Saturday, June 26, 2010

Campaign Log: Checkout Clerk Sees All

Well, she may not see all, but the checkout clerk I ran into while campaigning in Pinnacle Southtown Apartments sees a lot.

A lot of welfare abuse.

Susan Homer sees the customer on welfare bring two carts, paying for each separately, and she suspects the person is buying one for themselves, and the other for a neighbor.

Government money going astray, going to someone not on Food Stamps.

"I'm standing there working in a low-pay job . . . and I see a lot of abuse," she says " . . . I can always tell those people, because they buy the most expensive cuts of meat, and eat cuts of meat I can't afford."

Some will come in and run their cards through to get cash, then turn around and plop down beer and cigarettes on the counter, paying for them with the cash they got off their welfare card.

"It infuriates me," Homer says.

Welfare abuse needs to stop. We need to say, "Time's up. For years and years we've seen this going on, now we've had enough and we're bringing it to an end."

Call it Tea Party Movement, or taking government back into our own hands or more of Obama's "Yes, we can" attitude. Or, say it is something not on the radar of those movements, but something that should be. Call it what you will, let's just make sure this is one of the changes we make.

Some of the welfare refore changes may need to be made at the federal level, but we can do some things at the state level. Many of the programs are administered by the state. The poor and disadvantage should be helped, but let's bring welfare fraud to a screaching halt.

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