Democrat voters reject work requirements for food stamps

| June 6, 2017

Actually that’s not what the article says but we know instinctively that Ol’ Poe is right with his title. AL.com, an Alabama website, is reporting that when authorities reinstated work requirements for able-bodied persons to receive food stamps, the number of recipients fell dramatically. From AL.com:

During the economic downturn of 2011-2013, several states – including Alabama – waived the SNAP work requirements in response to high unemployment. It was reinstituted for 54 counties on Jan. 1, 2016 and for the remaining 13 on Jan. 1, 2017. As of April 2017, the highest jobless rate among the 13 previously excluded counties was in Wilcox County, which reported a state-high unemployment rate of 11.7 percent, down more than 11 percentage points from the county’s jobless rate for the same month of 2011.

Ending the exemption has dramatically cut the number of SNAP recipients in the counties.

As of Jan. 1, 2017, there were 13,663 able-bodied adults without dependents receiving food stamps statewide. That number dropped to 7,483 by May 1, 2017. Among the 13 counties, there were 5,538 adults ages 18-50 without dependents receiving food stamps as of Jan. 1, 2017. That number dropped to 831 – a decline of about 85 percent – by May 1, 2017.

Statewide, the number of able-bodied adults receiving food stamps has fallen by almost 35,000 people since Jan. 1, 2016. Each recipient receives about $126 a month in benefits.

Do the math: That’s almost $4.5 million a month statewide the taxpayers were paying to feed people who apparently didn’t want to eat badly enough to meet the minimal work requirements; yep, more than $50 million a year to keep all those Alabamans voting Democrat as Lyndon Johnson boasted fifty years earlier. He may not have known how to fight communists but he sure knew his Democrat constituents it seems.

Category: Politics

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Atkron

Some days I just want to turn in my dance card, and go hide out in a blanket fort…shit like this doesn’t help.

Wilted Willy

I think all of the bums should have to at least pick up trash along the road and be drug tested as well. If you can buy crack, you don’t need food stamps!!

Mason

I was observing court about a year ago and watched a probation revocation hearing. The guy was admitting to the judge that he would test positive for weed today, admitted he had failed a previous probation drug test, and that he couldn’t show up for his required piss tests. The reason? They wouldn’t give him free bus passes or pay for his cab to the probation office.

In a rare case of common sense the judge pointed out that weed ain’t free and revoked his prob.

UpNorth

Wow, who’d a thunk it. If you make the lame and the lazy work for their bennies, they refuse to participate.

Ex-PH2

Some states are going broke with these food stamp/SNAP programs. I live in one. Just glad I’m not at a point where I need that and never have been.

26Limabeans

I heard it was getting so bad that OPEC was considering trading in food stamps instead of dollars.

Doc Savage

This is my shocked expression. /sarc/

HMCS(FMF) ret

It ain’t free shit, if it isn’t FREE! Making them work for it is so RAAAYYYYYSSSSSISSSSST!

Right, Joe? Lars?

Graybeard

FWIW, I know some food stamp recipients who are glad to work whenever possible.

I don’t think they would object to this requirement at all. But… they don’t vote (D) either.

Roh-Dog

How about if you get food stamps you don’t vote that year.
I never understood what was wrong with feudalism…

Graybeard

It worked for the Hatfields and McCoys.

streetsweeper

Next year, Georgia does the same thing. Every county in the state and now I’ll paying a lot more attention to those fancy clothes wearers wid the nice Cadillac CTS’s, Escalades and EBT card and roll a cash in their pocket or purse cashin’ out in the checkout line ahead of me, wid tree grocery carts loaded with groceries of all kinds (over flowing actually) and I kid you not.

Jonp

Maine did the same thing with similar results. I detect a pattern.

When you hand out “free” stuff people will take it

AW1 Tim

Yup.I do so love governor LePage. I heard Mary Mayhew announce her candidacy for Governor yesterday on the George Hale/Rick Tyler show. I was so pleased to hear that.

Let’s hope we can elect her to replace LePage and keep Maine working.

One thing’s for sure……. her candidacy must have the left scared because they were all howling about it shortly afterward.

The usual subjects, too: Teacher’s union, Maine Government Employee’s union, Maine People’s Alliance (formerly ACORN) etc.

Gonna be an interesting election, for sure. 🙂

Devtun

No more destructive POTUS post WW2 than LBJ. Probably the most skilled & intimidating politician of his time. This guy didn’t believe in golfing or vacations – he was all business, and knew how to get shit done (and not in a good way).

Casey

Dunno. Nixon had a very liberal domestic policy, and pushed a lot of Democratic Party goals forward.

Remember, his administration owns EPA and Earth Day.

OWB

True, of course. But, Nixon did not knowingly and with very deliberate intention use the welfare system and other government programs to enslave generations of Americans. “War on Poverty” really meant making and keeping a dependent class of citizens to exploit in horrendous ways.

MSG Eric

I would say that creating the EPA initially was a good thing. The problem became giving them too much power to regulate beyond their charter. The bureaucrats got out of control, especially during certain administrations. I’m sure it is just a coincidence that those administrations were Democrat.

FatCircles0311

oh, they working, which is why they don’t want to participate any longer because they don’t have the time.

You figure what what they doing to make them dollars without a job….

Ex-PH2

Evening news report is that the job market is booming (again) and looking for good workers. I don’t think there is any excuse for someone saying ‘cain’t find no job’.
Of course, my view is skewed by my willingness to work as a waitress if that was all I could find at the time, so I don’t have a lot of sympathy for someone who just wants to sponge off the rest of us.

desert

There is work out there, the lazy bastards don’t want work! A little restaurant close to us is down to 2 waitresses, they work their asses off and had to shorten work hours because they can’t find anyone to work!

Yef

Worst American politicians evah:

1) Obozo
2) LBJ
3) Ted, the lion of the Senate
4) Jimmah Carter
5) Woodrow Wilson
6) Clinton the 1st.

I think Obozo is probably the 3rd in this ranking, but his misgovernment still recent enough to put him in first place.

I would probably put both Bushes next, but FDR would likely protest it is his place.

jonp

You placed Woodrow Wilson too far down the list. Carter was just inept, Wilson did lasting damage to this country.

AW1 Tim

Yup. FDR’s policies actually prolonged the Depression rather than help stop it. The only thing that saved him was WWII and the expansion of the manufacturing base and all it’s supporting businesses.

That, plus putting 4 million men into the military.

MSG Eric

Which is funny because when I was in school in the 80s, we were being taught about how “the new deal” saved the country and pulled us out of the depression.

I talk to my younger Soldiers about it and they’ve been teaching how it was actually WW2 that pulled us out of the depression. War is good for business.

USMC Steve

He was also an avowed and rabid racist.

David

Most vote Republican, I live in Al., and cannot figure the political makeup of our state. I would say that 95% of poor whites vote Republican and that 95 % of blacks vote Democrat.

swormy

Many moons ago before I returned to Active Duty, I once worked for my states Social Services agency.

My position was to get those who were able bodied back to work via education, training or if all else failed to work for thier benefits.

The fight that I had on my hands getting people to be productive was epic. Many thought it was thier birthright to draw tens of thousands of dollars each year from various programs and the frustration finally led me to find other employment after several years.

Don’t even get me started on the outright fraud I saw on almost a daily business.

The system needs major overhaul but you’ll never get the Dems to go for it, too many votes involved.

OWB

Add to the problems you stated the simple reality that the bureaucrats want to keep folks dependent upon them – if fewer people are drawing benefits, eventually someone might notice that fewer bureaucrats are needed to supply the benefits.

MSG Eric

It is amazing how hard people will work to avoid actually working. If they just worked in the first place, they’d have it easier.

I saw a similar thing in the Army in more than one unit. People would rather work harder to not do the right thing, than if they just did it the right way in the first place.

The Old Maj

Seems like they did not need it after all.

Joe

Poet hates democrats so much he feels the need to manufacture phony headlines. No surprise there. But I will say, “workfare”, properly administered, is a good thing. More than happy to weed out the deadbeats.

streetsweeper

When I was a yoot, I worked for a rancher whose foreman held onto a pearl of wisdom I often thought was crazy until I grew older. “The meek shall inherit the Earth. This jackass just got hisself a mouthful”.

Joe

Thanks for your life history Poet. I was just pointing out your headline is demonstrably bulls**t.

HMCS(FMF) ret

Hey, Joe… how about posting less and stop standing in line for that free government shit that you live off of and get a job. The Donks (your heroes) use welfare and “government assistance” programs to have an underclass reliant on their whims.

Joe must be one of those “professional student” types that my parents told me about.

Joe

Um, I’m retired after a lifetime of work.

A Proud Infidel®™

You sound like YOU had a hard life of flipping burgers and mopping floors, Joe!

Joe

Hey, the nobility of work and all that…..

Joe

And you don’t get to criticize people for not working, and then turn around and criticize people for working. Incoherent……

IDC SARC

Quitter:)

Graybeard

I tried retirement but my wife had too many things for me to do.

MSG Eric

I’ve heard people tell me they are busier after being retired than when they had a full-time job.

David

Saw an interesting article yesterday saying many illegal immigrants were dropping out of programs such as SNAP for fear they would run afoul of immigration cops by being registered for food stamps. Might be interesting to see how much of this reduction is fueled from that cause?

Angry B

I suspect that many of the able-bodied freeloaders are simply relocating to states where the livin’ is still easy. Curious to know whether the SNAP program sign-ups have grown in neighboring states.

MSG Eric

I’m waiting to hear the news about California’s population suddenly increasing by 5ish million….