Welfare Fraud Investigations Perpetuate Fraudulent Stereotypes

Negative stereotypes of low-income folks are perpetuated by lopsided media investigations, which feed into the narrative of conservative lawmakers intent on destroying the social safety net. Yet most voters think that poor children deserve to eat, live indoors and go to a doctor when they are sick. Monica Peabody, POWER (Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights) Board member

Last February, Congress passed legislation that bans the use of TANF funds at casinos, strip clubs, and liquor stores. TANF, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, is a federal block grant program that provides cash assistance to low-income families with children. This cash assistance is made accessible to recipients through the use of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards. The bill sponsor, Louisiana Republican Representative, Charles Boustany, claims that illicit use of TANF funds is a nationally rampant problem. For proof he probably looked to sources like an early 2011 fraud investigation done by Seattle’s King 5 television, which revealed that 13,000 TANF recipients made 20,465 separate withdrawals in state casinos.

This was reminiscent of a scandal in California, where the Los Angeles Times reported that EBT card users pulled $4.8 million out of casino ATM’s between the beginning of 2007 and middle of 2010. What these reports failed to take into account is how often casino’s are located in rural areas with limited ATM availability. Half the transactions in California took place in rural areas, and based on the locations of Washington’s casinos it’s reasonable to assume these statistics are comparable.

Troy Hutson, deputy director of DSHS (Department of Social and Health Services), was asked by King 5 News if he thought the money being withdrawn in Washington casinos was being used for gambling. Mr. Hutson acknowledged that, “I don’t know if someone who is withdrawing money at a casino is actually using it to gamble . . . I don’t have enough information to make that determination.”

Despite this lack of information, the “forbidden” businesses mentioned above are now required to alter their ATM’s and point of sale machines so they cannot accept EBT cards, an expense they are covering out of pocket. Washington’s Office of Fraud and Accountability has utilized US Postal Service data to create a tracking system for matching TANF recipient’s cards to transaction records they are accessing from ATMs at “forbidden locations”.

The Office of Fraud and Accountability has thirty employees; six new full-time positions were created in March 2011 to reduce fraud and misuse of benefits through EBT cards. A figure has not been released for the cost of this investigation, but it’s safe to assume it surpasses the $6,600 TANF recipients withdrew from ATM’s at ‘adult entertainment venues’ and casinos last year.

In 2012 Washington State had an average of 54,427 people receiving TANF benefits per month. Over a seven-month period last year 63 Washingtonians used their EBT cards at ATM’s located in casinos, liquor stores, tattoo parlors, and strip clubs. That is less than .002% of Washington State EBT card users. Of these 63, seven are “repeat offenders.” How is this news?

Tracking EBT card use has also become a pastime for the conservative media. In January Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post revealed that welfare recipients made dozens of ATM withdrawals at a handful of porn and liquor stores across New York City during an 18-month span. Kansaswatchdog.org tracked Kansas TANF recipients’ spending habits over a 3-month period last year by accessing ATM records at casinos, strip clubs and the like. They found that Kansas welfare recipients withdrew $43,000 at ‘questionable locations’, the largest two being “smoke shops and cigarette retailers”, a common ATM location where $19,302.42 was accessed. Cash advance and payday loan places, which are a debt trap that specifically targets low-income folks, came in second with $8,578.10. Not to be outdone, Florida’s NBC2, with the help of Virginia-based software firm FMS, Inc., recently sorted through 1.3 million EBT ATM transactions, totaling $201.8 million dollars, to find that between 2009 and 2011 $190,733 had been spent in bars, liquor stores, strip clubs, casinos, and bowling alleys. That is less than one percent of the total money they monitored and almost certainly less than the cost of the investigation.

The sentiment behind these investigations was perfectly summarized, albeit unintentionally, by Michael Tanner of the Cano Institute. When interviewed about EBT use at sex shops in the New York Post Article he stated, “I have nothing against strip clubs, but that’s not what benefits are for. I don’t blame [recipients]. If you are poor, it’s a crummy life and you want to have a drink or see a naked woman. I blame the people who are in charge of this.” Mr. Tanner’s statement paints low-income folks as drunks with crummy lives who want to party on the taxpayer dime. They don’t know any better, so it’s up to those in power to put a stop to their debauchery. The entire purpose of reports like these seems to be advocating for the prejudices of Mr. Tanner’s lot. This narrative is the latest line of attack in a smear campaign that stretches back even further than the phrase ‘welfare queen’. Once these stereotypes are planted in the public consciousness it becomes that much easier for conservative lawmakers to swoop in with discriminatory legislation.

For a case study in this phenomenon we need look no further than Florida’s mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients. Despite costing Florida a deficit of $45,780 and proving the percentage of welfare recipients using illegal substances was lower than the general population, Kansas decided just last month to begin a similar drug testing policy for its welfare applicants. In these instances, stereotypes speak louder than statistics. Similarly, tracking TANF recipients ATM habits is absurdly wasteful, proving nothing except how little money is being withdrawn at locations that offend conservative sensibilities. Media reports have been playing down the truth and playing up shock value, which perpetuates pre-established negative stereotypes, attracting viewers like moths to a light. As these negative stereotypes become further engrained, logic falls by the wayside. The public is too busy buying into an absurd fantasy about welfare recipients being a bunch of drunken degenerates gambling away other people’s money to care about how their tax dollar is being wasted in pursuit of this fantasy. This portrayal pacifies the masses as conservative lawmakers smash the social safety net to smithereens. Since 1996, due to TANF time limits and onerous requirements, the number of people receiving cash assistance has fallen by two thirds, though poverty has increased. In 2009 TANF assisted 28 families for every 100 in poverty, compared to 75 out of 100 in 1996. All this has occurred during the worst economic crisis in a generation, when the need for social services is greater than it has been in decades. In order to address this growing economic inequality we must first debunk the stereotypes about low-income individuals that are fueling this atrocity.

Jordan Beaudry has a pen in his pocket and a passion for social justice.

Honor a mama with a POWER Mother's Day card!

For a donation of $5 or more, POWER will send a card to a mother(s) of your choice.  Stop by our office and fill one out OR use the donate button and add the address and message you would like us to write on the card.

Art this year is by the talented Sylvie Sovina.  You can see more of her paintings at warmasyellow.com.

Mama Care Fair

POWER needs YOU!!!

Mama Care Fair is just around the corner – Monday, May 6^th.  POWER is seeking single individuals willing and able to give mamas a break for the evening to enjoy a hot meal, relaxation, and tlc.  In addition, we are seeking in-kind donations and services for the busy mamas to feel special.  Please call Patricia at 360-352-9716 if you are available to volunteer, shell out a few bucks for a gift certificate, cook, clean-up or provide a service to these lovely mamas or email at advocate@mamapower.org. 

We look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you for all that you do! 

Noam Chompsky on Human Rights:

Well there is a kind of a gold standard on human rights.  It’s the Universal Declaration in 1948.  Its important for American’s to understand the status of that declaration.  It was not a Western imposition.  It was arrived at by consensus over a very broad range, including input from elsewhere.  In fact, much of the initiative came from elsewhere.  Some from here, Eleanor Roosevelt in particular.  But it was agreed upon and affirmed by congress.  It has the highest legal status you can say. 

 It’s got three parts, all of equal status.  The first part is political and civil rights, so the right to vote and so on.  The second part is social and economic rights, and that includes the right to housing, the right to healthcare, the right to education.  All fundamental rights, and by world standards are easily as significant as voting rights.  Maybe more so.  The third section is cultural rights.  The right to preserve your culture, to protect it and so on. 

Well the U.S. attitude from the beginning has been to dismiss the third component, not even talk about it.  It’s never discussed.  And to reject the second component.  So U.S. officials have disparaged and dismissed the social and economic provisions.  That’s true especially under the Reagan and Bush One administrations. 

Jeane Kirkpatrick, the U.N. Ambassador under Reagan(1), just dismissed the socio-economic provisions with ridicule.  It’s a letter from Santa Clause.  That’s exactly the same as throwing out the civil and political rights and saying their nothing, just a lot of words. 

Paula Dobriansky(2) in the first Bush administration, she described social and economic rights as ‘a myth.’  That there are no such rights.  The only rights are civil and political rights, and it’s just a myth to think that these are rights. 

Morris Abram, who was the delegate to the international U.N. human rights group(3), they were debating something called the ‘right to development,’ which basically paraphrased the Universal Declaration.  He voted against it; I think the U.S. was the only country to vote against it, with, again, very disparaging remarks.  Saying it’s preposterous.  Incitement.  You can’t talk about social and economic rights.  They don’t exist.

So the U.S. has been one of the strongest opponents of social and economic rights, which is a core part, one-third, of the Universal Declaration.  Actually the U.S. is opposed to two-thirds since it doesn’t discuss the cultural rights.  We should know that our country is in the lead in undermining human rights.  That’s important, especially given the standard rhetoric from political leaders, intellectuals, media, and so on about how we defend human rights all over the world.  We don’t defend them at all in principle.  We defend them against enemies.  So we are all in favor of human rights in Easter Europe or Iran, and say that’s fine.  But not in our domain.  Not here.

Foreclosure is one case in point.  The right to housing is a core part of the Universal Declaration.  Its particularly obscene her, because in the foreclosure case these people were cheated.  They were cheated by the big banks, who created the crisis on the verge of criminality, some of them actually criminal.  They created the crisis; induced people to undertake obligations they couldn’t possibly fulfill, and are now throwing them out in the streets, even though congress legislated there should be assistance to the victims.

Notes:

1.    Jean Kirkpatrick was nominated by Reagan as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

2.    Paula Dobriansky has worked as a foreign policy expert in the administrations of five presidents in total, with her position ranging.  Her statements were made when acting as Secretary of State for Human Rights and Human Affairs, which she did for both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

3.    The official title for Morris Abram that is being referenced is Representative of the United States to the European Office of the United Nations, which he was appointed to be George H. W. Bush.  He served from 1989-1993.

4.    The date of this interview was 10/26/12.

This interview was a part of the larger documentary Expect Resistance, which chronicles the Take Back the Land and Occupy movements in the context of Rochester, NY.

Learn more about the film here.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Expect-Resistance-A-Documentary-on-Housing-Defense-and-Liberation/131551616928675

Moms Rising: Call to Action on Family Medical Leave.

Help us make sure that HB 1457 - the Family Medical Leave Insurance (FMLI) bill - gets across the finish line in Olympia this legislative session!

Click here to send a note to your state legislators urging them to act quickly to support HB 1457 - the FMLI bill - and move it to the House floor for a vote!

http://action.momsrising.org/go/2715?t=5&akid=3947.2021117.Z_jXNZ

Together we’ve made some great progress on HB 1457 - the FMLI bill - this session. We’ve had several MomsRising members testify about the need for FMLI, we delivered stuffed storks and story books about FMLI to legislators and we’ve sent hundreds of emails in support of this common sense, family-friendly policy.  Thanks to all of your work, we got the bill passed out of the House Labor and Workforce Development Committee.

Now we’ve got to get across the next hurdle – out of committees and headed to the House floor for a vote – by the end of the week!

Urge your legislators to act quickly to support FMLI and schedule it for a full House vote! 

http://action.momsrising.org/go/2715?t=7&akid=3947.2021117.Z_jXNZ

Why is FMLI so important?

Paid family leave gives kids a healthier start. It gives families the economic security they need to stay out of poverty at a critical time. It can even benefit businesses’ bottom line.  This saves everyone--from parents to taxpayers to businesses--money in the long-run. 

That's right.  Studies show that paid family leave after the birth of a child combats poverty, gives children a healthy start, lowers infant mortality by more than 20% [2] and helps lower the wage gap between women and men. [3] 

Yet, in the United States, only 49% of mothers are able to cobble together paid leave following childbirth by using sick days, vacation days, disability leave, and maternity leave. And 51% of new mothers lack any paid leave -- so some take unpaid leave, some quit, some even lose their jobs just when they need them most. [4] No wonder having a baby is a leading cause of "poverty spells" in our nation! 

In addition, a number of studies have shown that maternity leave has a positive impact on how long women breastfeed and thus on the long-term health of the child and mother.  This is important because major medical authorities recommend that infants be exclusively breastfed for their first six months because of significant health benefits for both mother and child. Despite the government's Healthy People 2010 breastfeeding goals, only 13.6% of U.S. infants are exclusively breastfeeding and only 43% are breastfeeding at all at six months of age. [5] Recently the U.S. Surgeon General called paid family leave policies important for families and babies’ health – linking the ability of new moms to take paid leave to increased rates of breastfeeding.  [6]   

Paid family leave isn’t just good for families – it also benefits employers.  A recent study of the California Paid Leave program showed that most employers found that the Paid Family Leave had a positive effect on productivity, profitability/performance, turnover and employee morale. [7] In addition, paid family leave helps level the playing field for many small businesses which wouldn't normally be able to afford leave since the majority of legislative proposals for paid family are paid for by small employee paycheck deductions and NOT by businesses.  It's a win-win. 

But while 177 other countries have some form of paid leave for new moms after the birth of a child, the U.S. isn't one of them, an omission that sets up our families for failure. [8] 

*Send a quick note – right now – to your state legislators and urge them to bring the FMLI bill forward for a full House Vote!

http://action.momsrising.org/go/2715?t=9&akid=3947.2021117.Z_jXNZ

*And please forward this email to at least three friends in Washington State who you think might take action too.

Together we’re a more powerful voice for women and families.

-Kristin, Ruth, Sarah, and the while MomsRising team

P.S. Can you take a moment to share your experiences with family leave (or your experiences with a lack of family leave)? What did you--or your friends or family members--do when a new child arrived? http://action.momsrising.org/go/662?t=11&akid=3947.2021117.Z_jXNZ