Arthur Schaper: Schooling Massachusetts’ Governor on ABCs of EBTs
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
When does distributing welfare stop being supportive and start being an enabler?
Statehouse Speaker Robert A Deleo commented on the disgraceful scandal of state-sponsored charity:
“What this is about is to stamp out fraud and abuse that has been so well-documented.”
How well-documented is welfare fraud in Massachusetts, and what has it caused (and cost)?
Well, let's start with the Monopoly crowd of welfare recipients. In Massachusetts, being on welfare make you the man about town. At least that’s what Boston Herald investigators uncovered, when they found 1,800 recipients with accounts ranging from $1,500 to $12,000 on their cards. Reminds me of “Terminator Two”, when young Eddy Furlong hotwired an ATM and ran off with stacks of cash. Massachusetts welfare warriors take as much without breaking their back (but they are breaking the bank).
Then there’s that Fox News 8report (as always) which found out that Massachusetts lost $25 million through welfare malfeasance because the recipients were dead, or someone was defrauding the government with a dead person’s Social Security Number. 1,160 cases of fraud spooked legislators, even Democratic ones, to enact reforms. Newsreels should have named this scandal “Night of the Living Dead”-gate. While Paul the Apostle told his protégé Timothy that we will take nothing with us when we die, perhaps some of Bay State residents wanted to stick in to Beacon Hill just the same. I wonder if there are ATMs in heaven.
DeLeo continued:
“From using the cards for tattoos to use on bail bonds, to take it out of state, that has to stop. We have to stop that type of abuse and that’s what this legislation was all about. I’m hopeful the governor will see it that way and at the end of the day will be supportive.”
Patrick didn’t. Wealth means nothing to a man if he has not earned it. A penny earned is a penny saved, as much as the reverse. Free money creates more poverty, as taxpayers lose their hard-earned cash, which the state gives to those who stash their pockets with soda, Skittles, tattoos, and not “Get out of jail free!” cards.
The Massachusetts Welfare fraud scandals have done worse than rob hard-working Massachusetts residents (what few remain). Now welfare fraud is subsidizing terrorism. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (and family) mooched away $100,000 in welfare benefits. They lived off Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or foodstamps) and Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children. For all the dependence and assistance, the Tsarnaev brothers managed to fit in a trip to Jihadi-stan in Central Asia. Maybe they were the lucky few who got a ten grand EBT. A Congressman from Utah called out the obvious: if they traveled widely, then they should have been living of their Imam-Grandpa’s money, not Massachusetts' tax coffers. The Tsarnaevs were stabbing their state in the back stealing money through the backdoor as dependents, then they blew up the Boston Marathon. How about that, Beacon Hill? Your handouts probably helped blow the hands off a number of your constituents. You have no clean hands on terrorism, do you?
Instead of mandating that welfare recipients provide a photo ID on their EBTs, I have a better idea, Mister Governor: how about attaching that photo to a statewide FBI network first. Perhaps criminals should not be indulging in legal thievery off the public dole. Then again, perhaps running names through state mortuary lists would expedite reforms so that the expired do not expend state cash for needy families.
As for those who have scammed the system to get their money, why not put their pictures up in the Post Office, right next to America’s Most Wanted? Tsarnaev got caught before they could escape, and one of the SOBs was shot dead, but how about the younger brother? He hit the Rolling Stone Covers, pleaded “Not Guilty”, and is he still getting EBT? I wonder if James “Whitey” Bulger was living of public assistance when he was in hiding in my backyard (Santa Monica, California is famous for its homeless and its rent control, too) Maybe Osama bin Laden’s kids are also drawing a hefty welfare salary.
Here’s an even better idea, Governor, easy as ABC: Get rid of the program altogether. How about cutting taxes, spending, handouts, subsidies to all, both rich and poor, corporate as well as individual. Canada did it. In the 1990s, they forcred unprecedented spending cuts following abuse of unemployment programs, discreetly termed “The Pogie”.
Instead of subsidizing sloth and theft, Mister Governor, cut the handouts, let every resident get his hands out, and start putting in the “Pokie” anyone who insists on spending any assistance on anything but.”“Bureau of Program Integrity”? How about instilling some in your own office, Governor Patrick!
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance. Follow him on Twitter @ArthurCSchaper, reach him at [email protected], and read more at Schaper's Corner and As He Is, So Are We Ministries.
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