HR 4646 Read and Scream!

Not sure if this is a right place to post this, but here goes.

I really wish there was a Presidential candidate running on a platform of bringing common sense back to America.

The waste I see in so many different aspects of my life/jobs could save billions of dollars a year!

I work part time for a convenience store. The amount of unhealthy foods I see purchased, (i.e. pizza's, soda, Red-Bull energy drinks, etc) that are approved items for WI's food stamp system sickens me. Especially when: 1) I grew up with parents who had to take their coaster wagon to the neighborhood 'county site' to get basics (flour, sugar, dried beans, salt pork, peanut butter, cheese, eggs, etc) during the depression. It wasn't fancy but they felt damned lucky to have that in their bellies.

2) These same people on food stamps then pull out a wad of money and purchase cigarettes, alcohol, and lottery tickets! I work 2 jobs and I can't afford/won't waste my money on that crap!

My other part time job involves working in homecare. Don't get me wrong, I love my clients and am happy to work with them. However, when the government is paying the company I work for $20+/hour so that they pay me $8-$11 in order to allow my clients daughter to go to her job which pays about the same as what I'm paid just DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! Having been a caregiver of my parents I know how valuble a day to yourself can be. But why not just pay families who are willing to take care of their parents? They can then hire a caregiver themselves for that occasional day off they need. It would save millions. The administrators of these State Funders are making well over $150,000 a year. Do they really need that kind of income when the caregivers are barely making minimum wage in many cases?

3)This last topic is something most people don't realize, even tho 'kids fooling around' has been around since Eve showed Adam what was under the fig leaf.

There are literally thousands if not millions of dollars being spent on the prosecuting and incarcerating and/or following up of probationary/registry rules. Young men (under age themselves) are being prosecuted as sex offenders because they had consensual relations with a classmate who aren't old enough legally. They spend 8+ hours a day flirting in classes, spend hours in extracurricular activities such as pep band/youth group being considered equals. Long story short....I have personal experience with this. If you check out Romeo and Juliet Laws on facebook you can read of the hell our family has endured these past 2 years. It is broken up into several sections under "Notes". 

I am appalled at the amount of energy and dollars that have been spent ruining young men's lives because as the judge in our case said..."You are not guilty of anything other than having consensual relations with someone who clearly gave consent but wasn't legally old enough." They were 1 year 355 days apart in age. They had less sex than Clinton had with Monica.

With just these three examples, I truly believe millions of $$ could be saved yearly.

Common sense should have to be a requirement for all political representatives. However, in all these cases, politicians are afraid of losing votes because they may offend someone if they try to change. This is especially true of the sex offender issue. Believe me, if these boys were really rapists I'd be the first to say lock them up. But in 99% of these cases it's merely a 'prosecuting the letter of the law' issue.

Thanks for letting me vent!

If a girl is not of age to give consent and a man has sex with her, it is a sex crime.  You cannot say that an 18 year old can have sex with a 16 year old girl but a 25 year old cannot.  And the food stamp issue is one of those topics where non food stamp users feel that they have the right to determine what foods a food stamp person should be buying.  So what, they buy junk food and just because someone is on food stamps doesn't mean that we have the right to determine what they eat.  

BTW, I can understand why the government pays non family members to care for the elderly or terminally ill.  Most family members are not mentally stable enough to spend hours upon end taking care of their parents or grandparents without neglect or abuse entering the picture.  

You know, there are tons of social service programs in which all of us are large part of yet few people feel the right to talk about the users of these programs like they do men and women who use foodstamps.  

 

Lightswitch....I'm not talking about an 18 year old man, I'm talking about a 17 year old boy who was harrassed for over 9 hours being graphically texted by this classmate inviting him, encouraging him, in the judges own words...she was 'grooming' him.  She has also admitted to having claimed the same story against another young man (he was 16) so he didn't get into trouble.

In Wisconsin you can have 2 17 year olds having sex and the one who's birthday fall first can be considered the 'offender' and the younger can be considered the 'victim'.

Oh, yes...did I mention this same girl also was found to be advertising herself as "18 interested in men" on a website dating service, when in fact she was only 16??  Gee...she sounds as if she's predator.

You can't buy cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, nor can you vote in the state of WI at 17.  But you are an 'adult' if you have oral sex performed on you?  Seems to me it's pretty hard to force a body part into someone elses' mouth. 

As for the foodstamp issue while I've never had to use them, I certainly was eligible for them.  I don't have a problem with people using them.  I do have a problem with the abuse of them.  The lady tonight who bought 2 4-packs of RedBull, 3 bags of potato chips with EBT and then paid cash for $66 worth of lottery tickets and another $75 for a carton of cigarettes.  If I can't afford to buy healthy food, then I certainly don't buy the other things with my money.

And sorry to say, your analogy of why non-family members should be paid to take care so there's no neglect or abuse doesn't wash with me.  Up until this very selfish generation of baby boomers came of age it was typical of families to have multi-generational households.  Some ethnic cultures still do this and I take my hat off to them. 

We complain there's no money, that the government is failing, yet we expect Big Brother to hand us everything on a silver platter.

Don't even get me started about why most people don't have gardens anymore to help stretch the budget.  Instead of the children sitting playing games on the expensive electronic devices, they could be learning to help around the house.  If we can't afford to pull our own weight, then we don't need to drive everywhere.  Walking and biking don't take gas. 

Sorry if I hit a nerve, but my nerves have been shot to hell lately too.

It is none of your business what a food stamp person spends is or her money on.  First, maybe the money for the cigaretts came from someone he or she was shopping for.  You cannot make assumptions about people based on what you see them do in a checkout line.  It is none of your business and none of mine.  And, while there are probably some who do abuse the system, there is no reason to generalize about the entire group of people who use food stamps.  And, flamming those people who use foodstamps by saying, well it's those who come in here and buy redbull.  Does that sound like part of the solution or even part of a discourse that we should practice.  There are some nurses who abuse their patients, but I would never say, well nurses are nice but there are those that do this or that.  

And, you know, it is typical of society to always, always blame the girl.  First, let me remind you that the law in your state enforces that a sixteen year old cannot consent.  And, the seventenn-year-old who had sex with her had the misfortune of not knowing the law.  If I were a parent of a boy who was 17, I think that I would say, if you have sex with a sixteen year old or another seventeen year old, you will go to jai.  If the crime had been seventeen year old kids cannot drive a car, I bet your grandson would have known not to drive a car.  As far as you blaming the girl and saying she is a predator, well, she cannot be a predator unless she is having sex with children younger than she.  I am sorry this happend to your grandson, but sex with a minor is sex with a minor.  And if that little girl is sending text messages and all of those things, apparently they didn't bring it up in court, because sexting by a child of sixteen to an adult of any age (or those considered adult by the law) should be ignored or sent to the cops.  I have known girls that have acted out sexually and it was usually a result of abuse at home, and as much as we are tempted to say they, the children, are predators, don't you see the fallacy in that accusation.  

So, the child performed oral sex on your grandson and you are angry because he was busted for having sex with a child--not just sex but oral sex.  There seems to be some logic missing in your defense.

Before our generation, people tended to have more children, women didn't often work outside of the home, and our parents and grandparents didn't usally live as long as our folks live today.  Also, up until a few decades back, chronically ill people were not as lucky to get treatment because medical technology had not advanced to the degree that it has these days.  A lot of younger men and women both work and they may have only one or two kids, who are not able to help, so to move an ailing family member in to your home and stay there and tend to them on top of working and parenting can be stressful.  You, again, are comparing peas and carrots.  WE are not a selfish generation; we are a hard working generation and we are trying to balance careers, family--both immediate and extended.   

 

 

Jeannie, again,



Cheryl

Jeannie,



Cheryl

Thanks for this. A common sense platform well... makes too much sense. lol. Our government threw that away a long time ago. I'm all for common sense, and I'm getting old enough to know now what my parents were talking about when they'd make comments about the younger generation or govermnent waste. I  was born with or taught to use common sense. I can see many people now don't have that option. Sad. Loved your comments and straight forward approach to saving. Wish our government leaders felt the same. Have a great day.
Jen 10 yrs post op

Amen, amen and amen again...!!!

I can see it now...my mattress is gonna get a lot more lumps!  Its the only way to keep our money. 

Let me see, where did I bury that coffee can.....lol

If you look at things thru the prism of someone who wants America to emplode..he's doing all the right things. Its more than hard to believe he is only inept.  I see designs everywhere.

 November 2012 can't come soon enough.

Maybe you should actually read up on Obama's policies before you start talking about America imploding and let me just remind you that the republican leaders of your state just did the smartest thing for drug testing companies:  Let's drug test all welfare people and those who fail will have to pay for the test and those who pass can stay on welfare and we will pay for the test.  Of all the thousands that Florida drug tested, only 1% tested positive for drug use.  She had to pay for her test but all the other thousands, you guys down there in Florida are paying.  Yeah, sounds like one way to keep the economy from imploding.  As a matter of fact, I cannot wait to find out how the bright idea came about and whose pockets were lined with the cost of all those test: probably one of the politicians and the company that did the drug test.  

Duh!