In Oregon, food stamps will buy you Starbucks frappuccinos
posted at 6:00 pm on December 7, 2011 by Tina Korbe
Ever read a personal finance advice column with regularity? It’s usually just a matter of time before the columnist posts a piece headlined something along the lines of “Five Easy Ways to Save Money This Season.” Inevitably, the first of the “five easy ways” is to forego the specialty Starbucks drinks. Save $3 a day — or more than $1,000 a year! Invest that money at 5 percent compound interest and, in 10 years, you’ll have $1,628.89!
It’s all very tedious and plenty of folks would rather just have the caffeine fix now, as Starbucks’ success attests — but, the point is, most people who indulge in custom frappuccinos with any regularity know they’re overpriced and probably leave the coffee shop feeling vaguely guilty for having splurged yet again. My compromise: Buy the glass-bottled four-packs at Walmart. Still pricey, but not outrageously so.
But, if I were on food stamps in Oregon, I’d indulge in a luxury coffee concoction far more frequently than I do. Why? Because my Oregon Trail card would cover it. Sure, taxpayers would be on the hook for my caffeine addiction, but I wouldn’t think about that.
Fox 12 in Oregon reports:
With the help of Jackie Fowler, who has a “supplemental nutrition card” or Oregon Trail Card, Fox 12 visited an in-store Starbucks within a Safeway in the town of Salem. Fowler purchased a tall Frappuccino and a slice of pumpkin bread — and paid for both using her Oregon Trail card.
“It’s crazy,” Fowler told Fox 12, showing off the receipt for $5.25.
“They’re overpriced as it is,” said Fowler of the specialty drink. “That’s money that somebody could be eating with — a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk.” Fowler, who made the purchase only for the purpose of Fox 12′s story, says she thinks it’s a huge misuse of the food assistance program.
On a serious note now, this report makes me thankful for folks like Jackie Fowler. Actually, if I were on food stamps in Oregon, I would want to be just like her. But, sadly, it’s all too true that many people spend other people’s money more easily than they spend their own — and, if a system can be abused, some people will abuse it.
A spokesman with the Oregon State Department of Human Services said they will look into the matter. I hope so. Stories like this one — however small it seems in isolation — help to explain why so many people have so little faith in government programs.
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Is it true that people are simply applying for disability(and receiving it) once their unemployment benefits run out?
Doughboy on March 28, 2013 at 3:24 PM
Federal spending grows the economy, or so say the Democrats. This “growing use of food stamps” factoid must mean the economy is booming.
Right?
MTF on March 28, 2013 at 3:25 PM
yes. and your president loves it. and all of the braindead voters love it. and everything is just perfectly fine.
GhoulAid on March 28, 2013 at 3:26 PM
Reason 12 Obama was re-elected.
rob verdi on March 28, 2013 at 3:26 PM
Food stamps are the other single payer system.
Oil Can on March 28, 2013 at 3:26 PM
SSDI has become the new Welfare system, destroying all the work in the 90s to end the cradle to grave welfare system that was so damaging to some elements of the working class.
18-1 on March 28, 2013 at 3:26 PM
The ‘New Normal’ in Obowmaville…
… It’s paradise, isn’t it?
Seven Percent Solution on March 28, 2013 at 3:27 PM
All according to plan.
Meople on March 28, 2013 at 3:27 PM
All going along with the plan of bho from day one of election. Suck as much off the taxpayers and ‘santa bho’ gives to those who want? There ARE those who really NEED help, but it probably is a tiny bit of the huge numbers getting aid!
It sure doesn’t help for the US to give information to mexico on how to get food stamps, all other help when the illegal aliens cross the border!
Crater the US from within, that is the plan and so far it is going big guns!
L
letget on March 28, 2013 at 3:28 PM
C’mon, libtards – where are ya?
Midas on March 28, 2013 at 3:31 PM
Man the residual hits from Bush’s mishandling of the economy just keep on coming.
/lib
Kataklysmic on March 28, 2013 at 3:32 PM
All by design, thought, intent, and action…
… but Obowma’s a nice guy, he’s just in over his head a little.
Seven Percent Solution on March 28, 2013 at 3:33 PM
Home of the free…stuff.
Flange on March 28, 2013 at 3:34 PM
It’s not “odd” at all. The ongoing decline of the middle-class is happening per plan, as is the rapid growth of the govt-dependent underclass.
What’s “odd” is that anyone could think that politicians are actually trying to improve the American economy and strengthen the middle class, when it is far more profitable for them (in terms of gaining power and wealth) not to….
DrDeano on March 28, 2013 at 3:34 PM
Utopia is a queue, for luxuries like bread and milk and cheese.
Utopia is the State, feeding the People.
Utopia is a People, beholden to the State.
Utopia is a People, beholden to the State, who are required to obey the State.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 28, 2013 at 3:35 PM
Where is sesquipedalian? Where is libfree? Are they too busy mocking Christianity on other threads to defend their own Messiah on this one?
steebo77 on March 28, 2013 at 3:36 PM
Except when the money runs out.
Doughboy on March 28, 2013 at 3:36 PM
The face [literally] of Utopia:
Keep Obama In President
OhEssYouCowboys on March 28, 2013 at 3:37 PM
I can’t even tell you how many people in Denver just get them because they can. Wide spread abuse is the new normal in Denver.
jawkneemusic on March 28, 2013 at 3:44 PM
So this is what an Obama “turned the corner” Reid “we’re in a strong recovery” recovery looks like. I see.
This country had a national IQ test last November. We failed.
Physics Geek on March 28, 2013 at 3:47 PM
The requirements for disability now appear to be that one be a urban high school drop out with and drug and alcohol problem.
tommyboy on March 28, 2013 at 3:47 PM
I really don’t understand why we keep asking the same questions.
The government is expanding the rolls for welfare to entrench their constituency.
It’s that simple.
Keep your voting block dependent on the government dole, you’ve secured your own continued reelection and secured your Party’s power.
catmman on March 28, 2013 at 3:47 PM
in a country as rich as ours, no child should go hungry
nonpartisan on March 28, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Not really, twenty million pandered to illegal immigrants is bound to have some effect.
antipc on March 28, 2013 at 3:48 PM
50,000,000 Americans cannot even feed themselves without the rest of us paying for it…
PatriotRider on March 28, 2013 at 3:49 PM
My prediction is that we will get the 5.7% unemployment top line number but with a continued drop in the participation rate which will result in a big increase in SNAP enrollments.
chemman on March 28, 2013 at 3:49 PM
It is a change in the attitude of more and more American to con the system out of everything they can. My son double-qualifies for disability- hearing and mobility- and is disgusted by all of these slugs while he continues to work and be a PRODUCER.
michaelo on March 28, 2013 at 3:49 PM
You know, it’s almost like they’re not really trying to improve the economy, but crash the economy on purpose. Nah. Obama’s a nice guy.
The Rogue Tomato on March 28, 2013 at 3:51 PM
The FED will make sure that doesn’t happen. They are already buying around 50% of the debt at monthly auctions.
chemman on March 28, 2013 at 3:52 PM
WHY NOT? Teach a man to fish, don’t give him fish….
nazo311 on March 28, 2013 at 3:53 PM
Success!!!!!
hawkeye54 on March 28, 2013 at 3:54 PM
Define hungry. My mom and her brothers and sisters got 1 meal a day during the depression lard and sugar or bread and milk. They all busted their gluts to make sure that didn’t continue. Everyone of them became extremely productive adults and well educated. Can you say the same thing for the current crop of children who the government takes care of?
chemman on March 28, 2013 at 3:56 PM
A factor contributing to historic demands for survival supplies, firearms and chronic shortage of available ammunition.
Lock, load and keep stocking up.
Other peoples’ money will run out. It simply can’t keep up with demand.
hawkeye54 on March 28, 2013 at 3:56 PM
Perhaps overwhelm and bankrupt the system? A national catastrophe and crisis of which to take advantage.
hawkeye54 on March 28, 2013 at 3:59 PM
Cloward-Piven strategy working exactly as planned.
cool breeze on March 28, 2013 at 4:01 PM
By permanently expanding federal responsibility for the security of all Americans, Roosevelt believed that the necessity for government make-work employment and other forms of Depression relief would disappear. In his address before Congress, Roosevelt argued that the continuation of government relief programs was a bad thing for the country:
. Source: State of the Union Address before Congress on January 4, 1935, President F. D. Roosevelt
Reprinted in cfr.org
IlikedAUH2O on March 28, 2013 at 4:02 PM
How’s that ,
HopeLessNess/ChangeLessNess working out for ya Lib/Dem/ProgTards!
canopfor on March 28, 2013 at 4:04 PM
But their parents should have free cell phones, right?
txhsmom on March 28, 2013 at 4:04 PM
I suppose if you keep lowering the bar for government assistance, eventually, you’ll have more money going out then coming in.
Gee, isn’t every entitlement giving out more than its taking in?
Kini on March 28, 2013 at 4:05 PM
And no child should be exterminated in the womb. And no child should be raised by a single mother. And no child should be made a dependent of the State, for the sake of being made a dependent of the State. And no child should be required to say a pledge of allegiance that omits “under God.” And no child should be suspended, for drawing a play gun, or making a play gun out of his fingers.
In our country, a child has much to overcome, because of filth like you.
OhEssYouCowboys on March 28, 2013 at 4:05 PM
I’ll make you carry my card around everywhere you go, too…haven’t designed the mark of the Beast yet, though.
IlikedAUH2O on March 28, 2013 at 4:05 PM
My 16 year old died due to PC.
Top that.
IlikedAUH2O on March 28, 2013 at 4:06 PM
The permanent underclass doesn’t want to fish… they want to buy the fish FOREVER with EBT…
… and the ONLY way to continue EBT FOR LIFE is to vote Democrat…
ANOTHER in the long line of ‘success stories’ for the Plantation Party!!
Khun Joe on March 28, 2013 at 4:07 PM
But why is it going up?
Chuck Schick on March 28, 2013 at 4:12 PM
And there should be no ugly pictures of Dear Leader.
CurtZHP on March 28, 2013 at 4:14 PM
The Plantation Party indeed KJ!
(Post stolen from EastofEden)
Rovin on March 28, 2013 at 4:18 PM
As soon as the safety nets and law enforcement system comes crashing down under the weight of rising crime, plummeting budgets, and growing social tensions, the welfare queens will go off the rocker demanding to have their trove filled. And then the hunting season for them will start.
Archivarix on March 28, 2013 at 4:22 PM
Last year my income dropped by around 30%. It put a big squeeze on my budget, especially the food bill. Going from $275K to to $200K is no picnic. I think I’ll apply for food stamps.
NOMOBO on March 28, 2013 at 4:24 PM
Newsflash: we’re broke.
Kataklysmic on March 28, 2013 at 4:39 PM
Great article: A Nation Suckered; Bilking Billions from the Government
No doubt you were shocked, shocked to learn that Jeffrey Hillman, the “barefoot beggar” who famously received a free pair of boots from a kindly NYPD cop, turned out to be a scam artist who preys on the kindness of strangers to provide him with an apartment, money and plenty of footwear — as a Post investigation discovered.
slickwillie2001 on March 28, 2013 at 4:50 PM
Not that I’d be at all unhappy to see said queens running from a conservative with a gun screaming “OH LAWDY JEEZIS HEP ME!“, but keep these things in mind at all times:
1. You are heavily outnumbered; pretend they’re zombies and don’t let them get close. At 100 yards you and a deer rifle are a match for a dozen leeches – at 10 yards, not so much.
2. The inner cities have been their turf since childhood and they know the area, you probably do not. Think ‘urban Vietnam’.
3. A bunch of former leeches isolated from food/water/power/heat and trapped in a building is just about as neutralized as if they were all shot. You do not have to take back every building even if it WERE physically possible, and it isn’t.
4. Remember to look up; someone could be about to drop a heavy object from the rooftop. LEO’s in some cities can already attest to this.
5.. If you just randomly shoot people, nobody will like you all that much. But if you focus on making the lives of productive citizens better by taking out the trash and publicly showing them how this is coming true, they will.
MelonCollie on March 28, 2013 at 4:51 PM
It’s on the rise because it’s a debit card you can use for anything you want, not the book of stamps used groceries in the 70′s to actually buy food.
I think California recently proposed a law saying EBT cards couldn’t be used in casinos. Don’t know how that went. It probably offended a pitboss and was struck down by the ACLU.
NoPain on March 28, 2013 at 4:54 PM
This is a shameful failure on all sides.
You better have deductions.
Household size ——— Gross monthly income
(130 percent of poverty)
Net monthly income
(100 percent of poverty)
1 — $1,211 $ 931
2 — 1,640 1,261
3 — 2,069 1,591
4 — 2,498 1,921
That is not much money.
IlikedAUH2O on March 28, 2013 at 4:54 PM
Food stamps 2.0
–bayam
tom daschle concerned on March 28, 2013 at 5:03 PM
The Obama administration spends millions of our dollars every year on a U.S.-Mexico “partnership,” the purpose of which is to advertise the availability of food stamps to illegal aliens coming into the U.S. from Mexico.
Federal law expressly prohibits illegal aliens from eligibility for food stamps, but that doesn’t stop Obama. He does not like the law, so he simply ignores it. Just as with immigration law. Obama does not enforce federal laws with which he personally disagrees. (Oath of office? Never heard of it.)
But don’t worry. Jeff Sessions has already sent Obama a harshly-worded letter about the matter. (Probably good for at least a few giggles in the White House. Not good for much else).
We are rapidly approaching the point where we are going to have to take matters into our own hands.
AZCoyote on March 28, 2013 at 5:22 PM
Grab ‘em by the wallet. Their hearts and minds will follow.
GarandFan on March 28, 2013 at 5:31 PM
Don’t you remember that Madam Pelosi stated that food stamps are great for the economy? We’ll be going gangbusters just about any minute now.
TulsAmerican on March 28, 2013 at 5:35 PM
I’m sorry you missed my point. I understand a family of four with an annual income of $22K is going to have a problem, and will benefit greatly from government assistance. I also know that my situation rightfully disqualifies me from any assistance.
The point I was trying to make is that it is incoceivable that there are so many people who are so poor in the United States that they can’t afford food without government aid. There have to be scammers to reach the level of participation we have recently seen.
And if there are that many poor people in the US, then the government should be ashamed of themselves for creating the mess we are in.
NOMOBO on March 28, 2013 at 7:00 PM
hehe hehe
you’re an evil rich person :)
dmacleo on March 28, 2013 at 7:22 PM
There is enormous fraud in the food stamp program, and SSDI, and other needs-based programs. The problem is, who in the bureaucracy has any incentive to root out the fraud? No one.
slickwillie2001 on March 28, 2013 at 7:43 PM
Meanwhile, 75% of Asian American voters say “me likee bigger government that offer more services”.
ardenenoch on March 28, 2013 at 8:19 PM
Stating the obvious: Food stamps are like first-aid kits… what kind of person or company would brag about how many they had used up? It’s a glaring symptom of failure, not success.
E-R
electric-rascal on March 28, 2013 at 8:58 PM
Shame is a (mostly) long-gone concept, thus our plethora of societal problems. There is no shame when it’s always someone else’s fault.
E-R
electric-rascal on March 28, 2013 at 9:04 PM