EBT card cheats in Louisiana may lose SNAP access for a year

Back on Oct. 14 and Oct. 16, I wrote about the EBT debacle in Louisiana where a bunch of SNAP enrollees stole thousands of dollars of food from local Walmarts during a social media driven hoarding event. They may not have to pay up, but they might be held accountable.

A power outage resulted in EBT cards having no limit in the area, and once a few people found out they could walk out of Walmart with $250 or more of food when they only had a balance of $10 on their EBT cards, word spread like wildfire. With tweets flying, two Walmart stores in the area were pretty much wiped out of all food in their stores. The Springhill police department chief saw one thief walk of with more than $700 in food.

A couple of days later, the state said it was not the fault of the card-holders, since Walmart should have followed procedure to limit purchases to $50 when the system was down. Walmart would just have to eat the costs. I mentioned that we knew exactly who these misguided people were, so why not hold them accountable?

We know exactly what these people purchased. We know exactly who these people are. We know they were taking advantage of a broken government system. These people should be ashamed of themselves, but the government is telling Walmart to pick up the tab.

Walmart may still have to pick up the tab, but the state is now looking at records to target recipients who defrauded the system and may cut off their benefits for the next year.

Suzy Sonnier, the secretary of state at the Department of Children and Family Services, released a statement saying: “We must protect the program for those who receive and use their benefits appropriately according to the law. We are looking at each case individually, addressing those recipients who are suspected of misrepresenting their eligibility for benefits or defrauding the system.”

At least there will be an attempt to hold these thieves accountable, but I don’t expect many to lose access to benefits for a year. Let me tell you, there is no shame among this group. If any are identified, here is my prediction.

  1. They will not be shamed, they will run to the media and claim they will not be able to feed their families.
  2. It wasn’t their fault, they “thought there was a change to the benefit system.”
  3. They will ask “why do the children have to suffer?”
  4. Government officials imposing the suspensions will be referred to as racist.

Look, I understand their is unlimited demand for free stuff – kids are willing to walk a lot of miles on Halloween for free candy – but this is different. These people knew they were screwing the system, and since it was a government system they had no problem doing it. They were taking from people and corporations who were repressing them.

Says quite a bit about society today does it not?

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

10 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on November 8, 2013 at 9:13 am

    For liberals, it takes a village to rip off the system and get away with it.? For the U.S., it takes a conservative like Bobby Jindal to hold them accountable.
    ?
    Go Bobby!? Don’t reward fraud with a free pass from the government.



    • Dimsdale on November 8, 2013 at 9:22 am

      And take away the ?bamaphones they used to spread the word!



  2. SeeingRed on November 8, 2013 at 9:22 am

    How about ‘forever’ vs. a year?? If you grew a pair in LA, show it.



  3. Anne-EH on November 8, 2013 at 11:59 am

    A good start.



  4. bien-pensant on November 8, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    The Louisiana Response sounds good but . . . I think that what is being said is good for sound bites and tough sounding rhetoric. Actually doing something, like suspending benefits, is another matter. It is political dynamite.
    ?
    In six months, all of this will be forgotten.
    ?



    • bien-pensant on November 8, 2013 at 4:40 pm

      I am kinda surprised Obama hasn’t said something about the cold-hearted Republicans and their hatred of blah, blah, blah. Then he would direct his expert on illegalities, Attorney General Holder, to go to Louisiana to make sure blah, blah, blah.
      It might get him some cover and distraction from his other problems.
      ?



    • Lynn on November 10, 2013 at 4:53 pm

      I’m betting Valerie told POTUS to do just that while they were playing golf. ?Oh I can’t wait until Monday to see what she told him to do.



  5. noreen2013 on November 11, 2013 at 8:16 pm

    Do you have to be a racist to post here or is it optional?



    • Dimsdale on November 12, 2013 at 11:49 am

      I reread the entire post, and not once was race mentioned.
      ?
      It is the people who see racism under every rock that reveal where they live, and that they are the true racists.?? This is the modus operandi of liberals; throwing up the false strawman of racism when their arguments are baseless.
      ?
      Racism is not an option here, but reading competency is, noreen.? Y’all have a nice day now!



    • Lynn on November 12, 2013 at 3:37 pm

      And leave the light on



square-louisiana-ebt

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