Low-income families use taxpayer money for crab legs and more

DENVER - A 9Wants to Know investigation shows low-income Coloradans receiving food stamps and other federal benefits are using the money to buy crab legs, cigarettes, energy drinks, shrimp scampi and Starbucks ground coffee.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=122328&catid=339

...but then, that might serve the masters' agenda, eh?

Otherwise, you're saying that they're children who get a monitored allowance. If you want them to act like adults, then they have to have the right to spend it as they see fit--and pay the consequences when the money runs out early at the end of the month, etc.

I would have hoped we saw the last of it when Ronald Reagan resurrected this underhanded, malicious nonsense in the 1980's.

yet corporate welfare doesn't register on their radar.

They have been successfully brainwashed.

:(

nt

Cadillacs.

I wonder if they have ever done a story on KBR's "work" in Iraq? I'll bet not.....

Reagans welfare mother who drives a new caddilac


total bullshit

:rofl:

she has one every year so she can get more loot:rofl:

when she goes to ask for more money from the state:rofl:

No mention of how long it took her to accumulate her evidence, no mention of whether she works in a large market or a small one. In other words, no idea what the frequency of luxury purchasing is even in that one store. Aside from the fact that the checker should mind her own business, the only point in doing this allegedly balanced story is to stir up the welfare queen myth.

And to the EBT recipient who bought $30 worth of crab legs: I hope it was a nice birthday party.

The income limit for one person is 130% of poverty, currently $1,127 a month (gross).

So if this genius makes $7.75 an hour and works 35 hours a week, she qualifies for food stamps.
She would then receive the princely sum of $5 a day.

Oh heavens no. How dare they. And they all should eat shit sandwiches on week old bread. How dare they blow the 150 that came out of good hard working assholes pockets.

then buy the cigs with the cash.

issued on cards now, like a credit card.

I know people who use the financial aid responsibly. I also know people who don't. I know people who are on welfare, pay $3 a month in rent, because of state aid, and only work 30 hours a week that go out drinking every night. One girl in particular who had a baby, and 2 nights later was out at the bars.

welfare isn't food stamps. two entirely separate programs.

welfare recipients have to go to classes daily & apply for a specified number of jobs per week. if they don't, they get cut off. the requirements make it essentially like having a job. if they can manage that while "going drinking every night", good for them.

otherwise they might start noticing / having a problem with the ones actually screwing them.

. . . makes me madder than they ever will.
:rant:

it's like 10 bucks all you can eat at several places around here. OMG poor people buy the same stuff as the average American! What were they expecting to find them buying catfood?

It's so easy!

nt

:sarcasm:

does it make what they buy?

after billion dollar corporate welfare bailouts.

They couldn't buy enough crab and smokes in a lifetime to come close to that kind of robbery.

:eyes:

As for what kind of food, there probably are some who spend foolishly, but as someone else said, they will pay the price at the end of the month when all they can afford is Generic mac & cheese.

If you are disabled and waiting to get approved for social security,you get $200.00 a month while you are waiting. You do have to pay it back when you get your first SS check, they just automatically deduct it from the backpay.

as far as I know (haven't been on food stamps yet) -- I believe food stamps can be used only for food items, and certainly not for cigarettes.

Remember Ronald (Ketchup-Is-A-Vegetable) Reagan's story about the woman who bought an orange at a grocery store with $10 in food stamps and then took the change to the liquor store to buy booze.

Except change for a $10 stamp was given in food stamps, not in U.S. currency.

But heck, it was a good story. Even though it was a lie.

When trying to get a little protein at a cheap price, that is one of the few choices. Hell, the price of lentils has gone up 300% in the past few years where I live. If you are trying to obey health guidelines and get more fish, imitation crab (whitefish, really) is about it. Even canned fish has gone up something fierce.

One vindictive clerk as the sole source for a rubbish article.
She even saved the receipts!

The benefit is $5 a day.
If the clerk can't afford $5 a day for food, she needs to find a new job.

And no legitimate retailer would accept food stamps for cigarettes.

foodstamps for cigs. They lost the account for 6 months and couldn't accept foodstamps during that time.

I'm not saying abuses never happen, but this is anecdotal crap presented like fact and that "they" are all doing it.

asking me what I think, of course that won't be the real reason too though

I guess some people would say that others were abusing their food stamps for buying those items. Meat is non-essential as well. Maybe we should only let the poor buy rice and beans -- the poor don't need any variety in their diets. Being poor isn't hard enough, you know. We need to go out of our way to make them more miserable.

And the overwhelming majority of people who use public assistance were very careful with their purchases.

And yeah, once in a while, even the most frugal among them would buy some more expensive items. Big deal. Guess what? The poor are people too. Everyone has a day that they want to celebrate or has the urge to splurge.

If this news channel wants to investigate a real rip-off they should take a gander at invoices to Blackwater.

..but the younger customers were less careful. However, as I said..this was years and years ago. Things may have changed.

appropriate to use food stamps to buy a birthday cake?

but I have no problem with it.

We've all seen benefits used badly - but I see some people using EBT that I should pay to shop for me! And folks should'nt get too judgemental - some folks live rough and don't have good prep/storage options, and that "krab" may be making a pasta salad that'll feed 10.

Years and years ago I worked as a cashier at a grocery store. Now...I have to say..I think the best social program was the WIC program. The vouchers clearly stated what you could buy (i.e. Whole milk or 100% juice, etc...) and was designed so a mother and kids got maximum nutritional value from the food purchased. It began with neonatal care right up to I think somewhere around 3 or 4?

Food stamps were a difficult issue because day after day I would see people buying items which I just didn't understand. It wasn't so much for me about "the money" (although I must admit..soda pop? On food stamps? Where is the nutritional value in that????) but about maximizing the help the folks were getting. See some people would buy loads of pre-processed (expensive vs value) food and pop. Then they'd be some of the same folks who'd be back towards the end of the month with emergency money from the county treasurer.

At that point..when they came in with money from the county treasurer then I as a cashier had to strictly enforce what they could buy...no more pre-processed foods...just the staples. I hated to have to play "mommy" and tell folks what items had to be put back..and make suggestions about what they might get instead. However, those were the rules.

It seems to me...there has to be a balance with food stamps..giving folks the ability to make their own choices about what they purchase..yet give them the tools to help them make good choices. Choices which will help their budget go farther. I don't know...maybe there is.

Just to be clear though..I fully support the food stamps program. I fully support letting people decide for themselves what they buy. I don't condone what the cashier did. I can understand the frustration though.

the poor rural people of the past. Or even the poor urban people of the past.

Nobody taught these people nutrition, or how to stretch food dollars. Or how to budget anything.

FWIW, I know a lot of allegedly educated, middle class people who wouldn't know how to stretch a couple of hundred food bucks through a whole month. And would refuse to cook or eat the stuff they had to if someone showed them how.

i'm educated middle-class and I was well into my mid-20s before i learned common sense about budgeting, credit cards, and maximizing my food shopping...

people how to cook food would be a good start. You know, the sort of stuff that should've been part of the 90's welfare "reform".

Things like homemade vegetable soup and pasta primavera.

Poverty is aggravated by an inability to make good choices. Yes, people want to celebrate occasionally... I can understand that, but I don't think it a horrible outcome to restrict food assistance to decent and reasonable nutrition.

didn't know the first thing about cooking. it's a pity, food stamps or not. why so many people eat so poorly.

What else is she doing to invade her customers' privacy?

IMO, she's not to be trusted with customer or store information.

Oh, that's right, the poor are only allowed to eat the high fat, high carbs, nutrition free food at McDonalds and Kentucky Fried.
Crikey.

I usually see people buying... with or without food stamps.

they just SOUND shockingly expensive and indulgent on the 24 hour news-a-thons

State should force people to eat jellied pork luncheon meat and white bread only.

What a stupid report by a stupid RW media outlet.

I'd die of starvation before malnutrition. Pork makes me :puke: I can't digest it.

pay for her groceries with food stamps. When she went to the parking lot, she loaded them into a brand-new Cadillac.

Hopefully, your story is a sarcastic retelling of Reagan's - if so, you've neglected adding the fur-lined coat or designer jeans and shoes...

But if it wasn't - I work as a contractor, and both myself and various members of my crew have faced periods of "under-employment" (10 or less hours a week for up to four months just to keep benefits and vesting) and some of my crew have had to resort to foodstamps for their families while waiting for work to start up again. First time it happened to me, I was a year and a half into paying off a new truck; lucky thing Ford worked with me to hold payments until we started up the next job.

The good lady, her SO - or her parents - could have very well purchased the vehicle a year or two ago and took very good care of it. Or the lady could have borrowed the car from a neighbor or friend to go shopping in. You never know. I certainly don't.

Haele

Shrimp (my Food Lion usually has a special every week of B1G1 on bags of shrimp; we LOVE them);lots of fresh veggies (I eat lots of salad and BLTs); turkey bacon; turkey sandwich meat; whole wheat bread; cheerios and whole wheat crackers for my child; fruit (apples; cantaloupe; pineapple; bananas); brown rice; chicken; kielbasa; reduced fat cheese; yogurt; olives; Vegenaise (Mmmm); 93% lean hamburger; whole wheat pasta; pasta sauce; whole wheat wraps. Now husband still drinks soda so I usually buy a couple of bottles that last about two weeks. He also likes chips so I get Lays Natural (tortilla type blue corn usually) and salsa. Every now and then I get some 'gourmet' cheese for myself ( I love wine and cheese nights) at about $2.99 a package. I also indulged in some ice cream the last couple of times.

I appreciate the fact that I can get any foodstuffs in the store. It has certainly helped me and my family to eat in a more healthy way than we could have before. And thank you to all of you for subsidizing my food stamps with your taxes.

ago to find out if we were eligible. (We were very close to being eligible for WIC). I couldn't get any answers and had to go down to County Welfare where I had to fill out a form listing husband's income and all of our assets: house, car, savings, coins under couch cushions; you get the idea. Some time later I got a letter saying I didn't qualify, but everything I filled out that day was on record and in the file. This was in New York State. I knew before that people on food stamps were going through rough times. After that, I know that they're going through really rough times!

the broad outlines it'd be an eye opener. I think a lot of middle class people think in the back of their heads that if worse come to worse they can use food stamps for six months, but it's not that easy.

I had some land that I had bought ten years before for $4500. The kicker for me was that a car worth $4500 was excluded from the asset limitation and I didn't own a car, but that was considered a necessity. It wasn't that hard to apply though. I just went to the local social services office and asked for a form.

you have to spend down and get rid of all your assets before you're eligible.

The cabin and land esp. They want to be able to go to the nursing home just in case.They won't give up their house until they are gone and will it. Which makes total sense.

The look-back period for Medicaid is currently five years. If they need nursing home care that exceeds their assets during this time, the state can collect the transferred assets from the kids.

We are keeping them out of the nursing home for now. Hopefully for a long time!

Pre-Screening Eligibility Tool: http://www.snap-step1.usda.gov/fns/

Easy app to use and it will determine your eligibility for Food Stamps, and may even assist you in applying for FS online (depends on the state). The eligibility requirements have substantially changed; you can own your home, have a car, etc. The limits in California pertain to personal assets - one can not have more than $2,000.00 total in resources (does not include home and car), and as a former Food Stamp and Medi-cal Eligibility Worker, I'll freely tell you there is absolutely NO WAY the County can determine the value of assets (other than bank accounts which the government can access) unless one declares them. Leave jewelry at home. Keep a minimal amount of money in bank accounts. Do not declare valuables such as antiques or collections unless the total amount of all personal resources is less than $2,000.00. Frankly, if one has those kind of resources, they aren't standing in line applying for public assistance.

Good luck. :hug:

Gruel and maybe boiled beets and nothing but. Maybe forced to wear an armband or some other identifying mark so these news programs can follow and humiliate people who've been so weak and foolish as to let circumstances get out their control.

That'll teach them to be thankfully for the dole.



Please, sir, may I have some more?

inexpensive foods these days. It is not hard to fix a nutritious filling meal for less if you know how, but some one has to teach it.:shrug:

Even if home ec was required, high school boys may think that cooking is for girls, and they rather prefer to buy their own food or have women cook it for them. Even though there are plenty of chefs that are male.

for whatever reason where quite interested. I think we underestimate them. My brother and my son both learned to cook at an early age, both love to cook. My SO started helping me around the kitchen, now he is quite fond of it also. It needs the gender stigma removed.Think of it as chemistry.:think:

At least, I would hope so.

One of the staples of Home Ec cooking class

melted cheese in a white sauce over toast. Blech.


Can't even remember the other crap we cooked up...

It can be a good, filling winter dish when made properly: even if you don't use beer at least add some mustard and cayenne for kick. Otherwise it's just melted cheese on bread. Yeah, blech.

I escaped Home Ec but somehow managed to become a decent cook. It helps that I like beans and vegetables. So what's wrong with buying the occasional expensive items with food stamps? A half-way clever cook can find ways of extending them to feed a family: with planning and some staples from the pantry, that crab may end up providing more meals than the equivalent amount spent on bologna sandwiches.

need information to make better coffee choices.

Besides, they were probably all Republicans.

mark

They occasionally get fancy stuff in (spice rubs, sea salt etc.) but can't give it away. So she gives us stuff so they don't throw it away. I joke that she gives me the "Salt of the Poor".

American cheese people want. Goat cheese, not so much.

I call shenanigans on the article.

a big eye-opener for me was how many people did not have a stove or pots and pans to cook with. The clients were especially happy to get convenience foods because often all they had to cook with was a microwave. The poor also spend a lot of time on the bus - it can take hours to go from food pantry to WIC office to the free clinic to the store.... If you have your children and oftentimes an elderly parent with you, I can certainly see the allure of energy drinks and individually packaged snacks.

with examples. However, I doubt that such abuse is widespread. If someone is looking for something to complain about, they can usually find a story to support their claim.

http://hawaii.gov/dhs/self-sufficiency/benefit/FNS#Number

average benefit = $295/family/mo



cost of bank bailout thus far = $372 billion

so it would take 12 years for food stamps recipients to consume what the banksters got in 1 year.


but oooh, some people bought *crab legs* with their benefit. they should only eat gruel.

Nope, sushi-grade tuna and filet mignon for the bankers-on-welfare, but the rw-corpo-press wants us to freak out over one clerk's observation of one purchase of something that isn't that expensive to begin with.

Nice contrast of the relative numbers Hannah Bell. Your response, and many of those above, give me encouragement that DU'ers can see through the mist of bullshit that the rw-corpo-press gets paid to spray.

-app

and needs to be addressed.

Crab legs? High protein, low fat. Fine with me.

Energy drinks? *shrug* unless we're going to forbid sodas, no reason to not allow energy drinks.

Shrimp scampi? Low fat, not sugary, decent protein. I don't see the issue.

Starbucks ground coffee? That shows bad taste in coffee, but it's fairly cheap as coffee goes.

What's the problem here, other than the cigarettes?

I've seen people "sell" "food stamps" (there aren't actually stamps anymore) and buy cigarettes with the proceeds; if that's all they're talking about it's regrettable but nothing new. If store owners are working around the permissible items (marking a cigarette sale as a similarly-priced food sale, eg), that needs to be addressed.

since the "report" is based on a clerks' report, i guess it was her who was cheating, then.

you used to be able to sell individual stamps at a discount (black market) & buy cigs with the proceeds, but now that they issue electronic computerized cards, you'd have to sell the entire card's worth of benefits - & there may be barriers to that, such as requirement of ID to use card or requirement old card be in hand to receive new funds on it monthly - i don't know the details, but "buying cigs with food stamps" directly doesn't happen.

This report is highly suspect.

So it is possible that a person can appear to be buying cigarettes or hot food with FS while actually using the cash component of the card. Regardless, it's a huge WTF kind of issue... maybe Channel 9's egocentric staff should try "living" on public assistance for awhile...

Assholes.

They cut and spliced so much that it looked like Obama simply said he wasn't "in favor" of death panels, instead of making it clear that there ARE no death panels. I wrote them an email and got a RW reply, saying they thought their coverage was good and presented both sides. It was total bullshit. Not to mention they didn't even show the idiots who came with GUNS to those town halls.

They made it look like the RWers are normal, sensible people and that maybe death panels are in a health care bill but that Obama just isn't "in favor" of them. I don't know who is running the show now but something has changed drastically at 9 News.

Because poor people should never eat anything besides beans, rice, and PB&J sandwiches. :sarcasm:

Rice is only cheap if you already own a rice cooker -- I've never been able to cook it over a stove and have it come out remotely edible.

Bet they can't use those food stamps at bulk stores like Sam's Club and Costco, either. $150 goes a lot farther there than it does in the grocery store.

My former foster daughter is the only one I know who can make decent rice up here.

use three cups of liquid for a cup of rice, and let it simmer until it is almost dry

I add an onion, some salt, or just plain out the liquid is chicken stock

Add some cilantro as well, salt and pepper and it comes out fluffy

Oh and don't mix...

It also depends on what rice you buy. I use long grain, and integral... this will NOT work on short to very short grain since you will need more liquid and more attention.

Hope this helps...

DU, the cooking channel

:-)

It sounds yummy!!

Soak the rice first. 30 minutes. For long grain white rice, cook 1 part rice in 1.5 parts water. For short grain, 1 part rice to 1.15 parts water. For brown (long or short) 1 part rice to 2.5 parts water. (Those are the rice cooker instructions; stove-top, I'm still hit and miss.)

Honestly, I don't even believe this news report. An anonymous source who produced a few receipts that KUSA doesn't even show? What proof? Not to mention that back in April, crab legs at one of the big chains were somewhere around $4 a pound, so cheaper than a lot of meats.

I hope whoever bought those "luxuries" had a wonderful birthday, anniversary or celebration and the anonymous nosy parker, if zie exists, learns to live and let live.

I will look into that!

knuckle higher than rice. bring to boil. cover & reduce heat. simmer on very low heat about 20 minutes (depends on rice type). turn off heat & let sit for about 5-10 minutes. fluff until it's "shiny".

for short grain, but basic formula works for long grain too. brown rice takes longer & requires more water, but same pattern. i'd guess high altitude just takes longer to come to a boil, so requires somewhat longer cook time.

the key is slow cooking under cover (though i guess, per nadin, slow-cook w/o cover works too with more liquid). it's actually a forgiving grain if you slow cook.

a lot of americans try to boil the hell out of un-parboiled rice (at least that's what i & my college roommates tried to do & always wound up with burnt hard rice).

Sounds nummers!! I get a lot of rice from the food bank and have no idea how to cook it properly. Thanks for the post!!

Where are the investigations into what troops, post office workers, or emergency responders are spending taxpayer money on? I guarantee at least on the troop side from personal experience there is a lot of waste especially on alcohol products. Not to mention how much taxpayer money is wasted funding pointless wars that will hurt us in the long run.

Never see them buying crableggs, ice cream by the gallon tho, and dibetes down here on the border is a huge killer, they dont buy crab legs but they do buy shit for food, I will give them that!!!

on food stamps.

Can't buy any "prepared foods"- either.

Or beer, or wine.

If someone on FS wants to spend their alloted funds on "starbucks" brand coffee that's their business. And as for crab legs, I'd guess they are much healthier than "pop-tarts". (don't eat any seafood myself)

Who's bitchin about this? The party that doesn't want the 'govment' dictating their medical care?

:shrug:

times. No birthday cake, no crab legs - just gruel & beet greens.

Beet greens for the vitamins.

That's the law in RepublicanLand.

(Wouldn't it be... interesting... if the crab legs were bought to celebrate the homecoming of a soldier from his third or fourth tour in Iraq? Freeper heads would explode.)

I didn't know it was beans, potatoes, and ramen only.

Small and petty clingons.

I doubt the "cashier" even exists. This "reporter" probably had a deadline for a story and was too lazy to do a real piece of journalism so they just pulled this out of their ass. That would explain the cigarettes.

What's next, "Action9 Wants to Know investigation shows freezing water makes ice."?

:crazy:

More = paying for gas to get to town hall meetings to complain about socialism.

Social security and medicare do not grow on trees.

Did I miss the video link?

Anyway, "9Wants to Know" investigation's got nothing, if all they have is gossip. :thumbsdown: