Missouri senators outline plan to curb food stamp fraud

[lady_grace]

JEFFERSON CITY - Two Missouri senators are reaching across the aisle in order to stop low-income people from spending welfare benefits on alcohol and entertainment.

Sens. Will Kraus and Maria Chappelle-Nadal outlined their measure at a news conference Monday which would prevent welfare recipients from spending their electronic benefits at liquor

Comments

[alexvdl]

Funds given to you by a specific agency for a specific purpose should be spent for that purpose. I don't believe it's "invasive" for someone to give you money for a specific purpose, and then expect you to spend it for that purpose if you want more.

What someone does with money that they earned is theirs and should be spent however they choose, regardless of someone else's opinion of the wisdom of such spending.

I.E. If my boss hands me ten dollars and tells me to buy lunch, I should use that money to buy lunch. If my boss hands me my paycheck and tells me to buy Ikea furniture, or to NOT buy lottery tickets/porn/lap dances then fuck that.

[alexvdl]

If TANF funds are given to a family under the expectation that they should be used for a certain thing, then I think that they should be used for that certain thing. If they are given the money with no instructions or riders, then I don't give a fuck what they spend it on.

Doing some research on the matter
"The four purposes of TANF are:

assisting needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes;
reducing the dependency of needy parents by promoting job preparation, work and marriage;
preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and
encouraging the formation and maintenance of two-parent families."(http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/tanf/tanf-overview.html... )

[alexvdl]

For better of for ill, a large group sees welfare as spending "other people's money", and those people believe they are entitled to enforce guidelines on those receiving benefits for the "privilege" of doing so.

Continuing to look in to it, the TANF purposes seem to be a mission statement. The only restrictions I can see on the program seem to be work related, i.e. you must be employed, searching for employment, etc.

[ebay313]

"For better of for ill, a large group sees welfare as spending "other people's money", and those people believe they are entitled to enforce guidelines on those receiving benefits for the "privilege" of doing so."

And those people are stupid and wrong.

[alexvdl]

No. Those people have a different opinion and life philosophy than you do. This isn't math.

[alexvdl]

First off, opinions on welfare and abortion are independent of one another. You can be for one and against the other, pretty easily.

Second, there are people, men and women, who place a higher worth on a fetus than on the mother carrying it. You and I think those people are wrong, but that doesn't MAKE them wrong. Hell the woman behind Roe Vs. Wade now actively campaigns against it. Her experiences are different than yours and mine.

Some people think that eating meat is murder. Some people think that classical music is boring. Some people find the idea of any violence at all, even to defend one's self, to be repulsive. Some people believe that if you can't make it on your own, you don't deserve to make it.

Just because you or I find an attitude abhorrent, doesn't make it wrong. A wolf thinks eating deer is a pretty good idea, and a deer would probably preferent he didn't. Human philosophies and morals don't really mean shit in the grand scheme of things.

[alexvdl]

Thought you'd cherry pick the classical music statement. That is why I put it in there.

I'm pretty sure that there have been plenty of functioning societies without government welfare and/or health care. Hell, there are functioning societies without abortions, and ones that rely on slave labor.

Your opinion and my opinion are opinions and not absolutes. Just because we can see in our heads how well something would work if "we just did it this way" doesn't mean that it actually will. Law of Unintended Consequences. This world is cruel. Life is unfair and doesn't care if people are happy, healthy, and educated.

[ebay313]

No, money collected for taxes are not their money. It ceases to be their money when it is paid, the same with any payment one makes. That is a fact. Their "opinion" is misinformed and wrong.

[alexvdl]

But it is the government's money. So if they have rules and regulations for how one gets to spend it... Welp. That's how the law works.

[ebay313]

Which has what to do with me pointing out that idiots who think that TANF benefits are THEIR MONEY are wrong? It's not their money. It's the governments when it is paid in taxes, and it is the recipients' when it's paid to them.

[alexvdl]

It's the government's money. If they say "we'll give you this money but you have to use it for X, y, z" then you have to use it for X, y, z or you don't get that money. That's legal and what I said in the previous comment.

[flyghosh]

That third plank is the most interesting to me though. That seems to show government support for abortion. Nice.

I'm reading this more as TANF can/should be used to avail of contraception so that effective family planning can take place. (Which makes sense...have you seen the prices of condoms lately? And yeah, whereas generic BCPs are cheap-ish, if you can use them, you still need to see a doctor to get the script...which is decidedly not cheap.)

There is, after all, a difference between preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and ending them. Abortion would fall into the latter, which distinctly isn't mentioned.