Maine Is Making NH State Senate Republicans Look Like Leftist Patsies - Granite Grok

Maine Is Making NH State Senate Republicans Look Like Leftist Patsies

First, Maine passes a new law that told its able-bodied citizens that if they wanted to continue to receive food stamps, WORK!

Second, NH decided, thanks to some NH State Senate Republicans, that if our able-bodied citizens wanted to keep receiving Medicaid paid for by NH taxpayers (who are also Federal Taxpayers), well, you can keep your free insurance coverage – and continue to use that State hammock and NOT WORK.

Now, Maine goes to the next level of making welfare, IMHO, not a place to hang out for generations, by doing this (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Maine Legislators Unanimously Pass Bill Banning the Use of EBT Cash Purchases For Alcohol, Lottery Tickets, and Cigarettes

The Maine legislature has unanimously passed a bill that would prohibit the use of EBT cash funds for alcohol, tobacco, firearms, pornography, vacations, and lottery tickets, among other things. The bill is expected to be signed by Gov. Paul LePage, who thrust the issue of reforming welfare into the spotlight during his campaigns for governor.  The bill was sponsored by Sen. Nate Libby (D-Lewiston):

“This bill finally gives Mainers what they’ve wanted: Meaningful welfare reform the focuses assistance on helping families get out of poverty while ensuring accountability at the cash register,” said Libby. “Taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be used to buy these sorts of products, and Mainers have been surprised to know these kinds of purchases weren’t prohibited before. I want to thank my colleagues for committing to work past our differences and, finally, reach a compromise.”

…To echo Libby’s words, it’s absolutely insane that money that’s intended to help struggling families could be spent on frivolous luxuries like alcohol, porn, and vacations. Maine taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for someone’s trip to Disney. Kudos to Maine’s legislators for coming to a compromise and helping to put a stop to this practice.

We’ve all been there before: at the checkout of a grocery store where the EBT card buys the “allowed” stuff and then the same person does another transaction with all cash – buying things like lobster and high end meats that I certainly couldn’t afford (and not bust my own budget).  Or hear from a small biz guy in town that one of his employees would regularly booze it up and spend money like water and then go down to our town’s welfare office, give a sob story, and plead for a heating oil subsidy (because he spent it on booze).

What Maine has done (and NH can’t even get to first base) is to ratchet down what welfare should be used for.  I’ve seen three generations of a single family in the State’s hammock – the ethos was set: why work when all the basics and more are provided for free?  No effort was made to better themselves – none at all.  The middle generation brother came to my house for dinner – an early teen.  Afterward, I had stuff to unload from my truck so we all went down to unload it into the garage.  I can’t tell you HOW indignant he became when I told him, in no uncertain terms: you EAT, you WORK – pick up that box and MOVE!  He didn’t expect he had to do ANYTHING – and following him for a few years afterwards, that was apparently true – and created another couple of families to be right in that hammock as well.

A true Taker?  Absolutely – much to the dismay of the SJWs, they exist a whole lot more than the advocates would have you believe.  And I used to see the DCYF supported single moms in my daycare’s lobby showing off their latest tattoos and I always had the thought that if they had money to blow in putting ink under their skin for rather bad art, why are they on welfare in the first place?  And yes, my believe is that while welfare should be sufficient to keep life going, given what I have seen, it should be rather uncomfortable for those that can work but decide not to.  Sufficiently uncomfortable such that trying to stay on it for any amount of time becomes unbearable.

After all, after Maine restricted its food stamps to forcing able bodied to either retrain, work, or volunteer, enrollment crashed by 80%.  What does that tell you?

But this is what you get when you have a one-size fits all system that can never be reformed (generally – YAY! for Maine’s leadership).  And mostly because either one’s political leadership is weak or all about the incoming Benjamins from the Feds.

Or both.

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