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And, hey check out this cellphone teleprompter!
By Guy Page
I wondered what would happen when I posted a reel monologue about the opportunity to revisit how the State of Vermont pays SNAP benefits, now that we might be spending our own money and are less shackled by federal regulations on how we must spend its shekels.
The Vermont Emergency Board will meet at noon today to determine how to distribute SNAP benefits if the federal government remains shut down after Nov. 1. An important part of this conversation will be how much it will cost to pay these benefits out of state revenue, as House leaders propose. Ahead of their 10 AM press conference, I offered a few citizen suggestions:
- No junk food allowed,
- Tell us how many illegal immigrants are receiving benefits (some say zero, others say half of all illegal immigrants nationwide are receiving benefits, what’s the deal?)
- Help people help themselves. In detail not fully expressed in the reel, I suggest the State require work, training or substance abuse recovery for those who are receiving benefits due to lack of motivation, training or sobriety.
I meant this reel as an informed conversation starter. It worked! As of 9:14 this morning, I counted 5,213 views and 101 comments to the Facebook reel and 832 views on YouTube. Here are a few of the comments:
Dave asks about helping people find better jobs so they won’t need food stamps:
“The best social program is a good job. There’s too many folks stuck in low wage jobs. Is there some program or non-profit, that helps people find better employment?
Barbara says recipients should be taught to grow and preserve food:
‘I think start teaching independence by offering opportunities to grow food and preserve food through canning, drying food for winter.”
Meaghan asks:
“Who decides what the “junkiest of junk food” is?” I rather snarkily replied, “same people who decide what kind of straw to use, I guess.”
Lisa stirs the pot with:
“You don’t have the right to tell people what they can spend their money on.”
Betsy responds:
“Yes I do, it’s my money you are using.”
Chris adds:
“If they work and earn money, they can spend it on whatever they want.”
BTW I was able to record this reel in my mancave on my cellphone with the help of the PrompterPal app, a free and simple ‘teleprompter’ that even I can use, so you can too. Readers of all persuasions, I invite you to start your own conversations.
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Categories: Commentary
Awesome to see this Guy. Great thoughts and conversation. Exactly what we need. Thank you so much.
Guy – Define junk food. Methinks “junk food” tends to be defined as
“anything I don’t like”…chef boyardee…gone. crackers…gone. iced tea…gone. anything salty, processed or packaged…gone. Those on SNAP will be down to raw ptoatoes and bread.
Definition of junk food: anything that contains empty calories, low protein source, simple carbohydrates, high saturated fat… it’s really pretty simple.
So…you are planning on banning potatoes?
I’M not planning on banning anything…
It isn’t that extreme. Chocolate bars? Brach’s abominations? Those are junk food.
Thank you Guy, The fact that the federal contingent of reps would rather harm the most vulnerable than be consistent in their meager support of them to pursue a political “win”, tells me its high time the Private sector makes another plan. please email me at greet@leadersoflegacy.org because we have a plan that will serve the people for centuries to come, we need some well fed and well paid people to help manifest it. For more info, and no this isn’t an ad, it’s a call to action, doing nothing is to invite a worse repeat: greet@leadersoflegacy.org.
Very good exercise Guy, very interesting. Have heard many comments this week on Boston radio station with reporter interviewing SNAP recipients about the shutdown, these two interviews really stick with me, “I’m a single mother, it’s not my job to take care of my kids, it’s the Governments” and one man “I have 10 kids, do you expect me to work 50-60 hours a week to feed them, ****** Crazy, that’s the Governments job”! Amazing. These weren’t summaries but a replay of the recorded interview.
OMFG…. if you made 10 kids, then hell yes, get three jobs if you must, or pack your pecker in your pants!
Sadly, that is the mindset of far too many of the recipients, which indirectly, or directly, impacts those that seriously need financial assistance.
I worked in a busy family practice. I saw families who were 3 generations in on
Welfare. The younger family members had no idea how to work, they had never seen anyone work. Grandparents, parents, children — each family made more money a year in benefits than I made working full time. They would come to the doctor with an extra large DD coffee, a new cell phone and a pack of cigarettes. They arrived in pajama pants and there kids smelled. They never had their $3 copay.
It made me angry.
Welfare, food stamps and rent assistance were designed as stop gap measures. Not intended to be a lifestyle.
I think there are people who genuinely need help, but I believe there are plenty who don’t. Who could work, but don’t.
People need to be drug tested to receive benefits. Vermont needs to have stricter requirements for residency and a longer wait period. Follow the state’s around us. They are not so quick to give it away.
Part of the solution could be to teach children the trades in school instead of half the other crap they pump into their heads!
Molly, seems that the youngest generation, these kids, aren’t taught how to work but are taught how to apply for things from the Government! My grandmother who was an immigrant, from Russia prior to WWI had a saying, “sometimes there is an excuse for being poor, but there is no excuse for being dirty, vinegar and soap are cheap”. Meaning you don’t need to buy anything expensive to clean with.
And if we don’t use Facebook? How can we see ‘the reel’?
If the government gives tobacco companies permission to make and sell their cancer causing products do you think the government will ban junk food? So much for a government that cares about the people.
Not to mention Government backed marijuana
…do you seriously think the government EVER cared about the people?
Cigarettes and junk food make people sick/fat. This is where Big Pharma comes in. Big Pharma likes sick people. Big Pharma doesn’t like cures. I’d be willing to bet there is a cure for cancer if you have enough $$$.
You’re right Greg, there are cures out there for cancer, but they can’t let that information out there as it will destroy the Harmaceutical industry. Many doctors (Dr. Burzynski, to name one) have had their clinics and livelihoods destroyed by being shut down, ridiculed and lied about to protect the drug money. Pure evil!!!
Certainly taxpayers who pay for Food Stamps (now SNAP) should have a very significant say on what it can be used for, and what doesn’t qualify.
Since 1964 when the Food Stamps began its permitate part of Government handouts (becoming SNAP in 2008) we have increased population on the system to 40 million people.
(Many who are actually Illegally in America). The issue I find is we have many who have been on the system for 10 – 20 years. Some are actually generational recipients, with no expectations or plan to get people to a place where they don’t need the help anymore.
The old saying –
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”. Unfortunately our government likes giving away fish on a daily basis, instead of training, educating, giving people a step up. We have a government of just offering a hand out.
It is time we helped people help themselves, than continue in a unchanging system that just gets bigger and bigger.
As adults, accountability is necessary, but our government doesn’t demand that, once on the SNAP system. Not everyone can work, I understand that. However many can, but won’t.
Anytime there’s a Gov. handout, those in Gubmint are looking for votes. Generational welfare recipients equals generational votes for those who provide the biggest handouts. Who was it that started the free phone giveaway? A lot of great suggestions in the comments but there are some people that just don’t want to help themselves.
No junk food! Cook , !you have some time just like the rest of us that work
If Vermonters are going to begin starving, consider how their forefathers saved themselves from the same fate.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TxNjuY9IBuaIl4Th5pbvb83PLuW7LvJ/view?usp=gmail
Democrats up to their old tricks, Republican Senator Josh Holly introduced a Bill to only fund SNAP program this week, which was voted down by Democrats. Yesterday Democrats said they are introducing the same Bill written under their names for a vote today or tomorrow, so Dems can brag THEY saved SNAP
I notice the formation of a circular firing squad between the have and the have-nots. Notice the powers in control, who are paid by our labor, are not concerned how they eat or heat. They successfully pit race against race, class against class, and create the problems that we blame each other of instigating. Civil war is what they salivate over so they can depopulate, transfer wealth, and reset to the new world order.
If Black lives really do matter, where is the over $90 Million raised in one year and many in that community are still struggling, still without opportunities in their “opportunity zones?”
Since 2020, turbo cancers, sudden deaths, and disabilities increased tenfold. Lost businesses, lost wages, costs exploded for everything – a cascade of depression and depleted resources. The drug trade on the street and in the medical facilities increased tenfold as well.
As far as food and water, how much of it is actually edible and not full of poisonous, toxic chemicals? High fructose corn syrup – check your labels and find it is in just about everything. If you can’t pronounce the ingredient, do you actually know what it is? Beyond Meat? Biochemical fake meat? No thanks. Is that rice or plastic shards? How many recalls are listed for bad processing and contamination? The FDA, the USDA, and the CDC are not our friends, they are our annihilators.
Moreover, there are people within society who do choose to ride the coattails. Who signs the forms and processes them? How many non-profits exist, solely, due to the welfare industrial complex? Who are the enablers, really? Think about it beyond the painting all poor people with wide brush strokes. Who allowed illegals to take what they were not entitled to – by the millions into billions of dollars given away, no quesions asked.
What I do not see or hear many talking about are the elderly, the veterans, or the disabled injured folks. All I hear is people abmonishing and demoralizing fellow human beings without much thought on how it got this bad in the first place. Many take for granted they are okay and sustaining well – until the day comes they are not. We should not be beholden to government to support basic needs. Yet, it is the government policies that create 12% or more needing such support.
Unless the fraud, treason and corruption is addressed – there will be no changes for the better. Guaranteed!
100% SPOT ON!!!!!!!
The reason why there is no support to limit SNAP to healthy food items is because of the corporate lobbiests and business entities that benefit financially from tax payer dollars. Here is a great article that discusses this issue published by the Mises Institute. Link https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-food-industry-lobbyists-keep-food-stamp-gravy-train-going
Throughout my life I’ve experinecd “invisible disability”. I have struggled against a “system” that would rather maintain me as the chattel of the Behavioral Health industry than recognize clinical evidence, obey the Law, and provide a handup. I have been able to resist the mental health system. Otherwise I wouldn’t even be able to “tell the tale”.
I’ve done community work, on my own ticket, for almost 40 years. A savvy, honest, determined individual can be more efficient than a bloated bureaucracy.
Without food stamps, I have no idea what I would have done.
Food stamps are an extension of the community support you referenced, provided and received. But SNAP has turned into, as you describe, an inefficient bloated bureaucracy, often providing goods and services to individuals, unlike you, that should not qualify.
But as with most economic fallacies, reliance on SNAP is derived from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that an individual can gain only at the expense of another.
The food stamp program is but one of many programs that provide community support. Food Banks, church groups, and various other organizations (Feeding America, Volunteers of America, Meals on Wheels) also provide significant assistance.
In fact, it’s reported that 42 million people used SNAP last year, while U.S. Food banks served 49 million people. Meanwhile, SNAP cost taxpayers $100 billion in 2024. While the estimated annual operating cost for U.S. food banks and related charitable hunger-relief networks (including food pantries and meal programs) is approximately $18 billion for fiscal year 2024 (October 2023–September 2024).
The point I’m making is that judging a program by its intent, rather than its performance, is a recipe for continued inefficiency. And just because we might not see all of the more efficient alternatives that may exist or be created in a free marketplace to replace SNAP doesn’t mean those alternatives don’t exist or won’t be created. Just imagine what a free marketplace can do with the $100 billion currently consumed annually by the SNAP program.