This Is What Happened When Maine Forced Welfare Recipients To Work For Their Benefits…

by | Apr 10, 2015 | Headline News | 158 comments

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    Earlier this year the state of Maine enacted legislation with the intention of ending the gravy train for able-bodied adult welfare recipients.

    The state will now impose a work requirement on welfare recipients without dependents, which must be fulfilled in order to receive food stamps. All adults without a disability must have to actually work for food, volunteer twenty hours per week, or enroll in an employment training program if they want to ensure their EBT card (Electronic Benefits Transfer) is loaded each month. People under the age of 18 and over 50 are excluded from that law.

    The law affected some 12,000 recipients of welfare benefits. Just two months after the state began implementing the new program Maine has seen what Republicans in the State’s legislature call a victory for welfare reform:

    Keep in mind that these individuals are adults who aren’t disabled and who don’t have children at home and who are claiming the food-stamp benefits because of a lack of financial resources.

    After forcing these individuals to either work part-time for twenty hours each week, enroll in a vocational program, or volunteer for a minimum of twenty-four hours per month, the numbers showed a significant drop from 12,000 enrollees to just over 2,500.

    Republicans in the state are calling it a major victory, while Democrats are infuriated and are calling for special measures to roll back some of the strict requirements.

    However, even if the requirements lose some of their strictness, once an individual is removed from the Maine food-stamp program they cannot receive benefits from the program for three years.

    U.S. Herald via Ready Nutrition

    That’s a 79% drop in taxpayer expenditures on welfare recipients who were perfectly capable of mentally and physically performing labor.

    Democrats are, of course, infuriated because it puts a damper on their plans of locking every American into cradle-to-grave dependency on the government.

    Now, rather than sitting on the couch, smoking weed, and hanging out with their friends as was claimed by one woman recently interviewed by an Austin radio station, they actually have to produce something with their time or starve.

    Shock Interview: Welfare Recipient: “I Get to Sit Home… I Get to Smoke Weed… We Still Gonna Get Paid”

    While workers out there are preaching morality at people like me living on welfare, can you really blame us?

    I get to sit home… I get to go visit my friends all day… I even get to smoke weed…

    Me and people that I know that are illegal immigrants that don’t contribute to society, we still gonna get paid.

    Our check’s gonna come in the mail every month… and it’s gonna be on time… and we get subsidized housing… we even get presents delivered for our kids on Christmas… Why should I work?

    Ya’ll get the benefit of saying “oh, look at me, I’m a better person,” but when ya’ll sit at home behind ya’lls I’m a better person… we the ones gettin’ paid!

    So can you really blame us?

    Perhaps southern hip-hop artist Mike Jones said it best:

    “If you don’t work you don’t eat… You don’t grind you don’t shine.”

    Get a job to earn money for food, shelter, cell phones, marijuana, and entertainment?

    Oh, the inhumanity of it!

    Hattip Tess Pennington of Ready Nutrition

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      158 Comments

      1. The state will now impose a work requirement on welfare recipients without dependents…

        BAHAHA BAREBACK MOUNTAIN, kids.

        How hard is THAT stipulation to get around? All you need is a functioning d*^&…

        • I assume they sell food as well as cigarettes/liquor at that store! Otherwise, they are setting themselves up for a federal offense! Its against the law to sell liquor OR ANY non-food items for food stamps! Its just not legal!! Store owners can go to prison for that!!

          • I thought so too! You can gets seeds and plants to make food, but there’s a whole list of stuff you aren’t supposed to be able to get…

            • “However, even if the requirements lose some of their strictness, once an individual is removed from the Maine food-stamp program they cannot receive benefits from the program for three years.”

              It is naive to think that the rules can’t be changed to allow people to get food stamps without waiting 3 years.

          • Anon, good points, but those laws are only rarely and selectively enforced. The feds know about the corruption in the program but don’t really care about it. All they really care about is keeping people dependent on them for sustenance.

            • Tell’em Cuz for sustenance, you’ll feed em brass and lead nutrients, if they don’t die of African Virus first.

            • LIE!!! the foodstamp program cant even be RUNG UP TO BUY the things that are not allowed. THE SYSTEM IS ON A CARD AND DIGITAL you idiot. stop talking like you know when you dont

          • In our state, welfare recepients are given a card (EBT). From this card they can withdraw a certain amount of cash; this is how they buy cigarettes and alcohol. And, to make it even better, there is no limit to how long you can be on welfare; so long as you keep yourself under their requirements, you can be on welfare for a lifetime.
            Somewhere, the Founding Fathers that cursed are saying, “What the fuck did yall do to our country?”

        • Doesn’t say they got jobs just that they dropped out. Now they beat their girlfriends harder fo mo money.

        • I was workin in Grand Rapids MI. last week and heard on the radio that they were allowing folks to pay their ambulance rides and unpaid civil infractions by working “communty service” .
          Is this a good thing ?
          Or indentured servitude ?

          Sounds like a slippery slope to me .

          • If they get a fair wage for fair work AND get out of debt, it works for me. It stops those people from being perpetually hounded for money they ain’t got.

            As far as this law, I think it’s absolutely perfect. It gets at the gimme dats and leaves the rest alone. We need that law to go to every state.

          • For ambulance rides or any other service they got for free, it is good. For civil infractions, no. That is already a rip off!

          • –Hammerhead…
            I don’t believe it’s indentured servitude but paying for what you get by whatever means you have. Obviously some people do not have the financial means to pay for an ambulance ride, but they can certainly devote some time and elbow grease to “working off” the service they received.

            I have been making comments for nearly 10 years about EXACTLY what Maine is doing. If someone is on public assistance they need to “work” for it. There are hundreds of public parks, campgrounds and many, many miles of highway that need attention. There’s nothing wrong with them “working” for what they’re being “paid”.

        • I’ve got a better idea. END EBT altogether, period. No free handouts, to anyone, period. Can’t afford those cigarettes and cheap vodka? Too bad. Can’t afford to feed your kids? Don’t breed. Fuck everyone with your hands out. You’re on your own. I feel sorry for absofuckinglutely no one.

          • Nobama, I agree. It’s tough enough for people like you and I to fend for ourselves. I don’t have anything to give up to some dildo with their hand sticking out. Sometimes I don’t even have it for ME.

            • Cuz it sure seems like you’ve sure been hung-up on that dildo lately. Was that a pun?

          • THAT’S IT !!!!….I QUIT….I’MAKE GOING ON THE GOVERNMENT’S ASSISTANCE!!!!

            MUCH EASIER THAN WORKING…. AND IT DOESN’T MATTER…

            THIS GOVERNMENT’S DEBT CAN NEVER BE PAID
            WHAT YOU PAY IN TAX MEANS NOTHING .. SO QUIT!!!

          • I agree time for America to work her ghetto scum, no longer should anyone have a free ride. Especially when the US government takes money to feed these useless eaters from my pay check.

          • I disagree. There are sometimes where people for whatever reason need a hand up. Notice I did not say hand out. We as a society are better off helping out good people that need it than just saying no to everybody. On principle it is the same as banning all guns for everybody because of a few idiots. Deal with the abusers. Feeling sorry for someone is not the issue. Doing the right thing is.

        • Well when it crashes I will LMAO …. no more checks no more food stamps no more benefits….. so that’s why I made a big sign to put in front of my house and it says…. YOU LOOT WE SHOOT !!!!! so enjoy when it last cause it never does….see ya in front of my barrel !!!!

          • sOme people have to learn the hard way~

            2 Thessalonians 3:10 King James Version (KJV)

            10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

            • 1 Timothy 5:8 Is where it’s at. For what is coming many should pay attention to this.

              1 Timothy 5:8
              Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

              Notice… It does not exempt those not wanting to work or those that feel entitled.

        • This law is a joke. Most of these low lifes are already exempt from having to work under the stipulations provided. Don’t most of them have dependents that they are popping out left and right even if they don’t financially support them. If not that exemption, what about ” oh, my bad back, I can’t work I’m disabled (code for laying around, drunk, and high). The ones that are stupid enough to show up to the job sight will do 1) fake an injury to make a workman’s comp. claim, 2) steal from the job sight, and/or 3) just loaf around. You will not get any productivity out of these slugs! This is just the same old useless rhetoric to make the politicians look like they are doing something positive to address a problem that can never be solved until the social welfare system totally collapses and the natural laws govern again.

          • I think it is a great law. If people are volunteering, say at a food bank or animal shelter or some other non-profit service, they might learn it feels good to be doing something productive. They gain skills, experience and references for real employment.

            • No, “Fed up” is absolutely right. The ones that want to “gain skills” and be productive for real work are already doing it. They’re not waiting to get bumped off of stamps. The ones that dont do anything now, and just lay around, or have a “bad back” aren’t suddenly going to be good workers. They’ll either cost the employer dearly in lost time with a duncel for an employee. If that new empoloyee doesn’t empty the till or pawn the work tools.

              • One thing I must chime in on. I was unemployed for 7 months. I have a college degree and couldn’t find work. At the unemployment office they asked me if I was willing to go to job training. I said “What for” They said heavy equipment operator and/or welding. I said “Sign me up” as I would really like to do something like that than drive a mouse. They took a look at my resume and said I wasn’t qualified to get training as I had a college degree. (Aerospace Engineering for those who are asking, and my field sucks right now so PTL for my current job) So…. If you have a college degree you cant get the state paid for training to change areas and become like a highway worker. While the lowlies dont have the motivation to get the training. The training center we have is only open for show as there are very few willing to get the training.

                • Oh REALLY? Well now, this is certainly a new wrinkle for you zombie. You said in previous posts about how you and the wife were regular ” jet setters” who made the DECISION to give the high lifestyle to live on a farm instead. Sounds a hell of a lot different from the song you’re singing on this post now doesn’t it? Fyi, keep the bs to a minimum, else you run the risk of being caught red handed in a lie.

      2. well it does NOT matter if the dems are mad or not as these people will still vote for dems so they can go back on freebies! as soon as possible! proves the dems only want the vote!! don’t care about the current state of the country!! just a bunch of scumbags, and the repubs are not much better!!need a NEW group in the whitehouse that stands for the GOOD of the country and NOT there pocket books!!!!

      3. They’ve opened up a new casino for people on welfare. When you put a food stamp in the slot machine and it lands on three babies, you win a block of cheese!

        • OMG thats fugin hilarious

        • Haha!!

        • Good one Eppe.

          BigB

        • Squeezin cheese outta a slot ?
          EEEEW

        • Eppe, another good one. Keep them coming.

        • They found out what caused sickle cell anemia, it was the glue on the back of food stamps.

        • I was one of those babies, and standing on line for a block of cheese and a can of peanut butter was pretty humiliating and not particularly funny. Why don’t you go pick on rich people you ignorant clown.

      4. What is sad is when the money stops and it will. We have a whole country full of people with NO skills.

        • “a whole country full of people with NO skills.”

          They eat and they vote. Feed me!! Saying, “I vote Lib cause I’m entitled to the freebies. Now eat big sheet.”

          • I learned my skills(hunting, farming, food preservation, working with animals, etc) on my own and I was over 40 years old when I started (Many years ago.). They have no excuse. They want to blame anything (other than themselves)they can blame the libtards and progtrolls in DC that convinced them otherwise and they believed it. They have access to the same info we have. They CHOOSE not to broaden their mind. They look to the mainstream media and tv for what they are suppose to think. So be it. They can endure what they have chosen. Hope and Change anyone?

            • I’m willing to bet you had some assistance from 2 parents living at home. That is an advantage you cannot overlook.

            • Yet more lies. You previously claimed your age was about 40 on one of your previous comments, now it’s more than that? Get yourself some kind of filing system to keep your lies straight so you don’t trip over them.

      5. While not every person on welfare is able to work it appears by this that many were able to work but simply unwilling until now. Good for the Maine tax payers.

        • No kidding, only 20% of the people on EBT thought it was worth their time and effort to work 20 hours a week for their food.

          Sayonara, 80%, good riddance.

          • Note the ‘job training’ language. The 20% are the ones who get out of one ‘job training’ ‘program’ and right into another.

        • When I was younger and received food stamps it was REQUIRED that we go and apply for a certain number of jobs per week (and, of course, show proof). It was actually fun! We had to go and maybe apply for 25-30 jobs per week but I actually liked it! (even though it was a little difficult when was already working part time).

          However, now days, they don’t require that because you can’t apply for jobs like in the old days! I remember applying for a job at Kmart (anybody could get a job at Kmart, in the old days!) but it took 2 days to apply because I had to go online and after all that time and work (not real good on computers!) they didn’t even respond! And that was just for one job!

          • Many years ago, I needed a job. The first place I saw was a K-Mart with a help wanted poster in the window. I walked in, saw the personnel woman, and I had a job in a few minutes, starting the very next day.

            I have never gotten a job by filling out an application. I have always gone in person, talked to the person who hires, and got hired in minutes. I never got turned down for a job I really wanted.

            And I’ve never applied for a job online. Of course, my last job started years before the internet.

            • Archivist, I’ve only worked for 2 different companies since I’ve been out of high school and the 2nd company I’ve been with since 1982. No job-hopper here. Nice, stable work history. Not that many people like me out there these days.

              • Cuz I can understand why not many people like you out there, it’s cause you so mean.

              • Right brave, you’ve said in your own comments that you work 60-70 hours every week and receive an annual salary of 45k. It’s hard to find anybody who’ll work for that low of a wage after having put in 33 years at the same place, so you’re right, not many people either that ignorant or such low personal initiative these days that’ll put up with crappy wages like that for so long, but, in your defense, being a security guard as a profession doesn’t get much easier or call for less thought on anybody’s part than anything else somebody could possibly do for a living, which is why it attracts the laziest and most weak minded people, and to stay in it for over 30 years speaks volumes about you.

                • +1….Live like a doormat, get treated like one.

                  Of course you work for the same place since ’82, they love the fact you bust ass and never demand a meaningful wage increase to reflect your loyalty and effort. In today’s jobplace, loyalty is rewarded by layoffs, so fuck the employers….

                  • Lost,

                    You’re { sadly} correct on your statements. I don’t think there’s been ANY employer loyalty existent in the American workplace for the last 30 plus years, if not longer. The game for employers is to squeeze the maximum effort out of you for the least possible and cut you off at the knees when it’s convenient for them to do so. The really funny part is the big act they put on when the tables are turned and you find another job and give them notice of such, they act oh so hurt, we thought you really LIKED it here, why didn’t you come to us before and explain your feelings, maybe we could have done something about it, { yeah sure, like making plans to find your replacement on the sly and then trump up some bullshit excuse to fire you} The end game of America business is now on display for all to see, but it’s too late to change it for the better.

                    • Newby, you got that right. Check the want ads and there are many more than there used to be that won’t even consider an applicant unless the salary requirements and salary history are supplied. What I make before I darken your doorstep is my personal business and no one else’s. These are almost always the places that pay the worst and want top notch employees to overwork. Seems kinda one up from the “gimme dat” bunch.

          • Speaking of Kmart…..

            Just found out while looking for a special item @ Kmart on-line, that Kmart is now owned by Sears.

            Who wudda thunk it?

            Anyways, found the special item at a Kmart about 30 miles away and found another item that was on my wish list for some years at that super K also. Both on sale!

            Little woman almost had a coronary before we got out of there.
            Both items will be usable in shtf situation also.
            Pays to shop around.

      6. Prepper Warning of the Day

        The 100-Year Geomagnetic Storm and The Electric Grid – Part 1, by Tango Delta

        ht tp://survivalblog.com/the-100-year-geomagnetic-storm-and-the-electric-grid-part-1-by-tango-delta/

        “When I asked the director of a metropolitan utility how much fuel he had onsite for pumps for the water system, the answer was “about two days”. The answer was the same for chemicals for water and sewage treatment. Our economy is based more and more on “just in time” delivery.”

        major cities out of water in 2 days
        sewage backing up

        “just in time” will be the death of MANY

      7. What a piece of shit Lucy is, but at least she’s honest.

      8. God help the people that get stuck having to deal with these losers …. I can’t begin to imagine trying to teach them anything or trying to get any work out of their lazy butts ….

        • IW, I agree. The losers are totally useless as people. They’re the REAL useless eaters.

      9. That welfare phone call from Austin turned out to be a hoax caller.

        Not that it’s not believable enough, but that caller was just having fun with a local radio host.

        (I certainly believed her story.)

        • Jim, I used to work at the Chicago Housing Authority. I don’t need her call to know there are people out there like that. No it’s not everybody. But it’s enough…..let’s say 10 % of people are like that. My math is a bit rusty but 10% of several million people is??????? Keep prepping! Get out of the cities. This here problem with these people……will be self resolving

      10. Well, Illini, I would rather be unemployed and honest than to be rich and corrupt as hell, like a lot of these materialistic psychopaths I see.

        • Sooo, in so many words you’re a self confessed welfare deadbeat and proud of it?

      11. OFF SUBJECT, but the following (from Zero Hedge) was predicted years ago by climate scientists but has occurred a lot sooner than predicted…

        “Dust Bowl 2.0: California’s Historic Drought About To Get Even Worse As “Snowpack Melts Early Across The West”
        –Tyler Durden’s picture

      12. What horrible things innocent people have to go through as a result of materialistic, greedy pigs!! Please see horrible pictures at Zero Hedge of war victims (mass starvation)…

        Remember, this could be us next, if TPTB have their way!! They don’t have their concentration camps set up here for nothing!! Just think of these photos if they try to force you (even at gunpoint!) into their vehicles.

      13. Greece Releases Graphic Footage From Nazi Occupation, Ups WWII Reparations Pressure
        Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/10/2015 – 11:20
        Having demanded EUR 278.7 billion from Germany for WWII reparations, which was quickly eschewed by Germany, Greece has decided to up the ante. As KeepTalkingGreece reports, Greek Defense Ministry has published a video with rare footage from the occupation of Greece by the Nazis during the World War II. Among others, the footage shows children suffering from malnutrition and emaciated adults, victims of the Great Famine during the Nazi occupation. The video is designed to provide context for the huge claim and the video voice-over states that the Enforced Loan by the Nazis was to blame for the mass starvation of estimated 300,000 people in Athens alone, “Greece lost 13% of its population during the WWII. One part was lost in the battlefield, but the largest part due to Famine and the Nazis’ atrocities.”
        .

      14. you can worry about the food stamp parasites
        OR
        you can worry about the Wall Street parasites

        which do you think is doing the country more harm???

        NYC Pension Earns $40 Million Over 10 Years, Pays Fund Managers $2 Billion

        htt p://www.blacklistednews.com/NYC_Pension_Earns_%2440_Million_Over_10_Years%2C_Pays_Fund_Managers_%242_Billion/43337/0/38/38/Y/M.html

        wake the F_CK up
        keep your eyes on THE ball

        • Right on. Even on this site, people need to be reminded to stay focused on the real trouble makers.

        • Although i complain sometimes , I dont worry much about the welfare crowd .
          It wasnt long ago when a man that was short on brains , but big on heart , could find a menial job.
          Not true anymore , he has to compete with asshats with liberal arts degrees and multi sex orientation.
          Nope , we done it to ourselves by shipping the low skill jobs off to foreign lands and allowing the libtards to use the bullhorn while we used earplugs .
          Its gonna be a hard fall when the EBT cards dont get filled.

          • Not just shipping the jobs away, but also importing low wage workers from Mehiko and south to do the jobs that can’t be exported, like landscaping. Those used to be plum jobs for college guys to work thru the summer, but not no more.

            • Ding Ding Ding! How can 120 million able-bodied workers find employment in a market that offers 77 million jobs? Hey the gubbermint sounds like a good plan – just file, wait, cash free check….sarc off….

              Although, there are a couple of problems with easy solutions to get “U.S.” back on track:

              1. Remove free-trade “law” from commerce. Let the markets balance themselves globally.

              2. Remove all subsidies on all products – gas, oil, corn, wheat, electricity…the list goes for miles on this one…

              3. Stop taxing income, and only tax purchases – if you spend 30k on a car you pay 3k in taxes. Spend 300k – 30k tax. Buy that 13 million $ lear jet – you pay 1.3 mil in tax.

              4. Repeal tax breaks on “Corporate” purchases.

              5. Remove tax extortion on real property. Why call it “yours” if you still pay an occupancy tax to stay there?

              6. Revoke the lifetime benefits for ALL Congress, Senate, and judicial elects at both the state and federal levels – those positions were never to be long-term. Same for governors and the POTUS….

              I could go on a ways with this, but I assume most of you here on this forum know where i’m going with this, so remember, Forget Hillary, Rick, and Ted for pres., elect C.R.C. and get off the carousel for good! HA!

              Damn it Mac! What’s the deal with moderation?! Ive posted at least a dozen times with the same info, and still the moderation!

              • Lost, I like your list. I’d add something else. Make the corporate tax laws more favorable so they would locate more business in the US. True, wages still need to be considered but making a favorable environment might draw some back. It might also help those who wish to begin a business.

                • I,m not on board with that. If corporations are to continue to have the same standing as a “Person”, they must be compelled to adhere to the same obligations of moral and humanitarian behavior as a real person is held to. If a corporation is injuring another “Person” or “People” they should be held accountable just as any other Person would…to include the management of such an organization…sigh, since wealth was established, so too was slavery, power brokering, greed, and class elitism…Until the existing system fails, nothing shall change.

              • It is nice to see someone gets it!

        • you nailed it Satori

          • It all falls back to upbringing. Parents are responsible for instilling morals and values of hard work into their children.

            When the “It’s all about me” crowd get stuck in a situation where there is no free food, and there is no granny and pa to give it to them; they will be stuck in a world of shit.

            They don’t have a clue as to how to grow a damn tater, much less a whole garden and preserve it for winter use.

            They will resort to thievery, and they will not last long in most areas of this land.

            The majority will be protecting their own and handouts will come few and far in between.

            The lead will fly, and it will not discriminate nor procrastinate.

            Let the chips (and bodies), fall where they may, and let God sort them out.

      15. This should be in the entire country, kick the lazy bums out of the system. I am tired of seeing the no good lazy, cheating bums at the grocery or at sams club whipping out their EBT card, getting food i cant afford because the taxpayers dont buy my food because my family works.
        Then many of the bums take their free food to their very nice cars or huge SUV.
        Few weeks ago Asians in sams club buy 250 lbs of rice, etc with ebt, get in new suv.

        • Chad, I see the same things in my area all the time. These ‘minority groups’ have it made in the shade while white people who need help can’t get anything.

          • This is true, we need to all stop breeding as the world is fucked and cannot be repaired.

            Soon, all good kids will suffer at the hands of these welfare animals kids.

          • According to statistics,welfare is equally divided among blacks, whites and Hispanics. And Maine is 95% white.

            • It’s equal by the numbers but skewed when you add in the percent of the population that each grouping represents. If blacks are 15% and whites 50% of the population then the totals cannot be compared by the # of recipients

      16. Lol,These people are Professionals for Generations they’ll get around this bump in no time. And I’m sure the work Program is a joke, just show up will be about it.
        In maybe the 30s-40s they had a work program around here, but people had pride, they where Ashamed to have to take welfare and they would work because they didnt feel it should be for free. There were Retaining walls Built, the roads around town were layed with brick and all that is still there in good Shape yet.

        • And people took pride in their work whether digging a ditch or running a small store.

      17. I live in Maine. While it is a great start, us taxpayers will never see a penny in reductions, just more increases.

        • As long as the expat fags from Boston control Portland, that’s probably true.

        • They’re doing this so they can better serve the illegals. They can’t afford everyone.

          • I’ve never met a mexican that wouldn’t work…the blacks, however are a different story.

      18. $85 Billion/month to banks under QE1- QE forever is a hell of some welfare.

      19. according to one source
        the average food stamp benefit in Maine for an individual is
        a whopping $122.79

        if your doing “volunteer” work of 80 hours a month
        your “working” for about a $1.50 an hour
        sweet deal for someone
        virtual slave labor

        and if you live in large county like mine
        with NO public transport
        just getting to your “job” would be virtually impossible

        • To take it a step further, they knocked ~9500 ppl off the dole. Lets round it to 10,000. 10,000 multiplied by $123 per month. They save $1.23 million per month. Chump change compared to the BILLIONS we are being taken for by the bankers. As you stated earlier, Lets keep our eye on THE ball.

          • YEP! Tell it true! Banks, Bankers, Wall Street thieves, and gubbermint goons are the root of this swirling down the drain, not “Lazy People” who are the symptom, not the cause.

            IT IS CLASS WARFARE – race, religion, and cultural diversity is NOT the root cause, that’s all a straw man to throw emerging awakened off the scent! time for the 99% to WTFU, and stop enriching the elite 1% ANY LONGER!

            …MAC you’re killing me with this ridiculous moderation crap…HOW LONG MUST IT GO ON?!

        • Of course, those who don’t like that can just get a full-time job and earn a paycheck instead of sucking the public teat for that $122.79 a month.

          About one shift at $12 an hour is all it takes.

          Or, we can continue to allow a political underclass to enforce their bullshit guilt trips and pointing fingers at other issues in order to keep their slaves on their ideological plantation.

          • I wonder how long it will take for this to become a racist issue, since probably more blacks are having to work for their EBT now…just saying, they play the race card every chance they get.

            • It’s always been a racial issue, to those folks who consider race to be a factor.

              More whites than blacks are on EBT, that’s a fact.

        • Here on the East Coast, getting to such a “job” would be expensive; bus or train fare is not cheap.

        • What is “strange” to me is the misinformation that is being passed to the supposed educated society -and they are taking the bate: again. Each and every food stamp $ gets redistributed into the local market, thus creating jobs for locals (keeping grocery stores open and the like). It only takes less than 3% of the entire county’s budget to support welfare. And all of it gets redistributed back into the economy in some form or another -The big wigs tricked you again! The real problem is not in this area- keep looking and you will see what is really going on -good luck.

      20. Tip for those preparing: You should have a SW Radio, now for a cheap and easy to do antenna to increase your reception. Get at least one if not two of the old metal Slinky’s two to four alligator clips and a roll of speaker wire. Now stretch your Slinky or Slinky’s out and fix them so they stay stretched, one east and west and one north and south. Attach one clip to the end of one slinky and one to the other, one of the speaker wires to one and one to the other. On the other end attach the other two clips to the two speaker wires and now clip on the antenna, there you have a fast and cheap SW antenna. Wal- Mart has the Slinky’s at $3.00 each

        • You know nothing of antenna design…

          • Sorry sir but it does work and its better than nothing, tie into your house wiring after the grid goes down, drive a ground rod into the ground will also work. Nothing fancy just what will work.

        • Thanks for that TOP TIP copperhead.

        • Copperhead, I’m an old SW fan myself and use a similar antenna on mine. Works like a charm.

        • A simple long wire antenna is often recommended for SW reception.

        • Hate to say it, but Slinky antennas are poor at best, and easily damaged in bad weather, high winds, and due to the composite metal, poor conductors. Take a 40-50 ft length of that Speaker wire, (300ohm twinlead works better) split it down 20-30 ft. String the ANT connection of the radio at least 12 ft. off the ground, facing east/west (or pointing North/south). Connect the other lead of the wire to a cold water pipe, or a ground connection from your electrical panel. the ANT line should be taken down if lightning is in the area, as lightning arrestors are beyond the scope of a “CHEAP and DIRTY” readily deployable aerial…

      21. Where is the article opposing this perpetual warmongering state this nation pushes and funds? Those trillions spent make all poor peoples welfare in comparison a mere pittance. If the people cannot stop the psychopath’s murderous rampage, then the whole concept of freedom and justice in America is just pure BS!

        • The whole concept of freedom and justice IS bullshit.
          Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes, general excise taxes, federal excise taxes,
          So much for being able to live a subsistence lifestyle, or the pursuit of life, liberty or happiness.
          Everything we are told and taught about this country is bullshit.
          Welcome to slavery or poverty, take your pick,
          Then people wonder why i just dont give a shit anymore.

          • Gas bill:
            customer charge 10.50
            gas distribution charge 30.18
            energy optimization 2.15
            gas cost recovery 49.25
            IRM surcharge 0.88
            reservation charge 3.15
            michigan sales tax 3.8

            THE BILL ? 99.95
            And only 49.25 in gas used !!!
            this is a bill for a buddies house in town on natural gas.
            I got propane , and WISH my bill was so low .
            Sad state of affairs.

            • Sounds like my electric bill. Actual electricity used $29.21 but all the extra charges were $46 added on to my usage. They say these other charges are going up this summer again.

              • YEP –
                My electric damn near doubled .
                And the main electric power provider in michigan is sayin that in a couple years , we can expect brownouts.

                They are gonna close 11 coal plants , YIPPE !

                • I grew up in Michigan and have entertained thoughts of moving back as I have family still there. Then I read about the tax levels. I hate the hot, humid summers in Virginia but the taxes are comparatively easier to manage.

          • Not a single fuck will be given today.

      22. ‘the jewfish rots from the head down!’

        ‘a rotten corrupt criminal zionist jew controlled government creates a rotten corrupt criminal society!’

        ‘the problem is not the individual people, but those who created the greed driven centralized controlled co-dependent societal system.’

        ‘it’s called communism!’

      23. They get welfare they should work. If they have dependants they should have to work harder!
        Sgt.

      24. I am very physical person. And all those that know me tell me so. I live to work. And for that I looked to literally find anything that is legal and honest. So far I found bags and bags of feces. That’s it. So according to the ignorant moronic dum asses, and there are too many of them in this country, I am a dumb bum who refuses to go to work so I could “sit home” and do some weed that I never do or alcohol I never drink. No wonder this country is being flushed down the toilet with such stupid people. And so I am supposed to just sit there and stave because if begging being illegal, I go to those dehumanizing scumbags at the DPSS, that makes me “a free loader”. Walstreet and big corporation get to steal billions of dollars from this country. But people like me get to be blamed for it. They steal millions. One is given shit type of fs to live off if you ever get it. When I was on it, and ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR JOB, once a month I get a letter telling that I lost the crap they give me because supposedly I didn’t do this or that. And of course it’s all lies. I was on the T with all my assignments. I was on edge pretty much all the time thanks to these slimballs. You get there, they steal half of your belongings, supposedly because you are there to blow up the building, when if anything they are the fucking terrorists by anybody’s standards. etc. etc. etc. some really need to pull their heads outta their asses. Any of you, if you have a job, give it to me and pay me what you want so long that I have enough hours. And watch if I turn it down. I won’t. Til then, shut the fuck up and stop accusing innocent people to the left and to the right for the 1%’s notorious crimes!

        • My grandmother was in her twenties when her husband died a tragic death in 1911. She was remarried and had five children and a nice home but her husband ruled the roost. He died suddenly one day at age 39. She lost her house and before she and her children were to be home less, they came and took her children and put them in an orphanage. My grandfather belonged to an organization and had made those arrangements as insurance for them. She got a job emptying hoppers for the railroad cars. It took her ten years to buy a house and get her kids back. My mother was eleven before she knew her mother. You do what you have to do.

      25. If alternative media would investigate the jobs/works program and sub-programs, they would know why Impoverished and working class are demonized by the mainstream media.

        “The state will now impose a work requirement on welfare recipients without dependents, which must be fulfilled in order to receive food stamps. All adults without a disability must have to actually work for food, volunteer twenty hours per week, or enroll in an employment training program if they want to ensure their EBT card (Electronic Benefits Transfer) is loaded each month.”

        Clearly by the author and some of the posters, I’d say some education is in order:
        First, the intention is theater; the Federal government already mandates States under the threat of loss of Federal purchasing of State Treasuries that serve as Federal funding of the welfare guidelines and jobs/works program be administered by the State.
        Second, EBT is food stamps also known as SNAP these days that cannot purchase prepared food like Wonder Chicken.

        What do you mean Federal mandate to States to administer the welfare guidelines and jobs/works program?

        Two compliance guidelines of welfare are:
        *Cooperation (read obedience) to governmental authorities and agencies
        *Medical refusal requires medical note of exemption (read religious and philosophical refusal exemptions as waived).

        The number of hours per week are derived by benefits and size of household:
        Household of 1 is 20 hours per week
        Household of 2 is 30 hours per week
        Household of 3 or more is 35+ hours per week.

        What happens for non-compliance?
        You attain a sanction that incurs progressive penalties for each additional sanction until the fourth sanction.
        Fist sanction is 1 month ineligibility except medical
        Second sanction is 3 months ineligibility except medical
        Third sanction is 6 months ineligibility and may include medical
        Fourth sanction is 6 months ineligibility and includes medical

        What is the jobs/works program?
        It varies depending on the sub-program that you are placed on if you don’t volunteer somewhere or ‘internship’ for such as to the Salvation Army, Clerk at a Psychiatric treatment center, or etc.
        In any case, you are now a ‘independent contractor’ to BLS among other accounting gimmicks. Does the welfare rise with such make a bit more sense? Yeah, it’s part of the program that justifies the statistics…

        One subprogram is advertised as helping you look for work. What it does is provide you with mandatory job leads, you are required to apply for. This focuses on governmental or governmental contracted positions.
        Oh how many governmental contracts have we seen posted by alternative media ranging from FEMA to illegal immigrant surge camps, and etc? FEMA Corps and TSA are two fields of DHS umbrella amazingly filled by participants part-time.

        While I am on FEMA Corps, I doubt that’s the actual name of the division given it doesn’t contend with disaster relief or any such. It is broken down into squads predominantly trained to contend with insurgencies and terrorists in rural settings on US soil. This division is seemingly filled by participants on their 2nd or above sanction, and their training is closer to akin to Sherman’s March than any form of SWAT style raid.

        Why does it matter they enrollment is down, and they’re working?
        Fabian Society ‘You will be provided, food, water, shelter, and clothing to live a quality life’.
        ‘Those who produce less than they consume will be considered useless eaters’.

        While you’re on the program, you are within the system categorized as a consumer. With the jobs market the way it is and your access accounts for a multi-trillion Dollar industry for TBTF banks what TBTF banks create, monitor, and maintenance and ultimately control the functionality of your access. According to other alternative sources, Techs are being recruited to attack the banks, and this follows the jobs/works mandate being accelerated for the last 7 years while it coincides with accelerated enforcement of the welfare guidelines.
        Remember, May-June is when the Federal Reserve is expected to increase interest rates. It is also when IMF will remove US’s veto powers and enable the Chinese Yuan becomes a reserve currency under SDRs as well as other issues.
        I count 3 prongs that will turn Jade Helm 15 live:
        *Banks are cyberattacked
        *Welfare guidelines strictly enforce the Federal mandate
        *Jade Helm 15 includes DHS umbrellas that include FEMA Corps and TSA two arms predominantly manned by jobs/works mandatory job leads.

        Maine Republicans are playing theater with Democrats utilizing enrollment to codify Federal mandates on not just the State of Maine but all other States.

        Below is a paraphrase of an response that I’ve gotten.
        ‘If you’re faced with non-compliance resulting in your third or fourth sanction resulting in 6 months ineligibility that may or includes medical ineligibility to open fire on Americans, are you saying you wouldn’t open fire on Americans? You got to be able to eat to live. It’s them or us.’

        I found it interesting mainstream media supports progressive agendas but then publishes welfare narratives without discussing the Federal mandates to the States to administer the guidelines and jobs/works, and the alternative media runs with the welfare narrative opposed to other mainstream narratives, yet the only thing not available online with time to kill is the guidelines themselves. The guidelines are only printed to eligible enrollees as you are signing a contract to them…

      26. Is this a good thing? Sure, it’s a step. However, the exemptions here are much too easy to get around. Have kids or file for a disability, easy mode. If people truley understood just how easy it was to get disability benefits they’d understand.

        On the other hand, don’t fall for this charade. Just another trick by the real a-holes to make us fight amongst ourselves. Are the people getting this benefits poor? Yeah, but so is everyone else on this forum if you really want to compare it to the people holding the real money, and thus making the policies and laws. Instead of fighting the poor guy fight the asshat that reply needs to be taken care of. Things aren’t this black and white, ie republican/democrat, rich/poor, black/white, conservative/liberal, it’s just terms to separate people and make them fight with each other while for the people holding the real power its business as usual.

        • I don’t understand how some people get on disability so easily. I am in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. I have more bad days than good. I have severe pain and optic neuritis at times, and fall down from paralysis that can come and go with no warning.

          BUT I cannot get disability. I’ve been turned down three times. They have said I cannot get it until I’m worse than where I’m at now. I will have to get an attorney to fight it.

          • I got mine without an attorney. I made it to their first doctor’s appointment where he discovered my back was broken and every nerve in my body was damaged. I went almost straight to surgery. The doc wondered how I managed to walk into his office on my own.

            (it wasn’t easy).

        • You’re article falls a bit short so let me ask a few simple questions:

          Of the “corporate welfare” subsidies how much is in direct payment of cash to corporations that pay no taxes, create no jobs, and have no taxpaying employees?

          Of the “traditional social welfare” subsidies how much is in direct payment of cash to the recipients, how much in net taxes do they pay, and how many tax paying jobs do they create?

          Surely a company receiving a tax break (a break reducing their tax burden, not a cash payment) pays less in total generated net tax revenues and creates fewer jobs than, say, a “welfare queen” with 5 children by different and probably unknown fathers who receives food stamps, housing, medical care, transportation and other benefits?

          So we need more spent on creating welfare queens if we ever want to solve the national debt and unemployment problems, right?

          There’s an old saying about comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges that seems to be left out of leftist arguments. A surprising percentage of people never seem to realize this (probably because they are educated in the welfare subsidized public school systems of the country and taught not to think about what they are told, just accept it without question as such).

      27. For people who were born into welfare families, free stuff is all they know. Imagine the level of service these folks would deliver – no thanks. Then people who want and need jobs can’t get them due to the requirement hiring the welfare crowd. Besides, the system is too far gone to fix it.

        • My best friend is a case worker and has told me that in as little as 2-3 years, Obamacare will be all tied in at the welfare office. Not signed up for the marketplace or some form of insurance? NO ebt and SNAP.

          In California, they passed a ban on exemptions for vaccines, making it mandatory to get them. She also told me that eventually, your medical records will be tied in there as well…. no vaccines? NO snap or EBT.

          The walls are closing in.

          • EBT and SNSP and such welfare recipients are getting it free anyway.

            The only administrative problem I see with this is providing it to the illegals, but that can probably be accomplished by automatically signing them up for amnesty at the same time they are signed up for the other welfare programs.

      28. This may sound cruel and politically incorrect, but I think the Germans have the right idea with these people. They basically tell women in the 18 to 50 category that if they want to live a life with no career or job vision, then they should do sex work. Clean themselves up, get fit and get working in the sex trade. You can smoke all the weed you want and hang around night clubs and drink. Even do some lines of coke. But don’t sponge off the welfare system.

        I realise with a lot of the skanks and obese heifers in the US this can be a problem but if their EBT is pulled and their free housing, then it can be made conditional they need to lose weight, get some hygiene habits and then get back out there and work that booty.

        • Women here in the US have it better than that. All they have to do is get ONE schmuck to marry them, pop a kid out and get a divorce. Now the bitch has a free meal ticket for 18-23 years while driving the man into financial ruin. If she wants to be really vindictive, she only has to utter the words, “HE Raped Me” or “He abused Me” or “He hurt the child” while getting the divorce, and the man has a slim and none chance to see his child ever again…

          If my obligation is to keep supporting the ex- wife where is the “Equal Rights’ argument then?” Isn’t her personal responsibility to care for herself? Isn’t she an ADULT? If both parents have equal rights, then why are women given preferential treatment when in court? Yet another perversion of JUSTICE under the LAW…

          • Actually, on second thought, not even marry, just get knocked-up, and she’s set…

            MAC, this really is getting ridiculous….

      29. I do not have a problem with helping those in need. I have a huge problem with the abuse of the welfare system.

        • We went through a major welfare reform about 15 years ago, but progressives in congress have since completely unwound those reforms. We are back into the welfare business of paying women to produce a baby every five years to keep the checks coming, and create new generations of ignorant ferrel children raising themselves on the streets.

          • I agree: it is a huge mistake to dish out welfare to these women to encourage them to have babies, when the evidence shows those children will suffer for the lack of resources available to help them get on in life. The right thing to do is to encourage people without jobs to have no more than one child.

            In the UK, you see whole communities plagued generation after generation with ignorance and poverty as a result of parents who do not either value education nor have the resources to have their children properly educated. The children then repeat the same mistakes and failures of their parents.

      30. When I was a kid, back in the 70’s, it was a shameful thing to take welfare. It sure wasn’t something you would hear people brag about! My parents were blue collar workers, who worked their entire lives in a factory. They never saw the inside of a welfare office. This is back when jobs were available and not outsourced. Back when you could bank on a retirement plan and pension. My parents always had money for the things we needed, food, bills, clothes, insurance and car repairs, etc. And a vacation every summer. EVERY summer. They got paid a good enough wage, to where they didn’t have to work two jobs a piece to patch things together.

        We didn’t have crazed controlling liberal authoritarian leftists, the PC police brigade, entire families living off welfare for decades and self righteous helicopter parents. Our country had some problems… but as I recall we still had more freedoms then, than we do now.

        I wish I could raise my kid up in the America I grew up in. It’s a hell hole now.

        • I wouldn’t bring another kid into this mess.

      31. Amazing how they have turned people into slaves working for free=community service.

        Reminds me of the story of the coat of many colors, where all of Egypt became slaves to the government of Pharaoh! Another case of government not letting a crisis go to waste.

        • Being paid in welfare benefits is not the same as working for free or as slavery.

          It’s a totally voluntary thing, no one is forced by law to accept welfare and voluntarily leaving it at will means your work obligations cease as well.

          No one owes you a living and requiring you to work for what you receive is not slavery.

          • Yup, total free choice, the choice to starve!

            All Obama had to do was destroy the economy and the middle class. Job done!

      32. This is another example of how well-meaning Socialists steal our money (taxes) in order to ease their conscience – or get votes. The Government should not be involved whatsoever in social welfare. People need to provide for themselves or, in the case where they are incapable of doing so, it is up to private individuals to intercede of their own free will. While not perfect (no system is), it is much better than the current system. This situation is made worse when we allow lawbreakers (illegal immigrants) to benefit from this immoral program.

        So, as is clear listening to Lucy, this statist policy has taken away humanity from the recipient turning her into a pet: housed, fed, and otherwise completely supported by someone else. And it is a grave injustice to the providers (productive Americans).

      33. You know what?!?!? the system DOES deserve the weed smokers and the drunk and the lazy-fat-dumb-asses who are too stupid and too evil to get off their useless large asses and go to work. It does deserve all those criminals to continue milking it to the ground. And you know why?!?!? because when someone like me is in need. Is able bodied, is reasonably smart, not demanding as far as job/pay, training, and they are doing anything and everything to find something, abstained from having any kids (Thank God for that, considering the stenchy rotten world we live in)etc. They get nothing but Crap. In this country, if you are not black, Spanish, Asian or an illegal, you are not going to be given the due rights that everyone else is getting. Illegals are being pampered like prostitues or pimps, medical this and that, job this and that, college tuition this and that, program this and that. Even free driver’s licences!!!! While the ones they need to address, are being treated like they are not human. In the land of the free and the home of the braves. “The land of opportunity”. We don’t need their plates. They can shove’em up their rears. We don’t need 220.00$ GR per head per month. Just what crap is that going to get done for someone who is looking for job and have minimum expenses each month. Just the monthly bus pass cost over 100 dollars. What is one supposed to do with the remainng 120.00$!?!?! maybe buy a good rope, strangle themselves. Survive the strangling and repeat the process the following month.
        This while all sorts of belligerent wasting of billions and billions of $’s on stupid useless programs are continuing.

      34. When I got out of High School in 1989, I got a job with a contractor installing satellite dishes on people’s homes. I got paid $ 400 per home. Most homes were one box set up. Not even HD or anything. Just a small dish and one little receiver. I did about 2 homes a day for a month. Then Direct TV started to advertise the service and that jumped to about 6 houses a day. Then it really blew up about a year later and I was working from morning to sunset. I made so much money working there. I was able to buy a home, a truck and a new Camaro. I paid off my house in three years. Later in the late 90’s early 2000’s, My house is paid for. My cars were paid for, nothing is new, but they were mine and in good condition. The company I worked for as a contractor shut down about 8 years after I started there. I went to another company and made a lot less, but still somewhat decent. I would clear about $100,000 a year after taxes. Jump to now 2015, yesterday I had a young guy come to my house to install Direct TV, in my garage. Talking to him, he let me know how much he is making. He makes a whopping 9.00 hr. He works from morning to sunset just like I did. He doesn’t even clear what I made on one house. He installs a dish way bigger than the original dish that I installed, it’s now HD. Quality is way better. He doesn’t have any benefits, he has a young wife and kids. His wife works too! They rent and apartment. How are they supposed to make it? How does anybody make it on anything that is being paid now? This goes a lot further than just some so called welfare recipient that no one really knows if that call was legitimate to begin with. She lied about being illegal and then she said something about her not being illegal. Why didn’t they question that? Texas is a heavy Republican state. In Texas they are always pushing the Christian republican scam on the poor. They are always crying wolf about alot of things and most of it is B.S. The big Corporations in Texas have no problems sending all their work down south across the border to Mexico. If they really cared they would keep those jobs in America. But they didn’t, they took them away when they implemented NAFTA. Remember Ronald Reagan being the poster boy for this? These two clowns on this conservative talk show make claims and say things to get people fired up and riled up. They are part of the problem in this country as bad as the Democrats. Can you really believe anything that anybody that aligns themselves with a political party says? After all that they have done in the past to all of us?

        • DirecTV didn’t start until 1994. And there weren’t any DirecTV installers back then. I suppose I could have called a local TV service man to install it for me for $50, but there’s no way anyone would have paid so much for installation that the company could pay the simple screwdriver jockey $400 per house.

          I bought my first DirecTV receiver and dish at Sam’s Club and installed it myself. Thirty minutes after opening the box I was calling DirecTV and USSB to start service. Back then, you had to subscribe to USSB to get Nickelodeon and some of the movie channels. They merged in 1998. My current HD dish is not much larger than my original dish from the 90s.

          Now back in the old days (1970s) of 8′ and 10′ satellite dishes in your yard, the installation was a lot bigger deal, the systems cost a lot more, and $400 might not have been out of reason.

        • +1…And the truth reveals itself to those who would see. If we live in such a great economic system, why do employers set the price for what YOUR labor is worth? The CEO sets his own pay, based on what he / she assumes their worth. Income disparity and rampant inflation are the knife edge to what is cutting down the middle class.

          In the current market, the number of jobs that offer above min. wage to a skilled workforce in relation to the number of viable workers competing for those jobs is grossly skewed in favor of the employer…which is theft of labor (slavery) when you have no say in what your labor is worth….

      35. Have been preaching this very concept for 20 years and still do, but I add this caveat: have them randomly DRUG screened at the same time. Why, you ask??
        Most of us working Joe 6Paks have to submit to random drug screens to keep our jobs..ie to WORK..to earn the money that is STOLEN from us to GIVE to welfare parasites..so why TH not have the “recipients” also pass drug screens?????????? Ummhumm..

      36. This site is contradicting itself or it seems to me. Here is a link to another article from SHTFplan.com,
        https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/america-is-about-to-change-in-a-major-way-everything-that-can-be-shaken-will-be-shaken_04092015

        In it, SHTFplan.com talks about how we all used to be able to get jobs in the USA and we worked hard and supported ourselves but that things have changed, we have a recession and so on, {and the President sure isn’t helping}. Anyway. We’re all commenting on “able bodied” people who don’t work here on this page. Well, I’m sure many do take advantage of benefits. On the other hand, we are in a RECESSION. I’m in my 50’s and can’t get a freaking job. Why ? I can only guess age discrimination and the recession. Because I can certainly recall when within a day or at the most two days I could find a job. But our country isn’t like that anymore. I’d love to stop benefits… it’s the most depressing situation I have ever had.

        Anyway, after reading this page I had just wanted to point out what seems like a contradictory article, from the same site. And I agree with shaking off people who can work jobs that are actually hiring. Not everyone can work in the same job categories.

      37. Will someone tell me why Obozo wants 100,000 new Mooslems in the US each month? We can hardly afford the people who are already here! And those ignorant assholes do nothing but rape and breed. Most an’t read or write!

        • Don’t forget the Mehicans. Remember the pictures of the “children” in the holding facilities…where bathrooms needed to be cleaned more than daily because they didn’t know how to use them?

      38. It won’t matter soon anyway! I’ve been studying this stuff for over twenty years, and it’s ALL about to IMPLODE!!!! People like this caller, whether or not she was fake, are in for a RUDE AWAKENING!!!! When the economy crashes, and by my estimation, it will this year, where will people like her go? The main issue, and one I NEVER FORGET is, what will she say when she stands before God one day, as we ALL will?

      39. How many of that 12,000 just went to another state to live? This idea would work if adopted by every state in the nation. I wonder how many other states will follow suit?

        • Right. i’ll bet many if not most of those 12,000 do not even exist. Or are doubles of people getting checks from multiple places. so, this probably won’t increase the loads on other states. The people probably are phantom people.
          If any are real, then the neighboring states probably will have to do something like this to keep their budgets intact. Or, more likely, the main money printer will just print them up some bailout.

      40. is there a particular reason an able bodied person age 50-70 cannot volunteer their 20 hours a week?

      41. They should make welfare people work for food. This is good, thanks Maine. Now if someone will just get the ptsd bums off of our payroll and make them work as I did when I got out of the military then I’ll be a lot more happy. PTSD[pay the sorry douchebags]can never be re-evaluated. Once the ‘bags’ get it then we have to pay them for life while they sit at home an smoke dope, or hang our with their friends. Yep, we need them off the dole also. thanks and God bless.

      42. Abuse the welfare system?
        The welfare system is an abuse of freedom.

      43. Now you have to make the Demonrats do the same thing in office. I guarantee you there will be no more Demonrats to ever steal your wealth and raise your taxes anymore and allow illegal immigration.

      44. Hey Finally a White Guy who Gets PAID! He’s only getting a few Cheap Benefits. How about the ILLEGAL MEXICANS who get 10x that in Bennies & are CRIMINALS! God Bless Surfer Dude!

      45. End all local, state and federal entitlements other than social security for those over 62 and medicare, also for those above 62.

        Cut taxes of the working people to 0% for the first $100,000 annual net income.

        • What an idea! I bet we could all afford to retire instead of working til we drop. Of course, my idea of retirement is to have a small herb farm and quilting business. Not a big city person at all. They think I’m nuts for enjoying homesy, craftsy things instead of running to the mall or partying all weekend.

      46. Now unanounced visits along with a drug screen, with a rewarded tip line would help help reduce the numbers. Heres another how illegal immigrants scam us tax payers. An illegal immigrant applying for handouts will gather up other illegal immigrants chilfren and present them as their own so they dan draw maximum money, and since no state has a fingerprint or iris database they can’t differentiate. Contact your state rep to get this practice stopped, kids scan thumbprints at school for free lunches they should be required to do the same when being subsidized at home by the state as well, then we could reduce fraud the next time a welfare illegal is required to bring in the kids for a check up.

      47. I have an even more pressing question:

        “Why are those with children left out of this law?”

        All this law does is encourage people to drop a load in the first person they can / receive a load from the first person the can, in order to get freebies. Most folks who WON’T work for a living also couldn’t care less what happens to their kids…. so.. why should we?!!!?

        • BOTC people. BOTC is pronounced “Bought-See” Bring On The Collapse. A reset is the only thing that will help this country. I just hope, for the conspiracy minded folks, that the reset is not by CME or EMP or nuclear war. That would be quite a bit harsher than an economic collapse.

      48. The information given in this article is inaccurate. The numbers cited are not the number of people on foodstamps but the number of people on TANF. There were 12,500 people on TANF prior to reform and now there are about 6,500 on TANF (the 2,500 figure given here is false). As for foodstamps in Maine, the number of people receiving them is closer to 200,000. I don’t know who started spreading these false numbers to begin with, or what their agenda is, but people should deserve the facts and not this propaganda.

      49. Can’t Wait For The End!

      50. Who is the moron who wrote this? Obvious political pandering and butt kissing for the repubs. Why don’t you check your facts. First of all nobody is allowed to buy non-food items, alcohol or cigarettes with food stamps. They are not even allowed to buy things like chicken already cooked or something. Secondly most of the people are already working and can’t make ends meet anyway and many are elderly and children. You people make me sick. The ignorance of the facts is so rampant it scary as well as pathetic. Do any of you even know where your tax dollars are really going? Instead of having your heads up your butts, how about taking a look, making the actual effort to think for yourself and taking a look at public records to see who is really taking advantage of the American taxpayers.

      51. It is cute how they are posting an article about Maine but slip in the interview from someone in Austin Texas getting welfare and smoking weed. It would be easy not to realize that the interview was from a texas source.

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