It's not quite a scarlet letter.
But a Chandler Republican lawmaker wants the debit cards now given to food-stamp recipients to be bright safety orange. And if there's any doubt what the card pulled out of someone's wallet at the checkout is, that would be erased by the words "Government Food Stamp Card" stamped across it in large black print.
First-term Rep. Jeff Dial said his goal is not to stigmatize those who qualify for the aid, formally known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Instead, Dial said he wants to prevent fraud.
"If that does concern people that they have a bright orange card, I hope they go get a better education or better jobs and stop using that card," he said.
Yeah, he doesn't want to stigmatize people who have to resort to SNAP, he's just hoping the bright orange card will embarrass people enough to make them start their own business. SNAP cards are run by the credit card and bank companies anyway, they have quite a bit of fraud protection on them (that taxpayers are paying the credit card companies and banks to handle.) The bright orange thing is just to remove any dignity they might have left, because there are really tens of millions of jobs out there, people are just out of work and on SNAP because they're all lazy welfare queens driving Cadillacs.
There but for the grace of God goes this nitwit. Can they pass a law that forces this guy to wear a bright orange jacket that says "Arizona Government Employee" on it?
Orange? Wouldn't the cards be more satisfyingly humiliating and degrading if they were bright pink, like the underwear Senator-to-be Arpaio makes his prisoners wear in Arizona?
ReplyDeleteDial Translated: Criminals have their pride, and I should know. Only a person who is TRULY hungry would use a bright orange food stamp card.
ReplyDeleteJeff Dial is Vice-President of his daddy's chemical company. He has never needed to look for a job in his life.
ReplyDeleteSo Zandar believes food stamp fraud in an $80 billion government program isn't a problem? He's lying again. Even conservative estimates put the total fraud between 4 and 10%, which would be $3 to $8 billion a year at the low end.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is these days it's probably closer to $10-$20 billion in fraud per year.
I'd say the cost of making the cards bright orange to prevent fraud is reasonable, given how this money ends up going to drugs and crime, yes?
But you lie about that, too.