Ah, what it must be like to live in that socialist little paradise known as Massachusetts. Because it is there that the esteemed governor of that commonwealth, yet another corrupt Democrat by the name of Deval Patrick, has been quite busy of late, doing his best to distract attention away from, lie about and downplay the Department of Transitional Assistance admission that it seems to be having some degree of difficulty in trying to locate 19,000 people who have either been receiving welfare benefits or have applied for them. The governor's theory for this ongoing dilemma is that the number represents a "broader
class of people than those who are actually on the rolls today." Huh? Spoken like a true Democrat, which of course, he is.
During a recent news conference, the brilliant Gov. Patrick kept referring to the number of people whose addresses could not be located as just "four percent" of the mailings, as if such a percentage was small enough to be considered as being purely insignificant. This was discovered after nearly half a million letters were sent out to settle a lawsuit filed against Massachusetts last year in part by the liberal think tank, "Demos." A liberal think tank? Talk about your oxymoron. Anyway, The Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) says 19,000 letters came back, marked "Return to Sender," hence the 4 percent that Patrick uses, repeatedly. The Department of Transitional Assistance? Only a liberal could dream up a department with that name.
Fox 25's Political Reporter Sharman Sacchetti asked the Gov. Patrick about it.
Sacchetti: Why should taxpayers have any confidence that the state can effectively oversee this system when we apparently can't even locate 19-thousand people?
Governor: Voting information was sent to a very broad group of people, not all of whom are actual recipients of benefits today. They were sent as a result of a settlement in a lawsuit, anyone who had any interaction with the welfare system in the last year. Not all of those people are still on the rolls. Many if not most people receive their benefits electronically not by mail, but for the four percent of mailings that were returned, you bet your life we're going to scrub through them and make sure the information we have is up to date.
Sacchetti: But the four percent, 19-thousand people, is enough to fill the Boston Garden...
Governor: It's a lot of people, it's a lot of people, not all of whom do you or I know are actually on the welfare list today.
Sacchetti: But isn't that the point, we just don't know?
Governor: No, the point is that under the settlement, we had to send mailings to a broader class of people than those who are actually on the rolls today. So there is information we should pay attention to today from the return of those mailings but it may not actually be indicative of a problem, but we'll know that when we do the scrubbing.
Sacchetti: Should people continue to have confidence in this?
Governor: Yes.
Man, wouldn’t this clown, Patrick, make an excellent used car salesman? Ah, no offense to used car salesmen everywhere. Apparently this group, "Demos," filed suit against Massachusetts because the DTA was not giving welfare recipients the opportunity to register to vote. That suit was filed on behalf of a Lowell woman who said she was never offered an opportunity to register to vote. As part of the settlement, the state agreed to mail out 478,000 letters to welfare recipients, at a cost of $276,000 to the taxpayers. And by sheer coincidence, the daughter of, now Senator, Elizabeth Warren, Amelia Tyagi, is chairwoman of the Board of the advocacy group. During the senate campaign, then Senator Scott Brown criticized the state, arguing the mass mailing was a plan to push more Democrat voters to the polls. And he was probably right.
Meanwhile right next door in yet another little bastion of liberal lunacy, that being the great state of New York, headed up by yet another Democrat, Andrew Cuomo, those on the dole are apparently doing so while watching the pole. Pole dancers, that is. You see, the poor, deserving welfare recipients there are able to take out cash at bars, liquor stores, X-rated video shops, hookah parlors and even strip clubs where they then, presumably, spent their taxpayer money on lap dances rather than on diapers. A database of some 200 million Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) records from January 2011 to July 2012 showed welfare recipients using their EBT cards to make dozens of cash withdrawals at ATMs inside Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn; the Blue Door Video porn shop in the East Village; The Anchor, a sleek SoHo lounge; the Patriot Saloon in TriBeCa; and Drinks Galore, a liquor distributor in The Bronx. My, my.
The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), now there's another interesting name for a government agency, which is responsible for overseeing the "cash assistance program," even lists some of these welfare-ready ATMs on its Web site. One EBT machine is stationed inside Club Eleven, a rather infamous Hunts Point jiggle joint known as much for its violent history as its girls in pink thongs. Cops have been cracking down on that particular little Bronx club since 2009 and shut it down temporarily in 2010. In July, five men were stabbed and two others shot outside after bouncers broke up a 4 a.m. brawl with pepper spray. Club Heat, appears to be another favorite haunt for those collecting taxpayer dollars. That's also a strip club located in the Bronx that dispenses EBT cash, that is also no stranger to violence.
Critics blasted the government for turning a blind eye to welfare’s sleazy money. "This is morally scandalous," said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "I have nothing against strip clubs, but that’s not what benefits are for. I don’t blame [recipients]. If you are poor, it’s a crummy life and you want to have a drink or see a naked woman. I blame the people who are in charge of this." Welfare recipients receive food stamps and cash assistance under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Yet another cockamamie program that's obviously full of waste. Both benefits are accessed through an EBT card, but only cash assistance, meant for housing, utilities and household necessities, can be accessed at ATMs. Ok, so how is a machine supposed to be able to recognize where the money that is being removed from it, will be spent?
A single-person household could receive a maximum $200 in monthly food stamps plus $158 in cash assistance. A family of four could get as much as $668 in food stamps and $433 in cash. The food-stamp program prohibits the purchase of booze, tobacco and lottery tickets with an EBT card. But with the cash-assistance program, users can blow money on such things as strippers or a six-pack of their favorite brew and to tap welfare dollars from liquor stores, casinos and adult-oriented establishments. And apparently there are dozens of such places as pubs, nightclubs and tobacco shops where welfare dough was dispensed, and presumably spent. The Boiler Room, which is described as being a gay dive bar in the East Village, had $120 and $60 transactions a minute apart on Jan. 17, 2011. The bar is around the corner from a Bank of America that takes EBT cards. Hmmm!
Legislative efforts that have been attempted in order to crack down on 'sinful' spending have fallen short. State Sen. Tom Libous (R-Binghamton) passed a bill in his chamber in June that would outlaw welfare withdrawals at gambling dens, strip clubs and other venues of vice, but, big surprise, the measure is gathering dust in the Democratic-controlled Assembly. Libous is looking for a new Assembly sponsor to carry the bill in that house in the upcoming legislative session, after past sponsor George Latimer (D-Rye) was elected to the state Senate. With only one of the city’s Assembly members, Nicole Malliotakis (R-B’klyn./SI), as a co-sponsor, the bill faces an uphill battle. The Assembly typically doesn’t support welfare reform, because its more liberal members think the measures "hurt the poor," Libous said. If the bill remains stalled, the state stands to lose $120 Million in federal welfare funding.
Supposedly, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, that Barry signed last February, requires that states actually prohibit sinful welfare spending by 2014. If they don’t, they’ll forfeit federal cash. "The people who are stealing from the program are the ones I want to go after," Libous said. "Not someone who lost his job or a single mom who has to feed her kids. That’s what this program is supposed to be for." A spokesman with the US Department of Health and Human Services said states make their own rules on EBT cards. Some states already limit where EBT cards can withdraw money. A rep from OTDA, New York’s welfare office, said the state does not choose or regulate which ‘retailers’ get ATMs that handle EBTs. Instead, ‘retailers’ decide whether to use an ATM that accepts welfare cards. Funny, when I think of retailers, I think of WalMart, Target or stores like that, titty bars and porno shops don't immediately come to mind. Buy hey, what do I know?
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