New Bill Bans Ex-Cons From Recieving Foodstamps For Life

[Gravekeeper]

Courtesy of Sen David Vitter.

So, you do your time, get out of prison with next to nothing and now you're poor for life. It doesn't seem to have a statue of limitations on it either. So you did something when you were 19, did your time and are 70 now on food stamps. Time to starve!

He inserted it under the table in an agricultural bill as bait. Even if anyone noticed the amendment, if they vote against it he can use it as an attack ad saying such and such voted to give child rapists federal benefits.

t\There's already precedent for this in 1996 when they tried a similar ban for drug offenders. The result was higher rates of HIV ( as people turn to the sex trade just to eat ) and higher rates of re-offence. Because it basically creates a permanent underclass you can't escape from and of course with America's justice and prison system, that underclass is mostly minorities.

[s_stabeler]

to be fair, people like this generally want an underclass, with that consitsting of everyone else. ( he is also trying to force the elimination of programs that pay for cell phones for low-income people- the cell phones can help people get work)

[Andara Bledin]

Gah.

So, the Louisiana welfare department is so utterly incompetent that they give benefits to over 1700 people who are currently incarcerated (how could they even do that?), so he's going to fix things by... not fixing things at all.

This won't have any benefit for cleaning o the gross incompetence of the department. It'll just change how the funds get drained.

[Rageaholic]

So, you do your time, get out of prison with next to nothing and now you're poor for life. It doesn't seem to have a statue of limitations on it either. So you did something when you were 19, did your time and are 70 now on food stamps. Time to starve!

Makes you wonder who the real bad guys are.

He inserted it under the table in an agricultural bill as bait. Even if anyone noticed the amendment, if they vote against it he can use it as an attack ad saying such and such voted to give child rapists federal benefits.

They're the ones who want people to basically starve to death and they have the balls to use emotional arguments? Sounds like the far right in a nutshell.

[Andara Bledin]

Sounds like the far right in a nutshell.

Isn't their mantra "Fuck you, I got mine?"

[bara]

This is a wonderful example of how broken our current system is.

[Gravekeeper]

Naturally, the senator in question was involved in a huge scandal in a prostitution ring years ago. ;p

[mikoyan29]

At least he wasn't suspected of setting a fire for insurance purposes because someone like that would never rise the ranks of being Chairman of a committee.

[Pixilated]

This made my jaw drop when I read it. What is WRONG with these people? Their wish to perpetuate increasingly draconian penalties just boggles the mind. It's as if you do one stupid thing and they want you stomped into the mud for life.

I'm waiting for them to bring back branding -- you know, so you're perpetually marked as a scofflaw. Or some of the other hideous penalties that used to be handed out to lawbreakers, that left them permanently maimed and marked.

Isn't their mantra "Fuck you, I got mine?"

Very much so. They want to turn the country back to the good old days ... of the Dark and Middle Ages, when there was an upper class, that was basically above the law, and a lower class that lived in grinding poverty and whose lives were literally in the hands of the upper class.

[Greenday]

Might as well kick em while their down. Literally making it impossible for these people to make an honest life of themselves.

[Seifer]

I would assume that ex-convicts have a hell of a time finding jobs out of prison, so they have no where else to turn but to welfare. Cutting them off from that is basically guaranteeing that they're going to end up back in prison just so they don't starve on the streets.

[Pixilated]

Might as well kick em while their down. Literally making it impossible for these people to make an honest life of themselves.

And when they relapse, which of course they will, then point to them self-righteously and say, "See? We always knew they were no good."

[bara]

I have a better idea, how about amending the Louisiana food stamp program not to hire people so incompetent?

But of course that would involve properly educating people so they would have people to hire, which also leads to a more productive society and lessens criminal activity and lowers the number of people who would even need public assistance.

[Panacea]

Very much so. They want to turn the country back to the good old days ... of the Dark and Middle Ages, when there was an upper class, that was basically above the law, and a lower class that lived in grinding poverty and whose lives were literally in the hands of the upper class.

You mean we don't have this now?

[bex1218]

My roommate is a felon. When he first got out he had food stamps. Then he got married to my best friend/ex. He now has a job (damn hard to find, especially now hes looking for a new one) and a baby girl. My best friend has helped him turn his life around. Just sucks cause we are so limited on apartments, too.