Crimes Against the Hungry
If mismanagement of assistance to the poor and the vulnerable were a crime—and it certainly can be—Walker would have to be classified as a recidivist.
Two years ago, the state took over management of Milwaukee County's FoodShare program because the federal government was threatening to cut off federal funds due to then-County Executive Walker's mismanagement.
At the time, the state and county were facing a major class-action lawsuit because Walker's administration was unfairly denying food stamps to about 20% of applicants who were eligible to receive them.
To settle the lawsuit, the state Department of Health Services (DHS) took control of Walker's FoodShare program, hired new managers and filled budgeted county jobs Walker had left vacant—and which had resulted in exorbitant error rates and enormous workloads at an absurdly understaffed call center where only 5% of hundreds of thousands of calls a month ever got through.
Now, of course, Walker runs the state DHS. As secretary, Walker appointed Dennis Smith, a right-wing ideologue who formerly worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation and for Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in the Bush administration.
Putting Smith in charge of feeding poor people and providing health care for them is like putting the Ku Klux Klan in charge of enforcing civil rights. When Smith worked for Thompson, he tried to kill Wisconsin's SeniorCare prescription drug program, which he's now charged with administering. Wanna bet he's through trying to destroy the program?
A year ago during the health care debate, Smith wrote an article advocating that states drop out of Medicaid, the federal program providing medical care for the poor, elderly and disabled.
It's no surprise Walker and Smith are in trouble with the federal government for an illegal scheme to privatize FoodShare.
Republicans hate programs that feed hungry people unless they can figure out some way their campaign contributors can rake in big profits while feeding fewer people.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told the Walker administration that federal law forbids profit-making companies from administering FoodShare, which distributes more than $1 billion to more than 800,000 residents in Wisconsin.
FoodShare assistance, which is 100% federally funded, must be distributed by public employees hired through civil service. Otherwise, the state would lose $20.5 million in federal funds to help pay administrative costs.
GOP's Mean-Spirited Shift
The targeting of FoodShare by right-wing Republican governors in Wisconsin, Texas and Indiana demonstrates how mean-spirited and extreme Republican leadership has become in recent years.
The food stamp concept was initially shaped by the populist presidencies of Democrats Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
But, by the 1970s, it was a highly popular, bipartisan program, championed by such ideological opposites as South Dakota Democratic Sen. George McGovern and Kansas Republican Sen. Bob Dole, both representing farm states.
It was the ultimate win-win. Farmers had a major domestic market to help keep prices up and U.S. politicians could tell themselves no one had to go to bed hungry in America.
Decency seemed to rank a little higher as a driving force behind political concerns in those days.
Right-wing assaults on FoodShare were evident in a paper-thin "exposé" recently published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel alleging "Fraud Taints State's FoodShare Program" without ever bothering to support such a claim.
Without any evidence at all, the article smeared 2,000 poor people (out of 800,000) who reported losing Quest cards used to buy food more than six times during a year as "clear indicators of likely fraud."
Actually, that statistic doesn't indicate much of anything except that poor people often live chaotic lives, but still need to eat.
The article included other completely unsupported allegations claiming poor people were using the cards to buy steaks and seafood—no fish sticks for the poor!—and selling the food to friends at a discount to get cash.
Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force, wrote in response to the article that even if there were any evidence every one of the 2,000 people who reported losing their cards was a heinous food-fraud kingpin, it would represent an infinitesimal fraud rate of 0.25%.
Applicant fraud is monitored by the Department of Agriculture, Tussler said, and consistently is very low in Wisconsin. In 2009, the state received a $2.7 million bonus for its extremely low fraud rate.
A major newspaper distorts public priorities when it devotes space to unsupported attacks on poor people receiving food instead of questioning Walker's illegal attempt to privatize the program to create profits for his overfed supporters.
Good Lord! What if those wealthy executives use those profits to buy steaks and seafood!
The Food Stamp program does appear to be very liberal. Have you seen people using Food Stamps. Go to Aldi or Pick N Save. THEY'RE HUGE!!! I think maybe we are giving away too much free food. I went to a birthday party catered by Food Stamps. The gal got so much benefits plus WIC she couldn't use it all. So she would take her friends to the supermarket and buy them food. They base benefits on income instead of actually need for food. A lot of people are chosing not to work two jobs because if they do, they won't qualify for the lavish free food benefits. If someone is starving, ribs showing, etc. they should get some free food for basic nutrition. Food stamps should only be used for fresh vegetables, rice/grain and low grade meat. No luxury gourmet foods or junk food. No soda pop, no candy, no chips, etc. Enough food should be provided to sustain life, not make someone obese. We can't have people walking around morbidly obese because the Federal Government is providing and unlimited buffet of junk food. Most people who are on Food Stamps are committing moral fraud. They could work two or three jobs and they would have plenty of money for food. People could learn to cook from scratch instead of buying prepackaged food and tv dinners. I suggest we eliminate food stamps and replace it with a program of just handing out rice and beans for basic nutrition.
First off, I love your logic in claiming that going to a party one time gives you the authority to speak on the administration of a statewide welfare program. ("Hey look, I saw a republican talking like an asshole on a forum! I guess they ALL do that...") Second, I hope once finding out about that injustice being done you refrained from touching a single morsel of food that was there, lest you'd become just the same type of freeloader you seem to abhor. Just another conservative hypocrite.
As for your limit on what food stamps should be used for, have you ever looked at the "fresh" produce at an Aldi?? It might have been fresh when it was in seed-form, but long lost that quality amidst sitting on a truck for a week before actually making it to the shipping dock. To suggest that a nation as prosperous as this one should relegate it's working-poor to living off of Red-Cross/humanitarian aid type sustenance is just patently offensive. This country has plenty of resources to ensure not only that every one of its citizens not literally starve to death, but that they can actually sustain a healthy diet. Otherwise, all you are doing is perpetuating the cycle of poor health and increasing sickness that is draining the economy. A 20-pound bag of rice my be enough for a village on the outskirts of the Congo, but this is 'Merica. And goddamnit, we are better than that. Time to start acting like it.
@Brian- so a "healthy lifestyle" is Cheetos, soda, and candy bars? Did you read your post (or David's) before you submitted it? Rice, pasta, and vegetables (even Aldi vegetables) are 1,000 times better than what the majority of food stamps are "spent" on. And I have evidence that goes beyond a party- I lived in the inner city for 7 years. I shopped at Aldi. I stopped at the convenience stores. I saw more Qwest cards than cash. "Merica's" generosity is killing our poor through obesity, diabetes, and many other diseases that arise directly from a steady diet of 100% junk food.
By the way, at Christmas, do you evaluate your gifts and refuse some based on quality? Should people giving you gifts make sure that what they are giving you meets your standards, does not stigmatize you, and are just as good as gifts given by wealthier families? Looking charity in the face and saying "you're not good enough" is the ultimate in immoral behavior. Not to mention disgusting behavior.
Food stamps should be used for staples, nothing more.
Yo David, guess what? I get food stamp -$150 a month. It's dope yo, me and all my homies got the same deal and we go to that whole foods store on the whitey side of north ave and spend all our money on the blackwoods bacon! Then, any of the bacon I dont eat I trade with some of my other homies for bags of dank nugzzz. AAAaahahaha.
FIRST I WANNA SAY SOME PEOPLE DO USE FOOD STAMPS TO GET CASH BUT IN MOST CASES ITS THE VERY LOW POVERY LIVING OFF OF NOTHING BUT THE FOOD THE GOVERNMENT PROVIDES NOT SAYING IT COOL TO DO SO, BUT IF YOU GIVE SOMEONE MONEY FOR FOOD HOW STUPID AND EXPENSIVE AND PETTY WOULD IT BE TO TRY TO MONITOR HOW EVERYONE ATE, I THOUGHT THIS PROGRAM WAS KINDA COOL BEACUSE IF YOU CANT AFFORD A DECENT LIVING YOU COULD ATLEAST EAT WELL AND BE HEALTHY, BUT NOW ITS BAD THAT YOU GIVE MONEY FOR FOOD BUT NOW THEY EAT "TOO GOOD" OFF OF FOOD STAMPS REALLY? ITS NEVER ENOUGH FOR THESE PEOPLE. FAMILIES ARE HUNGRY WITH PARENTS WHO CAN BARELY AFFORD RENT SHOULD WORK 2 OR THREE JOBS AN LEAVE CHILDREN UNATTENDED TO AVOID "RICE AND BEANS" I FEEL ITS THE LEAST WE CAN DO FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WE KNOW DON'T HAVE THE SAME OPPORTUNITIES OR ADVANTAGES AS OTHERS, FOOD CAN ENSURE THAT ATLEAST THEY HAVE DECENT MEALS EVERYDAY. I GUESS SOME PEOPLE CAN SLEEP BETTER AT NIGHT, KNOWING THEY TOOK MORE OF WHAT THE DIDNT NEED FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE TRUELY IN NEED
Food Stamps should be replaced with a rice and bean voucher. To stop the abuse of food stamps, just give people rice and beans. First no one would starve, second no more abuses, third lower cost to taxpayer.
The good people who finance the program with their hard earned taxes would not complain if they saw people being given 20 lb bags of rice and beans at the grocery store. They do complain when people cater parties and buy birthday cakes for their kids with food stamps.
If people want the good stuff they should be required to buy it on their own with their own money. Not the taxpayers. We whould not be subsidizing the hammock lifestyles of the fat and lazy. If people chose to work two or three jobs, they would not be poor. And they would be setting a better example for their kids. The way it is now, a lot of poor people have come to expect they are entitled to food, just because they choose to earn less income.
People who live on rice and beans are generally healthier than those who are addicted to soda pop, sugar snacks, chips, geasy high fat meats, pizza, etc. We would be doing these people a favor by teaching them to cook from scratch. If they want to upgrade their lifestyle and earn more money to buy luxury foods, then they always have that option to work harder and earn more. Otherwise we might as well let the lazyites use their food stamps at the McDonalds dollar menu.
Its kinda funny how people consider everyone who uses food stamps or needs help is lazy and its really not the case some families just have life altering circumstances or just struggle because of lack of anything, for the people that have it it may just seem like simple math but everything is easier said than done people need to get over themselves really i am a hard working tax payer / student and i dont think its a big deal to give back via taxes or whaever to communities or people and lol at the typical sterotypes people think they know about other cultures i bet you dnt know anyone the opposite of you in any ways at all. good grief!
I believe that there are people who need help solving there hunger issues. But you don't do that by giving them TV dinners, cake, steak, and lobster. You do it by providing them with basic nutrional needs such as rice and beans. Giving the poor an unlimited buffet of junk food only makes their situation worse not better. People are poor because they are not good with money and are poor decison makers. Giving them more money just makes their life worse off. Giving hungry people access to junk food makes them sicker. Its best to give them the basic nutrition and no more. Take a look at the typical food stamp user and ask yourself, are they making the right food choices. I was donating food at a food pantry and could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the people standing in line for food. Half of them were fat!!!. I don't mean just a little fat, but obese!! My guess is they had eaten through all their food stamps and were at the pantry for desert. I think Joel misuses the word "hungry".
I suppose most would consider me to be quite well off, yet here I sit eating oatmeal. If I was on Food Stamps, I fear I would be tempted to just load up on free Twinkies and pizza and end up looking like an obese Foodstamper.
No one has to go hungry. Aldi sells cheap quality food. Kwik Trip sells bananas, onions, and potatos for 38 cents a pound. The bread thrift stores sell bread for 50 cents a loaf. The government could set up a rice/bean and cheese give-a-way. Food Stamps are simpy an unneeded goverment program and a waste of tax payers money. It promotes laziness and obesity. I promotes the sin of sloth and gluteny. I discourages people from taking on extra jobs. What do you want you kids to say when someone asks them what their parents do for work? "Oh they choose to only work 32 hours so we can get government welfare." Or would you rather have them say "they work two jobs 70 hours a week so I can go to college." For the sake of your children, opt out of welfare and opt into work.