Many Furious as Maine Pushes Another Step Forward In Welfare Reform

Shae Weatherall

Welfare reform seems to be a hot button issue with millions of Americans. Some people want increased restrictions on what their tax dollars are used for and others want no restrictions nor work requirement for the money they’re handed every month. It seems that at least in the state of Maine, the tax payers are prevailing in the struggle to make poverty a little less comfortable for those that insist on staying in it.

Earlier this year, Governor Paul LePage began enforcing Maine’s work and volunteer requirements in order for recipients to keep their benefits. According to Cybercast News Service, since Maine’s law went into effect, an able-bodied adult with no dependents is required to either work 20 hours a week, be involved in a work training program, or volunteer for 24 hours a month to keep their enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — more commonly called food stamps. If they fail to meet the guidelines, they lose their benefits for three years.

Since that new law, Maine has seen a drop of over 9,000 people from the SNAP program. It’s hard to imagine that there are so many people who refused to “earn” their benefits and instead chose to go without. More likely, they didn’t really need them to begin with. Such is our society now, I suppose.

There were many angry defenders of the sedentary mooches who made excuses and tried to twist the logic of “you work, you eat” into being a barbaric ideology — and they are even angrier now that Governor LePage is set to enact the next step of welfare reform.

Maine Governor Paul LePage (Image via: Google)

There will be an asset test for those who want to receive SNAP benefits, saying that if a single adult with no children has assets which total more than $5,000, then they will not be eligible to collect. It seems logical that if a person with no dependents has that amount of money tucked away or invested into things like snowmobiles or motorcycles, they don’t need handouts, right?

Not according to some liberals. The Portland Press Herald states that using the asset test to decide who is eligible for SNAP benefits is harmful to the beneficiaries’ ability to save money to lift themselves out of poverty.

The LePage administration’s argument for the asset test doesn’t hold up. Rather than encouraging self-sufficiency, the new rule could actually discourage low-income Mainers from saving money. Meanwhile, the truly eligible could be deterred from seeking aid – making it more, not less, likely that they’ll remain stuck in poverty.

Wait. So let me get this straight. These liberals think it’s okay for a person, who spends their money on recreational hobbies or stashes it in the bank, to still be allowed to hold their hands out for some of your hard-earned cash? How does that even make sense? If they have the money to play, then they have the money to pay for their own food.

In more awesome news coming out of Maine about the battle against the able-bodied entitlement addicts, The Washington Post reports that Lewiston Mayor Robert Macdonald has announced his intention to “out” welfare recipients in his city.

In a Thursday column for the Twin City Times, Macdonald said a bill will be submitted during Maine’s next legislative session “asking that a Website be created containing the names, addresses, length of time on assistance, and the benefits being collected by every individual on the dole.”

He wrote that Maine has a Website listing the pension amounts individuals receive — something “taxpayers have a right to know,” he said — and wondered why welfare recipients’ information isn’t also publicly posted.

“The answer: our liberal, progressive legislators and their social-service allies have made them a victimized, protected class,” Macdonald wrote. “It’s none of your business how much of your money they get and spend. Who are you to question it? Just shut up and pay!”

The jig is up. It looks like the mayor of Lewiston, Maine’s governor, and a great number of citizens of the state are all on the same page. They are tired of the fraud, the abuse, and the rabidly entitled attitudes of people who expect something for nothing. They are fed up, as are many hard-working Americans. Most of us don’t have an issue helping our fellow citizens, if they truly need our assistance, but I think it’s safe to say that we are sick to death of giving freebies to societal leeches. The ball is rolling, and I think this may be the beginning of the end for the mooch-machine. It can’t happen quickly enough.

h/t [U.S. World Report]