States hiring ‘foodstamp recruiters’ to increase cashflow

A Washington Post article demonstrates how states are spending taxpayer money to put more people on taxpayer funded programs.

Agood [sic] recruiter needs to be liked, so Dillie Nerios filled gift bags with dog toys for the dog people and cat food for the cat people. She packed crates of cookies, croissants, vegetables and fresh fruit. She curled her hair and painted her nails fluorescent pink. “A happy, it’s-all-good look,” she said, checking her reflection in the rearview mirror. Then she drove along the Florida coast to sign people up for food stamps.

Oddly, there are no news reports of “get off of government assistance recruiters” using pet toys, food or other enticements to pull people off the taxpayer dole and into the real economy. No surprise then that America now has the lowest percentage of the population actually participating in the economy at this point in Obama’s reign.

You see, shiny things don’t entice those that want to do for themselves, strap on a briefcase or put on a pair of overalls and just get things done. Cat food and dog toys just aren’t enough for those Americans.

The recruiter in the post isn’t just some progressive saint, she’s paid .. by the state of Florida to get at least 150 people on to food stamps each month. A goal she exceeds on a regular basis.

As the government is already cutting back hours from FAA air traffic controllers, cancelling childrens’ spring trips to the White House and  seeing the Obamaphone program experience ghastly spending,  why is it that states would be using taxpayer money to fund recruiters to expand programs that are already costing more than the economy can bear? Because they too recognize the benefit of taking in federal taxpayer money and distributing it to others.

the job also has a second and more controversial purpose for cash-strapped Florida, where increasing food-stamp enrollment has become a means of economic growth, bringing almost $6 billion each year into the state. The money helps to sustain communities, grocery stores and food producers. It also adds to rising federal entitlement spending and the U.S. debt.

With almost 50 million Americans now taking in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, otherwise known as food stamps, states see a way to increase their local economies at the expense of federal taxpayers.

Florida isn’t the only culprit in the SNAP lottery:

Rhode Island hosts SNAP-themed bingo games for the elderly. Alabama hands out fliers that read: “Be a patriot. Bring your food stamp money home.” Three states in the Midwest throw food-stamp parties where new recipients sign up en masse.

While this program is intended for the less fortunate, hearing the tale of those able to afford golf carts motorized scooters doesn’t sound much like poverty:

She watched as a few golf carts and motorized scooters drove toward her on a road lined with palm trees, passing Spanish Lakes signs that read “We Love Living Here!” and “Great Lifestyle!” The first seniors grabbed giveaway boxes and went home to tell their friends, who told more friends, until a line of 40 people had formed at Nerios’s table.

Most middle-income families don’t have golf carts and certainly don’t need nor want food stamps.

One story the Post chose to magnify was of a gentleman who had made some bad investments and flushed away his life savings. While a sad story, the article also showed a better support network that he could have used, but why when he has American taxpayers instead?

A few weeks after they moved in, some of their 11 grandchildren had come over to visit. One of them, a 9-year-old girl, had looked around the mobile home and then turned to her grandparents on the verge of tears: “Grampy, this place is junky,” she had said.

Eleven grandchildren? They came from somewhere – his children. If he is to “dig himself out” at someone’s expense, why is it everyone’s responsibility when not that of his own family?

While individuals find the “SNAP” lable easier to carry around than “food stamps” or “commidities” (old reference), states simply like the revenue. As the SNAP brochures handed out from the recruiter say, “Every $5 in SNAP generates $9.20 for the local economy.”

Food stamp benefit enrollment has skyrocketed under President Obama. The greatest benefactors seem to be the states while everyone else sees the disposable incomes shrink.