Public records requests reveal Mass. welfare recipients spending EBT funds in tropical locations

 For anyone wondering how Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty is going, allow me to provide an update—things are just swell! After 60 years of big-spending, anti-poverty programs, the downtrodden and impoverished huddled masses who just needed a little help to get back on their feet are now so well-off, they’re living like the middle class, able to enjoy the conveniences of modern travel, landing in the tropical paradises of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean, and even heading off to the wilds of Alaska.

I guess I should mention one minor detail though—they’re using their welfare EBT cards to foot the bill. Here are the details, from a report by Joe Dwinell at the Boston Herald:

Massachusetts welfare dollars spent in Hawaii, Virgin Islands, Alaska: ‘What the hell is someone doing in Hawaii?

Welfare recipients can’t use ATMs in casinos and pot shops, but that didn’t stop them from firing up EBT cards in Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, California, Florida, and Alaska.

…

Data obtained by the Herald through a public records request shows taxpayer-paid ‘economic assistance’ for Massachusetts residents cropped up from Alabama to Arizona, Pennsylvania to Puerto Rico, Utah to Wyoming and all the New England states.

(For anyone not tracking, EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer which is the welfare system that loads funds onto a recipient’s card.)

Of course, I take great issue with this, as this is my money. I earned it, and I need it to feed my family, pay my mortgage and utilities, and clothe my children. If someone can afford a plane ticket to “visit family” 4,000 miles away, then they can certainly afford to prioritize groceries and diapers. I myself haven’t visited Hawaii, or Alaska, because with a finite amount of money, private school for my boys and a stable roof over their head is more important.

So, maybe things aren’t so swell after all. I guess if the goal were to empower people to be self-sufficient (this is the stated mission of the state’s welfare agency), the big-spending, anti-poverty programs of the progressive Democrats kind of just trapped people in low-income lifestyles: perpetually rent in Section 8 housing properties, surrender your children to failing public schools, and work a dead-end job. But hey, get your hair and nails done, maybe a new sleeve of tattoos, and blow any extra cash on plane tickets to take a luxurious vacation to “visit family,” supplementing the expenses with your welfare card.

Remember the story about the young moms who participated in a cash-assistance program in D.C.? One used the $10,800 lump-sum to splurge on a glamorous trip to Florida with “new outfits” for her kids and frittered hundreds away for a personal glow-up; another blew $600 on a birthday bash for her toddler. Here’s what the first mom had to say about the windfall:

‘Do you know how good I look in this picture? I didn’t have to look like a working, stressed mom,’ she recalled.

We call this… vanity.

When you’re dead broke, the last thing you need to prioritize is brand-new clothes (I myself thrift my own wardrobe), or a weave, or a cruise along the waterways to see all the Miami mansions.

Poor people are poor… because they make poor financial decisions.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/09/public_records_requests_reveals_that_massachusetts_welfare_recipients_are_spending_their_ebt_funds_in_tropical_locations.html