Notice to food stamp recipients:

[madamesilverspurs]

Effective April 1, 2012

Your food assistance benefits may be reduced if you pay for utilities. This reduction is because the maximum amount that we are allowed to deduct from your income for utility expenses has been lowered.

Please note: this change is not subject to appeal.




Lovely. Just frigging lovely.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Source?

[madamesilverspurs]

3. Letter from the county,

showed up in the mailboxes of food stamp recipients in Colorado.

[montanacowboy]

5. This must be particular to Colorado

I have not seen this in Montana

[montanacowboy]

2. Where is this info coming from?

curious since I work in the field

[madamesilverspurs]

4. See response to #1.

[Lindsay]

6. They really do

want poor people to just hurry up and die, don't they?

[CAPHAVOC]

7. Red, Green, Blue

In the future food will have color labels. Food Stampers will only be allowed certain "healthy" colors. It is for their own good.

[lacrew]

10. At risk of making gross over-generalizations...

My step-son works in a grocery store. He has mentioned that he can spot a SNAP card holder, just by the contents of the cart. Instead of the approach I would take (Ramen Noodles and bags of rice), many (I'm sure not all) take the candy bar and soda pop approach.

I don't look at it as a health issue...but a monetary one. The food stamp dollar could be stretched out a lot further, with a little education on what not to buy.

No I don't advocate restrictions - I drink soda pop and eat an occassional candy bar. But a little education could go a long way.

BTW, a companion program is WIC. It is alot more cumbersome on the grocery store (i.e. it takes longer to complete a transcation); but, the way it prescribes specific food items has soem merit.

[CAPHAVOC]

14. We must control the diet of those who get free insurance.

We are running out of $$. Bad food items should not be allowed.

[Orrex]

20. We could fund the SNAP program for decades if we'd shave just a little of our military budget

Let's pick our targets with a bit more care, eh? Rather than kicking the poor--who get kicked enough in day to day life, believe me--we would be much better off as a country and as human beings if we would work to aid those who need assistance, rather than scrambling to find ways to avoid helping people of low income just because somebody somewhere buys a candy bar.

[My Good Babushka]

15. I used WIC when my husband lost his job a few years ago

The juice and cereal were useful, but I ended up with dozens of boxes of rice, jars of peanut butter, and was often compelled to buy four gallons of milk at a time, which I had to give away, often, or it would go bad.

[me b zola]

16. Poor people are not stupid nor are they your children

Rather than obsess on poor people and their choices ( i know, its such gratifying fun...it makes you feel superior) why don't you worry about the 2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS that
Donald Rumsfeld announced was "missing" from the pentagon 09/10/2001? Or the billions that the pentagon says they have no way of knowing where it all went in Iraq? Oh yeah, cause it makes you feel superior to someone if you get to beat up on the poor.

Posts like yours make me throw up a little in my mouth.

Soda pop! oh the fucking horrors that a poor person wants a fucking treat

Bite me

[lacrew]

17. Bite me. huh?

I think my post was reasonable. In the end, I advocated 'education'...I did not advocate taking away anybody's soda pop.

And my discussion of money had to do with how each individual SNAP recipient could stretch their own food stamp dollar....which has about as much to do with pentagon waste as you do with a Mensa gathering.

Grow up.

[me b zola]

18. People use two rationals to beat up on the poor

a) "my tax dollars!"

b) "they wouldn't be poor if they would make 'appropriate' choices"

True enough that i wouldn't have a lot in comon with those at a Mensa gathering, my IQ is the same as JFK's, just a high normal rating. So if that makes you feel superior to me, can you lay off the poor?

As a people we have forgotten the lessons that those that lived through the Great Depression learned about how to get by on nothing, true enough. But it galls me that so many feel the need to peer into the lives of the poor to judge and evaluate their choices as if the poor are inferior or children.

If you really care about the lives of the poor and truly want to help with education to make their lives better get involved in your comunity. But please do so with humility and kindness.

[liberal_mama]

19. I'm with you

Just because someone is poor doesn't mean they have to be embarrassed about occasionally indulging in candy or pop. People can make their own choices.

[Orrex]

21. I'm sure that you think that your post was reasonable, and that's part of the problem

The abusers of the poor invariably claim that they're motivated by some higher vision and that they're only trying to help people.


The smug condescension of such high-mindedness is unbecoming a progressive thinker.

[Newest Reality]

11. Well,

we all know what the "green" will be made out of

[CAPHAVOC]

13. I prefer Soylent Blue.

But it will lower the cost of Government Health Care. Free treatment comes at a price after all.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. I wonder who made this decision.

BTW, what's the deal with El Paso County?
https://peak.state.co.us/selfservice/selfserviceController?PAGE_ACTION=LoadAPRCT&CURRENT_PAGE_ID=COMPA&tab=5132&POP_UP=Y

[lacrew]

9. Effective April 1, huh?

Do you have an actual letter?

[madamesilverspurs]

12. The letter that was copied to me

is, in fact, legit. It's also bilingual, standard for these parts.

coded FS3020 FS COLA-Utility Allowance

[Orrex]

22. I tried googling "FS3020 FS COLA"

It returned six hits. All of them from this thread.