Thread: My rant for the week

I know how easy it is to get fired up on about the folks that scam their way into public assistance. We see the food stamp thing at our local grocery, but what we don't see are all of the fortune 500 bail outs that have been going on for years. Yep, it pees me off that someone who can afford gold chains gets food stamps, but in the scheme of things it's actually a small percentage of the budget problem. There are thousands of examples where companies (like Exxon) get huge tax breaks while at the same time turning record profits on backs of the average fellow.
Think about this, a foot soldier in Afghanistan is taxed about 34%, but folks who live off dividends are taxed about 17%. Many of our young military families are on WIC or the like, yet we tax them at a higher rate than the folks who can sit home and watch TV, or go to the "club" for a dip or a round of golf in the middle of the day. I ain't against folks being well off, but they need to pay their fair share, just like the welfare folks need to pay theirs.
Leave out the big guys and there are still 10s of thousands of working folks, who can afford healthcare, who instead choose to move their assets to family members in order to qualify for medicaid. Now I know they worked for those assets, I know they can do what they want with what they've earned, but I was raised that you pay your bills. It isn't evading unfair taxes, it is avoiding paying their own medical bills and adding to the burden of everyone else who pays taxes. Yes, staying in a rest home for 5 years could take every penny and every scrap of property that you've earned in 60-70 years. Yes it could leave your family in debt, but that's why you earn money, so you can pay your own way!
For those that argue that the welfare scammers or lazies get medicaid, why shouldn't my mom or grandfather - here it is. When you scam the government, when you add to the burden of the taxpayer in order to avoid paying your own way, you become one of those that you claim to despise.

As fare as welfare or public assistance goes, it needs cleaning up in a major way. But I also believe that there are people who genuinly need the help. The elderly and the handicapped, families with handicapped members, need help and personally I'm glad to do it, it's part of being a community member.
There will always be folks that work the system, but the best ones are miles above the jewel encrusted Hispanic girl at the dollar store(and I'll bet she earned the gold, one way or the other).

Originally Posted by Kellog

If anyone sees me in the grocery store or Wal-mart using WIC vouchers don't give me any grief. DSS Foster care and adoptions just took custody of 2 of my grandchildren and placed them with my wife and me. I now have 5 grandchildren ranging in ages from 3 months to 3 years living with us. Anybody that says anything about me using WIC when I get in my 2010 F150 may get more than a mouth full. Don't judge a book by it's cover fits well in this thread. I don't post on here much at all anymore, but this topic got me fired up and I had to let loose.

Thanks for making that point Kellog. We have dozens of everyday examples of how the system is bad. Many first hand, many passed along the gossip chain and magnified along the way. It's good to have the positive side voiced by someone familiar, but most folks are too embarrassed or intimidated to do so.

Originally Posted by Whompus Cat

I've heard from a grocery store manager that a lot of times folks will go into a store, buy a bunch of expensive steak, lobster etc. with food stamps then return it to get cash so they can buy liqour, beer drugs etc. Then this meat/food that has ablsolutely nothing wrong with it must be thrown in the trash. This kind of stuff should be illegal, policed and for the very first offense should cut off their "aid", be charged with theft and jailed.

Businesses must register to accept WIC, it isn't forced on them. Most of them turn a good profit by doing so, if not they wouldn't go thru the application process. Your friend the manager probably didn't bother to tell you how much they make on the folks that don't cheat, but it's bound to be way more than they lose in cases like you were told about or the store would stop taking the vouchers or accepting ebt cards.


I am by no means supporting public assistance to those who can support themselves and their family by legal means. I am absolutely against the way that the system encourages young women to have baby after baby in order to get more $$ coming into the household. That and many other bad policies need to be fixed. But there are many good people who are helped by the programs and they shouldn't be tossed aside.

I'm not a flaming libtard any more than I'm a radical rightwing nutcase. I just wonder why being reasonable is so unpopular. I really hope that the public will be given enough reasonable choices next year to make a difference, but I guess, given the current atmosphere, that really isn't a reasonable expectation.