WIC and SNAP Recipients By State

[child of wonder]

WIC can be a helpful program but there are some that abuse it. I have a good friend who has 3 kids. He works full time plus overtime while his wife sits at home. Because he only earns around $30,000 per year they qualify for WIC. Then, when tax time rolls around, they spend their huge refund (thanks to the child credits, EIC, etc.) on computers, guns, and alcohol.

The only reason they can live month to month on his income alone is because his father passed away years ago and his mother has since remarried and moved away so he's allowed to live in the house he grew up in as long as he pays the property taxes and insurance because the house is paid off.

EDIT: I should add that two of their children are school age. His wife sits at home because she would rather not work.

 

[Mursilis]

The wingnuts say that your family should have just quietly gone into the wilderness and died.

No, the poor should just go to your house, since you're obviously the caring and supportive type, right? You certainly wouldn't turn away the poor, would you? Or are you only generous with other people's money?

 

[quikah]

WIC is a great program. All you can buy is like Milk, juice (if the kids are older), cereal, eggs and cheese. each WIC card has a set amount of each.

Think they added fruits and veggies to them recently to. but not sure my ex-wife's sister was on it for a while

There is a list of stuff you can buy here: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/benefitsandservices/foodpkgallowances.HTM

It is pretty restrictive. Much better designed than the food stamp program.

 

[shiner]

I don't know about Alaska our how the Eskimo/Native Americans are treated there, but Native Americans would make sense for Oklahoma as there are a large number of Native Americans in Oklahoma and they are unfortunately very poor living on reservations and get Federal money.

We don't really have reservations in the classic sense here, except for the Osage and that is in name only. We do have a large population of Native Americans though of every tribe you can possibly think of.

Another thing that is affecting those numbers for us and probably still Texas is the number of Katrina refugees that are still here and most of them are still on various forms of government assistance.

We also have more than our share of illegals here and they are also a resource sucker.

Then of course there is that population of inbred hillbillies down in the Southeastern "Little Dixie" part of the state that are pretty much the stereotypical moonshining, banjo playing and sister marrying caricatures you see in movies about the South.

 

[ayabe]

Both programs have their place and fulfill a legitimate need. But like every program there are those who abuse it. I can't tell you the number of times working as a grocery store cashier in high school I was ringing up a woman with some kids who was on WIC. All of the food was bought with WIC and then they'd have a bunch of crap like magazines, candy, and nail polish which they'd pay for with cash.

Now, could mother X have used her free cash to pay for her kids' food? Probably but I really try not to generalize, every situation is unique. Can't say it didn't tick me off from time to time though.

Whaddya gonna do?

 

[waggy]

. I can't tell you the number of times working as a grocery store cashier in high school I was ringing up a woman with some kids who was on WIC. All of the food was bought with WIC and then they'd have a bunch of crap like magazines, candy, and nail polish which they'd pay for with cash.
?

lies.

 

[werepossum]

We don't really have reservations in the classic sense here, except for the Osage and that is in name only. We do have a large population of Native Americans though of every tribe you can possibly think of.

Another thing that is affecting those numbers for us and probably still Texas is the number of Katrina refugees that are still here and most of them are still on various forms of government assistance.

We also have more than our share of illegals here and they are also a resource sucker.

Then of course there is that population of inbred hillbillies down in the Southeastern "Little Dixie" part of the state that are pretty much the stereotypical moonshining, banjo playing and sister marrying caricatures you see in movies about the South.

Hey! You say that like it's a bad thing. I for one enjoy those corn husk smokin' cousin pokin' hillbilly banjo melodies. Especially the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Old Crow Medicine Show.

 

[Jhhnn]

Can you say the same for the larger cities?

Why would I? I was just countering your FUD with honest information. People of both parties receive assistance on a regular basis, generally out of need. Some of them recognize that voting Republican is like cutting their noses off to spite their faces, others don't.

 

[dainthomas]

Both programs have their place and fulfill a legitimate need. But like every program there are those who abuse it. I can't tell you the number of times working as a grocery store cashier in high school I was ringing up a woman with some kids who was on WIC. All of the food was bought with WIC and then they'd have a bunch of crap like magazines, candy, and nail polish which they'd pay for with cash.

Haha, I bet she drove off in her Escalade/Hummer too.

 

[Zebo]

Haha, I bet she drove off in her Escalade/Hummer too.

Say what you want but there's a market for gold plated, diamond studded Escalades rolling on 24" rims in the hood. i.e. fraud. That does not mean throw baby out with bathwater but a system of working 8 hrs a day, workfare, would make it real hard to sell drugs or work under the table and workfare. Can't be two places at once so the fraudsters would either quit workfare or be truly needy and stay on it as they should.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Why would I? I was just countering your FUD with honest information. People of both parties receive assistance on a regular basis, generally out of need. Some of them recognize that voting Republican is like cutting their noses off to spite their faces, others don't.

I still stand behind my statement, the larger majority of people who receive aid would vote Democratic.

 

[Jhhnn]

Say what you want but there's a market for gold plated, diamond studded Escalades rolling on 24" rims in the hood. i.e. fraud. That does not mean throw baby out with bathwater but a system of working 8 hrs a day, workfare, would make it real hard to sell drugs or work under the table and workfare. Can't be two places at once so the fraudsters would either quit workfare or be truly needy and stay on it as they should.

Not everybody who lives in the 'hood is impoverished, obviously, and people have different ideas as to how to spend their money. We may not agree with their priorities, but that doesn't mean it's right to paint them all as fraudsters.

I still stand behind my statement, the larger majority of people who receive aid would vote Democratic.

I rather suspect that the majority of people receiving assistance don't vote at all.

 

[Modelworks]

The problem with statistics like that is it only shows percentage for the state, not how it is divided in the state. In my county the county went broke from funding social services. The state only gives so much and it is up to the county to supply the rest.

The state will often fund higher visibility counties like capitals in excess at the cost of other areas.

 

[Jhhnn]

Living in a red state I can tell you a far larger portions of areas that vote Democrat, also receive the higher portion of government aid. In DFW, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, the largest population centers, the break down of voting districts that voted Democrat is falls down the same line as the districts that take in the most government aid.
Poor people will always vote for the person that will give them a handout and those are Democrats.

To think that a Red state or a Blue state describes everyone in the state is assinine. Most states are fairly close in the divide between Red/Blue.

That's a very broad and unsupported generalization. Apparently, what you're saying is that people are more likely to vote republican when they have good jobs, mortgages they can afford, and a stake in society...

Which is what republicans said we'd get from trickledown economics, but that's not what happened, at all. Which is why the public bought into the "Ownership Society", too, which turned out to be just another flimflam, a tool in the ongoing top down class warfare Republican leaders and financiers are waging.

The vast majority of people receiving assistance of any kind would rather they weren't, that they had a decent job instead and some prospects for a brighter future. If Republicans were actually offering that instead of a beatdown, they'd have more support among the working class everywhere. But they're not, so they don't.

 

[Darwin333]

Not everybody who lives in the 'hood is impoverished, obviously, and people have different ideas as to how to spend their money. We may not agree with their priorities, but that doesn't mean it's right to paint them all as fraudsters.

He didn't paint them all as fraudsters just those driving an Escalade with $15K rims.

I rather suspect that the majority of people receiving assistance don't vote at all.

They sure as hell do around here. A large portion of the "poor vote" is actually sold to the highest bidder around here. I should have been a pastor, almost as good of a racket as a bankster.

 

[Jhhnn]

He didn't paint them all as fraudsters just those driving an Escalade with $15K rims.

They probably lease the Caddy, and basically rent the rims from guys like this-

http://rimdiscounters.com/

It's like having a 60" TV from Rent-a-Center.

They sure as hell do around here. A large portion of the "poor vote" is actually sold to the highest bidder around here. I should have been a pastor, almost as good of a racket as a bankster.

Nice aspersions! I didn't realize you were one of Rush's devotees...

Obviously, you couldn't substantiate that remark if your life depended on it.