"If you are on food stamps, in the grocery store, you should thank the person in line behind you."

[npk]

Today on Neal Boortz radio program, Mr. Boortz stated that those people who are on food stamps should, when in line at the grocery store, take the time to turn around and give a personal thank you to the person in line behind them, because most likely that person behind them is working and paying taxes so that that person on food stamps can take other peoples money to purchase food.

That is a rough paraphrase of what Neal Boortz stated on his radio show. When a caller dared to ask Mr. Boortz if he knew anybody in his family that was on welfare, Boortz quickly ended the conversation and then took to the microphone to destroy the character of a caller that he has never met. Mr. Boortz stated that the caller, simply somebody by the name of Charlie from Pennsylvania, was himself on food stamps. Mr. Boortz continued to infer that the man was most likely young, and of course by young Mr. Boortz most surely meant "stupid". Boortz, continued even later on during his show, to further demonize people on food stamps by stating that it is common knowledge that people on welfare are constantly buying high priced foods like lobster, fillet mignon, and other decadent food choices.

Later in the show, Boortz, lamented that he is personally sick and tired of paying for the groceries of these "dead beats" on food stamps.

Boortz last comment on the subject was a simple plea. He asked for all of those people on food stamps to thank the hard working tax payers for providing them with their free meal.

Just another example on compassionate conservatism in action.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Maru Kitteh]

70. Just maybe we could describe him without the use of misogynistic epithets?

Wouldn't that be nice? Or at least a little more enlightened?

[Demeter]

2. In Michigan? I'd be hard-pressed to find someone in the store who wasn't using the Bridge Card

and besides, it's for my disabled daughter. Boortz should drop the last two letters of his name.

[Cal Carpenter]

9. Yeah, or then there's the people working two jobs

and still qualifying for food stamps to feed their kids because wages are so low.

Fuck that clown, whoever he is. I'm so glad I don't have TV anymore.

[Maru Kitteh]

71. In the first sentence of the OP, said clown is identified as a RADIO personality.

Are you too cool for radios too?

[Cal Carpenter]

74. Pardon me.

Sorry I was so flabbergasted at what the asshole said that I didn't notice the medium he uses. I never hear/see his name anywhere but here.

Frankly though I am almost as flabbergasted at your response. Cool? Yeah, it's really cool to barely be able to afford my internet service, pay-TV has been out of my budget for years now (small comfort knowing that most of what is on it is crap). Yeah, that's cool. Did it ever occur to you that there are people here who aren't aware of all the partisan talking heads? What the fuck does it have to do with being 'cool'? I don't judge anyone for having or not having TV, or for listening or not to talk radio, okay? Whether it's by choice or by lack of time and money. But whatever, it's not about me at all and it's ridiculous that I'm even wasting my time replying to you.

I hope you slept it off, whatever it was that caused you to react like that.

[Maru Kitteh]

78. Apparently it's cool enough for you to smugly annouce how much better off you are without it so

ya know - hey - I say good for you. I'm glad you are so glad you don't have one.

It's going to irritate me pretty much any time of day when somebody smugly announces their non-TV status as some superior state of living, no matter what the reasons.

[greencharlie]

3. I WISH we lived in a society...

where people understood and thanked each other for EVERYTHING we do for each other.

Should the welfare recipient THANK the tax payer who provides that assistance? Of course. Should the tax payer gladly pay for the betterment of the society as a whole? Of course.

That's the problem... it's "us verses them" and the poor are "leaches" instead of brothers.

[tonysam]

7. The overwhelming majority of "bums" on food stamps

don't need to "thank" anybody, thank you, since they have been taxpayers, for fuck's sake.

[SharonAnn]

37. If you drive on a highway, you should thank every taxpayer you meet.

etc.

[Pushed To The Left]

62. Exactly! If most RW teabagger types had to pay a user fee to get on the road, I'd bet they would

rethink their philosophy.

[Maru Kitteh]

72. +1000!

[spanone]

4. most likely? an assumption on mr boortz part.

[arbusto_baboso]

5. Funny thing is, many of the folks who WORK in the social services office with me...

Also qualify for food stamps. About 10% of all Americans do. That's just a statement on hard it is to survive now, Boortz. Maybe YOU should thank the fucking government for keeping large mobs of angry people away from your rich, fat cat door.

[tonysam]

6. Oh, for fuck's sake

As if those who collected food stamps DIDN'T PAY TAXES, as much or MORE than those welfare queen rich like Boortz.

[Lucian]

8. Many people who do use food stamps ARE working...

and paying taxes.

What a douchebag.

[tonysam]

10. As long as your "income" is below an unbelievably low amount of money

and you rent--not own--property.

[here_is_to_hope]

14. We 'own' our home and both work yet we qualify

for food stamps. Actually did get shrimp yesterday at 50% off, a rarity.
YMMV.

[RaleighNCDUer]

28. Of course, shrimp isn't the expensive rarity it once was -

it's hardly more than hamburger, these days - but with what's happening in the Gulf it certainly will be so again.

[Lyric]

17. Not sure what you're saying here.

Are you claiming that people who receive Food Stamps don't pay taxes, and that "renters" don't pay property taxes?

[eShirl]

15. Exactly. n/t

[KamaAina]

11. Way to support the troops, asshole

That's right. Some military families use food stamps.

http://www.navytimes.com/benefits/pay/military_foodstamps_071409w

A Senate committee proposes to more than double the military’s Family Supplemental Subsistence Allowance in a move intended to keep troops from having to use food stamps.

The increase would apply to no more than 328 families by the Pentagon’s estimate, but it would deflect the larger public-relations problem created by the idea that military wages are low enough to drive some families to seek government assistance....

The FSSA, first paid in late 2001, was created at a time when about 14,000 military families were believed to be receiving food stamps, mostly large midgrade or junior enlisted families....

One military spouse told Obama that her family was on food stamps while her husband was deployed in Iraq. “It’s not right,” Obama said in an ABC News interview after the visit.

Indeed. Why does Boor(tz) hate America so much? :shrug:

[alphafemale]

57. Exactly.

Can you imagine a FReeper pulling that smark and the person turning and saying..."I'm an American soldier."

[SpiralHawk]

12. How much does Boortz get paid by his corporate overlords to whine about the poor?

Ya gotta wonder. Rush DraftDodger Limbaugh is hauling in about $40 million a year in corporate (R) payola to kick sand at the poor, and Hannity, O'Reilly, and Becky Boy get somewhat less for their chickenhawk republicon ranting against decency, honor, and compassion.

How many millions in corporate payola is Chickenhawk Boortz getting for his anti-christian* rants?

* "Clothe the naked, feed the hungry." - J.C.

Prov. 14:31 Anyone who oppresses the poor is insulting God who made them. To help the poor is to honor God.

Psa. 82:3 Give fair judgment to the poor man, the afflicted, the fatherless, the destitute. Psa 82:4 Rescue the poor and helpless from the grasp of evil men.

[Dappleganger]

18. Boortz is an atheist

so he dismisses any anti-greed sentiment from religion rather quickly.

He's an ass-clown who's figured out how to make the big bucks by making outrageous statements for entertainment purposes.

[SpiralHawk]

33. An overpaid chickenhawk republicon athiest propaganda pimp?

Lordy.

[Dappleganger]

35. Ya, he's special.

[eShirl]

13. "people on welfare are constantly buying high priced foods like lobster, fillet mignon"

What a malicious idiot he is! Food stamps are not a blank check, they are finite and have to be budgeted the same as money is.

[Lyric]

20. Exactly. Whether it's cash or Food Stamps, it still has to last the whole month.

However, Food Stamp recipients DO often end up buying what we would commonly refer to as "junk" food, because many of them have incredible obstacles to buying and preparing "healthy" food.

For example, poor people often do not own cars or have a friend/relative with a car who has the time to take them grocery shopping. Quite often, they are stuck buying whatever the closest store carries or else letting their kids go hungry. If you see someone buying chips, cookies, and Slim Jims at a gas station with Food Stamps, chances are that they live close by, don't have a way to a "real" grocery store, and are stuck with the crap that the convenience store sells. This is especially common in low-income inner-city areas that suffer an extraordinary lack of access to grocery stores.

White, middle-class outrage at poor Food Stamp recipients buying "junk" food is yet another manifestation of white privilege in America. It never occurs to many middle-class white people that having access to a real grocery store is a PRIVILEGE of living in a decent neighborhood, and that PRIVILEGE is NOT guaranteed to the people who are forced to make their homes in the slums and shanties of society.

If people are truly concerned about the health of these people rather than judging and criticizing them, then they'd put their money where their mouths are, contact their local social service networks, and volunteer to drive a few poor mothers every month to a grocery store. If more people were willing to do THAT, then there'd be fewer poor kids growing up on Spam, Pringles, and Twinkies.

[newtothegame]

30. I worked at Hy-Vee for 5 years as a teenager.

I didn't see the junk food issue. What depressed me were how many would buy all their food with food stamps, and then use the only $50 or $100 cash they had to buy a couple carton of cigarettes or some beer. Just no desire to go anywhere in life at all; it's sad people get to that point.

[eShirl]

39. Really, it's such a dream existence, who would ever want to give it up?

:sarcasm:

[newtothegame]

41. Exactly. I don't get it at all...

[Bill McBlueState]

59. you and your right-wing talking points again.

Cute.

[noamnety]

64. I hate posts like this.

I've told this story a few times on DU, but here it is again because apparently it needs to be told again.

When I was on WIC coupons, I was in the army reserves in intelligence as a linguist and working towards a masters degree and showing work in galleries, and the husband was going to college on the GI Bill. Our car worked sometimes, more often it didn't ... but in the way poor people do, we shared resources with our neighbors. When my car worked, I would collect money and grocery lists from my neighbors. If they were going to the market sometimes they would do the same for us.

One of my neighbors couldn't drive, she never learned how. She often watched my kid for free for me when I had reserve duty. When I did grocery shopping, I bought her cigarettes for her - even though I don't smoke and can't stand cigarette smoke. And I used my WIC coupons for my own food.

I can't tell you how many assholes gave me dirty looks, made assumptions about me, were so SURE I was headed nowhere, and a shitty mom because I was spending the few bucks I had on smokes.

Just no desire to go anywhere in life at all; it's sad people get to that point.

Yeah, I had to put up with the silent condemnation of people who made it painfully clear what they thought of me nearly every time I went shopping. They had their preconceived stereotypes and couldn't see past that to the humanity of a person.

These grocery store reductions of people remind me of another guy, an Iraq vet I know who was involved in a lot of activism after Katrina and also was on a national speaking tour. To support himself during that he was temporarily bagging groceries. He made an effort to be personable to the people moving through his line. He wrote that he was asking a couple what they did, making small talk with them, he though making some human connections. When they were done talking about themselves, they said something along the lines of "well, we don't need to ask about you, we can see what you are. You bag groceries." And they walked out.

[RaleighNCDUer]

32. It's the 'constantly' that is the lie.

You can make Tuna Glop (mac & cheese, tuna, can of peas) go a long way for a long time in order to hold back enough to buy a couple cheap steaks for Mom's birthday. Lobster? Not likely, but possible if you spend most the month eating cheap spaghetti that you get by the 4lb box.

If what he is saying is he constantly sees people in the stores buying this stuff, that is ALSO a lie - I'd give you 10 to 1 he has not done his own shopping in twenty years.

[gmoney]

44. He claims a cashier gave him copies of register receipts

He did some public appearance, and says that a lady who works as a grocery cashier gave him an envelope with photocopied receipts that showed "steak, steak, steak, lobster, steak, lobster, $25 bottle of olive oil, etc." and the amount paid for by the benefits card, and also that the receipts show the balance remaining on the cards to be $1500 to $2500. Of course, he didn't have the envelope with him, but was ranting from memory, and he didn't make it clear if a receipt would simply have one or two "luxury" items mixed in among basics, but made it sound like one receipt showing multiple luxury foods.

[proud2BlibKansan]

65. So the cashier took the receipts from the register and ran over to the copier

in he store (which cost her money - I've never seen a free copier in a grocery store) and then ran back to her register to hand it to the customer???

Sure Neil.

[gmoney]

68. well, I think he said something about duplicate receipts.

I'm pretty sure most registers will re-run a receipt with the push of a button, so she just hands a receipt to the customer, punches a button to get the duplicate, and if the customer asks, just says "policy on food stamp purchases" or something.

[proud2BlibKansan]

69. I don't believe him

Too much of a hassle. Plus the store would be able to tell she was running duplicate receipts. And they are going to want to know why.

He's lying through his ass like he always does.

[mwooldri]

16. Neal Boortz Jr., needs to open up his Bible...

... and turn to the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 10, and read the part about the Good Samaritan.

(according to Wiki, he is a Christian of Anglican persuasion, but keeps his religion private).

[Dappleganger]

19. Actually, he's an atheist.

I've heard him say on this radio program several times.

[Bluenorthwest]

50. On his website he says he is a Christian

So maybe he's on again off again?

[Frances]

21. Well, I guess Neal Boortz has chosen to go to hell

because Jesus said that those who did not feed the least of those among us who are hungry will go to hell.

[Sisaruus]

48. I work at a food back and I'm an atheist.

I wonder where I'm going.

[Frances]

66. I assume if you are an atheist, the afterlife is not a concern

My beef is with those who profess to be followers of Jesus yet do the exact opposite of what Jesus said.

[Maraya1969]

22. Tell him that the money the paid in before they lost their job is paying

for the food stamps.

[blogslut]

23. If Neal Boortz were behind me

I would be confused because I already have one ass behind me.

[Dappleganger]

36. *snort*

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :yourock:

[TheWatcher]

56. If Neal Boortz was behind me his ass would be up between his shoulder blades.

And he would be on a liquid diet for several months.

He's garbage that should be disposed of.

[gratuitous]

24. I'll put food stamp recipients on the spot

Right after I get a big fucking "thank you" from the military-industrial complex of profiteers who have plundered the Treasury for more money in the last two days than have ever gone into the pockets of someone on food stamps. What, it's not bad enough to be dependent on government assistance, Boortz thinks people need to express proper gratitude for a system that has reduced them to penury? Up yours, Neal.

[berni_mccoy]

25. I want no such thanks for doing the right thing. Feeding the hungry is an obligation of all

and should require no thanks, whatsoever.

[Brewman_Jax]

26. Can you smell the irony?

Maybe Boortz should be thanking the one behind him in line. This line of bullshit from the guy that brags about how he pays less in income taxes than his secretary and makes at least 10 times more. Corporate and other rich crooks can steal more with a pen than an army of welfare recipients could ever get.

[Dr Morbius]

27. If you don't ever need food stamps, you should thank the person in line after you.

For being an American and allowing you to live in a system which:

enabled you to succeed to your level of ability.

provides you with law and law enforcement to keep you safe.

provides you with an effective, quickly responding fire department and emergency health professionals at need.

gave you access to an education.

gave you the incredible opportunity to participate in government.

 
 
 
If you've never needed food stamps bully for you, but you should also show some gratitude. Demanding gratitude from the suffering while you have the best life can offer is completely lacking in compassion.

[AnArmyVeteran]

29. While Bootz condemns someone buying $25 of groceries, he cheers BP for causing trillions in damages.

The right wing hate the poor and love the rich. But the poor work harder than the rich do. They work longer hours doing back breaking work. Most rich people inherited their money or found a clever way to steal it. And then you have sociopaths like the leaders of corporations, who get massively wealthy by destroying the environment and killing human beings. And conservative extremists keep cheering them on...

[The Wielding Truth]

31. Boortz says he is a Christian. I have to say no he isn't. He is a hypocrite!

http://boortz.com/more/faq.html

I guess the next thing you're going to ask is whether or not I'm a Christian. OK, Yes, I am. Episcopalian would be my church of choice the Episcopal Church in the United State has been moving to the left faster than the U.C. Berkeley faculty. Right now I'll stick with the Dutch Reform church. I feel that religion is a very personal issue and I sincerely try not to push my beliefs on others -- and I ask that they treat me with the same respect. Imagine what a wonderful world we would have if everyone just tried to live their own lives according to their religious principals and spent a bit let time trying to tell other folks how to live theirs.


http://executableoutlines.com/2cor/2co9_6.htm

1 Timothy 6:17–19 (NKJV)

17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for
...

[AnArmyVeteran]

38. NO ONE can be a conservative & a practicing Christian at the same time: They are OPPOSITES!!!

[WinkyDink]

51. Exactly. Precisely. To the point. TRUTH. And it's about time our churchmen SPOKE THIS TRUTH.

[Bill McBlueState]

60. scotsman, porridge, etc. n/t

[LanternWaste]

76. I'm an astrophysicist because I say so in public...

I'm an astrophysicist because I say so in public...

Don't know anything about it. Never studied it. Don't know anyone in academia. Really bad at math. Equations are Greek to me-- and I don't even know what Greek is. Yet I'm an astrophysicist because I say so.

(I'm also a true Scotsman...)

[elocs]

34. I'm on food stamps and I should thank me because I paid taxes for decades

when I wasn't getting any food stamps. In those decades I certainly was a hard working taxpayer, but I never expected or wanted somebody in the grocery store checkout line ahead of me to humble themselves by thanking me.

For all of those who profess to be Christians and demand to receive thanks, if they get it that will be their only reward.

[Richard Steele]

49. I'm currently working 5 days a week and paying taxes, and you owe me NOTHING.

Given that the BIGGEST CHUNK of my tax bill
goes to fund the largest & most unneccessary
military force in history, the fact that some small slice
of my paycheck is actually HELPING someone, somewhere,
helps me cling to sanity in an insane world.

We're all in this together, IMHO.

[Hannah Bell]

40. asshole brigade, demonizing the poor so as to keep the focus off his owners.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Enrique]

42. possible miscalculation

lots of his callers are likely on food stamps.

Then again, they probably don't think they count. They might figure he's talking about those other people, that are really on food stamps.

[Orsino]

45. Boortz should thank people on food stamps.

Thanks to them, he has a job.

If the ruling class could do away with the social safety net, they wouldn't need whores like Boortz.

[Love Bug]

46. I'll do that when the red states thank the blue states for supporting them

and corporations thank taxpayers for supporting them. Boortz is an ass. Corporate welfare is a far bigger piece of the pie than food stamps or welfare.

[bobbolink]

47. Attention Pilots and Military Personnel! Be sure to be properly grateful to your masters!

:crazy:

[jmowreader]

52. As opposed to paying for the food of deadbeats who talk into microphones?

Boortz is a radio host. The hardest labor he does all day is to sit there and pull things out of his ass. It's not like he was a syndicated columnist and had to push typewriter keys all day (yes, he is that backwards), or that he had a television show and had to concern himself with shopping for clothes and getting his hair fixed. No, he goes into a radio studio, makes shit up for three hours a day, and gets paid for it. If that ain't welfare, I don't know what is.

[TexasObserver]

53. Does he suggest that General Electric do likewise?

They don't pay the government any money, but get billions from it.

[Rex]

54. I guess Boortz wasn't getting enough attention, so he said something stupid.

That he knew would get him some ratings. Pathetic trash, RWingers will listen to anything! Sick freaks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

55. Given the number of times

I've paid for the milk or the cheese, or the apples for a family on food stamps... many of whom are significant others of our brave service members... and I am sure Neil does not know that...

But what can I say, I just do it, and it comes from the Chief's pot.

[tabasco]

58. What a sick society in which we live

when this piece of shit is given a microphone.

[Marr]

61. Then every resident of a subsidized state (generally red states) should thank residents of

donor states (ie, blue states). No? Doesn't work like that? Odd.

[Initech]

63. Compassionate conservativism is an oxymoron.

[glen123098]

67. I am on food stamps, but would be willing to work and pay taxes.

But no place will hire me. So unless you want to hire me Neil Boortz, please STFU.

[JCMach1]

73. So now we should be thankful for government!

I thought we were supposed to hate it Mr. Boortz! :sarcasm:

[watercolors]

75. My grandson is working, but needs stamps to survive, he barely makes it

WE encouraged him to get them, he was not eating well, and we worried about his health. Boortz is an A--Hole!

[GoldenOldie]

77. Majority of military families are having to use food stamps

while the the bloodsucking grifters such as Boortz, Hannity, Limpballs, Coulter,etc., keep raking in the big bucks and do absolutely nothing to justify their existence within the human race. Meanwhile, the poor, ignorant suckers that buy into their carney spiel keep lining their pockets.

[Berry Cool]

79. I've said it before and I'll say it again

People who pass judgment on other people based on what they see them buying in a store, or how they pay for it, suck. They are nosy busybodies who should keep the conclusions they are jumping to to themselves.

[lonestarnot]

80. Fucking ignoranus better be glad his ass isn't behind mine in the grocery line!

[SmileyRose]

81. LOL Vintage Boortz LOL

He's the absolute poster child for today's republicans (in spite of the fact he lies and claims to be a libertarian since he and most republicans are actually CORPORATISTs not conservatives)