This is where we are headed. Why should anyone work just to put food on the table when the government can provide it for free. You can thank the Fed and Republicans for pushing the nation so far left, and for advocating and discrediting capitalism while practicing socialism. https://t.co/IGo4UfQOhC
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) April 23, 2020
I just got the following email from some government drone at my school district today:
North Penn School District, School Nutrition Services is participating in the federally funded Summer Food Service Program. This program allows School Nutrition Services to provide free lunch to all children under the age of 18 in the North Penn community. We have set up (3) locations that will be operating from June 22, 2015 through August 21, 2015, Monday through Friday and will have free lunches for all interested children.
WTF is going on in this country? Why is the federal government using your tax dollars to feed every kid in America under the age of 18? Are children really starving in this country? Aren’t mothers and fathers responsible for feeding their kids anymore? They have enough money for their monthly cell phone, cable, auto loan, and liquor bills, but they can’t feed their kids?
Obama and his socialist minions are spending $500 million per year of money we don’t have on this “program”. What a pathetic joke this country has become. No self respect. No self reliance. No shame. The government breeds dependency and obedience amongst the ignorant masses as we steadily sacrifice freedom and liberty for safety, sustenance, and security.
Do Democrat control freaks actually believe the shit they propose will work, or do they just want more tax revenue to support their welfare/warfare state? Do Obama and his minions realize poor people buy most of the cigarettes and eat most of the junk food in this country? Taxing the shit out of cigarettes hurts their main constituency, but I guess they figure the Free Shit Army is too stupid to realize they are getting fucked over by the Democrats they elect. Now they want to fuck over the poor again, with their ridiculous sugar food tax. The idiocy permeating this nation is almost overwhelming in its obscene levels amongst all classes.
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/19/2015 13:23 -0500
The totalitarian arm of the ever-growing government appears to know no limit. In today’s “oh no they didn’t” moment, the US Government’s diet panel has dictated proposed one more oppression of American’s freedom to choose:
On the bright side, the government approves of “lean meat” as compatible with healthy eating. The bill, introduced by Rep. Juan Candelaria, D-New Haven, would impose a tax of 1 cent per ounce on soft drinks – including sweetened teas, energy drinks and soda – and candies that are high in sugar and calories.
As Bloomberg reports,
Continue reading “GOVERNMENT CONTROL FREAKS WANT TO TAX THE FAT OUT OF YOU”
For those new to TBP – FSA stands for Free Shit Army – 100 million parasites living off the tax dollars collected from your paycheck.
Via David Stockman’s Contra Corner
By Brian Maass at Denver CBS4
DENVER (CBS4) – A federally regulated program providing free cellphone service and phones to the poor and needy in Denver appears to be riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, according to an undercover CBS4 Investigation.
The $2 billion a year Lifeline program has handed out more than 13 million free cellphone plans across the country in the first six months of this year. In Colorado, the program handed out more than 117,000 free cellphone plans in the first half of this year, or about 20,000 cellphones every month.
The free phones and their wireless plans are paid for by a monthly tax on your cellphone, called the Universal Service Tax. Although the Lifeline wireless program has been around since 2005 and started under president George W. Bush, it has exploded under President Obama’s administration and the phones are often referred to as “Obamaphones.”
The program has strict guidelines. To qualify, you have to be on food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance or some other government program to prove that you are low-income. The idea is that people who could not otherwise afford mobile phones would have them to help look for jobs, call 911 in an emergency or stay in touch with family members.
But on multiple trips to Colfax Avenue and Broadway in Denver, where multiple distributors set up their tents to hand out free cellphones, a CBS4 producer and reporter found the phone agents willing to circumvent strict government rules designed to ensure that only the truly needy get the free phones. The vendors receive massive government subsidies to hand out the phones and the accompanying monthly plans.
“Want to sign up for a free phone?” an agent representing Total Call mobile asked a CBS4 producer. The representative then asked if the undercover producer had a food stamp card, a Medicaid card or any other evidence that he qualified for a phone.
“No,” replied the CBS4 employee. But one of the cellphone agents then ordered his colleague to “push it through,” by using someone else’s food stamp card to provide eligibility for the CBS4 employee.
“Did you just use that guy’s food stamp card for me?” questioned the CBS4 employee.
“Yeah,” responded the Total Call representative. “It’s verification that you are on some kind of assistance program. It’s to get you through.”
He promptly gave the CBS4 worker a free phone. The Total Call agent said he received $3 for every phone he is able to give away.
Mark Wigfield, Deputy Director of media relations for the FCC, which oversees the Lifeline program, said using someone else’s food stamp card to get a phone is a clear violation of program guidelines.
“Lifeline providers may not activate service for a consumer unless that consumer is eligible for the program and provides proof of eligibility. Lifeline rules,” said Wigfield, “are enforceable rules and punishable by fines and other means.”
But over and over, wireless phone company representatives proved eager to bypass federal rules so they could hand out phones.
Approached by a CBS4 reporter and producer, a representative of another cellphone company said it would be fine to use another person’s food stamp card to establish eligibility. She said it would be acceptable to pass off someone else’s food stamp card “as long as she hasn’t already used it.” The woman then said anyone could get a phone for someone else “as long as you bring their ID and card.”
At a Total Call phone tent, CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass asked a representative if he could use a friend’s food stamp card to establish eligibility and obtain a free phone. “Sure can,” replied the representative.
“My driver’s license and his food stamp card is OK?” Maass asked.
“Yeah,” replied a phone agent.
“But the phone is for me, though,” Maass said. “That’s fine,” responded the Total Call distributor.
Hideki Kato, Chief Operating Officer for Total Call mobile, said, “If protocols and procedures have been violated, we take appropriate action against agents or distributors including their possible termination.” Kato said after CBS4 contacted him, the company identified and corrected the issue, although he declined to provide specifics. Kato said Total Call Mobile utilizes distributors in Colorado who hire and train agents. He said the people passing out the free phones in Denver were not Total Call employees but had been hired by a Total Call distributor.
But the abuse appears to be occurring on the part of phone recipients of the free phones as well. Over and over, men and women who obtained the free phones told CBS4 they were already paying for iPhones or smartphones but couldn’t resist getting a free phone, courtesy of taxpayers.
One man told CBS4 he wanted a free cellphone but did not have a food stamp card and did not qualify. He showed CBS4 his current smartphone that he said he was paying $57 a month for. But he explained that he went across town, got a food stamp card anyway, then returned to Civic Center with a food stamp card that has no money on it, but was still able to use it to qualify for an “Obamaphone.”
“Completely free. I didn’t pay a dollar, not a dime, not a nickel,” said the man. “That’s what everybody calls them in the ‘hood, Obamaphone,” laughed the man.
At one point, a CBS4 reporter returned to one of the phone tents with a food stamp card that had simply been printed off the internet. He showed the paper card to a Total Call representative. Instead of having a name on the paper card, it was imprinted with the words, “training card.” Rather than immediately reject the clearly bogus card, the agent said, “I’ll try it,” and tried to qualify the CBS4 employee using the obviously fake food stamp card. It did not work.
The problems CBS4 found in the giveaway program have been raised before. The FCC said that since 2012, it has fined its vendors more than $95 million for the kind of shenanigans uncovered in the CBS4 Investigation.
“We take any evidence of violations seriously and will not hesitate to enforce our rules, where warranted,” said Wigfield. “The FCC’s comprehensive reforms of the Lifeline program since 2012 have made significant progress in reducing waste, fraud and abuse in the program.”
Jon Caldara, a critic of government entitlement programs and president of the Independence Institute, said what the CBS4 Investigation revealed was a “systematic rip-off.”
“They actually put out tents and work with you to scam taxpayers. That’s got some bravado to it,” Caldara said. “We’re seeing that people who get these are people who don’t need them. Those of us who pay for our cellphones, we’re paying more because they are getting those for free.”
Caldara went on to say that the cellphone handout is set up in such a way as to automatically engender fraud and abuse.
“You have several examples of how the system is rigged to give out free goodies to people who don’t need it. And we’re paying for this,” exclaimed Caldara.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/11/06/governments-free-phone-program-riddled-with-abuse-fraud/
This picture and comment was posted by Rick Ackerman in September 2012. Take a bow Rick. You were right.
Workers are shuttering the $2.4 billion white elephant of Atlantic City – Revel Casino. Fat Boy Christie will hold another summit to save Atlantic City in a couple weeks. Watch out NJ taxpayers. He has already wasted hundreds of millions on Revel and the rest of this dying town.
Atlantic City has always been a shit town. The casinos promised to revive the city. They did nothing for the city. They cashed in the profits from having a monopoly on the east coast. Now everyone has casinos and their revenues have plunged by 50% in the last eight years. Four casinos have gone belly up this year.
Atlantic City will not be revived. It’s a dangerous shithole inhabited by Obama voters. More casinos will close. The city budget now has a gaping hole as property taxes and sales taxes from the casinos are gone. How are the free shit army going to get their goodies?
The short sightedness and idiocy of politicians and CEOs has never been more on display than with the implosion of Atlantic City. Fast Eddie Rendell and the rest of the politicians who see gambling and lotteries as the savior for their bloated entitlement budgets will all find out you can’t get blood from a stone. The disposable income of the stupid is almost all gone.
It was 90 degrees at the Jersey Shore yesterday and the north beach in Atlantic City was almost empty.
The boardwalk, too, except for a few tourists who wandered up the quarter mile of bare boards to gawk and photograph the mirrored walls and imposing tower of the resort’s latest glass-and-steel white elephant, the Revel.
The exterior murals of Revel have a surfing endless summer kind of theme, but what is happening in Atlantic City now is the beginning of a long winter.
The Showboat closed Sunday and next door neighbor Revel closed Monday, taking with them about 4,000 jobs, leaving the north end of the boardwalk a ghost town.
Trump Plaza, which is connected to the famed Boardwalk Hall, will close Sept. 16, after the Miss America pageant.
Miss America returned to home Atlantic City two year ago, seven years after running off to Vegas, to fulfill its original promise of bringing tourists to the boardwalk for New Jersey’s beautiful month of September. But it won’t save Trump Plaza, which along with Caesars next door, were the center stanchions of Atlantic City’s gambling era heyday.
This was in the mid-1980s when the town hosted the megafights of the day: Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks; Tyson and Larry Holmes; Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran III; and, Evander Holyfield and George Foreman.
The casinos led by Trump and Caesars kicked in for site fees and Vegas couldn’t compete. But that is ancient history now, as ancient as Caesar himself.
When Trump Plaza closes, the workforce casualties will rise to nearly 6,000, about 20 percent of Atlantic City’s hospitality workforce.
Gaming in Atlantic City isn’t dead, but it has to go on a crash diet to survive.
The all-time high revenue of $5.2 billion from eight years ago has fallen by 50 percent, eroded by out-of-state competition, sometimes brought on by the very same companies that built up Atlantic City. (See The Sands in Bethlehem, Pa., which has siphoned off a huge piece of the New York bus trip market.) Now companies are closing even profitable casinos, like Caesars shutting The Showboat to try and protect the health of its three other properties in Atlantic City.
Bill Terrigino sees it not as the death of the town, but a painful evolution.
“The fascination of slot machines is over with,” Terrigino said. “More gambling isn’t the solution. If we don’t make it fun for people in Atlantic City, they’ll make us irrelevant.”
FUN IN THE SURF
And what could be more fun than that big blue thing out there.
From the start of the casino era, Atlantic City turned its back on its history as “the beach” and “the boardwalk.”
“The primary focus has been gambling,” said Bruce Abrams, who works in the city-run art museum across the boards from The Showboat. It was almost empty yesterday as was the adjacent history museum.
“We threw all the eggs in one basket. Maybe this is a wake-up call.”
True enough, the early casinos faced Pacific Avenue and trying to find the boardwalk through them entailed going through a maze of spinning wheels and ringing bells.
Still today, there are long stretches of the boardwalk with nothing to eat except in the overpriced casinos, few restrooms and changing facilities — and parking is expensive and distant.
Atlantic City took its greatest attraction and made it inaccessible.
As for amusements, the rides at the famed Steel Pier look like nothing more than a local church carnival bolted to the boards.
WHERE IS EVERYONE?
Even yesterday — 90 degrees and sunny on a day that is still summer for everyone without school children — the beaches were far, far from packed.
“Our beaches are beautiful. You can’t beat it,’ said Terrigino, “but other towns do better bringing people to the beach.”
Terrigino and his wife, Kathy, were two of the first workers to lose their jobs when the Atlantic Club closed last winter.
“These are the bookends,” said Terrigino, who lives across the street from Revel. “The Atlantic Club was all the way at the south end of the boardwalk, and Revel is at the north end. I lost my job last winter and yesterday (Monday) I lost my neighbor.”
They also own the house closest to the beach near the Revel.
Yesterday, there were more gawkers looking at the empty hotels — few as they were — and men pushing empty rolling chairs, than there were people on the north beach.
If you want to know what went wrong in Atlantic City, there it is.
If you want to know how to fix it, there it is.
These Venezuelans aren’t rioting. They are waiting in line for food. Their country has ample farmland and a great climate for growing food. They put all their faith in their socialist leaders to centrally plan their economy and create a government controlled paradise.
Venezuela has 211 billion barrels of oil reserves, 2nd only to Saudi Arabia on the planet. The socialists have been in charge for decades. Why are the people waiting in lines to get fuel for their homes? They put their trust in the all powerful, all benevolent socialist government.
Barack Obama and his minions believe government can allocate resources (your taxes) better than you can. Forward Amurika!!! Venezuela is our goal. Free shit for everyone. What could go wrong?
With 100 million people already receiving a monthly stipend from the Federal government, how can she possibly lose in 2016? Here are a few words of wisdom from your next President, unless Obama assumes dictatorship beforehand.
“We’re going to take things from you on behalf of the common good”
“It’s time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few…and to replace it with shared responsibility, for shared prosperity”
“(We) …can just let business as usual go on and that means something has to be taken away from some people.”
“We have to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own…in order to create this common ground.”
“I think it’s time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in the entire economy that they are being watched.”
“I certainly think the free market has failed.”
The number of people on SSDI now exceeds the entire population of Greece. Anyone who argues that the rise in people on SSDI is normal and predictable is either a dumbfuck or a lying liberal Obama lover. The aging of the population has nothing to do with the increase. In 1968 there were 51 workers for every person on disability. Today there are 13 workers for every person on disablity. I think even liberal douchebags would agree that medical advancements since 1968 have been significant. These medical advancements would argue for less people being on disability and unable to work. Even a liberal douchebag would agree that workplace safety measures have been increased exponentially since 1968, so that also argues for less disabled workers. The good old ADA law forced all workplaces to become disabled friendly. That argues for less people on disability. The country has transitioned from a manufacturing society to a service society. Workers don’t work on dangerous assembly lines anymore. Robots do the dangerous stuff. Even a liberal ideologue would agree. This should have dramatically reduced worker injuries and disabilities.
Everything I’ve pointed out is true. The tremendous increase in people on SSDI is nothing but a gigantic fraud, perpetuated by the Federal government and slimy lawyers. The government broadened the scope of disabilities to include stress, depression, and non-diagnosable things like aches and pains. I have stress, depression and pains too, but I get the fuck up at 5:15 every morning and go to work. The SSDI program is a joke. More than half the people on SSDI are lazy good for nothing leeches. They are sucking you and I dry while sitting around eating cheetos, watching Judge Judy on their government subsidized cable TV, and texting with other lazy fucks on their iPhones.
Now lets hear from the a few liberal douchebags about the cruelty of my assessment and how Wall Street does far worse things. I love that line of reasoning. The next time I see one of those shyster lawyer commercials urging me to get what I deserve, maybe I should join the FSASSDI party. You get the added benefit of Medicare coverage after only two years of SSDI stress.
The Free Shit Army marches on. I always wondered how the people in West Philly could all afford cell phones. Now I know. They can’t. You and I are paying $1.8 billion per year because they deserve the latest iPhone 5. Check out your monthly phone bill and notice the charge called FEDERAL UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND. That’s your “contribution” to the Obama phone fund. A family of four making $31,000 per year qualifies for an Obama phone. Hat tip to DaveL for this story.
Posted on September 27, 2012 at 10:09am by 
Mike Opelka
Yesterday, both President Obama and Mitt Romney were in the swing state of Ohio campaigning. At one Romney event near Cleveland, a group of Obama supporters gathered to voice their dislike for Romney.
One apparent Obama supporter was caught on video seemingly giving a very clear explanation of why she is voting for the president and why she does not like Mitt Romney.
The passionate explanation for the former involves Obama giving free phones:
In case you did not hear that clearly, we will transcribe it as best we can.
“Everybody in Cleveland, low minorities, got Obama phone. Keep Obama in president, you know. He gave us a phone, he gonna do more.”
The person shooting the video asks, How did he give you a phone? To which the woman replies: “You sign up! If you on food stamps, you on social security, you got low income, you disability…”
The video includes a cut at that point and picks up with the filmer asking “What’s wrong with Romney?” Without blinking, the passionate Obama supporter says:
“Romney, he sucks! Bad.”
If this kind of thinking sounds familiar, we have heard similar comments from Obama supports as far back as 2009.
TheBlaze has also reached out to the person who posted the video, requesting the entire, unedited clip.
For the record, government sponsored cell phones started long before President Obama took office. However, the size of the program (and its cost) have grown considerably since 2008.
This story has been updated.
(H/T: Matt Patrick – KTRH Radio in Houston)
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A federal program is giving away thousands of free cell phones and minutes in Minnesota, and you’re paying for it.
Helping low-income people connect to services they need, the program gives free phones with hundreds of free minutes each month to people in need to land jobs, make appointments and stay in touch with family.
But the program has come under fire for its $1 billion price tag and reports of fraud.
A company called Life Wireless teamed up with The Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis to issue free phones to those who qualify, such as Michelle Adams.
Adams is looking for a job and signed up for a free phone.
“I’m really happy that they have this kind of service for people,” Adams said.
But it didn’t take long to find one man who admits he didn’t use the system the way it’s intended.
Odell Hilson sold his phone for $20 because he needed the money. He didn’t remember which company gave it to him, but he didn’t seem to care that taxpayers picked up the tab.
“They would be upset, because they figure they were paying for it and if that’s the case, then that’s not my problem,” Hilson said.
Lifeline began by paying for landlines for those in need. The rules called for customers to have an income 135 percent below poverty guidelines.
But in 2008, Lifeline added wireless providers and problems have been reported across the country ever since — people are getting dozens of free phones and not having the proof they need to be on the program at all.
Life Wireless is one of 104 companies in Minnesota approved to enroll customers in the program.
In all, those companies have distributed more than 55,000 phones at hundreds of events throughout the state.
Life Wireless says it has strict training for employees and they know what questions to ask.
“Nobody does more than Life Wireless to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, and the best way to do that is to see the customer face-to-face in a live enrollment,” Jim Carpenter of Life Wireless said.
Still, Arkansas Congressman Tim Griffin doesn’t think the safeguards go far enough.
He believes most phones aren’t being used to help find jobs, and they’re costing the country far too much. The republican has introduced a bill in Washington to get rid of the cell phones and only cover landline costs.
“The federal government doesn’t need to be providing people with cell phones,” Griffin said.
A spokesperson from the FCC said it has started to reform the program after getting complaints. By next year, it says there will be a national database to make it impossible for a household to get more than one free phone.
Corporate Green Acres is the place to be. It seems the free shit army isn’t just occupying West Philly. They are crawling all over the Midwest farmbelt. It’s not your small family farm. It’s the giant corporate farms that have big time lobbyists and congressmen in their pockets. These bloated bills are nothing but handouts to corporations. Why should corporate farms be guaranteed a profit even if they don’t produce a crop? Why should I pay so that corporate fat cat farmers have no risk if their crops fail? Why should milk prices be controlled? Why should government be spending almost $100 billion per year of our tax dollars to promote and subsidize farmers in any way? Since the SNAP food stamp program falls under this bloated bill, maybe the West Philly FSA can join forces with the Iowa FSA to lobby for this bill.
Tuesday, June 12,2012
THE U.S. SENATE is poised this week to take up the crucial 2012 Farm Bill. This inordinately complex legislation is projected to cost $969 billion over the next 10 years, about $24 billion less than the cost of extending the soon-to-expire existing farm bill.
Big agriculture and its deep-pocketed lobbyists support the new bill, having accepted deep cuts in direct crop subsidies in exchange for legislators “protecting and strengthening” crop insurance programs. Industry considers the latter its safety net against adverse weather and unpredictable fluctuations of global commodities prices.
It’s less of a safety net than a security blanket that shifts risks to taxpayers and guarantees farmers substantial profits. That must change; otherwise, the cost of the new insurance programs could greatly exceed Congressional Budget Office estimates, leaving the federal government on the hook for billions of added dollars each year.
In a particularly cruel twist, the bill pays for these new programs in part by taking food out of the mouths of poor children.
Farm bills are the long-time home of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps. The proposal strips $4.5 billion from the SNAP program over 10 years, even as the struggling economy has record numbers of Americans seeking food stamps to help feed their families. The reductions would eliminate about $90 worth of groceries a month from the kitchens of low-income families. According to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who is introducing an amendment to restore the SNAP funds, half of those who benefit from the program are children.
The Obama White House is supporting the bill, S. 3240, sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee. The administration opposes the SNAP reductions, however, and wants the cost of crop insurance reduced.
MEANWHILE, AN odd amalgamation has emerged to oppose the bill. The liberal Environmental Working Group used U.S. Department of Agriculture data to reaffirm that corporate and very large individual agriculture operations — not small and mid-sized family farms — enjoy the vast majority of the insurance benefits. Last year in Missouri, for example, 74 percent of the $267 million in benefits went to 20 percent of recipients. In Illinois, the top 20 percent received 72 percent of $518.5 million.
From the right comes the American Enterprise Institute with its “Field of Schemes” report. It’s part of a broader AEI project called “American Boondoggle: Fixing the 2012 Farm Bill.” In “Schemes,” AEI experts focused on the bill’s proposed ‘shallow losses” insurance. Such insurance would cost far more than the direct crop subsidy programs being dropped and “create incentives for the wasteful use of economic resources,” the report says.
EXISTING CROP insurance programs already are out of whack. If crop yields fall short of projections, farmers collect from the government. If harvest prices fall short of projections, farmers collect. To make sure that farmers can afford the insurance premiums, the government pays an average of 60 percent of the cost. To make sure private companies offer the insurance, the government pays their commissions and administrative costs.
Expanded shallow-loss coverage would distort the system even further. As one Minnesota farmer told “The New York Times” last week, “I can farm on low-quality land that I know is not going to produce and still turn a profit.”
The farm bill needs a lot of work before it merits the support of the American people.
— The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
