Governor Schwarzenegger Bans Welfare Recipients from Using ATMs at California Casinos
Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order barring California welfare recipients from using state-issued debit cards at casino ATMs.
A recent Los Angeles Times report found that CalWORKS cards were used to withdraw cash in more than half the casinos in the state. Welfare recipients withdrew more that $1.8 million in taxpayer cash at casinos in the eight-month period from October 2009 through May 2010.
Schwarzenegger’s order requires welfare recipients to sign a pledge that they will use their benefits only to “meet the basic subsistence needs” of their families, and it requires the state Department of Social Services to come up with a plan to reduce other “waste, fraud and abuse” in the welfare system. Officials at the department failed to notice for years that welfare recipients could use the state-issued cards to withdraw taxpayer cash at tribal casinos and state-licensed poker rooms in California.
The state initiated the debit card program in 2002. The electronic benefit transfer cards allow welfare recipients to access two accounts: cash offered through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and an electronic version of food stamps, which comes with strict rules governing how the money can be spent. The cash benefits can be withdrawn and spent just about anywhere. The monthly cash grant for a family of three ranges up to $694, while families with more than 10 people can get as much as $1,469.
I will leave the discussion of whether the government should even be giving money to people in the first place for another time because that is a huge topic all on its own. The fact that people on welfare are using that money to gamble with does not surprise me at all. But the fact that our government simply hands cash over to people and expects those people to behave responsibly with that money shows exactly how out of touch our elected officials are. Do our elected officials honestly believe that we, as a society, can give so-called “needy” people money and completely trust in them to use that cash for necessities such as food? Intuitively, one knows that many people will use that money recklessly. We have all heard the stories about people misusing their welfare money. Why hasn’t the government done anything about it until now?
Furthermore, the fact that these “needy” people are using their welfare payments to gamble with is a clear indication that they aren’t really quite as needy as they claim to be. We need to start reevaluating exactly how much money we are handing out through welfare programs. I don’t care whether the amount inappropriately being used is large or not. It’s the principle that matters. If even one dollar is being used inappropriately, that is too much. Money should not be taken from hard-working individuals and redistributed to people who don’t absolutely need that money to survive.
Schwarzenegger’s executive order does not go nearly far enough to remedy the situation. Simply asking people to sign a pledge to not use their welfare money inappropriately will not do anything to curb the reckless behavior by some welfare recipients. And even if welfare debit cards are no longer allowed to be used at casino ATMs, there is nothing to prevent a welfare recipient from withdrawing that cash at another location and then going to a casino and gambling with it.
We need to completely overhaul our welfare system. If we are going to continue to hand out welfare payments to people, we must ensure that that money is spent on basic necessities only. Even if that means restricting the places where the money can be spent to a limited number of locations with heavy government oversight, so be it. Welfare recipients should be thankful for the money that they get from others. If that means them having to be severely inconvenienced in order to spend that welfare money, I am fine with that.
And if we can figure out which welfare recipients withdrew money at casino ATMs, we should demand that the money be paid back to the government. If that money cannot be collected, then further welfare payments should be cut off until the equivalent amount that was withdrawn is recuperated by the state.
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