Welfare cash may have been used to get a Massachusetts drug dealer “out of jail free.”
The Boston Herald reports:
Kimball Clark, 45, was locked up Friday on drug-dealing charges—again—when he was overheard using his one phone call to ask the person on the other end of the line to “get my EBT [Electronic Benefit Transfer] card and go to the ATM and get the money to bail me out, get me outa here tonight,”’ according to a Boston police report.
The EBT system provides benefits—including food stamps and cash assistance—through a plastic debit card.
Although Clark posted bail, says the Herald, where he got the money remains unverified.
But that’s part of the problem. State Representative Russell E. Holmes (D) said that “there’s no way to track it. When it comes to how much of this has happened in jail, there’s no way for us to know that.”
“It’s another outrage,” said Massachusetts state Representative Shaunna O’Connell (R). “When we were on the EBT Card Commission, I fought to get bail bondsmen on that list of places where people could not use their EBT cards. They fought me on it and told me people can’t use their EBT cards in that way.”
O’Connell went on:
The problem is that you can tell people they can’t use their cards here, but when they can go across the street, get cash and then pay their bail or get a tattoo, that’s the problem.… You can’t stop that. It always comes back to cash access.
According to the federal government’s own data, welfare fraud is costing taxpayers billions each year. On top of fraud, recent events such as an Alabama nightclub advertising a “Food Stamp Friday” party ($5 entry with a food stamps card and free shots at the door) illustrate a great need to reform a welfare system that fails to promote personal responsibility.
The vast majority of the federal government’s 70 plus welfare programs do not include measures to promote self-reliance. Work requirements or time limits are either non-existent or weak. Additionally, the federal government has even been promoting measures to make it easier for individuals to get on welfare and stay on it.
Government dependence does not help individuals; it creates a culture of entitlement where fraud can flourish. Welfare programs should encourage personal responsibility by promoting work. Doing so respects not only the dignity of individual in need but also American taxpayers.
you gotta love em. Don't get mad at the people that take the money, get mad (vote out) the people that give it to them…
When you can withdraw funds from your ebt card from an atm, then the skies the limit on what you can spend that cash on.
http://www.ebtcardbalance.com/
Urine tests for ALL lazy, drug addicted, alcoholic welfare bums! If they fail, they are immediately booted off welfare and their children are put into state custody until these bums successfully complete a rehab program and find gainful employment to support themselves and their families!!!
PUT A STOP TO WELFARE THIEVES!!!
Why not? They were used for gambling in California.
Why would anyone be foolish enough to think that the majority of welfare recipients would use their "Obama Money" any differently than they would use any other money they are given? It will get spent on their essentials (such as booze, drugs, the latest fashions, get their nails done, etc., etc., ad nauseum).
AS LONG AS THERE IS SO LITTLE MONITORING ON THERE CARDS THAT OUR GOOD GOVERMENT HAHA SO GLADLY GIVES OUT YOU WILL HAVE PEOPLE ABUSING THEM. THESE PEOPLE THINK THAT THIS ISTHERE CREDIT CARDS AND THEY DON'T HAVE TO PAY IT BACK JUST KEEP SPENDING
Does this really surprise anyone? Oh yeah, the boneheaded idiots that vote for other boneheaded idiots who pass these laws and are always amazed that anyone would do such a thing with the taxpayers hard earned dollars.
What good are programs that require employment when there are no jobs to be had?
Obama and the democrats are combining the poor and middle class to form the "Dependent" class. Dependent on handouts from a big government. Now that almost 50% do not pay federal income tax, they can vote themselves more and more.
So what's the big surprise! This is certainly not news. After all, these are the voters that the Democrats depend on to retain power in Washington.
There are some people out there that do need temporary help with the economy like it is now. I do believe that welfare should be attached to either looking for employment or training to get employment.
Russell E. Holmes should use the obama's purposed Healthcare database to track the EBT program (once Obamacare is struck down.) This would allow the welfare sector to be adequately tracked.. But then again I'm sure the liberals don't want their speical voting base put under scrutiny. Maybe then those who can't be tracked will understand why the rest of us want government out of our buisness.
To allow a cash benefit on an EBT card is insane! Years ago when I worked as a cashier in a grocery store, food stamp users had to segregate their purchases into healthy foods, which could be purchaed with food stamps, and everything else, which had to be paid for with cash or check. When did this change?
This morning I gave my daughter a shower. I washed her hair with shampoo. Then I conditioned it. After I dried her off, I put moisturizer on her skin because she is very sensitive and I want to keep her comfortable. We brushed our teeth. I flossed my teeth, and then flossed her teeth. I put on deodorant. Then we got ready for our day.
My daughter had a field trip today, so I gave her $5 that her school requested for admission. We dropped her off at school and I took the train to work. I used my Charlie Card to enter the train station.
This was the first 2 hours of my morning. Seems pretty simple and familiar, right?
The outcry for a solution to the fraudulent usage of EBT cards has been heard. But the wrong solution is trying to push its way through.
They want to completely prohibit any cash assistance recipient to use ATMs. No cash will be given under any circumstance. Furthermore, there will be restrictions on what you CAN use the EBT card to purchase. One of the restrictions cosmetics. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) defines cosmetics by their intended use, as articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to the human body…for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance. Among the products included in this definition are skin moisturizers, shampoos, conditioners, toothpastes, and deodorants.
Another restriction will be admission to any performances. Sorry kids, no field trips if your mom receives welfare.
Another no travel expenses. I guess work, school and housing search will have to wait.
Oh, and since there will be no cash withdrawal and money orders are considered forms of cash, those recipients who do not have a bank account and rely on money orders and cash will NOT BE ABLE TO PAY THEIR RENT AND UTILITIES!
These are only a FEW. Please. Read them all.
http://www.malegislature.gov/Budget/FY2013/House/…
To think this all stemmed from a conversation about EBT fraud. This is not fraud. This is depriving the poorest of the poor from sending their children out into the world with CLEAN HAIR! And depriving them of experiencing art and music. And depriving struggling parents to travel to WORK and SCHOOL and HOUSING SEARCH! This has nothing to do with party. This is human degradation. How can poverty stricken parents rise from their state of dependency if they cannot even PURCHASE SHAMPOO AND TOOTHPASTE AND GO TO WORK???
Please help. Please call/email/write your legislators and let them know how CRUEL this is. This isnt resolving fraud. This is sending poverty back 60 years. Please contact the people who can CHANGE THIS!
If I was still receiving EBT assistance, my daughter's morning would have been very different.
Think about this people.
It is easy to hammer on the points of abuse,. How many recipients use the program as intended? When you want to cut entitlement programs you may be cutting of one that might benefit yourself.