The debate over measures 66 & 67 has produced poor arguements and commercials on both sides and the real over-emcompassing issue has been largely ignored – how can we fix our State’s financial mess and trim back the budget while maintaining and improving effective services. It is the question that the legislature chose to avoid by taking the easy way out; however, to be fair, I have been disappointed with conservatives in this area as our politicians always claim that cuts can be made, but we see little in the way of actual detailed ideas.
Why not start my own list? Granted, I am no politician, nor did I waste my money by investing in a Poli Sci degree (my apologies if you did). I am just an average, hard-working middle class conservative who sees dumb people and wasted government money everyday.
Part 1 – Food Stamps
This issue has just recently come to my attention, and just to make it clear – I have no problem with the program or helping feed those in need. In fact, it is an important service that needs to be provided by government, organizations, and/or the Church. However, what I have issue with is the amount given to families and how it sets them up for failure.
Per DHS’s website, the average cash benefit per month for a family of three is $528! In talking with people more familiar with the benefit, families of two make approximately $400 and families of four over $600 a month. Now, I know many families of four that are trying to keep their food budget down to $400 a month, and I would think that most families of this size that are responsible with their money are going to try and stay around that figure. Why do we give more money to the needy than a reasonable non-needy family is able to budget for a month?
If you are needy, the State should not be giving you a generous amount to spend on food – it should be enough to get the basics so that your family stays healthy. If you are broke, it follows that you should be eating as low cost as possible. As Dave Ramsey says – beans and rice, rice and beans. Instead, the needy are eating better than families that have jobs, pay taxes, and are wise with their money.
The biggest problem with this is that the State is getting needy families used to eating off larger budget than their future income after food stamps will be able to support. The system sets them up for financial failure as they get used not having to clip coupons, shop wisely, and organize meals to minimize cost. This is actually more harm than help and a great waste of taxpayer money. I would imagine that many return or try to stay on food stamps as it is much easier than having to live on a normal budget.
My solution?
Trim the amount down substantially to the budget levels of normal, responsible people and educate those participating in the program.
Part of the program should require you attend courses on grocery shopping on a budget, nutrition, coupon clipping, meals planning, and personal finance. We should get volunteers from the community to help with this and we should invest in these people so that when they get a job and get off food stamps, they can setup a budget based on the income and “eat within their means”.
Personally, I don’t know much about grocery shopping or meal planning, but I would be willing to volunteer helping these people with personal finance and budgetting. Instead of just standing by while the State throws money at them to try and help them, we should be volunteering our time to help them in ways money cannot. Not only would we see better results, but we could probably cut down the DHS budget significantly.
Just my two cents…
Red in Deep Blue 