Gitzo Loc: Indiana

Maine Welfare Cash Being Spent in Disney World and Hawaii

Sarah Jean Seman | Jan 07, 2014

Individuals on welfare presumably don’t have extra cash to spend on vacations, so it may come as a surprise to find Maine welfare cash turning up in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.


According to Department of Health and Human Service records, cash welfare users from Maine have spent $2.8 million outside of the state over the last three years – and not just in neighboring New Hampshire.
According to HHS records, the top recipients of Maine’s welfare cash are: New Hampshire: $1.4 million; Massachusetts: $360,000; Florida: $206,000; and New York: $100,000.

Measured by transactions, Maine Electronic Benefits Transfer cards have been used 11,328 times in New Hampshire over the past three years. EBT cards have been used 2,918 times in Massachusetts and 1,252 times in Florida during the same period.

Circumstances such as a birth, a family emergency or a job interview make out-of-state spending seem perfectly logical. However many transactions were hard to be optimistic about:

On Aug. 1, 2011, one or more EBT cards were used within a three-minute time frame to access nearly $500 in welfare cash at an ATM in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. That particular ATM happens to be located almost on top of the campus of Disney World Resorts.

On March 1, 2011, at 3:20AM, a Maine EBT cardholder accessed an ATM in Cape Canaveral, Florida, twice, withdrawing $400. The address of the ATM corresponds with Ron Jon Cape Caribe Resort.

Additional Sunshine State transactions occur at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, the Family Fun Center of Lakeland, and at North Miami Beach, Miami Beach, Vero Beach, Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach – all hotspots for Mainers on vacation.


The list goes on to include Las Vegas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Four Seasons Resort Aviara in California

This isn’t an isolated case. More than $69 million in California welfare cash was spent or withdrawn outside of the state between 2007 and 2010. Las Vegas drew the largest sum of $11.8 million.

Just this year, welfare cash withdrawals were traced to casinos and strip clubs in Kansas and Washington. Some states have moved to make electronic benefit transfer transactions illegal in liquor stores, casinos and questionable locations.

According to the Heritage Foundation, welfare spending has increased 16-fold since the federal government began the “War on Poverty” in the 1960s. In 2011 it reached $927 billion.

Traveling to Disney World on tax dollars supposedly allotted to help incentivize work is kind of just embarrassing for the individuals who chose to use the funds so poorly.


I can see an easy fix for this crap; record the transaction when it occurs, then the next time the recipient of the welfare shows back up at the welfare office, point out what they used the money for, and tell them, your welfare has just been cancelled; GO GET A JOB!

I used to know a guy when I lived in Cincinnati who worked for Rumke, a BIG trash collection outfit; he told me that when they collected the dumpsters at public housing projects, 75% of the contents were liquor bottles. Public housing has been a disaster ever since it was started. The taxpayers pay 100 million for a brand new "housing project", (which, when it's new is nicer than than what many hard working people can afford to live in, and within 10 years (or less ), the place is so bad that the board of health declares it "unfit for human habitation", then after sitting empty for a year or two, it costs a few million to bulldoze and truck to a landfill, and the taxpayers end up paying 200 million for the next "project" for the "vermin" to destroy. All of which proves beyond all doubt that it's IMPOSSIBLE to help "poor people" live like "middle class" people by giving them "free stuff". Anything that people are "given", they'll tear it up.

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Good thinking. Should EBT cards be limited to the state they are issued from ? I do. Should EBT cards be restricted from liquor stores or for liquor sales ? I wish they could. Should EBT cards be restricted from buying steaks and fun foods. They should be.

Why the hell are we giving them out like debit cards ?

WTF

Sarge69

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

We shop the specials and clip coupons for our grocery stores. It is not uncommon to see people using the cards in the 'quick-marts' and gas station stores and I'm not referring to milk purchases. Go figure!

TucsonCoyote Loc: Tucson AZ

I need to get myself a nice expensive smart phone, just like the one that lady with the EBT card has at the checkout counter there!...... 8-)

Art Grandpa Loc: Washougal, WA

Did you know that 97% of homes receiving Food Stamp benefits have a refrigerator? Disgusting

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

Expensive? My unlimited plan is like 30bux a month. I can make that in a day returning popcans.

People can be working and still get EBT. Its called the poverty level, and chances are the person who you order your senior discounted coffee from at McDonalds is on EBT.

Art Grandpa Loc: Washougal, WA

No way Musket. People on EBT are people that I don't like and I'm angry about it.

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

Can I go ahead and comment on how your avatar is probably on EBT or is that racist?

ProPhoyo

Also, people who are on EBT should be miserable and not have any fun at all.

Remember, I hate it when the government tells people what to do, but I think the government should tell these people what to do with their welfare money.

ProPhoyo

Also, New Hampshire doesn't have sales tax. So, actually, those people with EBT cards were being MORE thrifty and making sure the money the government gave them would go further by buying in NH.

Art Grandpa Loc: Washougal, WA

ProPhoyo, there's no point in posting in a Gitzo thread. He's a robot that can only speak in pre-written e-mails forwarded from your out-of-touch Tea Party relatives that subsist entirely on vitriol and a fear of the lower class.

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

Its almost like a text version of a very popular news channel.

TucsonCoyote Loc: Tucson AZ

Possibly where you live it's not a necessity?!
Most everybody else needs a place to store perishables I think !?

Art Grandpa Loc: Washougal, WA

My mistake. I misquoted Fox News, it's 99.6%. When will we stop this egregious WELFARE FRAUD? If you can afford to keep your food cold you can afford to get a dang job.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

To bad-mouth EBT recipients in general is wrong. It's the same thing as saying those collecting unemployment comp are lazy. There are always abusers in any program. There are actually citizens who, thru no fault of their own, need "public assistance," particularly elderly and abandoned families. No, me and mine are fortunate and do not need help and we have first hand witnessed abuse, but in this rich state I live in, the wealth doesn't extend into the northeast of inner city.