As America transformed into a society of political correctness, and where taxpayer funded programs and modifications were created to try to lessen the stigma of being on welfare under the auspices of providing ‘dignity’ to the less fortunate, it has done little to stop the underlying fact that if someone can defraud a system and get away with it, they will. And there is no better example of this than what occurred in Florida on March 20 when a perfectly healthy man tried to use an EBT card to purchase a $60,000 automobile.
In the past, the purpose of food stamps, or SNAP as it is called today, was to provide a helping hand to those either working, or unable to work in the lower income brackets. This supplemental program originated with recipients receiving a certain amount of specialized ‘currency’ from the Agricultural Department that could only be used for purchasing food at a local grocery store, and in products approved by that same department. But as politicians became endeared to politically correct activists who demanded that those receiving food stamps be protected from ‘shame and humility’, the result was an electronic benefit system that has now been expanded to include it being used for anything from junk food, fast food, and even strip clubs.
A Florida man who tried to purchase a speedy BMW SUV with his Electronic Benefits Transfer card and a credit card later decided to steal the car — but was caught when he ran out of gas, police said.
Nicholas Jackson, 36, showed up to a Pompano Beach dealership with little in the way of currency and was sent away, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said. But the next day, the business was burglarized, and the owner found the $60,000 BMW X-6 and 60 sets of keys missing, police said. - New York Daily News
While there are many who will defend the notion that most people on welfare or who receive food stamps only do so for short periods of time, according to the Census Bureau, at least 43% of participants in the EBT program remain on the dole for more than 18-24 months. And this does not count the other welfare benefits they receive such as subsidized or free housing, and free medical.
To be fair, the number of people applying for and getting on the welfare system has skyrocketed since the 1990’s when Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law, and good paying U.S. jobs began to be offshored to locations where cheap labor was vastly abundant. But this has not lessened the fact that a large portion of able bodied workers still remain on food stamps, and where fraud and corruption by recipients is a huge burden to taxpayers already supporting nearly 100 million Americans receiving some form of government benefit.
Kenneth Schortgen Jr is a writer for Secretsofthefed.com, Examiner.com,Roguemoney.net, and To the Death Media, and hosts the popular web blog, The Daily Economist. Ken can also be heard Wednesday afternoons giving an weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.
