I would be willing to bet that at least 50% of the people I
know personally believe in the “Welfare Queen” stereotype. You know the one:
the overweight, African American woman, dressed to the nines, wearing expensive
makeup and hair extensions, talking on the latest, priciest phone, hauling around
three or four kids – all wearing designer clothes, unloading a shopping cart
full of junk food, soda, steaks, lobster, hard liquor, cigarettes and all kinds
of things responsible, hard-working people can’t afford on a daily basis. We
can all see her, can’t we? And she makes our blood boil when she whips out that
food stamp card, doesn’t she?
The “Welfare Queen” has become a common, American stereotype
and for many, a justification for believing and treating people who receive
public assistance benefits like lazy, non-working, junk-food-buying, worthless,
useless and immoral, lying, cheating, cookie-binging-induced fat asses. For
those who feel justified in taking a sound bite and running with it, here are
some FACTS (you know…those pesky things that get in the way of Republican
attempts to manipulate the American people) about food stamps and public
assistance:
- Receiving public assistance and abusing
drugs do not go hand in hand.
Since 1996, Republicans have been proposing
drug screening programs for those applying for public assistance. However, the proposals and
later legislation did not pass in most states because the laws did not require
"suspicion” in order to conduct the tests. They were to be conducted randomly,
which was deemed unconstitutional by a 2003 Michigan Court of Appeals case. In
other words, bill writers equated the need for assistance with the abuse of
drugs.
It wasn’t until 2011 that states began to pass drug
screening legislation and to date, 15 states have passed laws that require drug
testing prior to being deemed eligible for various welfare programs. However,
the results have been contradictory to the premise. Data collected by
ThinkProgress in 2015 from seven states that were conducting drug screens
showed that while hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent to catch
and boot all those nasty druggies from welfare, they were finding very few. The
rate of positive drug tests to the total number of applicants ranged from
0.002% to 8.3%, which was LESS than the national drug use rate of 9.4%. In
other words, what the programs proved was that welfare applicants were LESS
LIKELY to be drug abusers than the general population – NOT the other way
around! This conclusion cost these states nearly $1 million collectively and
that number is growing.
In 2014, Missouri 38,970 people applied for welfare. The
state spent $336,297 on drug screenings and of those tested, only 48 were
positive. Between August and December of the same year, Mississippi spent $5,
290 to uncover TWO drug users. Not only are these states finding out that drug
abuse is relatively low for welfare recipients, they are paying way too much
for simple drug tests.
- Food stamp recipients are NOT eating better
than the average family.
T There is a belief among many that people who receive food
stamps can afford steak and lobster for every meal. In truth, the
average dollar amount per recipient, per day is approximately $4, which means that a
family of three receives about $360 a month for groceries. Just like the
average person, recipients can save up for a special meal, but caviar and
escargot are not the typical fare.
- Food stamps pay for food and nothing else.
Even if you have seen a “Welfare Queen” with alcohol and
cigarettes in her shopping cart, her food stamps don’t pay for those things.
Food stamps can’t be used for anything that is not food, nor for any prepared
foods, such as hot, to-go style meals you might purchase in your grocers deli.
- Recipients do not spend all their food
stamps on “junk food”.
Another common misconception is that too many people use
their food stamps to stock their kitchen full of unhealthy food – as compared
to those who don’t get food stamps. Some have gone so far as to blame the
obesity crisis in the U.S. on food stamp recipients, including the news
website, The Daily Caller. These notions are patently false.
Unfortunately, conservative zealots, like those at
Breitbart, would have you believe that food stamp recipients are spending an
exorbitant amount on sweetened beverages (including fruit juices), desserts,
salty snacks, candy and sugar - a whopping 20% of the budget, they say. Breitbart
makes this claim based on a
USDA study analyzing purchases made from January 1,
2011 through December 31, 2011. What they don’t tell you is that the study
compared expenditures of food stamp recipients and non-food stamp households.
It concluded that the diets were much the same, with 40% of each budget being
spent on proteins, 20% on those “junk foods” listed above and the remaining 40%
paying for items such as dairy, rice, beans vegetables and cereal.
On top of that, some believe that food stamps should be
restricted to purc hases deemed “healthy and responsible” – that because these
people are receiving free food, it should be limited to things like government
commodities, which include cheese, rice, beans, potatoes, etc. There are some
that feel that if people are not allowed to buy food they enjoy, they will be
more prone to work harder to get off food stamps. Those people are, of course,
completely wrong and ridiculously ignorant.
- Illegal immigrants are abusing public
assistance programs.
This is one of the biggest and most commonly held
misconceptions and even otherwise intelligent people fall for this lie. The
primary reason that so many people believe that illegal immigrants are coming
into this country and immediately asking the government to fund their existence
is a confusion of terms. There is a difference between illegal and legal immigrants.
Legal immigrants are afforded rights to some public
assistance programs. However, low-income legal immigrants are less likely to
apply for benefits than low-income citizens. In addition, The Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (more commonly
known as the welfare reform act) provided some new
guidelines for non-citizens
(including legal and illegal immigrants) applying for assistance, including:
1.
Most legal, non-citizens entering the U.S. after
August 22, 1996 are NOT eligible for most welfare benefits, including Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), SSI, Medicaid, and State Children’s
Health Insurance Program, until they have lived here for a minimum of 5 years.
2.
Illegal and temporary immigrants are ineligible
for all benefits, with the exception of emergency services (i.e. access to
homeless shelters, medical treatment, etc.)
3.
Prior to 1996, legal immigrants were eligible
for most services immediately, but not necessarily food stamps, as the program
had more stringent qualifications.
4.
Illegal immigrants with U.S. born children ARE
eligible for all benefits for THAT child.
Receiving benefits for U.S. born children likely causes a
lot of confusion, as illegal parents can be seen using food stamp cards and the
household in general may benefit from programs that the child(ren) is eligible
to receive. However, the bottom line is that ILLEGAL immigrants do NOT have
access to welfare and even legal immigrants do NOT have access to benefits
until they have lived here for 5 years.
I felt compelled to comment on these lines of BS,
particularly because I have received public assistance in times of need and do
not feel one bit ashamed about it – no one should. Once you know the facts and
stop blindly believing the conservative manipulation, it’s clear, for the most
part, that these programs are still being used as intended. For those who are
full of callous judgment, all I can say is that I hope that should you ever
need a helping hand, you are not judged as harshly as you judge others. For
those who are in need and use these programs to get back on their feet – never be
ashamed of doing whatever it takes to make sure your family’s basic needs are
being met.