Strip Club Welfare and Obama's, "We Don't Have a Spending Problem" Fantasy

There are some things that are always going to be true.  Any recipe that starts out, “brown up a pound of bacon” is going to be a good recipe.  Any business that has, “honest” in its name will cheat you out of your last dime.  When a doctor says, “You may feel a little pinch…” slap a leather strap between your teeth.  Add to this list the fact that some people will always be welfare cheats. 

            I am not shocked that government issued EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards are being used to get money ($158-$433/family/month) out of ATM’s at strip clubs, bars and casinos.   I am a little flummoxed by the lack of concern about the lost revenue that this fraud represents on the part of the Democrats.  The current administration loves forking money over for social programs.  Just like Tammany Hall in reconstruction era New York, they are buying votes and they know it.   The money siphoned off welfare programs by the cheats represents money that could be used to grease the skids of more voters, so why aren’t the Democrats concerned? 

These EBT cards are debit cards issued as part of what most of us would call the Food Stamp program.  These cards are credited with funds, replenished monthly, and can be used at any ATM—including the one conveniently located at the local strip club.  Evidently even the poor are entitled to get their jollies by objectifying women.  Doesn’t sound very enlightened to me, but I’m sure the Democrats have a logical explanation for it—after all, they are feminists, right? 

I thought a reaction to the story about strip club EBT payouts that both presented the party line and the speciousness of the left’s attitude toward this phenomenon was presented by the Western Center on Law and Poverty.  They point out that less than ½ of 1% of EBT’s are cashed in casinos, bars or strip clubs.  They then go on to say that even if money is being dispensed in these places, there is no evidence that the cash is being used in the strip club or casino.  Yup, some poor soul just stumbled into the Foxy Lady Pole-Cat Club thinking it was a day old bread thrift shop and then needed to get some cash to get out again.  Please! 

So, what kind of money are we talking about?  Let’s assume that the number of bad apples actually is 0.005% (not likely); and the figures from the USDA are correct (probably likely); and that money acquired in a strip club stays in a strip club (absolutely certain).  In October, 2012, there were 47.5 million people enrolled in SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program), each receiving both food stamps and EBT cards.  Even using the lowest figure available from these cards, the loss amounts to $37.5 million each month!

I work at a local food pantry each Saturday.  The people I serve, indeed the vast majority of people served by SNAP, are the most vulnerable: children, the aged, women acting as care givers.  The powers that be on the left don’t think the money lost to fraud is significant, but I know what a difference that $37.5 million would make in real (and deserving) people’s lives.  So why is there no action?  Probably because the Democrats, starting with the Little Prince in the Oval Office, don’t think spending is a problem.   They accept these losses as the cost of doing business.  I wonder how they would feel about cutting these programs by the same rate as the fraud.

Preserve welfare for the worthy and keep the faith.