War On The Poor: Minnesota Republicans Want To Bust Poor People Who Carry Cash
By Susie Madrak
They're not just crazy, they're evil -- and un-Christian, should they have the audacity to claim otherwise. If only we could force them to live like this, they wouldn't last a week:
St. Paul, MN – Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.
Wow, how heartless! What evil monsters! What loathsome bastards!
What a load of crap!
While Suzy didn't link to the actual legislation, google is my friend and I found it pretty easily.
I'm sure you'll be as shocked as I was to find that it was a perfectly reasonable piece of legislation designed to ensure that State monies given to the poor for their support were used appropriately. In other words, no whiskey, no cigs, and no drugs. There's nothing in the law that says they can be arrested for having more than $20 in their pocket, as claimed by Fight Back article Suzy links to. Instead, it says that the Electronic Benefit Card will be limited to allowing cash withdrawals of only $20 a month.
Why is this restriction necessary? Way back a long time ago, I was the night clerk at a mini-mart. In what was a nightly routine, 4 young kids would come in, each with a 1 dollar food stamp. They would each buy a nickle piece of gum and take the 95 cents in change outside. As soon as the last child hit the door, an older man would come in with just under 5 dollars in change and use it to buy beer or cigarettes.
This wasn't a rare occurrence; it happened at least two or three times a night.
I worked in a grocery, and watched as women came in, used their EBT to buy diapers, then sold the diapers in the parking lot, returning to the store for beer or cigarettes.
The state has essentially three choices
- Ignore the fraud. Allow the recipients to spend the money on whatever they want. Then when the kids go hungry, give them some more money.
- Work to try and make the fraud harder to perpetrate. This may increase the burden on the honest folks receiving assistance, but by reducing fraud, the program itself becomes stronger.
- Cancel the program.
That's it. Those are the only options. The only one that makes sense is to fight the fraud. I'm sure that enterprising recipients of state money will find a way around this restriction as well, but at least it will be a little bit more difficult for them to do so.
This has nothing tom do with a war on the poor, or the GOP being heartless bastards and instead has everything to do with trying to make sure that the kids who are supposed to be getting the benefits of the state money actually do get the benefits.
That's not heartless; that's what real compassion looks like.
But you can't win propaganda points for your team unless you demonize everything the other side does, regardless of the merits. For the sake of the honest folks getting assistance in Minnesota, I hope this bill passes and keeps the programs solvent for a while longer.
