Is there anything worth doing

[Samnospam]

You can voluntarily send in as much as you want Don. 

California officials are cutting off use of state-issued welfare debit cards at casinos across the country and on cruise ships, in the wake of Times reports that the aid cards have been used to spend or withdraw millions of dollars in benefits at popular vacation spots including the Las Vegas strip and on ships sailing from ports around the world. More than $69 million meant to help the needy pay their rent and clothe their children was accessed in all 49 other states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/10/schwarzeneggers-office-cancels-access-to...

Legislation aimed at preventing Michigan welfare recipients from withdrawing taxpayer money from ATM machines while at casinos has passed the Senate.

The bill passed unanimously Tuesday and advances to the House.

Michigan uses a debit or "bridge" card to deliver food and cash benefits to public assistance recipients. Many automatic teller machines accept the card to withdraw cash benefits.

Republican Sen. Bill Hardiman of Kentwood wants the state to block access at casinos. He says most people would agree that gambling with taxpayer dollars "isn't an appropriate use."

Hardiman says the state has determined about $87,000 in assistance funding was withdrawn at Detroit's MotorCity Casino within a recent one-year period.

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/09/bill_would_ban_welfare_benefit.html

[pedro]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

GOVERNMENT SPENDING FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE.... At this point, the hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance on the right really isn't new, but I nevertheless continue to enjoy revelations like these. The president of a third party group that's targeting vulnerable Democrats for their support of government spending has herself received thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies. Sandra Greiner is the president of the American Future Fund, an organization that has spent more than $5 million on advertisements that target Democrats on a variety of issues, including their support for federal spending. But Greiner and her family have not shied away from taking federal subsidies for their farm near Keota, in eastern Iowa. We're not just talking about a few hundred dollars here and there -- the Greiner family received nearly $1 million in federal farm subsidies from 1995 to 2009. When the AP's Henry C. Jackson, who broke the story, sought comment from the Greiner and/or the American Future Fund, they didn't want to talk about it. Imagine that. Also note, Sandra Greiner is herself seeking elected office this year in Iowa, running on a platform of "curbing government spending in Iowa." If I had to guess, Greiner probably never even considered the disconnect. Sure, she receives massive payments from the federal government, but the real problem is the money that goes to those other people. It's why Matt Taibbi can find a nice couple at a Tea Party rally that has spent their life living entirely off money from the government, but who are nevertheless getting involved to protest because "too many people are living off the government." It's why we find all kinds of conservatives who hate government spending in general, but love it when it's directed to them. Paul Waldman's recent item continues to ring true, noting that the key is understanding who benefits from government generosity: "Medicare? Well, that's for people like David and Janice, and their friends, so that's good. 'Welfare'? Well that's for shiftless, undeserving people -- not people like them. Chances are that most Tea Partiers have no idea exactly what the stimulus is paying for, but given their preconceptions about Barack Obama, they're pretty sure it's benefiting people who don't deserve it -- people who are not like them.... Being the beneficiary of government benefits doesn't seem to change some people's view about what sort of person gets government benefits." That certainly seems to apply to American Future Fund president Sandra Greiner, and the more than $935,000 she and her family have received.

[bruce MN]

Thanks.

Direct link:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_10/025972.php

And, again, to Tiabbi's best effort to date:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904?RS_show_page=0

[schnurrbart]

Gambling or vacationing with "taxpayers dollars" really isn't the issue.  The issue is that the money is supposed to go to helping the family or individual to survive while they are out of work or unable to earn money in any other manner.  The sum of money received is usually so small that people don't want to go to the trouble and expense of opening and maintaining a checking account so the states issue debit cards.  There is probably a better way of doing it but the food stamp program ran into the same problem as stores would accept the stamps for anything instead of just food.  Where there is money involved there will always be crooks and scammers.

[SouthWestOhio]

$87,000 out of a $100-million doesn't seem like much of a problem. It probably cost at least that much to write and pass the legislation.

[bruce MN]

Thank you .

Was just going to post that very same sentiment. Was also thinking that the response would have to measure up to Sam and the other's purity double standard here. $87 K out of a 100 million is a scandal, a breakdown of civilization (it actually is in respect to  that there is really a state and region in the "richest nation in the world" that has come to where there is a need for that much assistance, but that is or another day) but Congressman Boehner handing out $30K+ checks from tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives is somehow OK in the eyes of the right.

People who aren't familiar with MN demographics ask me how Minnesota could have produced both Al Franken and Michelle Bachman. I'd bet that they'd also wonder how you guys come up with Boehner and at the same time Kucinich and Sherrod Brown.

[hardnox604008]

For me, the best takeaway from Taibbi's great piece was his description of the underlying condition as narcissism.

In the case of Ms. Greiner, I feel like I know her, she is so much of an archtype that is common in local affairs. The winners of the last man standing game that was US agriculture are heavily populated with people who have no problem whatsoever thoroughly conflating their own self interest with the broader public interest. If the world is all about you and your family then yes, of course what is good for you is how the world should be run- and you are deeply indignant about anyone else getting theirs. We are besieged by little rural Goldmans.

The point of the K-wave, the jubilee, whatever, throughout history seems to me to be to take those people out so that society can again move forward.

I think that wise folks might have had good reason to fear the result of failure to deal with the economic collapse at the end of the Bush years. But in retrospect I most certainly may have been wrong (and as I've pointed out many times, it isn't like I had much say in it one way or the other)- perhaps letting things reset might have been better than where we're heading.

fwiw, h

[Samnospam]

in the wake of Times reports that the aid cards have been used to spend or withdraw millions of dollars in benefits at popular vacation spots including the Las Vegas strip and on ships sailing from ports around the world.

[bruce MN]

I don't believe that SW was fefering to the California situation.

That situation is just one car in a big train wreck.

[schnurrbart]

Not all Democrats are as righties portray them just as I am sure that all righties are not greedy, unfeeling jerks.  I would agree with most of what 4wd said with the exception that I am not at all sure that letting GM or AIG, but especially GM, "sink or swim like the rest of small businesses".  GM closing the doors would have a severe ripple effect on this country with the sudden influx of unemployment not just from GM but from the parts makers and all the other assorted related companies which, as many economists have said, could very well cause major problems for the auto makers left standing.