food from Aldi and Costco as I do, 2000 calories a day from whole foods is more expensive than 2000 calories a day from processed junk.

The main reason why there will never be whole foods requirements on SNAP is the Big Ag lobby would never go for it.
 
Marco Montana said:
Absolutely! I go grocery shopping weekly, and I see a woman with 2-3 kids and a carriage filled I mean filled with junk! This is an already huge family too, I see tv dinners, donuts, cakes, frozen pizza, tons of soda, cheese, bags of candy bars, chips, cookies.........

Its nauseating! This same family will be touting how great Bernie Sanders is and wanting free Health care for the type 2 diabetes and gout
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While I agree with you, I would point out that I see many more suburban right winger families with carts full of junk at Sam's Club than I do hipster Bernie supporters.
 
Marco Montana said:
Absolutely! I go grocery shopping weekly, and I see a woman with 2-3 kids and a carriage filled I mean filled with junk! This is an already huge family too, I see tv dinners, donuts, cakes, frozen pizza, tons of soda, cheese, bags of candy bars, chips, cookies.........

Its nauseating! This same family will be touting how great Bernie Sanders is and wanting free Health care for the type 2 diabetes and gout
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My head cannot get around Marion Morrison pushing a ‘carriage’ in the market.

:blowup:
 
I'm almost happy when I'm at the farmers market and someone pays with food stamps/WIC, burns me to know end when I see them buying slim jims at the grocery store.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
While I agree with you, I would point out that I see many more suburban right winger families with carts full of junk at Sam's Club than I do hipster Bernie supporters.
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I don't care who you support if YOU"RE paying for your food! Thats my entire point, people on Welfare should be buying products that will cause further problems.
 
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