Roy Exum
This weekend an estimated 5,000 people in Georgia lost their food stamps. Georgia is one of 23 states that this year are taking the stance that if you are able-bodied and childless, it is time to quit soaking the system. An able-bodied person gets an average of $190 a month in food stamps and suddenly the counties of Gwinnett, Hall and Cobb are complying with a law passed last year that says able-bodied people must work to eat. And reality is setting in fast.
Food banks in the three Georgia counties are horrified that they will bear the burden. Police are worried that people will break laws to eat and other charity-based organizations are concerned as well. Further, there is legislation being written that there is a very good chance the whole state will cut out what it feels are improper benefits this time next year.
Quite obviously we are seeing why Donald Trump is making mockery of the dysfunctional Republican Party. It is not so much about “The Donald” as it is, I believe, a grassroots “revolt” on what America has become. Working people are fed up having to support those who do not.
Consider this: As the year 2016 was dawning in January, Terry Jeffery, who is an editor of the conservative website TownHall.com, wrote that there are more people on welfare than full-time workers in the United States. Three years ago a bogus email, that is still being circulated, claimed 11 states had more citizens on welfare than those who worked.
But Terry’s article, citing a 2013 report by the US Census Bureau, read:
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"In 2013, according to the Census Bureau, there were 105,862,000 full-time year-round workers in the United States -- including 16,685,000 full-time government workers. These full-time workers were outnumbered by the 109,631,000 whom the Census Bureau says were getting benefits from means-tested federal programs -- e.g. welfare -- as of the fourth quarter of 2012.
"Every American family that pays its own way -- and takes care of its own children whether with one or two incomes -- must subsidize the 109,631,000 on welfare."
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One fact-checker said that is not necessarily true, although the figures are correct. “It is an apples versus oranges thing,” said PundiFact. “The word ‘welfare’ has different meanings for different people. Many think it refers to cash payouts to people who aren’t working; others think it includes anyone who receives government assistance of any type.”
So we need to examine the differences. “The beneficiaries in the Census Bureau’s accounting who received TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) and other cash-based payments were dwarfed by those who received Medicaid, food stamps and the food program called Women, Infants and Children, or WIC -- the three most widely used categories in the agency’s accounting.”
Another misleading factor is that if one person in a house of four gets any assistance, the accounting system shows four people got assistance. (One person gets food stamps, all four eat some of the food is the logic.)
Regardless 5,000 people in three Georgia counties are reeling. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed a 40-year-old who says food stamps are the only way he can eat. “I have no car, no home, no cell phone. My feet are so bad I can’t stand for any length of time. I have high blood pressure, my liver enzymes are bad from years of partying and my eyesight is poor,” he said as he applied – and received – a waiver.
According to the Georgia Division of Family and Children’s Services:
* -- 1.8 million people in Georgia receive food stamps. With an average of $190 a month, that is $2,280 a year at a total annual expense of $4.1 billion (with a ‘b’)
* -- 224,321 reside in Gwinnett, Cobb and Hall Counties
* -- 5,818 of those in Gwinnett Cobb and Hall Counties are considered able-bodied and childless. ($13.3 million/year)
* -- 111,000 is the number of able-bodied, childless adults in the state of Georgia. ($25.3 million/year)
State Rep. David Clark (R-Buford) led a House committee on welfare fraud and believes tightening food stamps will “make some people step up and find jobs. It’s not just going after poor people, we have to find some way to motivate these people.” (In 2013 the state of Georgia overpaid food stamp recipients $138 million, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.)
Charlie Bliss, a Legal Aid advocate, disagrees. “The effect is likely to be very harsh on people who can’t get jobs, and who now will have no money to get food.”
Kelly McCutchen, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, insists the new law “is neither punitive nor demeaning – just the opposite – it provides the dignity of work. Too often (welfare) programs encourage long-term dependency.”
So everybody has their own argument but the reality is about 5,000 are out of food stamps. Now what will happen?
royexum@aol.com