I knew it was too much - way too fast - and way too complicated for our Politian’s

Here is a link to that first one http://mroatmealsoratories.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-i-saw-in-my-bowl-of-oatmeal-this.html
Now, according to an Associated Press story, a glitch in the plan cuts many off from food stamps.

The best intentions of the plan huh? The way our society works is WAY too complicated to get your head around hundreds of billions in funding. What was initially a seemingly good thing - increasing unemployment benefits as part of the economic stimulus turned to crap in a hurry, at least for those who are unfortunate enough to be the farthest down the socioeconomic ladder. With the broad stroke of the pen we unknowingly made some Americans ineligible for hundreds of dollars a month in food stamps. I use the term broad stroke because it does not take a rocket scientist to know that there are WAY too many details when you are talking about how best to distribute damn near a trillion dollars. It is not all on the new President, the last one was doing the same thing before we voted him out. When you are talking about that much money and the speed at which the package was rammed down our throats the numbers do not lie – the sheer odds of unforeseen consequences are staggering.

Under the economic recovery plan, laid-off workers received a $25 weekly bump in their unemployment checks as part of a broad expansion of benefits for the poor. The unintended consequence created by the hastily put together law is that it did not raise the income cap for food stamp eligibility, so the extra money has pushed some people over the limit. Folks who are already hurting, bad because they have been laid-off are working with state officials unraveling this crazy assed glitch in the $787 billion, 400-page bill that made it through Congress and into law in just three weeks, hell it takes that body longer than three weeks to determine which lobbyist they want to take them to lunch. It is CRAZY folks, we got the “lovin” but did not get kissed first. So the package to help folks who are hurting is actually having the opposite effect on some. The Georgia Department of Human Resources sent Mark Milota, 47, of Marietta, Ga., who was laid off in November from his job at a medical billing company, a letter last month that, because of the stimulus, he was ineligible for food stamps. He now makes $1,538 a month - $21 too much for a family of two to qualify. Talk about the perverbial shitty end of the stick, that is a damn shame and we need to hold our elected officials accountable for their piss poor approach to using the big check book like a drunken sailor might.

With our Politian’s speaking in double talk mumbo jumbo bullshit I am freakin amazed that any damn thing gets done. They are all more concerned with getting reelected than doing the peoples work. All of them are so polished and have mastered the skill of spewing forth the scent of roses in their words, all the while they are hiding a bunch of stinky shit under their tongue. I heard a story the other day that most elected officials spend up to one third of their time raising money, which they are not allowed to do in their congressional offices. So what does that mean, they are playing hooky for a third of the time they are supposed to be working out the details of the bills so when the laws are enacted we do not end with situations that leave Mark Minota not only feeling but actually being screwed blued and tattooed. Food stamps, back in the day, were once handed out as paper vouchers, not any more in the new plastic world the benefits are now delivered to people near the poverty level through debit cards that they can use to buy food, there is a record 32.5 million people participate in the program. Once the government determines someone is eligible, officials use a formula to calculate the monthly benefit, which ranges from $16 to $588. The average is about $111.

According to Stacy Dean, the Lawmakers crafting the stimulus knew this would become a problem, he is the Director of the liberal think tank Food Assistance Policy at Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. They knew, of course they knew, a lot of actually smart people were working theirs asses off to try to find all the “unintended consequences” before our representatives passed it into law. He indicated that this problem could have been headed off by raising the income tax or simply declaring that the $25 stimulus checks would not affect food stamp eligibility. Both were expensive options that could have forced states to reprogram their computer systems. WTFO, because we did not want to hire some nerds to peck on some keyboards we, on purpose screwed these folks! I understand that it would have taken time to hash out the details and I think that is what they could not afford, time for the American people to realize that this plan was CRAZY before it was signed into law. There was just not a lot of policy discussion on this at all, a nearly 1 trillion dollar package and we did not have time – what bullshit.

I for one continue to be disgusted by our Politian’s, every damn one of them, and yes I know I should not group them all together because there are a lot of good ones as well. I was a life-long, actively engage, financial supporter of the Republican party and then they abandoned me. For my fellow Republicans you know what I am talking about, they abandoned me, when the absolute best they could come up with John McCain and Sarah Palin, come on seriously that was the best we could do. They forced me out and I chose to vote for President Obama - as the lesser of two evils and that pissed me off. But when you think about it, who in their right mind would want that job, it sucks and the bureaucracy is so large and so entrenched no one is going to change the system, and who pays for that – family’s like Mark Minota’s and you know what, that pisses me off too! Not because some are red and some are blue but because most are dumbasses caught in a system that will not allow them to do anything about it. For those who follow my oratories you know I usually don’t get into political issues or current events but this really makes me mad!!! Sorry and I will get back to the more light hearted stuff on the next one