PA 17th CD: Cartwright vs. Cummings

Andrew Seder had 2 articles in yesterday's TL contrasting the views of Democrat Matt Cartwright and Republican Laureen Cummings.

 Cartwright gets ready for fight

 Cummings seeks funds, recognition

Some choice quotes.

 On the Affordable Care  Act

Cartwright

“It’s a great day in America.” He said while he has been in favor of the overall law and what it does, he did not feel it went far enough. He said if elected, he will “work to strengthen” the act.

Cummings

“Not only are taxes enormous, but unemployment is above 8 percent,” Cummings said.

“This decision will reawaken the electorate and those Americans who not only want government out of their lives, but also, who refuse to give the IRS even more power than it already has,” she added. “This decision is a rallying cry to elect those of us who will repeal this law and reform our Byzantine tax code."

The President's  executive order on immigration and deportation

Cartwright

He said he’s not for granting amnesty, but he’s also not for rounding up illegals and deporting them.

“This is America. We don’t put 12 million human beings in boxcars and ship them to the coast to be put on freighters. We don’t do that in this country,” Cartwright said.

Cartwright called the president’s order “a stop-gap measure. I’m not thrilled with it” but it moves the issue ahead until Congress can come together to do the same.

Cummings

“It’s unbelievable that he did it. It can’t stand … It’s appalling that he does the things that he does but it’s not surprising.”

Laureen has set a goal of raising $400, 000 by September and has about $5500 in the bank. Her last FEC report said she raised $300. Matt will not have a problem raising money. Matt said he is not ready to support marriage equality yet but we expect him to get there and suggested using a mobile office to offer constituent services.

I would like to hear what the candidates think of Food Stamps. Andrew may have asked but it didn't make the column inch cut by the editors. 

On June 27th Laureen Cummings posted this to her Facebook wall:

 I know people re-post all sorts of things on Facebook. I know I do it but when I do I agree with the idea. This thing is flying around all the right wing sites including our own Pittston Politics. So does Laureen think that a mother looking for a way to feed her kids in hard times is akin to a wild animal looking for a handout?

I know people who have to use food stamps to feed their families and they are not buying prime rib and lobsters. Most of them work in low paying jobs and are not proud of having to rely on a government a program just to eat, but you got to feed the kids. Sure there are some bad actors who will abuse the system but most of them don't.

When I was growing up my family had to use food stamps from time to time because my father went from one shit job to another and was always being laid off. I cringed when my mother pulled out the food stamp book at the Ack-a-me to pay for the groceries and hoped that none of my classmates spotted us. I skipped the free lunch at school because of the stigma attached and the razzing that would ensue. It really sucks to be poor in this country, then and now.


This guy has never been hungry.

Food stamps

Pennsylvania will deny food stamps to people with assets over $2000 or $3250 for people over 60 with some exemptions starting May 1st. Most assistance programs have asset limits so I don't think that this is out of line although the limits are certainly too low. The asset limits - $2,000 for those under 60 and $3,250 for those over - are based on figures set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1980 and never updated. If you have 100 grand in the bank you should try to along until you spend it down or find a new job but what the proper limit should be has to be raised.


Food stamps asset test condemned as 'idiotic, heartless'

Pa. plans asset test for recipients of food stamps

The thing that jumped out at me was reading the comments on the TL website. It was full of antidotes of Newport smoking welfare queens filling up their carts with steaks and lobsters on ACCESS day if they haven't already sold their allotment to some druggie for 50 cents on the dollar.

Some choice comments

the store was packed full of folks and I mean packed and their carts were full of those bags of frozen shrimp and those packs of spare ribs on the bone ....I asked the manager what the hell was going on ....he looked puzzled for a second until I waved around the store ...then he laughed and said that day was the day they reloaded the ACCESS cards

This young female, late teens-early twenties at the Wilkes Barre Walmart, had her cart STACKED, I'm telling you STACKED, with choice cut steaks, ribs, and other expensive cuts of meat that we normally wouldn't buy for ourselves because of the cost..

We should be tougher on unwed mothers. Gotta learn to keep the knees shut.

I call bullshit on this idiocy. I know people who have to use food stamps to feed their families and they are not buying prime rib and lobsters. Most of them work in low paying jobs and are not proud of having to rely on a government a program just to eat, but you got to feed the kids. Sure there are some bad actors who will abuse the system but most of them don't.

When I was growing up my family had to use food stamps from time to time because my father went from one shit job to another and was always being laid off. I cringed when my mother pulled out the food stamp book at the Ack-a-me to pay for the groceries and hoped that none of my classmates spotted us. I skipped the free lunch at school because of the stigma attached and the razzing that would ensue. It really sucks to be poor in this country, then and now.

I'm not the only one who grew up in such circumstances.

The Blogfather:

I know what it’s like to grow up on the then-economy brand substandard foodstuffs, government surplus cheese and powdered milk. Despite the rage that simmered inside of me, I had to endure the not-so-hushed comments when my mom produced her food stamp booklets at the check-out aisle.

Last month I was asked by Tiffany on her TV show about out of bounds comments. This one that is on the TL website would get deleted by me because it accuses a public official of a crime:

I've turned people in for foodstamp fraud, unemployment fraud, hell I even turned in a former boss directly to IRS and Dan Meuser for non-filing of personal and business taxes both federal and state for six years now. He is still very much in action and not so much as a letter of inquiry from either entity.

Different rules for different venues.