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Food stamp ‘water dumping’ scam continues

Bottled water packaging is wedged into a Dumpster behind the Shaw's supermarket on Main Street in Bangor last year. A pair of men were purchasing several cases of bottled water and then emptying the bottles in this holding dock area behind the supermarket so they could redeem the empty bottles for deposit money.
John Clarke Russ | BDN
Bottled water packaging is wedged into a Dumpster behind the Shaw's supermarket on Main Street in Bangor last year. A pair of men were purchasing several cases of bottled water and then emptying the bottles in this holding dock area behind the supermarket so they could redeem the empty bottles for deposit money.
By Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff
Posted Aug. 19, 2011, at 6:52 p.m.
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BANGOR, Maine — Bangor police were called to Shaw’s grocery store Thursday night to collect information about a regularly occurring food stamp scam that recently was dubbed “water dumping” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA has taken a stand on water dumping — buying beverages with food stamps, dumping the liquid and returning the empties for cash — and in June proposed a new rule that could disqualify recipients who engage in the practice.

The USDA, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, has proposed updating the definition of trafficking — a disqualifying action — to include the stealing of benefits.

The federal agency was to stop collecting public comments on the proposed rule at midnight Friday.

“At a time when so many Americans are coping with economic hardship, we need to do everything possible to ensure that all SNAP benefits are used only as intended — to help struggling individuals and families put healthy food on the table,” Kevin Concannon, an undersecretary of agriculture, said in June.

Concannon is a former commissioner of health and human services in Maine.

While the federal agency works to complete the new water dumping rules, state prosecutors and law enforcement agencies in Maine already are working together, Bangor police Sgt. Allen Hayden said Friday.

Bangor police went to the Shaw’s store on Main Street around 7:15 p.m. Thursday to deal with a man buying bottled water and dumping it so he could return the empty bottles for cash, the sergeant said.

The 58-year-old man used SNAP funds allocated to him to purchase the water and pay for the bottle deposit. The man, who did not have an address listed in the police file, was not arrested but his information was sent to the Maine Attorney General’s Office, Hayden said.

“The AG’s office has asked us to help track this,” the sergeant said. “They’re looking to see if it’s a violation.”

State prosecutors asked in January that water dumping reports be forwarded, Hayden said.

“Our welfare fraud prosecutor has reached out to local law enforcement and has encouraged them to report fraud to the AG’s office,” Brenda Kielty, special assistant in the Attorney General’s Office, said Friday. “It’s part of our larger effort to combat welfare benefit fraud.”

A provision under the 2008 Farm Act specifically forbids the use of SNAP funds to get cash by buying products for the container’s redemption value, but until recently no penalties existed.

Maine and 10 other states require a bottle deposit ranging from 5 to 15 cents on recyclable beverage containers.

The SNAP program provides funding to feed more 44 million people each month across the country, half of whom are children, the USDA website states. In Maine during 2010, more than $348 million in SNAP funds were distributed to more than 113,230 households.

The Bangor Daily News put a spotlight on water dumping in August 2010 after a pair of men purchased $86.79 in bottled water from the Shaw’s in Bangor, dumped it out behind the store and returned the empties for $24.

Store employees at the time described the practice of water dumping as common, a sentiment that is shared by police.

“It’s something that has been going on for a while now,” Hayden said.

The man who was questioned on Thursday night in Bangor “claims he was doing it to get gas,” the sergeant said.

To comment on the proposed rule, go to www.regulations.gov and search under proposed rules with the regulation identifier number 0584-AD97. The comment period was to end at 11:59 p.m. Friday.

Those who see a misuse or waste of federal SNAP funds can call the national fraud hot line at 1-800-424-9121.

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  • Anonymous

    Throwing tax dollars in the dumpster.  This has got to stop.

  • Anonymous

    I remember commenting on this story last year.  Everyone deserves access to water to drink, but this is ridiculous.  There’s not a household in Maine on municipal water that needs bottled water.  Those using well water may have a legit request, but, there’s GOT to be a better way…

  • Anonymous

    I remember commenting on this story last year.  Everyone deserves access to water to drink, but this is ridiculous.  There’s not a household in Maine on municipal water that needs bottled water.  Those using well water may have a legit request, but, there’s GOT to be a better way…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RRGWHVIMEW5JE2TIZPXAUE5MA4 mejusttingtobeme12

    the easy fix would be, make then pay for the deposit  ,becaue it is not food:)

  • Anonymous

    It always amazes me how people spend more time and effort into scamming welfare and food stamp programs than they do actually getting and doing a job.

  • Anonymous

    It always amazes me how people spend more time and effort into scamming welfare and food stamp programs than they do actually getting and doing a job.

  • Anonymous

    they should have to pay the deposit fee….it is a nickle!!!

  • Anonymous

    Or, like I said last year, ban the purchase of any beverage that requires a deposit…that seems that would be quick and easy…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YCHHYD25F2IQ2WE5QPODQTB5UA Tabitha

    Why would they be allowed to purchase anything bottle deposit anyway (besides juice I guess…) Especially bottled water! I dont even buy that! Thats nuts!

  • Anonymous

    There are criminals at all levels of financial status. The poor milk the system just like the rich do.

  • Anonymous

    There are criminals at all levels of financial status. The poor milk the system just like the rich do.

  • Anonymous

    There are criminals at all levels of financial status. The poor milk the system just like the rich do.

  • Anonymous

    There are criminals at all levels of financial status. The poor milk the system just like the rich do.

  • Anonymous

    There are criminals at all levels of financial status. The poor milk the system just like the rich do.

  • Anonymous

    There are criminals at all levels of financial status. The poor milk the system just like the rich do.

  • Anonymous

    That is shameful. They should get there food stamps and any other welfare benefits yanked and they should be put on a chain gand/work program for a good amount of time. No doubt they use the cash for drugs or booze when children are going to bed hungry in this country.

  • Anonymous

    I agree 100%

  • Anonymous

    Not defending the action, but some people’s water isn’t fit to drink so buying water should remain allowable.  And if you let one do it, you need to let all do it.

  • OldWench

    That’s not true…I live in Bangor and rent and the water in my apartment tastes disgusting.  I can’t drink it.  I buy bottled water.

  • Anonymous

    Better yet, allow them to continue and if caught performing such a boneheaded act, take away the SNAP benefit…forever.

  • Anonymous

    “to get gas” Why don’t we investigate how the oil companies get welfare but post record profits every quarter. Then maybe some poor bugger can get gas without wasting his food stamps.

  • Benevolent Despot

    What a waste of water.
    It’s about time this issue is addressed and something done to stop the waste of water and food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    Can’t say that that’s a bad idea…

  • Anonymous

    Let’s just say I rent an apartment in a municipality and receive SNAP benefits.  Let’s say it is old and has lead leaching from the solder used in the piping.  By your rationale I not only have to drink it, but make my children do so as well?  Not very nice, I would say.

  • Anonymous

    I think they can find a solution that works to fix this problem.  Personally, I’m for just banning the purchase of any products requiring a deposit.  And, then, maybe make bottled water (in 1-gallon sizes or larger) deposit-free.  You could still get water if you needed it, in 1-gal bottles or larger, but the foolishly recreational 20-oz or so bottles would have a deposit, and be dis-allowed under the SNAP program…

  • Anonymous

    Maybe you should complain to the city?  It sounds like the problem is the pipes bringing water into your apartment are bad, and surely that would be against code…and since you rent, the landlord is required to fix it.

  • OldWench

    While it appears that there are a few single men doing this what really annoys me about this article is that it’s yet another excuse for people to hate on and insult the poor.  MOST people who get assistance don’t do this.  Sadly, it will be single mothers with children who will be blamed…and perhaps have to pay the price where they can no longer buy juice or bottled water for their children.  I remember when my children were on formula they were so sensitive and I had to mix their formula with bottled water.  If these families get products with deposits taken away it will be harmful to children.  Maybe it’s time to just get rid of bottle deposits.  

  • Anonymous

    Why do we even let these ppl buy water on the foodstamp program.They should be buying food,Like Steak n lobster

  • Anonymous

    They SHOULDN’T be able to buy bottled water, for them, OR for their children.  And probably not juice either, since most of it is nothing more than flavored sugar-water…

  • Anonymous

    I thought they did have to pay the deposit…How’s that considered a food item?  They would get the five cents per bottle back when they returned it so it would be a wash for them…instead they get the item for free — free deposit, then they get money back — WoW something sounds not right.

  • Anonymous

    I got SNAP and sometimes buy several cases of water to dump and get money from deposats. Why do u care? I need gas for my car so I can get my methadone tretmants and use this funds for gas. Not every body is frauding, some of us r honest peaple.

  • Anonymous

    As I have been reading other post, I as they, am amazed at the effort to scam money from the welfare system. So much of a daunting effort that it makes filling out 100 job applications seem like child’s play. I also can not imagine why it is still a legitimate food stamp purchase to buy anything that has a redemption possibility.  Water is free from any city water fountain, homeless shelter or the faucet from the section 8 living quarters.  Soda and other soft drinks is not a human staple.  This mindset of abuse is the foundation of the general welfare recipient, not the guy that just lost his job and needs a little help for his family, but the second and third generation no education high school drop outs that does not want to help themselves nor teach their children responsible actions.  Instead we get “this is how you make some money for cigs and beer, son”.  For me, I feel disgust….

  • Anonymous

    Instead of interviewing the subjects at Shaw’s why not place them in the back of the police car and transport them to the police station to conduct the interview. There is no need to arrest they would just be taken in for questioning. I bet it would give them second thoughts about trying to rip off the food stamp program in the future.

  • Anonymous

    PS:  Bangor PD.. borrow Orono’s boardwalk camera and put it next to the loading dock!

  • Anonymous

    PS:  Bangor PD.. borrow Orono’s boardwalk camera and put it next to the loading dock!

  • Anonymous

    Hey…. here’s an idea  food stamps used for FOOD only….geeze why didn’t i think of that?

  • Anonymous

    Hey…. here’s an idea  food stamps used for FOOD only….geeze why didn’t i think of that?

  • Anonymous

    Hey…. here’s an idea  food stamps used for FOOD only….geeze why didn’t i think of that?

  • Anonymous

    Hey…. here’s an idea  food stamps used for FOOD only….geeze why didn’t i think of that?

  • Anonymous

    Hey…. here’s an idea  food stamps used for FOOD only….geeze why didn’t i think of that?

  • Anonymous

    Hey…. here’s an idea  food stamps used for FOOD only….geeze why didn’t i think of that?

  • Anonymous

    Chances are that the problem causing the bad taste is created after the water meter, which is not the City’s responsibility.  Also, plumbing Code does not deal with taste of water.  Pipes for whatever reason could be causing a bad taste and still meet every Code requirement.

  • Anonymous

    The only solution to fix the problem I stated is to replace the plumbing system.  Not many landlords are going to do that.

  • Anonymous

    The only solution to fix the problem I stated is to replace the plumbing system.  Not many landlords are going to do that.

  • Anonymous

    The only solution to fix the problem I stated is to replace the plumbing system.  Not many landlords are going to do that.

  • Anonymous

    The only solution to fix the problem I stated is to replace the plumbing system.  Not many landlords are going to do that.

  • Anonymous

    The only solution to fix the problem I stated is to replace the plumbing system.  Not many landlords are going to do that.

  • Anonymous

    The only solution to fix the problem I stated is to replace the plumbing system.  Not many landlords are going to do that.

  • Anonymous

    The only solution to fix the problem I stated is to replace the plumbing system.  Not many landlords are going to do that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1344347988 Dawn Forney Gray

    I worked as a cashier in Massachusetts at a grocery store and in MA they have to pay the deposit because like you said – “it is not food”  – that’s the way it should be set up, especially where they can get their money back when they return the bottles.   If they are not paying their own deposit they are making money off the system and obviously some have figured it out in a big way.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1344347988 Dawn Forney Gray

    I worked as a cashier in Massachusetts at a grocery store and in MA they have to pay the deposit because like you said – “it is not food”  – that’s the way it should be set up, especially where they can get their money back when they return the bottles.   If they are not paying their own deposit they are making money off the system and obviously some have figured it out in a big way.

  • Anonymous

    So just out of curiosity what are those families that get assistance that have non drinkable water at home to do?? Suffer because others decide to do stupid things? So tell me then what do the kids drink nothing, you say no water no juice so what then? Maybe they should have to pay the deposit and tax but I do not think that making it so people can not get what they need is the answer.

  • Anonymous

    So just out of curiosity what are those families that get assistance that have non drinkable water at home to do?? Suffer because others decide to do stupid things? So tell me then what do the kids drink nothing, you say no water no juice so what then? Maybe they should have to pay the deposit and tax but I do not think that making it so people can not get what they need is the answer.

  • Anonymous

    This exact scheme would never happen in our sister State New Hampshire!

  • Anonymous

    This exact scheme would never happen in our sister State New Hampshire!

  • Anonymous

    There’s nothing new here, other than the question – why hasn’t the legislature dealt with this issue yet?  Everyone concerned about welfare would be better served by contacting their legislators about this issue than they are by watching the latest gotcha-video from the heritage policy center.  Here’s a chance for you tea-drinkers to bring about some meaningful change.

  • Anonymous

    scumbuckets……..should be barred from food stamps forever

  • Anonymous

    scumbuckets……..should be barred from food stamps forever

  • Anonymous

    scumbuckets……..should be barred from food stamps forever

  • Anonymous

    scumbuckets……..should be barred from food stamps forever

  • Anonymous

    I’m sorry, I wasn’t very clear.  Yes, I meant that from the water meter in.  A simple water test would confirm if there are contaminants in the water, from a bad pipe, etc.  There is a place in Waterville that does basic water testing for a very reasonable price.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YCHHYD25F2IQ2WE5QPODQTB5UA Tabitha

    Buy their own dang water with their own money :P

  • Anonymous

    It’s time to change the broken system.  Food stamps should be used only for healthy food, but not lobster, T-bone, frozen dinners, chips, soda or junk food.   There should be tight regulations similar to the WIC program.  

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YCHHYD25F2IQ2WE5QPODQTB5UA Tabitha

    Buy their own water with their own money :P

  • Anonymous

    They should not be able to get bottled water on food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    The same thing poor families did 50 years ago. Nobody bought water then and they survived.

  • Anonymous

    The same thing poor families did 50 years ago. Nobody bought water then and they survived.

  • Anonymous

    The same thing poor families did 50 years ago. Nobody bought water then and they survived.

  • Anonymous

    simple get rid of the deposit and then they cant do it and the bums will all move to another state that has deposit and they cant even buy the booze any more

  • Anonymous

    Yes good point.  In fact, there was just a segment this week on the local news about how they are finding higher levels of lead in the Bangor water supply.  So yes, that is concerning and should be considered.

  • Jeremy

    If someone’s so hard up they’re wasting probably at least 10 dollars of food stamps for every dollar back they get for redemption cash (that’s assuming it’s a low-cost 50 cents a bottle or so) including all the time dumping and taking them redeemed I’m not so sure this should be considered a scam so much as “people are living in the Great Depression of the 21st Century.”

  • Anonymous

    I am a full time student and have a full time job and 2 kids. I get some food stamps and I dont scam them for them. I do buy my boys bottled water for school lunches, and I dont think I should feel bad for it. Sometimes people get the crappt stick. Like dead beat dads walking out on the family to drink and party, I bust my butt working and going to school and I think my kids deserve a water or juice  with  lunch time.  No everyone gets on this program wanting to use it forever, and if I could pay back every cent after I finished school I would.

  • StillRelaxin

    Oh man, now we all gotta start limiting the number of water bottles we take back to the redemption center.  If we take too many at once we’ll have a couple of “suits” with sun glasses (No doubt from the Maine Heritage Foundation) knocking at our door!  Yikes!  Hand me a coke!

  • Anonymous

    Make them buy water in Gallon jugs.  Only so many a month.  They should not be able to get soda though.  Are you seriously telling me that the kids are the ones drinking the soda?  NO WAY

  • Anonymous

    Make them buy water in Gallon jugs.  Only so many a month.  They should not be able to get soda though.  Are you seriously telling me that the kids are the ones drinking the soda?  NO WAY

  • Anonymous

    I have bangor water and it runs  brown sometimes and I filled a cup and called the town and asked them to test it and they told me no. they say it is my landlords job to do that and he said the city had to. When I called the city back they said monday they would be here, guess what they never came, we dont drink it and I do not like brushing teeth with it. We use a large jug of water.

  • Anonymous

    I have bangor water and it runs  brown sometimes and I filled a cup and called the town and asked them to test it and they told me no. they say it is my landlords job to do that and he said the city had to. When I called the city back they said monday they would be here, guess what they never came, we dont drink it and I do not like brushing teeth with it. We use a large jug of water.

  • Anonymous

    I have bangor water and it runs  brown sometimes and I filled a cup and called the town and asked them to test it and they told me no. they say it is my landlords job to do that and he said the city had to. When I called the city back they said monday they would be here, guess what they never came, we dont drink it and I do not like brushing teeth with it. We use a large jug of water.

  • http://twitter.com/mstevens79 Michael

    boil it. if you arent working ….

  • http://twitter.com/mstevens79 Michael

    boil it. if you arent working ….

  • http://twitter.com/mstevens79 Michael

    boil it. if you arent working ….

  • http://twitter.com/mstevens79 Michael

    that was a little harsh, but i am sick of paying for freeloaders

  • Anonymous

    Because I pay taxes!!!  That’s why I care!!

  • Anonymous

    Because I pay taxes!!!  That’s why I care!!

  • Anonymous

    Because I pay taxes!!!  That’s why I care!!

  • Anonymous

    Because I pay taxes!!!  That’s why I care!!

  • Anonymous

    Because I pay taxes!!!  That’s why I care!!

  • Anonymous

    I am a bleeding heart liberal who truly understands the need for welfare, but PLEASE!  I work in a large grocery store and just cringe when I see a customer with a Blackberry in one hand while pulling a Food Stamp card from a Coach purse with the other hand.  We need to continue to help the truly needy, but anyone who can afford a monthly phone plan on a Blackberry needs to be reevaluated.

  • Anonymous

    I am a bleeding heart liberal who truly understands the need for welfare, but PLEASE!  I work in a large grocery store and just cringe when I see a customer with a Blackberry in one hand while pulling a Food Stamp card from a Coach purse with the other hand.  We need to continue to help the truly needy, but anyone who can afford a monthly phone plan on a Blackberry needs to be reevaluated.

  • Anonymous

    I am a bleeding heart liberal who truly understands the need for welfare, but PLEASE!  I work in a large grocery store and just cringe when I see a customer with a Blackberry in one hand while pulling a Food Stamp card from a Coach purse with the other hand.  We need to continue to help the truly needy, but anyone who can afford a monthly phone plan on a Blackberry needs to be reevaluated.

  • Anonymous

    I am a bleeding heart liberal who truly understands the need for welfare, but PLEASE!  I work in a large grocery store and just cringe when I see a customer with a Blackberry in one hand while pulling a Food Stamp card from a Coach purse with the other hand.  We need to continue to help the truly needy, but anyone who can afford a monthly phone plan on a Blackberry needs to be reevaluated.

  • Anonymous

    I am a bleeding heart liberal who truly understands the need for welfare, but PLEASE!  I work in a large grocery store and just cringe when I see a customer with a Blackberry in one hand while pulling a Food Stamp card from a Coach purse with the other hand.  We need to continue to help the truly needy, but anyone who can afford a monthly phone plan on a Blackberry needs to be reevaluated.

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    I agree, too, but let’s not forget Corporate welfare and white collar tax fraud. Talk about greed!

  • Anonymous

    Another water dumping scam, odd, go up second street park and you will see numerous water caps and boxes.

  • Anonymous

    I wonder how many of our readers will like this article, I commented yesterday applauding the undercover video of how to get through the loopholes in our welfare sysyem and I recieved several negative comments about it. This stuff happens all the time maybe they should have half as many people working to get people on the sysyem and twice as many investigatin fraud. I am so tired of people saying we dont have the right to investigate and judge these people it is our money, our tax dollars that are being robbed from the system

  • Anonymous

    I agree. Gallon jugs would solve the problem.  Just refill the same empty bottle. 

  • Anonymous

    Most people are not abusers of the system.  There are a lot of working people receiving food stamp benefits. It’s a good program that needs some tweeks.

  • Anonymous

    Most people are not abusers of the system.  There are a lot of working people receiving food stamp benefits. It’s a good program that needs some tweeks.

  • Anonymous

    Most people are not abusers of the system.  There are a lot of working people receiving food stamp benefits. It’s a good program that needs some tweeks.

  • Anonymous

    Like that would be the first time they were in the back of a police cruiser..well maybe the first time for that particular day. I do get your point though.

  • Anonymous

    Like that would be the first time they were in the back of a police cruiser..well maybe the first time for that particular day. I do get your point though.

  • Anonymous

    Like that would be the first time they were in the back of a police cruiser..well maybe the first time for that particular day. I do get your point though.

  • Anonymous

    Like that would be the first time they were in the back of a police cruiser..well maybe the first time for that particular day. I do get your point though.

  • Anonymous

    Like that would be the first time they were in the back of a police cruiser..well maybe the first time for that particular day. I do get your point though.

  • Anonymous

    Like that would be the first time they were in the back of a police cruiser..well maybe the first time for that particular day. I do get your point though.

  • Anonymous

    Wait a minute, you’re not suggesting there could be possible welfare fraud in Maine are you? Folks that don’t believe it are either on it or need to poke their head out the door and look around just a bit!!

  • Anonymous

    Guess what…you and I are paying for that phone plan.

  • Anonymous

    The first step is admitting you’re a Liberal, the next step is realizing your tax dollars and votes are supporting stories like this?………..Come join us it’s not so bad.

  • Anonymous

    The first step is admitting you’re a Liberal, the next step is realizing your tax dollars and votes are supporting stories like this?………..Come join us it’s not so bad.

  • Anonymous

    The first step is admitting you’re a Liberal, the next step is realizing your tax dollars and votes are supporting stories like this?………..Come join us it’s not so bad.

  • Anonymous

    The first step is admitting you’re a Liberal, the next step is realizing your tax dollars and votes are supporting stories like this?………..Come join us it’s not so bad.

  • Anonymous

    The first step is admitting you’re a Liberal, the next step is realizing your tax dollars and votes are supporting stories like this?………..Come join us it’s not so bad.

  • Anonymous

    The first step is admitting you’re a Liberal, the next step is realizing your tax dollars and votes are supporting stories like this?………..Come join us it’s not so bad.

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    ” If the shoe fits”

  • Anonymous

    And Democrats wonder why those of us who pay for this society are sick of it. Use their food stamps for the water, throw it away, get the deposit and buy Allens coffee brandy  or Old Mr. Boston Vodka some cigs and then go procreate another spawn of the welfare state. After all the Democrats have to keep their base happy

  • Anonymous

    To go a step further, they shouldn’t be able to buy soda either.  Not only because of the bottle deposit scam, but because the program is meant to buy HEALTHY food.

  • Anonymous

    I can not believe the BDN would run such an obviously false story such as this! Everyone knows there is Zero fraud in the welfare system! ;)

  • Anonymous

    When I was a kid (8 or 9) I was the lucky recipient of a ride in the back of a police car when a friend of mine and me thought it would be funny to run a smaller kid’s sneakers up the flag pole. I never wanted to take that kind of ride again.

  • Anonymous

    Please explain to me how not stealing more money from a company by taxing them at a higher rate  is giving them money?

  • Anonymous

    Oh youtr right most of the smart ones sell their food stamp benifits for 50 cents on the dollar!!!

  • Anonymous

    I worked in a grocery store for years and said the SAME exact thing.  The WIC program works very well.  The food stamp program could very easily have specific foods that can be purchased that include:  chicken, hamburger,  veggies (canned, fresh, or frozen), fruit, cereal, cheese, milk, eggs, juice, and pasta for example.  Yes, for the program to be revamped to this system would take time and money, but would be way worth it.  Chips, soda, candy, and cake should NOT be allowed.  If the program was more strict with the choices, we would probably see less people abusing it.  People abuse it because they can pull off these scams.  Make it impossible and they won’t want the program.

  • Anonymous

    Or maybe that “poor bugger” could get a job.  

    It amazes me how many slobs essentially condone cheating welfare.  They obviously are NOT the ones working and paying taxes.

  • Anonymous

    Most don’t “ hate on and insult the poor”, they disapprove of cheating.  But play that HATE card as often as possible to demonize anyone who objects to people cheating the system.

  • Anonymous

    With 40 million on food stamps in this country, of course the system is rife with fraud! Food stamps should be for those desperately in need, not for anyone that asks for it as it is now. There is little accountability.

  • Anonymous

    Yes the same thing happens on both ends of the spectrum but it is the people in the middle that pay the price. It’s the middle class that shoulders all of the abuse of welfare and of corporate welfare.

  • Anonymous

    AMEN!

  • Anonymous

    It could be made as easy as you just can’t buy anything that has a sales tax on it.  Period.  No junk food, no hot meals, no sodas.

  • Anonymous

    If they want to purchase water, it should not be bottled water. They should have to get the gallon or multiple gallon containers.

  • Anonymous

    I think this is a small part of what is wrong with the system, Even the people that aren’t dumping are still getting more of our  money everytime they return bottles. I work everyday and pay my own way , my wife works and our children are in daycare during the day. The trouble with the system is we would be way better off if she quit her job  and raised our children and took advantage of all the programs, but we are not democrats.

  • Anonymous

    I think this is a small part of what is wrong with the system, Even the people that aren’t dumping are still getting more of our  money everytime they return bottles. I work everyday and pay my own way , my wife works and our children are in daycare during the day. The trouble with the system is we would be way better off if she quit her job  and raised our children and took advantage of all the programs, but we are not democrats.

  • Anonymous

    I lived in a home for a number of years that didn’t have safe drinking water. We saved gallon milk jugs and filled them up with fresh water at my in laws or at the town fresh water supply. Why should taxpayers to pay for water for people too lazy to go fill up a few jugs every few days?

    And we wonder why we are now as a country.

  • Anonymous

    I agreed with every single word you said.  Until you became a partisan mouthpiece.  And lost credibility.

  • Anonymous

    I think they mentioned that these people were without a home. It would be a shame if homeless people could not have water, but I suppose they would find a way.

    This is very disrespectful and it does hurt those people that do not abuse their food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    I think they mentioned that these people were without a home. It would be a shame if homeless people could not have water, but I suppose they would find a way.

    This is very disrespectful and it does hurt those people that do not abuse their food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    I sent my kids to school with water bottles as well. I took old soda bottles and filled them with tap water. We also sent juice in old soda bottles as well.

  • Anonymous

    I sent my kids to school with water bottles as well. I took old soda bottles and filled them with tap water. We also sent juice in old soda bottles as well.

  • Anonymous

    I sent my kids to school with water bottles as well. I took old soda bottles and filled them with tap water. We also sent juice in old soda bottles as well.

  • Anonymous

    I sent my kids to school with water bottles as well. I took old soda bottles and filled them with tap water. We also sent juice in old soda bottles as well.

  • Anonymous

    I sent my kids to school with water bottles as well. I took old soda bottles and filled them with tap water. We also sent juice in old soda bottles as well.

  • Anonymous

    I sent my kids to school with water bottles as well. I took old soda bottles and filled them with tap water. We also sent juice in old soda bottles as well.

  • Anonymous

    I sent my kids to school with water bottles as well. I took old soda bottles and filled them with tap water. We also sent juice in old soda bottles as well.

  • Anonymous

    Food coupons just like wic. NO junk food, tv dinners, chips or soda!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KJEUWEYRHIPWV3PTTWWNUZ2CTQ mcmaineacjam

    The ones I have seen are throwing the covers of all of the bottles into the sewer. Get the EPA to arrest them for environmental violations and ticket them for littering. I thnk i would be best for bottle deposits not be covered under food stamps. Give a one time stipend up front to cobver them, and if they do not take the bottles back to cover the next purchase, oh well. Why can’t FOOD stamps only cover food and milk, bottled water is a waste.

  • Anonymous

    And anyone who has cable and Internet at home. There should be surprise home visits. Anyone that can afford a cell phone, landline, cable and Internet doesn’t need SNAP.

  • Anonymous

    No, they can do just what I did. I filled milk jugs with water from my in laws, the church or the town’s fresh water supply. Dozens of people in my community still do that.

  • Anonymous

    Agreed!

  • Anonymous

    I know many people on welfare who are conservative Republicans (many Christian). As many repubs are on it as dems.

  • Anonymous

    If the water test determines that the water is not clean of contaminants, then your landlord would be responsible in fixing the water.  He/she should buy you a water filter and that would be a very easy and inexpensive fix.

  • Anonymous

    If the water test determines that the water is not clean of contaminants, then your landlord would be responsible in fixing the water.  He/she should buy you a water filter and that would be a very easy and inexpensive fix.

  • Anonymous

    If the water test determines that the water is not clean of contaminants, then your landlord would be responsible in fixing the water.  He/she should buy you a water filter and that would be a very easy and inexpensive fix.

  • Anonymous

    So save up gallon milk jugs and every few days fill that at your parents, your church, your workplace or other place in your town that has clean water just as I did in the 80s.

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like the “Great Depression of the 21st Century” would have been a wet dream to those who endured the Great Depression of the 20th century.

    The poor then begged for food in soup lines.

     The poor today throw away their food because they have too much.

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like the “Great Depression of the 21st Century” would have been a wet dream to those who endured the Great Depression of the 20th century.

    The poor then begged for food in soup lines.

     The poor today throw away their food because they have too much.

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like the “Great Depression of the 21st Century” would have been a wet dream to those who endured the Great Depression of the 20th century.

    The poor then begged for food in soup lines.

     The poor today throw away their food because they have too much.

  • Anonymous

    Some of the population are unemployable such as my cousin who was born with “borderline” intelligence. He is still learning basic living skills and is approaching 30 years old. He may never be able to live alone in his own apartment but I hope so. I know that he would never dump water for the deposit because he has morals if not the ability to earn a living. I must add that social services have helped him in training programs and job programs and it never works out. He can not concentrate or work at any reasonable pace that business needs. It is heart breaking for him when they dismiss him. He feels like a failure.

    Everyone is not abusing the system, but, yes, some are.

  • Anonymous

    Some of the population are unemployable such as my cousin who was born with “borderline” intelligence. He is still learning basic living skills and is approaching 30 years old. He may never be able to live alone in his own apartment but I hope so. I know that he would never dump water for the deposit because he has morals if not the ability to earn a living. I must add that social services have helped him in training programs and job programs and it never works out. He can not concentrate or work at any reasonable pace that business needs. It is heart breaking for him when they dismiss him. He feels like a failure.

    Everyone is not abusing the system, but, yes, some are.

  • Anonymous

    Some of the population are unemployable such as my cousin who was born with “borderline” intelligence. He is still learning basic living skills and is approaching 30 years old. He may never be able to live alone in his own apartment but I hope so. I know that he would never dump water for the deposit because he has morals if not the ability to earn a living. I must add that social services have helped him in training programs and job programs and it never works out. He can not concentrate or work at any reasonable pace that business needs. It is heart breaking for him when they dismiss him. He feels like a failure.

    Everyone is not abusing the system, but, yes, some are.

  • Anonymous

    Some of the population are unemployable such as my cousin who was born with “borderline” intelligence. He is still learning basic living skills and is approaching 30 years old. He may never be able to live alone in his own apartment but I hope so. I know that he would never dump water for the deposit because he has morals if not the ability to earn a living. I must add that social services have helped him in training programs and job programs and it never works out. He can not concentrate or work at any reasonable pace that business needs. It is heart breaking for him when they dismiss him. He feels like a failure.

    Everyone is not abusing the system, but, yes, some are.

  • Anonymous

    Bottled water, with or without a deposit should not be allowed under the SNAP program.  If your water at home tastes funny, sorry.  If it has lead, call the EPA – afterall, they are making Bangor spend millions on a UV filter for a microorganism not even present in our water.  These incidents do not reflect on the innocent people, only the abusers of the system.

  • Anonymous

    Bottled water, with or without a deposit should not be allowed under the SNAP program.  If your water at home tastes funny, sorry.  If it has lead, call the EPA – afterall, they are making Bangor spend millions on a UV filter for a microorganism not even present in our water.  These incidents do not reflect on the innocent people, only the abusers of the system.

  • Anonymous

    Bottled water, with or without a deposit should not be allowed under the SNAP program.  If your water at home tastes funny, sorry.  If it has lead, call the EPA – afterall, they are making Bangor spend millions on a UV filter for a microorganism not even present in our water.  These incidents do not reflect on the innocent people, only the abusers of the system.

  • Anonymous

    That was my point, from my earlier comment.

  • Anonymous

    That was my point, from my earlier comment.

  • Anonymous

    The Democratic Party has as its base the freeloaders of society who will allways vote in those that will continue to give them the tools to live off society.

  • Anonymous

    The minimum wage is sinful.

    Even families with much more money find it difficult to pay for the basics.

  • Anonymous

    Reusable bottle. When I was a kid my lunchbox had a thermos.

  • Anonymous

    I edited that, I did get off topic.

  • Anonymous

    You really can’t limit it the way you suggest.

    I will give you one example; lets say you and your family live in a motel room with no stove, however, you do have a microwave. Frozen meals may be your only hot meal.

    Yes, they should tweak it.

  • Anonymous

    You mean like Warren Buffet, billionaire, who only pays 14$ of his income in taxes, so you can pay what, 30%?  You mean freeloaders like that, right???

  • Anonymous

    How in the world is food stamp fraud not already grounds for removing benefits? Why are public comments even necessary? It should be a crime!

  • Anonymous

     I know someone that gets 3 meat packages a month and I would not be surprised if he exchanged steaks for joints.

  • Anonymous

    Fair enough.  Happens to everyone now and then.  Thanks for taking the high road…

  • Anonymous

    Fair enough.  Happens to everyone now and then.  Thanks for taking the high road…

  • Anonymous

    Fair enough.  Happens to everyone now and then.  Thanks for taking the high road…

  • Anonymous

    Fair enough.  Happens to everyone now and then.  Thanks for taking the high road…

  • Anonymous

    Fair enough.  Happens to everyone now and then.  Thanks for taking the high road…

  • Anonymous

    I hope they catch these guys and ban them from ever getting benefits again.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Regina-Hosebeast/100002095287763 Regina Hosebeast

    The water dumping scam is just a drop in the bucket. People make a lot more money selling their food stamp money for 30-50 cents on the dollar. Give someone $50 and they will buy you $100 worth of groceries with their food stamp card. And the worse part of it is that is nearly impossible to catch them doing it.

  • Anonymous

    When someone can do this they aren’t very hungry!

  • Anonymous

    Hold on there hairyharry, for years my liberal/progressive friends all complained about how cheap gas was here in the USA, while their friends in Europe were paying twice the price.  They felt we should too.  Well we’re paying high prices now.   I want to go back to the days of cheap gas.

  • Anonymous

    One could say you are playing the “fraud” card to demonize anyone who gets welfare. Water-dumping, as they have dubbed it, is not rampant. How many people have you seen at the grocery store lately with $40 worth of bottled water?
    That’s not to say that this man should not be punished-of course he should, it was obviously wrong.

  • Anonymous

    Lobster should be allowed, as should steaks, but your general point of elimininating junk food and soda is correct.

  • Anonymous

    or use public transportation…

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Perhaps it is time to return to surplus food distribution.

  • Anonymous

    Lets agree on something. You don’t know anything. You are Asstroturph OK? Nothing more. So Shut up.

  • Anonymous

    Bonnie, you should really got to Misouria and not come back. Take lepageman with you.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    The “welfare” you are referring to are the tax credits that the oil industry received for alternative energy technology and research programs. It was approximately $4 Billion last year. Those same companies spent far more than that on actual research. These credits are also handed out to a lot of other companies doing the same thing under the “green jobs” and “alternate energy” banners. If you are going to take these credits away from one industry (particularly one directly related to the objectives of the credit program in the first place) then you will also be stripping the credits from other companies that the progressive liberals favor.

    Step out of your limited box and begin thinking for yourself. The group think meme that the progressive elitists keep feeding sheeple is designed only to screw you and keep you on their farm.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    If you do not like working for a minimum wage, acquire skills that somebody is willing to pay for.

  • Anonymous

    Not so dumb, If you knew anything at all this would not be your handle. The only reason to change our systems is so we can round you enemy combative arses up.

  • Anonymous

    Not so dumb, If you knew anything at all this would not be your handle. The only reason to change our systems is so we can round you enemy combative arses up.

  • Anonymous

    Not so dumb, If you knew anything at all this would not be your handle. The only reason to change our systems is so we can round you enemy combative arses up.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Ask around and see if there are any families that do not have drinking water and offer to provide it to them. Proper charity belongs among neighbors first.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Ask around and see if there are any families that do not have drinking water and offer to provide it to them. Proper charity belongs among neighbors first.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Is there something wrong with your drinking water?

  • Anonymous

    Are you suggesting she go buy some soda?  I might have to report you for “coaching” someone to defraud the state….

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    You need to pay attention at the grocery store and watch what people purchase with the cards.

  • Anonymous

    It’s so sad to see good water dumbed out by some drunk, when at the same time in Somalia there are millions of sweet little children in danger of dying because they have no water!! :(  

  • Anonymous

    So what did they do with the $24. Go in and buy some more water? Maybe the Obama administration should hire these guys to fix the economy.

  • Anonymous

    So what did they do with the $24. Go in and buy some more water? Maybe the Obama administration should hire these guys to fix the economy.

  • Anonymous

    Dear Liberal, I do not work for minimum wage, I was not speaking of myself. I am able to put myself in other peoples shoes and it is not easy to pay for basics even with a larger income. I rent to a few families at a very reasonable rental rate. I have rented to people on disability and working families that can’t get ahead enough to save for a home. Many Mill workers (and others) needed every penny they earned just to barely survive. So if you think that minimum wage workers should stop working and acquire skills how might they do that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amanda-Bowden/100000680153578 Amanda Bowden

    people like that are the one that give the rest of us bad names and it is so disappointing I get foodstamps and appreciate it it goes to put food in my son’s mouth what a waste seriouly those are the peole right there that don’t deserve to have them there are people that truly need them SMH

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amanda-Bowden/100000680153578 Amanda Bowden

    For WIC you have to pay the deposit on juice

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    By the way, there are few heads of households working for minimum wage.  I’ve worked in minimum wage jobs and jobs that did not pay an lot more than that. An education can be acquired during off-work hours for those motivated to do so.

  • Anonymous

    I am not talking taxes… subsidies… free welfare money.

  • Anonymous

    after examining hundreds of combat support and reconstruction contracts in afghanistan, the u.s military estimates $360 million in u.s. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the american-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the taliban, criminals, and power brokers with ties to both…….i’m so happy the republicans have given the taliban and criminals in afghanistan the tools to live off our society…..

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Edward-Lachowicz/100000535475609 Edward Lachowicz

    Agreed that this is no better a practice than corporate welfare, but let’s face reality: corporate welfare equal billions of dollars, while a case of water equals $5. Who should we go after first?

  • Anonymous

    That is 4 billion they can use to expand their business and increase their profits. And yes I am in favor of taking corporate welfare away from all of them. I am just tired of all the finger pointing at the little guy who is just barely surviving. If the government recovered every dollar that welfare cheats get per year do you really think it would ammount to 4 billion? The ammount we give to just the oil companies in a year. It is not the little guy who is draining the system… did you see the house that woman built by scamming the system? 4+ million just her alone. 1.2 million when Nutting went bankrupt so the state could not get back the money he scammed. And you want to support some poor fool in the jailhouse who beat the system for $50 worth of water?

    It works real well to keep the average joe fighting mad about the little things while the real chicken theif makes off with the whole flock.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Edward-Lachowicz/100000535475609 Edward Lachowicz

    You pay more than Warren Buffett does, go hunt the rich down and stop scapegoating the occasional poor person who turns out to be a crook. Conservatives begrudge someone on welfare a bag of chips but you never hear them say a word about maybe having the rich pay more in taxes to lessen their tax burden. No, you’d rather attack poor people.

    Disgusting. I often wonder if all the Bibles come with Matthew ripped out of them nowadays, since to be conservative requires such a vengeful heart.

  • Anonymous

    So what did they do with the $24. Go in and buy some more water? Maybe the Obama administration should hire these guys to fix the economy.

  • Anonymous

    I am not very liberal about the food stamp issue…..I do believe that people who need assistance  feeding their families in the United States should be afforded help! There is a better way to do it than the current way though! Food Stamps should be for food! Not sodas, or bottled water…..and if they are used for that you should have to pay your own deposit. When I had my son I received a WIC benefit, it wasn’t a “fancy” card with a pin number, it was vouchers with specific things that I could buy and the amount that I was allowed to have, and if I had a voucher for juice I was required to pay the deposit on that juice. All items allowed are healthy and allow you to eat well while you are pregnant and after. People that are interested in doing whats best for their families wouldn’t care if they are getting a card to spend on anything, or vouchers for healthy food, and those who are just out to rip off the system are given less ways to do it.

  • Anonymous

    totally agree! If you really need help you don’t care if it comes in the form a voucher, at least you know then that healthy food is being purchased!

  • Anonymous

    OK, Glad that you are doing ok.
    So, are you saying that everyone is of equal trainability? Are you saying that everyone is smart enough for college?

    Not everyone is. You really seem to have no empathy whatsoever, I hope that I am incorrect about that.

    How much money do you estimate is needed for a small family to live? Or a single with one income?

     I am really interested in knowing how little a family can live on.

  • Anonymous

    When did being poor or down on your luck become a democrat or republican thing. I know people who have worked hard their entire life who find themselves on food stamps due to being laid off from a long time job. From what I can see the only difference between democrats and republicans is that democrats actually give a damn about people and republicans, not all, just ones like you are more interested in shooting off your mouth and don’t give a damned about people. The only thing that matters to someone who makes statements like you just did is the almighty buck and being selfish.

  • Anonymous

    You are right… poor kids should not have soda… only kids from well off families.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I would have to do some digging to find it but a recent committee estimated that there is half a Trillion dollars of waste and fraud to be addressed in government spending. I too am in favor of eliminating all corporate and business tax credits as well as individual credits. I favor a fair tax in that each of us should pay the same percentage of earnings to support the government and cultural world we live in. If I make twice what you make, I should have to pay twice as much in taxes as yourself.

  • Anonymous

    lol

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have no empathy for people who have turned government assistance into a multi-generational entitlement. The only lasting way to increase income in a household is through education and skills training. If the mind of a simpleton is an obstacle, then two jobs might be the necessity.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Edward-Lachowicz/100000535475609 Edward Lachowicz

    And Maine takes in more money than it puts into the federal government, I’m such rich liberals in New York are tired of subsidizing us.

  • Anonymous

    You do realize that not everyone has a high IQ… advanced education is not an option. Skilled work is not an option…

  • Anonymous

    I agree but my basics do not include bottles of water or soda……..

  • Anonymous

    I agree but my basics do not include bottles of water or soda……..

  • Anonymous

    I agree but my basics do not include bottles of water or soda……..

  • Anonymous

    I agree but my basics do not include bottles of water or soda……..

  • Anonymous

    your right in America we give our citizens these choices….

    even illegals

  • Anonymous

    I like your perspective… junk food for rich kids only… to heck with the poor … bread and water is good enough for them.

  • Anonymous

    Amen… no lobster for the poor… bread and water is good enough for the likes of them.

  • Anonymous

    I respect you as a person truenative…..
    but…

    In the United States we to have civil rights. Nobody can decide to search your home to look for those items.

  • Anonymous

    I do not deny that people may need help at certain points in their lives, but I draw the line on those who take what is offered and throw it away. If you think that is ok then you can give more of your money to the types that do what this article says but I will keep mine .

  • Anonymous

    Absolutley… they should have kerosene lamps and bread and water. Keep them poor, hungry and ignorant.

  • Anonymous

    God bless you Amanda. Life is not easy for you but take faith.

  • Anonymous

    Why not drink the water? This has got to be the most ridiculous way to get a little money back. You are going to use almost $90 in food stamps to get $24 cash. No wonder these people have no jobs; they have no intelligence. Why wouldn’t you just drink the water and eat the food? Where are they going to get money for food if they use up all their supplements on water only. Get a life!!

  • Anonymous

    Yes, I do agree that the soda thing is not needed or nutitional. Water maybe in certain rare cases, maybe cancer patients, etc. Some may need liquid diets to include water that is cleaner? Maybe, but you know everything is not black or white. So, again we know that the food stamp program  (call it snap) should be looked at. I don’t think that we should think that everyone is abusing it. Alot of people in need and more will need it soon and I wish we all had equal access to good  jobs and pay.

    I am not speaking of myself like I was accused of by someone else who thought he knew me, but thank you Shannonaigans for actually being concerned for the poor and working poor.

  • Anonymous

    you have no empathy whatsoever and that is ok

  • justamainer

    I’m in no way supporting state or federal assistance, but, I really have to disagree with you.  In Washington County, even with an education you make around $8.00 an hour, if you are lucky enough to have a job. A recent local position was offered for $8.00 and hour, requiring an associates degree had over 187 applicants.  I personally know of at least one person with a Masters degree from a highly accredited school who is working for $9.50 at a grocery store.  I can’t speak for the rest of Maine, but in Washington and Aroostook Counties, jobs are few and far between and for minimal wages.  Not to mention the cost of living is just as high in these communities as it is elsewhere in the State that offers far better paying jobs.  Rents are outrageous and much of the housing is substandard and inefficient, with extreme heating costs due to lack of proper insulation.  There is no public transportation and  no big businesses to employ people.  Many people who live here simply cannot afford to move or they would.   You stated people need skills and education, but if a person is working two jobs to survive, when are they supposed to go to school?  If a person is a single working parent, who is going to raise their children?  Can you work two jobs and go to school and raise a strong  family?  Single parents are not always single parents by choice and often do not get child support even when it is court ordered.  And before anyone goes off in a tangent about “Don’t  breed ‘em if you can’t feed ‘em”~ let me just say that many working families who got by fine in the past have found themselves in a bad situation with local businesses closing or cutting hours, bonus incentives and other cuts to the corporate budgets, leaving these people struggling to get by.  I don’t believe it is a lack of education or skills, but simply a lack of employment opportunities for those who do want to work.  Many, don’t, but not all people who receive assistance simply choose not to work.  Although I agree that no junk food/soda/ etc.  should be allowed with food stamps,  not everyone who receives them is a multi-generational government leech.  I have far more tolerance for a working person who needs a little help to get by than for the people who just live off state or federal  assistance, using obesity, alcoholism or drug addiction as a ‘disease’ with claims they cannot work.  The fact of the matter is, if there were enough jobs available with decent wages, the only people who would be receiving assistance would be the disabled.  Many disabled people simply cannot work, however I think the lines of what is considered a “disability” has become far too blurred by our government.

  • Anonymous

    Bangorian,

    details, how should we deal with it?

  • Anonymous

    Don’t blame those collecting…

    Change the law.

  • Anonymous

    Anybody who sees this as an excuse to cut or discontinue the food stamps budget clearly has an agenda. There is an obvious and clear solution to this problem. Just add the cost of deposit to the list of items that food stamps doesn’t cover, such as hot/prepared foods. It’s that easy. Doing anything else to fix this demonstrates ulterior motives.

  • Anonymous

    How about a simple solution.  ELIMINATE THE BOTTLE BILL!  This has served long past it’s usefulness.

  • Anonymous

    How about moms and dads who will bake some snacks for their kids. I know its old school but flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, etc.  and some effort goes along way towards a tasty treat. I don’t want my tax dollars to go to Doritos, soda and other crap. It is supposed to help feed people, not allow them to buy whatever they want.  So the poor can have good tasting bread with some effort and water out of the tap or maybe even old school kool-aid.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WUXQMOMFW26EODLA7I3WZLSNPM Jeff C

    You wanna fix this problem, tie in a Maine State ID or Driver’s Licence to EVERY food stamp purchase and use the person’s ID number as thier FS #.  Then if we see something like this happening they can check the receipts at a place like Shaw’s and find out who is spending the money on huge ammounts of water and take thier card away.

  • Christina Berg

    Both, however dumping a product is shameful especially by intent unless of course it is spoiled due to weather and other factors or in an emergency, it drives up the cost.

  • Christina Berg

    They should include the deposit that way they cannot get back deposit.

  • Christina Berg

    I don’t follow you , a deposit is charged and then a machine gives you a deposit. 

  • Christina Berg

    Is a bagel with cream cheese junk food?

  • Christina Berg

    Wrong, the WIC program is mainly for infants who do not work and cannot feed themselves,  the food stamp program is broad based, including the clerk, or construction worker who may need a high-calorie , fat meal, also is a bagel with cream cheese/taco junk food? Defining unhealthy foods is not easy, some would argue that canned veggies should be banned and hamburgers,  your proposal will not work, but to limit choices would take time and money .

  • Christina Berg

    In many states ice cream, cookies, pies, have no tax, Minnesota does not tax kit kats.

  • Christina Berg

    Wasn’t lobster cheap a couple years ago than hot dogs?

  • Christina Berg

    Junk food is hard to define, again is a taco with sour cream and cheese, junk food, what about a butter filled lobster? The butter makes it unhealthy, buttery biscuits,

  • Christina Berg

    Agree, maybe not allow water in the first place although a ban is probably unfair, water has no nutritional water neither does ice although it can be used in a productive way neither does unsweetened teas.

  • Christina Berg

    Soda has nutritional value and is healthier than many fruit juices and milkshakes. Besides is your problem with the fact that soda has sugar or that it tastes good due to carbonation, it seems the latter, many food stamp recipients work , and what if a courier wants calories.

  • Christina Berg

    Soda is a basic its sugar, a human staple right?

  • Christina Berg

    Soda is nutritional water is not, the problem is excess, eat 10 egg yolks bad.

  • Christina Berg

    Some folks need government assistance, there are no jobs sometimes, also capitalism dictates that you will always have losers.

  • Anonymous

    Shame it happens everywhere. Now corporate welfare, that kind of sounds like there are no real people involved. Puts a craw in your gut.

  • Christina Berg

    I agree, that rant and boothstraps comment are not productive and silly, however welfare does go towards families with children even by choice, and capitalism dictates the game, 
    defining junk food is difficult, soda is not junk food , since its sugar a staple, is vitamin water junk food since it has vitamins added to it, how about a bagel and cream cheese, or 10 egg yolks a day, or fried chicken and mac n cheese, I agree maine is expensive/wages.

  • Christina Berg

    Folks must be dumb to deposit water on camera for so little money they are better of selling it to something else.

  • Christina Berg

    Define junk food, soda and chips are not junk food tv dinners probably are, soda is sugar a staple, chips are junk food, so you are saying tacos are junk food or corn? 

  • Christina Berg

    Soda is a staple, doritos are tortilla chips and cheese is that junk, I agree baking snacks is smart, cost effective, and ideal although most don’t have the time although its do able in most instances if you cook, if you are referring to the additives they put in doritos and most sodas, I agree but natural as in 10 egg yolks a day does not mean healthy.

  • Christina Berg

    I agree its  a shame to do the deposit thing, in addition to scamming taxpayers, it drives up the cost of product.

  • Christina Berg

    I agree, with respect to tax evasion the little guy does it as the big buy.

  • Christina Berg

    Probably since it has no nutritional value, and outright ban though is not ideal although a temporary ban could have some value.

  • Christina Berg

    Soda is okay in moderation and does your definition of healthy include a bagel with cheese

  • Christina Berg

    How about corporal punishment?

  • Christina Berg

    Atleast its not wasting a product.

  • Christina Berg

    How about corporal punishment in public?

  • Christina Berg

    No, just corporal punishment in public

  • Christina Berg

    I agree water has no nutritional value although it an help in preparation or in areas where water is limited or deficient or if someone wants a drink with no additives or ice.

  • Christina Berg

    Democrats tend to be rich if not richer than republicans aka gates, buffet, etc,the taxpaying productive members shall we ?

  • Christina Berg

    Corporal punishment in public?

  • Christina Berg

    Corporal punishment in public might be a great idea.

  • Christina Berg

    We could use corporal punishment in public.

  • Christina Berg

    The WIC program is for those who cannot prepare meals and is not the ideal program for a employed construction worker who needs a high calorie meal, you cannot define healthy, wic limits sizes and is a meal profile for an infant/child, a bottle of soda is different for such a person than it is for someone else, also are 10 egg yolks a day healthy, bagel cheese, tortiallas and cheese, campbell’s tomato soup, oats and honey granola, where is the line.

  • Christina Berg

    Is it rotten

  • Christina Berg

    I would never recommend quitting a job given the recession and cutbacks to budgets, however the system needs reform to reward not punish those who don’t have more children or any children they cannot really afford.

  • Christina Berg

    No corporal punishment in public is a great idea, or public disgrace, a bit extreme but wasting a product drives up the cost.

  • Christina Berg

    Its not the simple solution but the bottle bill is useless, most don’t return and governments recycle, the only folks it benefits are those who take the bottles in which could be more affluent folks who have a large suv or the homeless but not most middle class working folk although many do many don’t bother making a trip and taking up space in a sedan and time to deposit bottles sometimes the machine does not even work.

  • Christina Berg

    Exactly, but I question the value of deposits in the first places given recycling. 

  • Christina Berg

    It isn’t the classic waste fraud and abuse, but social s ecurity and medicare.

  • Christina Berg

    I do support a more flatter tax though with less credits and deductions not a fair tax.

  • Christina Berg

    I agree juice is sugary and you should not ban soda and not juice but what about vitamin water is that comparable to juice, and also white bread breaks down to sugar,

  • Christina Berg

    Getting rid of deposits is a smart idea, most folks recycle and will not waste time and car space going to recycle bottles for 5 cents, machines can break and not read the barcode.

  • Anonymous

    I agree, Maine has an abundance of water.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000116395974 Kevin Cunning

    The state requires a ID to receive benefits.
    The state then issues a card with a unique number to the individual attached to that ID.
    The state has the ability to track all purchases done by any card number.
    So to wrap it all up – they already do exactly what your suggesting.

  • Anonymous

    If the water was spoiled, he could have returned it and got all his money back- juz sayin…..

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

    Massachusetts has workfare
    Massachusetts EBT recipients can not longer buy cigarettes,tattoos or booze with state money
    Massachusetts is about to begin drug testing for recipients
    Massachusetts has begun to hunt down fraud

    How about letting Massachusetts officials take over Maine DHHS ?  Dis band Maine DHHS and let Massachusetts set up mobile outposts in maine .

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000116395974 Kevin Cunning

    Or people could just move to Massachusetts

  • OldWench

    You do realize that if the were to make families on food stamps buy the things YOU think they should it would cost 5 times as much as it does now to provide the same amount of food?  People don’t buy tv dinners, chips and soda because they would rather have that.  They buy those because they are cheaper than the healthier items.  Soda is cheaper than juice and milk.  TV dinners are cheaper than fresh vegetables and meat.  Chips are cheaper than healthier snack options.  

  • OldWench

    Nope, they don’t even get bread and water.  Bread turns into sugar so poor people can’t have that and they can’t buy water.  They just need to stop eating altogether and just die off so these angry taxpayers on BDN can see their taxes go elsewhere.  I don’t know what these fools would do if they didn’t have someone to demonize and hate.  I’ve honestly never seen such a large group of so ugly, hateful and disgusting souled people as I see post on here.

  • Anonymous

    Two things:  First, what does working or not have to do with the situation I presented?  Second, boiling water will not remove the lead.  Some of the water will evaporate causing the lead to be in a higher concentration relative to the remaining water.

  • OldWench

    That’s because NH doesn’t have a bottle deposit.

  • Anonymous

    Should being the operative word.  Will they always?  No.  Have you ever looked into the price of a water treatment system?  Not an inexpensive fix as you state.  Depending on what is in the water, a simple Brita type filter usually is not the answer.

  • OldWench

    Um…how many times are you going to say this same thing?  It wasn’t clever the first time you said it and now it’s beyond annoying.  

  • Anonymous

    whaaat, you have  to pay the deposit anyway ,charge them the deposit in cash

  • Anonymous

    whaaat, you have  to pay the deposit anyway ,charge them the deposit in cash

  • Anonymous

    I am sorry to hear about your water issues.  When you said you called the City, do you mean Bangor Water District?  Or another department?  Housing is not only my profession, it is one of my passions so your post makes me want to help you and the others in your building.  Call the office of Community Development on Monday at 992-4233 and I would be happy to discuss the issue and solutions with you.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000116395974 Kevin Cunning

    As much as I don’t like having to support someones twinkie habit with a EBT card, I find it odd that the same groups of people screaming fraud from the top of the highest mountain find it appropriate that our elected officials charge up $200 lunches on there unlimited government charge card.
    My brother used to work for the department of justice. They issued him a unlimited charge card along with his almost 100k pay check. Why? Because somehow I guess he couldn’t afford to buy his own twinkies on 100k a year.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

    i hav about 2-3 more years of work til i can afford a cottage on cape cod

    any chance you would be interested in buying a home in skowtown?

  • AionNV

    So what ?

  • AionNV

    I think it’s hilarious people think butter is so freakin’ dangerous, all the while sucking down soybean oil like there’s no tomorrow, and wondering whythey’re so freakin’ fat….

  • Anonymous

    Good solution.  It worked for you and I would do the same.  However, not everyone is so industrious.  I recently had a well installed for a couple that had theirs run dry when the new house next to them drilled their well.  Got the call on a Friday afternoon and had the well drilled Wednesday morning.  You should have heard the complaining about having to get water from another source for less than 5 days.  I sometimes wonder why, as a society in general, we have become so reliant on the convienences of modern day life.

  • AionNV

    Just how expensive do you think that is ?

    And how do you even know it’s his blackberry ?

    I think people who lack imagination and accurate information should learn to mind their own business.

  • AionNV

    And send someone over to beat them 3 times a week, that’ll lean ‘em.

  • OldWench

    I’m guessing that it’s the old plumbing in the building, but the landlord has been doing updates to the building consistently, so I’m sure they’ll eventually get to the plumbing.  I don’t plan on staying here that much longer, either.

  • AionNV

    No thanks, I’m not into zoos.

  • AionNV

    I’m sure that’s so true, people used to constantly complain about how cheap gas was.

    Give me a break.

  • AionNV

    You need to get a life.

  • Anonymous

    Water is essential to life.  You can go longer without food than you can without water.

  • Anonymous

    Water is essential to life.  You can go longer without food than you can without water.

  • AionNV

    Yet, most people utilizing food stamp programs are NOT the factitious “ people who have turned government assistance into a multi-generational entitlement” that you claim them to be.

    Have a little integrity.

  • AionNV

    Dumb or on drugs.

  • Anonymous

    Oh yeh! I just bought a bag of chips the other day, & was surprised to see there was NO TAX. Asked the cashier..seems now chips are considered food!
    Listen you control freaks……….it is none of your business, what is purchased with food stamps!
    Pasta Puleeze. I have lived on fresh vegetables & lots of fish, chicken ( hate steak) all my life until the removal of the “middle class”  for the benefit of the 1%’rs began in earnest 20 years ago, offshoring jobs etc. In my Downeast fishing village the only fish Hannaford offers is all from Chile, Vietnam places far away…………………….EXCEPT the local LOBSTER. I don’t eat it that much but if I choose to eat Lobster rather than hamburger from DOWNER COWS It IS MY BUSINESS!
    I have more pasta from the food pantry than I have good wit! and beans which tear up my stomach!
    If “THE SYSTEM” is IN CONTROL of which foods we can purchase with food stamps YOU KNOW MONSANTO will get their bid in & I will be forced to live on GM stuff,  high fructose corn syrup, aspertame, additives,  etc. that the big commercial food  corporations, make a BIG PROFIT FROM!
    This whole thing makes NO SENSE!  $86. 00 for food = $24.00 profit? Did this guy go without eating so he could purchase gas? as he says, if so maybe he is deserving of compassion rather than penalty?
    THE WAR CRIMINALS ARE STILL FREE & LIVING WELL!

  • Anonymous

    Those on food stamps can eat all the lobster they want!  But the tax payers who are working every day and cant afford the luxeries shouldnt have to pay for it!

  • AionNV

    Too bad, a job and feeling competent isn’t an entitlement, if nobody wants to hire him, he should just die.

    That’s the conservative solution.

  • Anonymous

    Once again, things like cable and internet are not neccessities!  If they want em, fine!  Go get a job like the rest of us and pay for em, dont go on state or federal aid to buy food and then spend what money you do have on frivolities!

  • poormaniac

    There may be  a single mother out there who pays her babysitter with food purchased with food stamps, who lives on chips and pepsi , who trades lobster for cigarettes…….my point is the system is broken and needs to be fixed. Washington is broken also.

  • AionNV

    Don’t pester people with the facts, people in need should just be able to magically buy twice the amount of good food they can with half as much assistance.

  • Anonymous

    True Native…………BULL………………………………. I have Internet.if there is ANY HOPE of My earning income at my advanced age. it is through that channel. It is under $20. per month.
    I keep in touch with my Grandchildren ( 8 hours or  a Minimum $100. road trip away) through the Internet. You would deny an old woman of contact with family & loved ones. possibility of a little extra income?????????
    NO I DON”T HAVE CABLE! I used to enjoy FREE TV with interesting content.nothing worth watching these days!

  • Anonymous

    True Native…………BULL………………………………. I have Internet.if there is ANY HOPE of My earning income at my advanced age. it is through that channel. It is under $20. per month.
    I keep in touch with my Grandchildren ( 8 hours or  a Minimum $100. road trip away) through the Internet. You would deny an old woman of contact with family & loved ones. possibility of a little extra income?????????
    NO I DON”T HAVE CABLE! I used to enjoy FREE TV with interesting content.nothing worth watching these days!

  • StillRelaxin

    Let me finish your thought here, “Soda is a staple” of obese people with poor oral hygiene. For those among us that are healthy, it’s an occasional candy treat. I have a dietician in the family. Please lmk if you need any further nutritional assistance.

  • StillRelaxin

    Let me finish your thought here, “Soda is a staple” of obese people with poor oral hygiene. For those among us that are healthy, it’s an occasional candy treat. I have a dietician in the family. Please lmk if you need any further nutritional assistance.

  • poormaniac

    You are so far to the left that you are walking around in circles !

  • Anonymous

    Urich, Have you NOT NOTICED how the jobs have been sent overseas for the last 20-30 years?
    Have you looked at the jobs report lately? High unemployment WHY?

  • AionNV

    The amount of money ripped off by people using this scam is a mere pittance compared to what corporate america has evaded in paying their fair share of taxes,  not to mention the criminal  activities corporate america has been involved in that have helped to tank the economy and drive unemployment to record levels.

    But you go ahead and worry about a couple junkies on food stamps dumping out bottled water in Nowheresville, Maine.

    IF you’re getting as upset about this as you seem, you have problems that exceed those the people doing this have.

  • poormaniac

    The wages we pay our congressmen and senators and president is sinful !

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Smith/1435183769 Jonathan Smith

    This makes me sick. Half of these people shouldn’t even be on food stamps. Get a job.

  • Anonymous

    Hey, come on most of the people on food stamps are just down on their luck….right?right?

  • poormaniac

    Can I get a box of tissues with food stamps ?

  • ChuckGG

    We have well water out in Troy and test it yearly.  We found a lab run by the native American Micmac tribe in Maine.  Good prices, excellent turn-around time, easy to follow directions.  I have been very impressed by them.  Did the whole thing by mail.  They are certified by whomever does that stuff.   At watertestlab.com.  (To give them a shout-out.)

    By the way, we have very hard water with lots of iron.  Clothing and sinks and such get very stained.  My grandparents and mother lived with it all their lives.  We installed a water softener for the whole house (around $500, I recall) and it made an amazing difference in the taste.  The staining is gone.  Even the “rust stains” on washing machine eventually went away.  I think we could bottle and sell the water coming out of this device.

  • ChuckGG

    We have well water out in Troy and test it yearly.  We found a lab run by the native American Micmac tribe in Maine.  Good prices, excellent turn-around time, easy to follow directions.  I have been very impressed by them.  Did the whole thing by mail.  They are certified by whomever does that stuff.   At watertestlab.com.  (To give them a shout-out.)

    By the way, we have very hard water with lots of iron.  Clothing and sinks and such get very stained.  My grandparents and mother lived with it all their lives.  We installed a water softener for the whole house (around $500, I recall) and it made an amazing difference in the taste.  The staining is gone.  Even the “rust stains” on washing machine eventually went away.  I think we could bottle and sell the water coming out of this device.

  • AionNV

    OMG, this is such a massive problem, let’s get hysterical about it, somebody ought to make a law, just like the Bath Salts problem, won’t somebody please thing of the children….

  • AionNV

    OMG, this is such a massive problem, let’s get hysterical about it, somebody ought to make a law, just like the Bath Salts problem, won’t somebody please thing of the children….

  • Anonymous

    Listen MaineisMyHome …………..poor people with polluted wells should just  drink the water & die is that what you want? If I buy spring water with my food stamps, it is because I can’t afford the $20. to replace the Brita filter on my faucet that month! Obviously I can’t afford $3,000 or $4,000 to drill a new well & I have been told by a state personnel, that the water table has risen , that’s why me & my neighbors have a problem.
    Until 3 years ago my well water was the purest, best tasting, water around! I’m 72, where do you want me to work?

  • Anonymous

    YES!

  • Anonymous

    YES!

  • poormaniac

    I live on a small social security pension and often complain that it is hard to get by however if I were to get rid of my cell phone , my cable and my internet I could save $150. per month and I’m sure others can do the same !

  • ChuckGG

    Heck, I have a Britta style filter at my office and just use that and refill the water bottles.  Not that I am cheap but lugging around bottles of water is not on my list of things to do.

  • cfd130

    Get rid of the program-do you know there is NO food stamp program in Canada and I dont see people starving there

  • Anonymous

    ??Yes all these LITTLE village in Downeast Maine have city water fountains in the center of town?????????????
    Bottom line all you peiople have too much time in your hands sitting arond deciding what is best for others, IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS>>>>>>>>>>>>>too many missassumptions flying around here, based on little knowledge.
    I am going back to a work! Yes it is Saturday, I am 72, I HAVE WORK TO DO.

  • poormaniac

    Great idea !!!!

  • Anonymous

    For the likes of them?
    Yes it absolutely is.

  • Anonymous

    My point is not to deprive them of cell phones, internet, etc.  I have a cheap, reloadable TracPhone and I work two jobs! It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth to see a Food Stamp card in the hands of someone who chose to buy a 350.00 purse and a 200.00 phone with a 100.00 phone plan.
     

  • Anonymous

    If you really think that, I’d guess you haven’t been to a state without a bottle bill.  For a LONG time.  Because the roadsides are often just giant garbage dumps in states without one.  I pay my deposit, and I’m happy to do it.  As much trash as we have on the roadside here, it’d be much worse if we didn’t have the bottle deposit.

    I’m grateful for it.  And it doesn’t cost me anything in the long run, since I get every nickel (pun intended) back.

  • ChuckGG

    I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt and say they must be desperate to do this.  The guy in the story said he did it to buy gasoline.  That is pretty desperate.  I do not like to think what will happen this winter with the HEAP funds having been slashed.  (LePage says it’s Obama’s proposal – yeah, sure, like he’d cut that social program.  Guess those chickens came home to roost, Mr. Governor.  Be careful what you wish for.  You Tea Party types wanted Federal cuts, you got them.  Live with it.)

    I guess my reaction to this water scam is to ask why we have the deposit program at all?  Does it really make that much difference?  I live and work in Maryland but have a a home and roots in Maine.  In the DC/MD/VA area we do not have this deposit program.  We do have active recycle programs and bins everywhere.  I rarely see any litter around.  To me, the administration of all this hoopla seems burdensome for what I suspect is a marginal return.  It is waste of people time, gasoline to haul these things around, and I doubt makes much difference in this day and age.

    We just have a trash cans for anything needing to by recycled.  Once you get used to it, it is pretty easy to do.  I have one dedicated to paper.  It is surprising how quickly that fills up.  Anyway, the trash man comes around and picks it up and you are done with it.  Seems simple enough to me.

    So, do people feel the deposit program still in beneficial for Maine?  It may be.  I do not know.   Would people still litter like they did in my grandfather’s day?  That time may have passed.  It seems to have here.

  • Anonymous

    I have never been on the SNAP program (food stamps, a decade or two ago, yes)…is it not a state-based program?  My understanding was we were talking about a program here in the State of Maine, not a national program?

  • Anonymous

    I have never been on the SNAP program (food stamps, a decade or two ago, yes)…is it not a state-based program?  My understanding was we were talking about a program here in the State of Maine, not a national program?

  • Anonymous

    I have never been on the SNAP program (food stamps, a decade or two ago, yes)…is it not a state-based program?  My understanding was we were talking about a program here in the State of Maine, not a national program?

  • Anonymous

    Society as a whole apparently thinks those things are okay.  I know me, personally, I do not.  But then again, I don’t buy soda, I don’t buy bottled water, and I don’t by sugared juices.  We don’t buy white bread either, for that very reason (whole grain, or if we can’t find that, whole wheat, but we do eat very very little bread.)   I feel the same way about “vitamin water”, which, let’s be honest, is nothing more than flavored water, with a few minerals thrown in to make it appeal to the health-conscious and dollar-foolish.

  • Anonymous

    Maybe you ought to talk to more liberal/progressives up at the university.   They sure did, they turned their noses up talking about how we in America loved our cheap gas, while in Europe they’re paying twice as much as we did.

  • Anonymous

    What? Do you live under a bridge too?
    They had exactly the same opportunities as the rest of us, a free high school education, and then they could get a job and earn their way through college just like many of the rest of us. If they chose to toss it away because all they did is drugs or get knocked up, that means they are on our nickle forever? Do you think they are buying food with the cash? What a joke.
    They are no more than a forced “pet” that we have to feed and clothe and provide medical attention for. I don’t need a pet hoodlum, I’d get another dog first, at least they appreciate what you do for them. 

  • Anonymous

    Gladly.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve had some pretty scummy landlords in the past (in Bangor and Brewer) myself.  In fairness, I know that landlords sometimes get their share of bad tenants too, but, it’s to bad they can’t both treat each other with some respect.  But neither does, and so both are often of the feeling that the other is out to take an advantage.   I hope you have a relatively decent landlord, but don’t be afraid to contact Pine Tree Legal if you ever need to.  There are some great documents on line, too, about Maine tenants rights and responsibilities, along with landlords rights and responsibilities.  Very helpful, when needed…

  • Anonymous

    I’ve had some pretty scummy landlords in the past (in Bangor and Brewer) myself.  In fairness, I know that landlords sometimes get their share of bad tenants too, but, it’s to bad they can’t both treat each other with some respect.  But neither does, and so both are often of the feeling that the other is out to take an advantage.   I hope you have a relatively decent landlord, but don’t be afraid to contact Pine Tree Legal if you ever need to.  There are some great documents on line, too, about Maine tenants rights and responsibilities, along with landlords rights and responsibilities.  Very helpful, when needed…

  • Anonymous

    I’ve had some pretty scummy landlords in the past (in Bangor and Brewer) myself.  In fairness, I know that landlords sometimes get their share of bad tenants too, but, it’s to bad they can’t both treat each other with some respect.  But neither does, and so both are often of the feeling that the other is out to take an advantage.   I hope you have a relatively decent landlord, but don’t be afraid to contact Pine Tree Legal if you ever need to.  There are some great documents on line, too, about Maine tenants rights and responsibilities, along with landlords rights and responsibilities.  Very helpful, when needed…

  • Anonymous

    I’ve had some pretty scummy landlords in the past (in Bangor and Brewer) myself.  In fairness, I know that landlords sometimes get their share of bad tenants too, but, it’s to bad they can’t both treat each other with some respect.  But neither does, and so both are often of the feeling that the other is out to take an advantage.   I hope you have a relatively decent landlord, but don’t be afraid to contact Pine Tree Legal if you ever need to.  There are some great documents on line, too, about Maine tenants rights and responsibilities, along with landlords rights and responsibilities.  Very helpful, when needed…

  • Anonymous

    I’ve had some pretty scummy landlords in the past (in Bangor and Brewer) myself.  In fairness, I know that landlords sometimes get their share of bad tenants too, but, it’s to bad they can’t both treat each other with some respect.  But neither does, and so both are often of the feeling that the other is out to take an advantage.   I hope you have a relatively decent landlord, but don’t be afraid to contact Pine Tree Legal if you ever need to.  There are some great documents on line, too, about Maine tenants rights and responsibilities, along with landlords rights and responsibilities.  Very helpful, when needed…

  • Anonymous

    If you are an elderly person, nobody has a problem providing for you, at least I don’t. People are getting fed up with the punks and hoodlums working the system.

  • Anonymous

    No, we all know what you are into.

  • ChuckGG

    There will always be some fraud going on in every program.  The question is what the cost is to prevent it.  Some car insurance companies have done away with enforcing deductibles because the cost of administering to the few fraud cases was greater than the fraud.  True, not a ideal world but a practical one.

    In the case of SNAP and Medicare due to the size of the programs and the size of the fraud, devising techniques to prevent most fraud is worthwhile.  In this case with the water, the obvious solutions are:

    1.  Get rid of the deposit program for all.  Seems like an administrative nightmare, anyway.
    2.  Give SNAP people a Britta filter and a water bottle to refill.
    3.  Make deposits on beverages excluded from SNAP funds.

    Personally, I’d go with number 1 and try a volunteer recycle program instead.  This would save on gas to return bottles, reduce hassle, cut small-store administrative costs, and give the city a source of income from bulk recycling.  Customers only need to put the bottles in a recycle bin to be picked-up along with the regular trash.

  • Anonymous

    There are some that are poor and on food stamps.  But most are elderly or disabled and can’t afford the price of food to purchase themselves.  The program was and is  a short solution to a long time problem.  Most go to food cupboards to supplement their food budgets.  Some don’t because they have no transportation to get to the food cupboards.

  • Anonymous

    There are some that are poor and on food stamps.  But most are elderly or disabled and can’t afford the price of food to purchase themselves.  The program was and is  a short solution to a long time problem.  Most go to food cupboards to supplement their food budgets.  Some don’t because they have no transportation to get to the food cupboards.

  • ChuckGG

    Often, the problem is the food industry does not want their food excluded from a large market.  And, in the case of junk food, I would guess their food is consumed in a greater proportion by the SNAP recipients than of the general population.  Just like cigarettes.  In my office of around 40 people (mostly younger IT types), there is not one person who smokes.  Let’s face the facts here – most (not all, but most) who smoke and buy lottery tickets usually are not in the upper-income crowd.  I know it is a stereotype but I think there is more truth than poetry there.  Their money, their choice, I suppose.

    In the old days, before food stamps, I recall a cousin who used to receive actual food from the government.  And, it was great (or, at least I remember it that way).  The powdered milk was nothing to write home about but the butter and cheese was dynamite.   We would visit her house as kids and she’d make grilled-cheese sandwiches with tomato and bacon that were great.  I’d ask my Mom if we could go visit her again (just for the food).  Partly, it was the quality of the food, but also she was a good cook and “made do” with what she had, raising two daughters alone after her husband took off.

    I am not suggesting we return to those days.  I suspect that would be incredibly expensive and impractical.  Today, we just need to be vigilant to fraud and perhaps solve the problem as to why this guy thought he had to take this action just to “buy gas.”

  • Anonymous

    Strange.  I am working.  My wife is working.  My daughter just got a new job.  All my friends are working.  All my family is working.  

    I do however see my neighbors NOT working.  Haven’t in YEARS.  Haven’t bothered looking.  Why bother when they get free rent, free healthcare for themselves and their 2 kids, free food, free heat…

  • Anonymous

    yes, these folks set the example by scamming the country out of revenue and then turn the spotlight on the poor as being scammers. Shared blame here people.

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    yep! 

  • Anonymous

    So disgusting!!!!

  • Anonymous

    So disgusting!!!!

  • Anonymous

    So disgusting!!!!

  • Anonymous

    So disgusting!!!!

  • Anonymous

    You haven’t heard???? You can now get a free cell phone with 250 minutes if you get food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    You haven’t heard???? You can now get a free cell phone with 250 minutes if you get food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    You haven’t heard???? You can now get a free cell phone with 250 minutes if you get food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    You haven’t heard???? You can now get a free cell phone with 250 minutes if you get food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    You haven’t heard???? You can now get a free cell phone with 250 minutes if you get food stamps.

  • Anonymous

    You haven’t heard???? You can now get a free cell phone with 250 minutes if you get food stamps.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • Anonymous

    The person using welfare money would have to pay actual cash for the deposit fee on the item.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    this is th emost outragous waste tax payers money for god sake  chasing  people who buy water bottle get real here way mor eserious  problem in our economy then  few pennies for water bottles  like wasting tax payers money to  run after poor  people  on food stamps  having to do  such things to get a few  cents  seriously here you wanna  save money leave  the poorest in society alone create them jobs so thye wont have to  do such drastic  things  to get a dollow  to maybe to get a coffe like normal human beings go chase real criminals like murders  drug pushers child molestors  for God sake  this is become  insane go after real  crime on our streets nto pour soul  having to buy water to get a dollor change  ??? dear lord

  • Anonymous

    The person using welfare money would have to pay actual cash for the deposit fee on the item.

  • Anonymous

    The person using welfare money would have to pay actual cash for the deposit fee on the item.

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure if there was someone purchasing $40 in water I would notice if I was there…do you realize how much water that is? I have seen people using their foodstamps and on the whole, they eat like the rest of us.

    I suggest if you see this so often, perhaps you should grow a backbone and say something to one of these so called fraudsters. I’d love to see someone on foodstamps put one you people in your place.

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure if there was someone purchasing $40 in water I would notice if I was there…do you realize how much water that is? I have seen people using their foodstamps and on the whole, they eat like the rest of us.

    I suggest if you see this so often, perhaps you should grow a backbone and say something to one of these so called fraudsters. I’d love to see someone on foodstamps put one you people in your place.

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure if there was someone purchasing $40 in water I would notice if I was there…do you realize how much water that is? I have seen people using their foodstamps and on the whole, they eat like the rest of us.

    I suggest if you see this so often, perhaps you should grow a backbone and say something to one of these so called fraudsters. I’d love to see someone on foodstamps put one you people in your place.

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure if there was someone purchasing $40 in water I would notice if I was there…do you realize how much water that is? I have seen people using their foodstamps and on the whole, they eat like the rest of us.

    I suggest if you see this so often, perhaps you should grow a backbone and say something to one of these so called fraudsters. I’d love to see someone on foodstamps put one you people in your place.

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure if there was someone purchasing $40 in water I would notice if I was there…do you realize how much water that is? I have seen people using their foodstamps and on the whole, they eat like the rest of us.

    I suggest if you see this so often, perhaps you should grow a backbone and say something to one of these so called fraudsters. I’d love to see someone on foodstamps put one you people in your place.

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure if there was someone purchasing $40 in water I would notice if I was there…do you realize how much water that is? I have seen people using their foodstamps and on the whole, they eat like the rest of us.

    I suggest if you see this so often, perhaps you should grow a backbone and say something to one of these so called fraudsters. I’d love to see someone on foodstamps put one you people in your place.

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure if there was someone purchasing $40 in water I would notice if I was there…do you realize how much water that is? I have seen people using their foodstamps and on the whole, they eat like the rest of us.

    I suggest if you see this so often, perhaps you should grow a backbone and say something to one of these so called fraudsters. I’d love to see someone on foodstamps put one you people in your place.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    im sorry sir, but im paying for it.

  • Anonymous

    tell that to jenny craig

  • Anonymous

    tell that to jenny craig

  • Anonymous

    tell that to jenny craig

  • Anonymous

    tell that to jenny craig

  • Anonymous

    tell that to jenny craig

  • Anonymous

    tell that to jenny craig

  • Anonymous

    tell that to jenny craig

  • Anonymous

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree that this is ridiculous, fraudulent behavior and should be stopped, but at the same time,  would it be any different if they stood out in the parking lot and drank all the water instead of pouring it out? What if they took it home and used it to water their plants? I mean really, once it’s bought and paid for who’s business is it what they do with it? Does this mean that if I buy a bottle of water and pour the whole thing over my head on a hot day that I’m going to get in trouble? I don’t really understand what qualifies this as a ‘scam’.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree that this is ridiculous, fraudulent behavior and should be stopped, but at the same time,  would it be any different if they stood out in the parking lot and drank all the water instead of pouring it out? What if they took it home and used it to water their plants? I mean really, once it’s bought and paid for who’s business is it what they do with it? Does this mean that if I buy a bottle of water and pour the whole thing over my head on a hot day that I’m going to get in trouble? I don’t really understand what qualifies this as a ‘scam’.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree that this is ridiculous, fraudulent behavior and should be stopped, but at the same time,  would it be any different if they stood out in the parking lot and drank all the water instead of pouring it out? What if they took it home and used it to water their plants? I mean really, once it’s bought and paid for who’s business is it what they do with it? Does this mean that if I buy a bottle of water and pour the whole thing over my head on a hot day that I’m going to get in trouble? I don’t really understand what qualifies this as a ‘scam’.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree that this is ridiculous, fraudulent behavior and should be stopped, but at the same time,  would it be any different if they stood out in the parking lot and drank all the water instead of pouring it out? What if they took it home and used it to water their plants? I mean really, once it’s bought and paid for who’s business is it what they do with it? Does this mean that if I buy a bottle of water and pour the whole thing over my head on a hot day that I’m going to get in trouble? I don’t really understand what qualifies this as a ‘scam’.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree that this is ridiculous, fraudulent behavior and should be stopped, but at the same time,  would it be any different if they stood out in the parking lot and drank all the water instead of pouring it out? What if they took it home and used it to water their plants? I mean really, once it’s bought and paid for who’s business is it what they do with it? Does this mean that if I buy a bottle of water and pour the whole thing over my head on a hot day that I’m going to get in trouble? I don’t really understand what qualifies this as a ‘scam’.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree that this is ridiculous, fraudulent behavior and should be stopped, but at the same time,  would it be any different if they stood out in the parking lot and drank all the water instead of pouring it out? What if they took it home and used it to water their plants? I mean really, once it’s bought and paid for who’s business is it what they do with it? Does this mean that if I buy a bottle of water and pour the whole thing over my head on a hot day that I’m going to get in trouble? I don’t really understand what qualifies this as a ‘scam’.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree that this is ridiculous, fraudulent behavior and should be stopped, but at the same time,  would it be any different if they stood out in the parking lot and drank all the water instead of pouring it out? What if they took it home and used it to water their plants? I mean really, once it’s bought and paid for who’s business is it what they do with it? Does this mean that if I buy a bottle of water and pour the whole thing over my head on a hot day that I’m going to get in trouble? I don’t really understand what qualifies this as a ‘scam’.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    berg people lik eyou needs serious soul searching blwon away here by the  outragous responses jealous envying someone who is on food stamps do you have a cluse whats that is like ever walk in their shoes look how people react on here for a few cents of change when we have no jobs  crime at it;s worst  yet we demean  poorest  most vulnerabel in our society  rip them of their dignity  thos epeople like you worked too at one point time not charity their getting yet we ttreat them like the lowest   o fth elow outta all be ashamed when keep in mind we all one pay check away from the streets this coudl be you  tommorrow attack the real  issues  th ereal thieves  who commit real crimes  water bottle to get  what 5 cents a bottle if that  dear lord  have you al lost your minds here
     

  • Anonymous

    This, My dear Corinnaman is SOME of what you  are paying for!
    Israel is not the only country that abuses fundamental human rights. But
    it is the only country of this nature thatRECIEVES OVER  $3 BILLION a YEAR in U.S. AID, and it is the only foreign nation that is receiving 81
    American congressional delegates.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-berg/israel-us-congress_b_931457.html?ref=tw

  • http://www.facebook.com/steve.allen.nh Steve Allen

    If you had to pay cash for the deposit when you purchased the water, the water dumping would stop. You have to be terribly desperate to engage in water dumping. People must be really hurting to do this. It’s the 20th of the month, the monthly allotment that people get has dried up and they are just trying to survive till the next month when they will get their next allotment.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    the problem in society our days is nto  food stamps it is th emind ssets of people  like on here who have no clue what it is like better  check  your infos  example do you know hwta a single mother  can make working  2 jobs in maine not even enough to cover her rent in a month before you alll open yoru big traps judge  the les sfortunes go  check your infos 

  • Anonymous

    Lol…actually Christina, water is THE most essential nutrient. Not that I condone buying water just to dump it out for the deposit…but that is not common place. What is common is contaminated drinking water.

  • Anonymous

    They need to do what they use to do years ago and go into these peoples homes once in a while unexpected and they would be amazed by the things they would see.  If they actually “checked” on those that has been reported over and over it would give back quite a bit of money to this state. Example: Riding around in $15 thousand dollar cars, working under the table as well as the spouse and making over $35 an hour with one job and the other making $25 an hour. They buy Live Lobster with their FoodStamp card . Yes, these people do exist. I know them personaly. They have been reported by 4 diffrent people in the past 3 years and not one single person from this state has bothered to investigate. It ruins it for those who are legitimatly needing the help and trying to feed their children. We  could complain until the cows come home and nothing will ever be done about it.

  • Anonymous

    Right, because most of those “unfortunates” using cell phones, internet and cable have them for research and learning.  Sure.  Keep them warm, plump and happy while their supporters are stressed, working two jobs and eating cube steak.  

  • Anonymous

    Good idea, get a job or do volunteer work to earn your food stamps….no beating.   

  • Anonymous

    Yes, especially dumping water since more than likely the water being pumped into those bottles is depleting another area of its water as happens with these corrupt bottle companies who have no regard for the earth.

  • Anonymous

    If I were on the street tomorrow I still would not buy bottled water. I am personally boycotting bottle water because it is depleting our planet of water. 

  • Anonymous

    Why not just eliminate bottled water from the list of things that can be purchased with food stamps. I drink out of the tap, and I work for a living. 

  • Anonymous

    When our taxes pay for other people’s food, it is our business. I cannot afford to buy snack food and soda, why should someone getting free food money be able to?

  • Anonymous

    Ya know – it’s ‘guys’ like you who give Food Stamps a bad name!!!!   I was collecting a whopping $16.00 a month until I retired and went on Social Security (as did my spouse) and we found out we made too much money and the $16.00 a month was taken away.  I made that $16.00 go a long way…..if I were your mother – I’d send you to your room indefinetely!!!!

  • Anonymous

    Easy fix: Make people pay for the bottle deposits with real money. The best solution is to stop including the bottle deposit in what is covered by food stamps. I am a member of the working poor, an adjunct professor, believe it or not. I make about $800 a month teaching part-time ( all that I can get at the moment). When I go to the checkout at the supermarket, my roll of toilet paper cannot be purchased with foodstamps, nor can my toothpaste, or cleaning supplies. I must pay for them with my own money and I am happy enough to do so. Bottle deposits should also be paid for in cash. Ths would cut down on the amount of junk liquid purchased with money that should go toward food, and it woukd eliminate the problem of “water-dumping.”

  • Anonymous

    Huh????  “A case of water equals $5.  Who should we go after first?”  I have an idea….it’s called capitalism.  You go make cases of bottled water and sell it for $4 a case.  It’s called competetion in the free market.  It works!  Try it! 

  • Anonymous

    Huh????  “A case of water equals $5.  Who should we go after first?”  I have an idea….it’s called capitalism.  You go make cases of bottled water and sell it for $4 a case.  It’s called competetion in the free market.  It works!  Try it! 

  • Anonymous

    Listen, I am poor by the poverty standards. I choose not to get any assistance. I do not have cable or cell phones. I seldom can afford lobster. I bought a couple water bottles and fill my bottles at home or if I am on the road I always find a place to fill them. I stop buying soda and snack food because I don’t want to burden the health care system. 

  • Anonymous

    The vouchers should  be for a certain amount of meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, fish, dairy, eggs poultry. No soda, No chips, No ice cream, No snack cakes, No frozen dinners, No bottled water!

  • Anonymous

    Proves who is smarter eh?

  • Anonymous

    You don’t get it.  You and I are paying for that water that these people are dumping out so they can use the returnables to buy booze and cigarettes.  Then, when they develop liver problems and cancer, we pay their medical bills, too!  You don’t see anything wrong with that? 

  • Anonymous

    It one makes tacos at home with sour cream and cheese, it is not junk food. It is made with hamburger, cheese and vegetables. If you buy it from Taco Bell, that is another story.

    Butter is actually far more healthy than margarine. It’s all about moderation.

  • Anonymous

    totally for number 3 it seems like in my travels there are less bottle laying around the sides of roads when there worth something besides give homless something to make a few bucks and make the area look better 

  • Anonymous

    If you’re getting food stamps, then your kids should be getting free lunch and free milk with their lunches.  Most schools offer flavored milk as well.  And for the those allergic to milk, juice is offered.  And if they are allergic to milk and juice, send them with a paper cup for the water fountain…..free.   If you’re busting your butt and looking for ways to save, this little tidbit of information will save you 5-10 dollars a week.  And that’s just the beginning.   

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    also the volunteer idea wouldn’t work that well in the country side compared to just having a machine at the grocery store
     

  • Anonymous

    So you like the Canadian system? Well then we should also have government health care as the only option, a sensible social insurance policy and a bigger and better program to aid the poor, the elderly and the disabled, as Canada does. Canada does help the poor buy food, but it does it with dollars. That is why there are no starving people in Canada.

  • Anonymous

    So you like the Canadian system? Well then we should also have government health care as the only option, a sensible social insurance policy and a bigger and better program to aid the poor, the elderly and the disabled, as Canada does. Canada does help the poor buy food, but it does it with dollars. That is why there are no starving people in Canada.

  • Anonymous

    So you like the Canadian system? Well then we should also have government health care as the only option, a sensible social insurance policy and a bigger and better program to aid the poor, the elderly and the disabled, as Canada does. Canada does help the poor buy food, but it does it with dollars. That is why there are no starving people in Canada.

  • Anonymous

    I am poor. I cannot afford to have a cell phone or cable because I do not want any help from the government.

  • Anonymous

    I am poor. I cannot afford to have a cell phone or cable because I do not want any help from the government.

  • Anonymous

    I am poor. I cannot afford to have a cell phone or cable because I do not want any help from the government.

  • Anonymous

    I am poor. I cannot afford to have a cell phone or cable because I do not want any help from the government.

  • Anonymous

    I am poor. I cannot afford to have a cell phone or cable because I do not want any help from the government.

  • Anonymous

    I am poor. I cannot afford to have a cell phone or cable because I do not want any help from the government.

  • Anonymous

    I am poor. I cannot afford to have a cell phone or cable because I do not want any help from the government.

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    40 million on food stamps… just goes to show you how well dog eat dog capitalism works eh? Working like a charm… the haves got it and the have nots can get the scraps the haves are willing to toss them. When there are 80 million on food stamps we will be a real success story…

  • Anonymous

    Yes, I have a Tracfone as well. I spend about $30 every three or four months because I only use it for emergencies. I do my talking on the landline. Cable and cell plans are luxuries that I cannot afford because I do not wish to get benefits.

  • Anonymous

    lol the biggest mess with this is i can go to my friends and have them buy food with wic/food stamps and i can give them 50% cash for it. and there all about it. now thats a tastey tax refund

  • Anonymous

    There is just one proble with workfare: it is basically bond-labor and is a great way for employers to get around the minimum wage. Lets say you were out of highschool, maybe 20 years old, maybe already a parent, and working as a bagger at a grocery store, or maybe you got a job cleanng up litter for the city of Bangor or something low level. Now comes workfare and all people getting benefits are assigned to work ( at government subsidized rates) at low level jobs in the city. If the city, or the grocery store can get workfare people to work at a fraction of what they would pay a real employee then of course they are going to let real employees go. And the 20 year old is now unemployed and has to go on workfare and work for a fraction of what he or she received before. No, workfare has never benefited anyone but the rich. 

  • Anonymous

    There have been many times when my children in their twenties have not been able to afford Internet because they have been college students. They use Internet at the library, McDonalds and other places that provide free wireless or Internet.

    I have NO problem with elderly people getting these services. Many can barely survive if not for this type of assistance. Most elderly people that I see using SNAP are making good food choices and our not exploiting the system. There are many others who and that is why things need to change.

  • Anonymous

    When the money is taken out of their paychecks every week to pay taxes, it IS their business.  It stinks to work 40 plus hours a week and then have 30% taken right off the top for taxes.   Anyone receiving welfare IS essentially letting someone decide what’s best for them.  But as long as it’s free money, I suppose it’s okay?

  • Anonymous

    You’ve got to be kidding.  People on welfare are getting a handout.  They are getting something for FREE.  100% FREE.   Is that so hard to understand?  Anyone getting anything for FREE should have no complaints on any restrictions put on what it is they are getting for FREE!  Period!  Instead, they should be grateful for what they are getting for FREE.  But, that’s not how it is, is it?  No…..any restrictions put on what they get for FREE seems to be a violation of their rights.  It’s time us hardworking Americans start asking about constitutional rights when our hard earned money is taken from us and given to drug addicts, alcoholics, and people who just don’t feel the need to work because the system owes them a living.  I don’t have a problem helping out those who legitimately need help and who do everything they can for themselves but just can’t make it without assistance.  What irriates me is the abuse and to say it’s none of our business what these welfare recipients do with our hard earned money is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. 

  • Anonymous

    Head Start required home visits when I worked for them, DHS makes home visits. 

  • Anonymous

    Soda is not a junk food? Wow. It actually has mostly high fructose corn syrup.

  • Anonymous

    You know what?  A lot of it has to do with choice AND everything to do with personal responsibility.  And, welfare for the most part enables the cycle.  So, your point (although I believe was meant to be sarcastic) is well taken!

  • Anonymous

    You know what?  A lot of it has to do with choice AND everything to do with personal responsibility.  And, welfare for the most part enables the cycle.  So, your point (although I believe was meant to be sarcastic) is well taken!

  • Anonymous

    You know what?  A lot of it has to do with choice AND everything to do with personal responsibility.  And, welfare for the most part enables the cycle.  So, your point (although I believe was meant to be sarcastic) is well taken!

  • Anonymous

    Actually I live in a small town that has a public water source. I can see it from my home. There are dozens of people each day filling their milk jugs. I did this when I didn’t have safe drinking water at an apartment. Interesting though, it is mostly older people, elderly who come fill their jugs with water like they have done for generations. 

  • Anonymous

    I pray you never need the foodstamp system. I worked for many years at up to four jobs at a time. Now I am almost 60, and I have arthritis, so I can’t earn extra money as the only woman on a construction clean-up crew, and I can’t work as a “chick-roadie” for rockbands any more. I do still work, part-time, and I am looking for a fulltime job, but you read the newsapaper, right? Jobs are hard to get right now. So I am on foodstamps. I am grateful to you for paying a few cents out of each paycheck (and that is all it is for the foodstamp program, check it out. We pay mich more to bail out banks and corporations and to take war to places where we ought not be!) but remember I paid taxes too, beginning at age 14. That’s over 45 years I have worked and paid taxes, so I don’t feel guilty for accepting help when I need it. But of course I never begrudged those I helped when I was working fulltime. Oh by the way, I DID pay taxes last year, not much but some, so I helped pay for the very program that is helping me and others. Unfortunately some of my tax money also was used to pay money to GE and Monsanto who actually MAKE MONEY from the tax system.!

  • Anonymous

    Soda has absolutely NO nutritional value. He is laden with high fructose corn syrup. Soda is not healthy under any circumstance. Water is the best source of liquid for one’s body. Soda is in part responsible for the obesity epidemic. It causes diabetes in many cases. If someone needs calories they can buy a bag of apples or a bunch of bananas for less money than a six pack of soda.

  • Anonymous

    So drinking tap water somehow depletes the planet of less water than bottled water?

  • Anonymous

    No, I do get it and I totally agree with all of your points, not to mention that it’s just plain idoitic and wasteful. In no way am I trying to justify or rationalize this. The point I was trying to make is it just seems like this is going to be really difficult to enact or inforce any kind of law that would make this illegal. And no, I’m not a lawyer so let’s not go down that road.

  • Anonymous

    As a histotrian, I must tell you that the free cheese was american processed, the milk powder was often rancid. Cheese and milk were excess commodities and given to the poor, not so much to help the poor but to stabilize the agricultural commodities market. Try living on processed cheese, butter and milk. It is not healthy!

  • Anonymous

    As a histotrian, I must tell you that the free cheese was american processed, the milk powder was often rancid. Cheese and milk were excess commodities and given to the poor, not so much to help the poor but to stabilize the agricultural commodities market. Try living on processed cheese, butter and milk. It is not healthy!

  • Anonymous

    As a histotrian, I must tell you that the free cheese was american processed, the milk powder was often rancid. Cheese and milk were excess commodities and given to the poor, not so much to help the poor but to stabilize the agricultural commodities market. Try living on processed cheese, butter and milk. It is not healthy!

  • Anonymous

    As a histotrian, I must tell you that the free cheese was american processed, the milk powder was often rancid. Cheese and milk were excess commodities and given to the poor, not so much to help the poor but to stabilize the agricultural commodities market. Try living on processed cheese, butter and milk. It is not healthy!

  • Anonymous

    The two people who liked this comment are the two guys who were dumping out the water!  There is no way there can be two other people out there that would condone that behavior….

  • Anonymous

    The two people who liked this comment are the two guys who were dumping out the water!  There is no way there can be two other people out there that would condone that behavior….

  • Anonymous

    Doing a little research. Water companies go into communities and basically trick towns officials to give them unlimited access to the water there. They pump thousands of gallons of water a day. There have been many communities who once had access to clean tap water in their homes but after the water companies come in they deplete the ground water, water in lakes and streams. 

    I wish I had a dollar for every water bottle I have seen discarded with half the water still in the bottle. There are now areas in the world where the water has been depleted by water bottling companies (Nestle/Pepsi) so there is no more drinking water. The locals are actually buying soda to drink because it is cheaper than they water that they once got for free but now costs too much. Tooth decay runs rampant in those areas where people are now forced to drink soda instead of water. 

    Watch “Tapped” for starters and see what has happened to town water supplies here in Maine.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    how about getting in touch with your state rep[resentive  tell them complain  about the homeless in bangor  that woudl be at least  sound  complain tell them to  raise th ewages  set th eeconomy accodrding to  minimum wages  so peopl ehwo work coudl afford an apartement not be forced to live behind garbages on the hill  in the winter ,the real problem is not poor soul who had to sell empty bottles  to perhaps  but  paper toilette  detergents or sop to wash like a human being , one day this may be you  see who it feels then ,, worry about real waste  like  corporate bonuses   raises  milion dollors wages o rhow people who work two jobs  because of cost  of rents in that area make sno sense way to high even you hold three jobs you have to go on food stamps that th ereal issue where concern needs to be   the millions we send to foreign countries when our own starve  have to  be reduce to sell empty botty to but  soap  toilette paper for god sake when the minimum wages $6.50 an hour rents are $9.00 and more  that’s the problem in our economy !!

  • ChuckGG

    I am sure you are correct.  But, I can tell you that we certainly enjoyed what we received.  Perhaps, it was the environment or the time, but to us, it was a “treat.”

  • poormaniac

    I suppose I could if I’d apply for food stamps but I like to pay my own way if I can. You learn to make do with what you got . I like to think I’m prepared when the system fails completely !

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NQT3TSRBTEYEWD6JRR7CRGV4Y4 Grammie

    Desperate people do deperate things. I have seen people in check-out lines that I never ever thought would use Food Stamp  cards. Let’s hope that none of YOU ever have to use the Food stamp cars. One persons’  desperate need might not be the same as yours, but is it any less? And besides how will the goverment every be able  to stop it?

  • Anonymous

    Or the people who purchase $400-$500 per month of groceries in food stamps and then buy beer, liquor and cigarettes and whatever else with hundred dollar bills….

  • Anonymous

    Exactly my point: how are they going to stop it?

  • Anonymous

    Exactly my point: how are they going to stop it?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LIVIIX3TBPQMMT7K52W74QKK2A Rod

    With this poor failing economy we should be verifing the qualifications of recipeants receiving all programs. It’s sad that anyone would buy water with food stamps and drain the bottles for the returnable value. That’s five cents on the dollar folks. I’m shocked!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LIVIIX3TBPQMMT7K52W74QKK2A Rod

    With this poor failing economy we should be verifing the qualifications of recipeants receiving all programs. It’s sad that anyone would buy water with food stamps and drain the bottles for the returnable value. That’s five cents on the dollar folks. I’m shocked!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LIVIIX3TBPQMMT7K52W74QKK2A Rod

    With this poor failing economy we should be verifing the qualifications of recipeants receiving all programs. It’s sad that anyone would buy water with food stamps and drain the bottles for the returnable value. That’s five cents on the dollar folks. I’m shocked!

  • Anonymous

    No, I’m suggesting that she go round up some old bottles or even spend $10 to buy 2 or 3 medal water bottles and reuse them as I do.

  • Anonymous

    Agree. People should not be made comfortable in their accepting of welfare benefits. What incentive is there for people to earn their own way if they are comfortable?

  • Anonymous

    It shouldn’t be hard to regulate it. The government hands out plenty of money and IT ALWAYS COMES WITH RULES!!!   Besides, I’m pretty sure absolutely every taxpayer finds this a slap in the face.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NQT3TSRBTEYEWD6JRR7CRGV4Y4 Grammie

    Then they would Still get their deposit back. I thought this  entire conversation was about the big bad Food Stamp Users not to have ANY cash.

  • Anonymous

    I live on a fixed income. Once you make the switch from buying junk foods to healthy food, you realize that even though it costs more to purchase, the foods that you prepare yourself goes much further than prepackaged foods. A bag of apples is the same price as a box of snack cakes. A bag of apples go a long way. A bottle of soda costs the same as three bags of fresh carrots. For the price of a bag of chips, you can buy a huge bunch of bananas. 

    Actually TV dinners do not have the same amount of nutrients that a meal prepared with wholesome foods. TV dinners don’t stick with one very long and you are hungry again. To feed a family of five with TV dinners would be expensive. For that same amount you could buy a family pack of hamburger, a couple bags of potatoes and a huge bag of carrots. Soda is about the same price as milk. I don’t drink juice because I believe that the body needs mostly water.

  • Anonymous

    If I had my way, junk food would be taken off the market since it isn’t food. I want poor families to have fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, nuts and seeds. I don’t want the poor having to eat food products like chips, soda, snack cakes, candy, ice cream, etc. None of those are good for anyone whether you are poor or rich.

  • Anonymous

    If I had my way, junk food would be taken off the market since it isn’t food. I want poor families to have fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, nuts and seeds. I don’t want the poor having to eat food products like chips, soda, snack cakes, candy, ice cream, etc. None of those are good for anyone whether you are poor or rich.

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Excellent idea!!!! I thought thats the was it used to be anyway,you had to pay the deposit?
     

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Excellent idea!!!! I thought thats the was it used to be anyway,you had to pay the deposit?
     

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1221876511 Liz Bourgoin

    they are making about $1.20 per case of water……really is it worth all that trouble? They could probably find that much change in their couches!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1221876511 Liz Bourgoin

    they are making about $1.20 per case of water……really is it worth all that trouble? They could probably find that much change in their couches!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1221876511 Liz Bourgoin

    they are making about $1.20 per case of water……really is it worth all that trouble? They could probably find that much change in their couches!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1221876511 Liz Bourgoin

    they are making about $1.20 per case of water……really is it worth all that trouble? They could probably find that much change in their couches!

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Lots of bad water.I mean like,stinky poo bad tap water.If you have good water,be happy!!!

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Lots of bad water.I mean like,stinky poo bad tap water.If you have good water,be happy!!!

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Lots of bad water.I mean like,stinky poo bad tap water.If you have good water,be happy!!!

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Lots of bad water.I mean like,stinky poo bad tap water.If you have good water,be happy!!!

  • Anonymous

    Actually egg yolks are not bad for you. My grandfather ate fried eggs every morning because it stuck with him for half the day versus a bowl of cereal that makes you hungry again in an hour. Soda is NOT a staple, it is a poison literally killing thousands. 

  • Anonymous

    Actually egg yolks are not bad for you. My grandfather ate fried eggs every morning because it stuck with him for half the day versus a bowl of cereal that makes you hungry again in an hour. Soda is NOT a staple, it is a poison literally killing thousands. 

  • Anonymous

    Actually egg yolks are not bad for you. My grandfather ate fried eggs every morning because it stuck with him for half the day versus a bowl of cereal that makes you hungry again in an hour. Soda is NOT a staple, it is a poison literally killing thousands. 

  • Anonymous

    Actually egg yolks are not bad for you. My grandfather ate fried eggs every morning because it stuck with him for half the day versus a bowl of cereal that makes you hungry again in an hour. Soda is NOT a staple, it is a poison literally killing thousands. 

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    I know of folks that use their HEAP funds to get fuel that they can also use in diesel vehicles! Mainers are so clever!

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    I know of folks that use their HEAP funds to get fuel that they can also use in diesel vehicles! Mainers are so clever!

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    I know of folks that use their HEAP funds to get fuel that they can also use in diesel vehicles! Mainers are so clever!

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    I know of folks that use their HEAP funds to get fuel that they can also use in diesel vehicles! Mainers are so clever!

  • Anonymous

     That is very commendable… I don’t have them either and I haven’t had a lobster in maybe three years.. but I don’t think my lifestyle is suitable for everyone. Others may have need of a cell phone or tv. There are a lot more things on tv these days than mindless entertainment. Some people use it as a learning tool… documentaries, educational programing, etc. I really don’t feel qualified to judge strangers without knowing their needs. I guess the point is you can’t paint with a broad brush… to get the cheater you may hurt more than you help.

  • Anonymous

     That is very commendable… I don’t have them either and I haven’t had a lobster in maybe three years.. but I don’t think my lifestyle is suitable for everyone. Others may have need of a cell phone or tv. There are a lot more things on tv these days than mindless entertainment. Some people use it as a learning tool… documentaries, educational programing, etc. I really don’t feel qualified to judge strangers without knowing their needs. I guess the point is you can’t paint with a broad brush… to get the cheater you may hurt more than you help.

  • Anonymous

     That is very commendable… I don’t have them either and I haven’t had a lobster in maybe three years.. but I don’t think my lifestyle is suitable for everyone. Others may have need of a cell phone or tv. There are a lot more things on tv these days than mindless entertainment. Some people use it as a learning tool… documentaries, educational programing, etc. I really don’t feel qualified to judge strangers without knowing their needs. I guess the point is you can’t paint with a broad brush… to get the cheater you may hurt more than you help.

  • Anonymous

     That is very commendable… I don’t have them either and I haven’t had a lobster in maybe three years.. but I don’t think my lifestyle is suitable for everyone. Others may have need of a cell phone or tv. There are a lot more things on tv these days than mindless entertainment. Some people use it as a learning tool… documentaries, educational programing, etc. I really don’t feel qualified to judge strangers without knowing their needs. I guess the point is you can’t paint with a broad brush… to get the cheater you may hurt more than you help.

  • Anonymous

     That is very commendable… I don’t have them either and I haven’t had a lobster in maybe three years.. but I don’t think my lifestyle is suitable for everyone. Others may have need of a cell phone or tv. There are a lot more things on tv these days than mindless entertainment. Some people use it as a learning tool… documentaries, educational programing, etc. I really don’t feel qualified to judge strangers without knowing their needs. I guess the point is you can’t paint with a broad brush… to get the cheater you may hurt more than you help.

  • Anonymous

    I am on a fixed income also and am not rich by any means. I don’t want these things taken away to punish anyone, I want them taken away to help them stay healthy. These foods are causing the obesity epidermic and the healthcare crisis. I want poor children to have healthy foods and it is possible even on a low income. 

  • Anonymous

    I am on a fixed income also and am not rich by any means. I don’t want these things taken away to punish anyone, I want them taken away to help them stay healthy. These foods are causing the obesity epidermic and the healthcare crisis. I want poor children to have healthy foods and it is possible even on a low income. 

  • Anonymous

    I am on a fixed income also and am not rich by any means. I don’t want these things taken away to punish anyone, I want them taken away to help them stay healthy. These foods are causing the obesity epidermic and the healthcare crisis. I want poor children to have healthy foods and it is possible even on a low income. 

  • Anonymous

    I am on a fixed income also and am not rich by any means. I don’t want these things taken away to punish anyone, I want them taken away to help them stay healthy. These foods are causing the obesity epidermic and the healthcare crisis. I want poor children to have healthy foods and it is possible even on a low income. 

  • Anonymous

    I am on a fixed income also and am not rich by any means. I don’t want these things taken away to punish anyone, I want them taken away to help them stay healthy. These foods are causing the obesity epidermic and the healthcare crisis. I want poor children to have healthy foods and it is possible even on a low income. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

    As i told Libby Mitchel in the last election, My sister who lives in Massachusetts was on Welfare for several years, when  in 1997 Massachusetts ended Welfare for Workfare.   She had to work. She worked about 3 places on Workfare when she found a computer company that hired her.

    She went on to make $80,000 a year and now owns a house in one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts

    Ten years after Massachusetts began Workfare, the number of welfare recipients in Massachusetts DROPPED

    Workfare works. Even the Liberal Massachusetts believe in it

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

    As i told Libby Mitchel in the last election, My sister who lives in Massachusetts was on Welfare for several years, when  in 1997 Massachusetts ended Welfare for Workfare.   She had to work. She worked about 3 places on Workfare when she found a computer company that hired her.

    She went on to make $80,000 a year and now owns a house in one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts

    Ten years after Massachusetts began Workfare, the number of welfare recipients in Massachusetts DROPPED

    Workfare works. Even the Liberal Massachusetts believe in it

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

    As i told Libby Mitchel in the last election, My sister who lives in Massachusetts was on Welfare for several years, when  in 1997 Massachusetts ended Welfare for Workfare.   She had to work. She worked about 3 places on Workfare when she found a computer company that hired her.

    She went on to make $80,000 a year and now owns a house in one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts

    Ten years after Massachusetts began Workfare, the number of welfare recipients in Massachusetts DROPPED

    Workfare works. Even the Liberal Massachusetts believe in it

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TJYZV7JWWJCPG7BX65EM6UOHZ4 Skowhegan Resident

    As i told Libby Mitchel in the last election, My sister who lives in Massachusetts was on Welfare for several years, when  in 1997 Massachusetts ended Welfare for Workfare.   She had to work. She worked about 3 places on Workfare when she found a computer company that hired her.

    She went on to make $80,000 a year and now owns a house in one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts

    Ten years after Massachusetts began Workfare, the number of welfare recipients in Massachusetts DROPPED

    Workfare works. Even the Liberal Massachusetts believe in it

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NQT3TSRBTEYEWD6JRR7CRGV4Y4 Grammie

    Lobster (depending on where you buy it) can be cheeper than steak. A few  nights ago one of my neighbors was grilling her Boyfriend a steak bought with her FSC. Is the next thing we will be monerting is Who eats the food bought with their FSC??????

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    for your information people on food stamps  can;t even buy soap to wash or detergents to clean their clothes  ,, to many here talk out their feets have no clue what welfare  is what the less fortunate go through  every day with mind ssets like I se ehere a disgrace  so many seem to think food stamps high living lol lousy few dollors allowed  can only  afford you  macaroni  not even the cheese ,  tell me how would they pay the deposits with food stamps seriouslymost on food stamps for your info don;t  have any cash  ,,, none many nos ein the air on here  be careful  many like you  who live in tents now  lost their jobs  reduce to this  programs then you will see whats; it;s like not be so quick to judge !!
      

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I am not talking about college. I am addressing the need for some sort of skills training that can begin in high school and/or in a trade/tech school or college. Almost everybody is capable of bringing something to the table.

  • Anonymous

    I understand the point you were trying to make but the description you used “depleting our planet of water” is misleading

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NQT3TSRBTEYEWD6JRR7CRGV4Y4 Grammie

    Applying for FS is very Humbling!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    everybody pays taxes not just you you could be next in line economy the way it is  don;t be so criticle so arrogant many like you were lost their jobs not so high mighty no ware they ??

  • OldWench

    I’ve heard of a couple of people that did that once…again, both single men.  I have never heard of a single mother doing that because as it is they usually have to ration what they get to make sure it lasts the whole month.

  • Anonymous

    It is depleting water supplies all over the planet. If you live in a community where you once were able to get water from your well but then after water companies come in and pump thousands of gallons of water a day you know longer have well water…that is depletion of water. When streams disappear and rivers dry up, that is depletion of water. The Great Lakes are a good example. Go investigate what has happened there. 

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    My integrity is fine by most accounts. I spent a good deal of time in the New Orleans area and it is a good example of what I am talking about as it can be replicated in any city. N.O. has a large number of residents or did at that time who lived generationally on government subsistence. There are many three and fourth generations of families that are consumed with an entitlement mentality. We have a lot of the same thing in Maine. It took an act of the legislature several years ago to limit the amount of time an able bodied family could live in public housing. I have not followed the issue to know how well that is working out.
    In my opinion, what is needed is a push out of the nest. Public assistance should be a temporary support mechanism and not a floor of economic goodies that are collected in perpetuity. 

  • OldWench

    So when they send their kids to school with drinks they should send soda or processed juices filled with sugar and preservatives instead?  Apparently you simply don’t understand that most poor families have to live in rentals with really old plumbing and their tap water tastes terrible.  Perhaps if you spent less time staring down your nose at others you might be able to actually see reality instead of the idealized fantasy world you seem to be living in.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWFPOA5XX4TUQDWSFMPMIAGTWY Carole

    Thank you for what you posted.  I understand and then some. In spite of my being abused , I did not have children, I do not smoke, drink or do drugs (do chemo drugs count) I have a college degree and I worked or tried to most of my life. I was born with some very serious medical issues, heart disease … Five years ago I had my first round with breast cancer, last fall the cancer came back this time it was very aggressive. I have had no help other than my medical bills being paid which is a blessing. I get the medical help because I paid into the system for years and years. Again, I have had no help at all other than this medical help for which I am beyond blessed to have.

    What is upsetting me is some of the nasty posting here. Yes, I have computer which is believe it or is a necessary in this day and age. I do not have cable TV. I drive a 9 year old car and I have a cat which was my angel of love and caring during treatments. My doctors want me to eat what might be considered a high class diet. I was told eat more fish (I am not allowed to eat tuna) lose weight my chemo and radiation treatments caused weight gain or be dead with four years. I am in a fight for my life. So please try and be a bit more understanding not all of us getting help are using or abusing the system.

    I hate people who do drugs, drink, smoke anything and have welfare children. Yes it seems like the people who follow the rules are the ones to loose the most. The users and losers seem to win. However, some of us are attempting to do things right. I hate having to accept help but what choice do I have??? So please understand that some of us need help. It is hurtful to be put down and bashed.  I am in a fight for my life please try and be a bit more understanding. Thank all of you for reading this.

  • Anonymous

    Democrats=party of food stamps!

  • OldWench

    You really are ridiculous…

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Your anti-business ignorance is duly noted.

  • Anonymous

    Amen.  I think people who do this actually think it IS their job!

  • OldWench

    That’s how they used to do it many years ago.  But it was very easy for people to trade those paper foodstamps for cash or take a foodstamp dollar and go buy a 5 cent piece of candy and get 95 cents in cash back.  That’s why they were put on a card, because they are more traceable that way.

  • OldWench

    I don’t know where you shop, but I’ve never seen apples cheaper than Little Debbie’s 99 cent boxes of snacks.

  • Anonymous

    Dont worry they have Maine Care

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Disability is covered under a separate program of Social Security rather than the various social safety net programs. I do not have an issue with temporary assistance for those in need. The issue arrives when that temporary becomes a permanent entitlement.
    With regard to Washington County, the underemployed or worse need to leave and relocate to an area that offers employment opportunities. We should not be offering public assistance to allow people to live in the cultural environment of choice. Success requires pursuing the opportunities rather than waiting for opportunity to come to you.

  • Anonymous

    Most schools have water fountains where one can fill up a reusable water bottle. Or better yet, the child can drink from the water fountain as I did when I went to school. We never took anything with us other than a bag lunch. 

    I have lived in places where the water was not safe to drink. I filled gallon milk jugs at my in laws, the church, my work place, or a local water supply. 

    Whenever I travel I never buy water. I bring a gallon jug of tap water with me and drink from that. I am not staring my nose down at others. I live on a fixed income myself and cannot afford many things. Our family actually lived on disability for many years while my husband was fighting cancer. I learned how to make things stretch and am trying to pass that along. 

  • Anonymous

    Per usual, the armchair arbiters of anything and everything have taken a totally unrelated story on local crime and turned it into a proviso on the evil corporations.  I suppose George W. Bush told them to dump the Poland Spring.  Jeez, people, give it a rest!

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have a great deal of empathy for those who receive public assistance while trying to better their station in life. I have none for those content to stay on such assistance.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have a great deal of empathy for those who receive public assistance while trying to better their station in life. I have none for those content to stay on such assistance.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have a great deal of empathy for those who receive public assistance while trying to better their station in life. I have none for those content to stay on such assistance.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have a great deal of empathy for those who receive public assistance while trying to better their station in life. I have none for those content to stay on such assistance.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have a great deal of empathy for those who receive public assistance while trying to better their station in life. I have none for those content to stay on such assistance.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have a great deal of empathy for those who receive public assistance while trying to better their station in life. I have none for those content to stay on such assistance.

  • OldWench

    Are you at all familiar with the concept of freedom and the pursuit of happiness that this country was founded upon?  You are free to dictate YOUR life but you are NOT free to dictate the lives of others.  You are being so ridiculously sanctimonious and offensive.  Your right to control food consumption and diet applies ONLY to what you put in your own mouth and ends when it comes to the rights of others to eat whatever the heck they choose to.

  • OldWench

    Are you at all familiar with the concept of freedom and the pursuit of happiness that this country was founded upon?  You are free to dictate YOUR life but you are NOT free to dictate the lives of others.  You are being so ridiculously sanctimonious and offensive.  Your right to control food consumption and diet applies ONLY to what you put in your own mouth and ends when it comes to the rights of others to eat whatever the heck they choose to.

  • OldWench

    Are you at all familiar with the concept of freedom and the pursuit of happiness that this country was founded upon?  You are free to dictate YOUR life but you are NOT free to dictate the lives of others.  You are being so ridiculously sanctimonious and offensive.  Your right to control food consumption and diet applies ONLY to what you put in your own mouth and ends when it comes to the rights of others to eat whatever the heck they choose to.

  • OldWench

    Are you at all familiar with the concept of freedom and the pursuit of happiness that this country was founded upon?  You are free to dictate YOUR life but you are NOT free to dictate the lives of others.  You are being so ridiculously sanctimonious and offensive.  Your right to control food consumption and diet applies ONLY to what you put in your own mouth and ends when it comes to the rights of others to eat whatever the heck they choose to.

  • OldWench

    Are you at all familiar with the concept of freedom and the pursuit of happiness that this country was founded upon?  You are free to dictate YOUR life but you are NOT free to dictate the lives of others.  You are being so ridiculously sanctimonious and offensive.  Your right to control food consumption and diet applies ONLY to what you put in your own mouth and ends when it comes to the rights of others to eat whatever the heck they choose to.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I read that a couple weeks ago and my jaw hit the floor. Have we completely lost our minds?

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Only the stuff that is dropped off at your door, dear.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    moon does this look like they are made comfortable look at the mind sets responses on here that’s only half od view of the poor in society our days  seems it illegal to be poor lets all line them up  burry them right so we not reminded what our future will be with the way our economy going the real waste  sending trillions  to other countries lets not worry care for own poor  keep filling the pockets of the rich  give them billions  bonus  bail them out hmmmm intresting people do you have a clue how many of our jobs are send overseas  how many  business who got our  moneys  grants to get filthy rich  now taking our jobs moving to get cheaper laborers   go do little research !!

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    You prefer an unfair tax.

  • OldWench

    Most of the people that do this with the water don’t have a couch OR a home…it’s usually homeless people who do this, and usually out of desperation.  Some are probably even veterans who are living in shelters or sleeping outside who buy a 40 ounce beer so they can fall asleep at night without seeing traumatizing images from the PTSD they suffer from.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I am not talking about $40 of water. I am referring to the types of products purchased with these cards.

  • Anonymous

    Under current Food Stamp rules this is not a crime. It is certainly not very smart. The big question is why my local police are involved in this. And why does the AG get involved. There are real crimes being committed every day in this town. Why doesn’t the AG investigate price fixing with gas prices in Bangor?

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I have a very active and busy life. I also do my own grocery shopping. How about you?

  • Anonymous

    Every type of assistance program out there has guidelines and requirements. When tax payers money is going to fund these programs, we do have some say. If people do not like those restrictions then they don’t have to accept the assistance. 

    When I got WIC there were guidelines. I had to follow those guidelines. I was thrilled beyond words to get the extra help and was grateful. I didn’t get mad because I was told what I could or could not get on WIC.

  • OldWench

    You sound like someone who either has or is experiencing homelessness.  Most of the people posting on here don’t realize just how easy it is to become homeless or even how close they are to being there themselves.  Try not to let the ignorance of others get to you, they just don’t know any better. Hang in there and stay strong…things will get better and never lose hope.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Better learn to adapt.

  • yowsayowsa1

     No.

     The easy fix would be to make these able bodied scammers get a JOB.

  • Anonymous

    This is definitely a case of turning water into wine or beer.  

  • OldWench

    What jobs?  It’s hard enough to get a job when you have a degree and stable home.  It’s even harder for people who aren’t educated, are homeless and don’t even have clean clothes or soap to bathe with.

  • OldWench

    Um…the majority of people on welfare in Maine have work requirements as well.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWFPOA5XX4TUQDWSFMPMIAGTWY Carole

    Prepared are not covered with your food card. I buy a roasted turkey or chicken at the store which costs less than if  I cooked one at home I have an electric oven, in the summer doing this would make my apartment hotter. Roasted turkey or chicken are on the good food list that my doctors gave me. So I pay cash for it. Yes, I do use bottled water, which again I pay cash for.  I keep empty containers with me to fill up at places that have good water supplies.

    Coming clean I do keep items like real ginger ale for my on going upset chemo issues. I was told to do this by my chemo team. I also always have at least two cans of cola (news flash – I got this info from a medical doctor years ago- if you get migraines and you feel one coming on drink a 120z cola drink followed by another one half hour later - it will and does prevent or lessen migraines – this has keep me off migraine medications for years) 

    O.K. I admit I like to have sweet treat or dessert from time to time. Because I cannot work or get food help does this mean I will go to jail if I do indulge? Pie makes me smile and with all that I have undergone I need to smile from time to time.

  • OldWench

    New Hampshire doesn’t have deposits on their bottles and it’s a heck of a lot cleaner there than it is in Maine.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    interesting mind set you have who are you to tell someone  they can eat a bag of chips anyhow  most people on foodstamps for your information work two jobs in maine how dare you tell them they can;t but a chocalte bar  to their children once in a while this a dictatorship state or soemthing thought maine was part of united states  most of our soldiers  keep in mind from  poor families many had food stamps  they the one  laying their lives for  our and your  freedom stupid  remarks  telling people what they should not  eat shame on you  luv I rather my few cents  go towards  buying a child a chip now an dthen then  to a big  bank bail out  buy  hotel planes  give each other millions in bonuses

  • Anonymous

    Exactly! There was no such thing as “assistance” for the poor years ago. My grandparents (and parents, for that matter) survived and so did their families on mostly nothing, year after year. They made do with what they could and were too proud to receive help from anybody. No cellphones, cable, internet, or computers. It sure is a different world.

  • OldWench

    My landlord is very nice and as I mentioned…they have been consistently doing updates since the time I moved in.  I have been here about 8 months and they have updated the heating system and done a slew of energy updates already.  I’m not going to complain or make reports on a landlord who is working to make their building better.  That would make me a lousy tenant and that’s not my style.  It’s not a big deal to buy bottled water.  

  • OldWench

    My landlord is very nice and as I mentioned…they have been consistently doing updates since the time I moved in.  I have been here about 8 months and they have updated the heating system and done a slew of energy updates already.  I’m not going to complain or make reports on a landlord who is working to make their building better.  That would make me a lousy tenant and that’s not my style.  It’s not a big deal to buy bottled water.  

  • Anonymous

    they can buy a 24 oz beer for 99 cents its worth it to them

  • Anonymous

    Agree this is the fastest easiest fix

  • Anonymous

    Agree this is the fastest easiest fix

  • Anonymous

    Agree this is the fastest easiest fix

  • Anonymous

    Well put.

  • Anonymous

    People buy unhealthy food on food stamps, then become obese or diabetic or what have you because they do not take care of themselves. Then taxpayers pay for them again when they visit the doctor or receive medication.  One big circle.

  • Anonymous

    People buy unhealthy food on food stamps, then become obese or diabetic or what have you because they do not take care of themselves. Then taxpayers pay for them again when they visit the doctor or receive medication.  One big circle.

  • Anonymous

    People buy unhealthy food on food stamps, then become obese or diabetic or what have you because they do not take care of themselves. Then taxpayers pay for them again when they visit the doctor or receive medication.  One big circle.

  • NotesFromME

    Evidently so down on their luck that they would waste $5 for $1 in change.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    really liberal  how did yu pay for yours grants tax payers money wealthy dads  while my sons  had to join milatary to defend your  arrogant  low  views of people how many  lost their jobs  with degrees like yours past year  still paying  college  university loans biggest scams in our  century , most end up mc donalds  in debts for life

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    really liberal  how did yu pay for yours grants tax payers money wealthy dads  while my sons  had to join milatary to defend your  arrogant  low  views of people how many  lost their jobs  with degrees like yours past year  still paying  college  university loans biggest scams in our  century , most end up mc donalds  in debts for life

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    really liberal  how did yu pay for yours grants tax payers money wealthy dads  while my sons  had to join milatary to defend your  arrogant  low  views of people how many  lost their jobs  with degrees like yours past year  still paying  college  university loans biggest scams in our  century , most end up mc donalds  in debts for life

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    really liberal  how did yu pay for yours grants tax payers money wealthy dads  while my sons  had to join milatary to defend your  arrogant  low  views of people how many  lost their jobs  with degrees like yours past year  still paying  college  university loans biggest scams in our  century , most end up mc donalds  in debts for life

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    really liberal  how did yu pay for yours grants tax payers money wealthy dads  while my sons  had to join milatary to defend your  arrogant  low  views of people how many  lost their jobs  with degrees like yours past year  still paying  college  university loans biggest scams in our  century , most end up mc donalds  in debts for life

  • Anonymous

    There are usually 6-8 snack cakes in a Little Debbie’s package. There are far more apples in a bag of apples even though they cost more. If I eat a snack cake, I am hungry in 1/2 an hour. If I eat an apple, that often keeps me satisfied for a number of hours. In the long run, the apples are cheaper and of course much better for you. 

    I used to be morbidly obese and ate mostly food products (junk foods). I now eat a wholesome diet with the same amount of money. My health has improved immensely. It comes from a willingness to change how I thought about food.

  • Anonymous

    There are usually 6-8 snack cakes in a Little Debbie’s package. There are far more apples in a bag of apples even though they cost more. If I eat a snack cake, I am hungry in 1/2 an hour. If I eat an apple, that often keeps me satisfied for a number of hours. In the long run, the apples are cheaper and of course much better for you. 

    I used to be morbidly obese and ate mostly food products (junk foods). I now eat a wholesome diet with the same amount of money. My health has improved immensely. It comes from a willingness to change how I thought about food.

  • Anonymous

    There are usually 6-8 snack cakes in a Little Debbie’s package. There are far more apples in a bag of apples even though they cost more. If I eat a snack cake, I am hungry in 1/2 an hour. If I eat an apple, that often keeps me satisfied for a number of hours. In the long run, the apples are cheaper and of course much better for you. 

    I used to be morbidly obese and ate mostly food products (junk foods). I now eat a wholesome diet with the same amount of money. My health has improved immensely. It comes from a willingness to change how I thought about food.

  • Anonymous

    There are usually 6-8 snack cakes in a Little Debbie’s package. There are far more apples in a bag of apples even though they cost more. If I eat a snack cake, I am hungry in 1/2 an hour. If I eat an apple, that often keeps me satisfied for a number of hours. In the long run, the apples are cheaper and of course much better for you. 

    I used to be morbidly obese and ate mostly food products (junk foods). I now eat a wholesome diet with the same amount of money. My health has improved immensely. It comes from a willingness to change how I thought about food.

  • Anonymous

    There are usually 6-8 snack cakes in a Little Debbie’s package. There are far more apples in a bag of apples even though they cost more. If I eat a snack cake, I am hungry in 1/2 an hour. If I eat an apple, that often keeps me satisfied for a number of hours. In the long run, the apples are cheaper and of course much better for you. 

    I used to be morbidly obese and ate mostly food products (junk foods). I now eat a wholesome diet with the same amount of money. My health has improved immensely. It comes from a willingness to change how I thought about food.

  • Anonymous

    There are usually 6-8 snack cakes in a Little Debbie’s package. There are far more apples in a bag of apples even though they cost more. If I eat a snack cake, I am hungry in 1/2 an hour. If I eat an apple, that often keeps me satisfied for a number of hours. In the long run, the apples are cheaper and of course much better for you. 

    I used to be morbidly obese and ate mostly food products (junk foods). I now eat a wholesome diet with the same amount of money. My health has improved immensely. It comes from a willingness to change how I thought about food.

  • Anonymous

    There are usually 6-8 snack cakes in a Little Debbie’s package. There are far more apples in a bag of apples even though they cost more. If I eat a snack cake, I am hungry in 1/2 an hour. If I eat an apple, that often keeps me satisfied for a number of hours. In the long run, the apples are cheaper and of course much better for you. 

    I used to be morbidly obese and ate mostly food products (junk foods). I now eat a wholesome diet with the same amount of money. My health has improved immensely. It comes from a willingness to change how I thought about food.

  • NotesFromME

    Right, eat lobster for a day, go hungry the rest of the month. The money that most people get on food stamps would barely cover a week of food.

  • NotesFromME

    Illegals do not qualify for food stamps, or any other kind of welfare.

  • Anonymous

    I’m guessing that some of these folks are as you describe, but do you have any evidence to back your claim that “most” are?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    athoa 50 years ago people could drink water out the fossets  wans’t poisoned  polluted then wa sunheard of to buy water for survival  like today

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    liberal if your so concern what the poor buy with food stamps  why dont you be so concern to ask yoru congress  to create jobs so you may not have to result  in having to be  on food stamps  or perhaps  make the cost of living accoding to the minimum wages in yoru states so people  who work woudlnt have to  be reduced to food stamps to barely survive   look into that for a change

  • NotesFromME

    Right, considering that NONE of the millions of unemployed in this country have college educations and “skills.”

  • NotesFromME

    Like working in minimum wage jobs. Someone has to do them.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Are you able to put together a coherent sentence? I am a veteran who paid back every loan I received to go to college. Most people who use college as a means of bettering their position in life do not end up working at McDonalds or any other low skill position. However, I would be content for all the anti-business progressive liberals to spend lifetimes working for McDonalds.

  • NotesFromME

    Simple answer-move. Millions do it in search of jobs or for the next opportunity every year, including immigrants legal and illegal. Staying in a dead or dying portion of Maine is just plain ridiculous. Surely there are friends or relatives living elsewhere–sleep on their couch while you look for work.

    I have a 20 year old daughter who lives in California. She decided she wanted to live in LA so she stayed with some friends of a friend. She found a decent job within two days, and now has her own place (again) and is ready to start college again this fall. She had a $100 from dad when she made the leap. It is amazing what a little initiative will accomplish. 

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    One of the glaring problems the socialist statists have with
    anti-private sector economics is that they are almost always wrong with everything they pontificate upon. For example, private sector employers are often portrayed as a caricature of fat a s s corporate thieves.  While this is a rather absurd characterization to begin with, it is also patently false. A strong majority of private sector employees work for small and medium sized businesses that are a
    mix of proprietorships, limited liability corporations and c-corps. Another example is the suggestion that government employment somehow helps the employment situation in our overall economy. That falsehood is better left with the alien invasion economic crackpots like Paul Krugman and Robert Reisch. Every government bureaucrat hired is done so at private sector expense and not one of
    them contributes to the production of any goods and services. What the socialist statists fail to acknowledge (or admit) is that every job created in the private sector creates a multiple effect through the economy. Because private sector jobs create a product or economic service, they increase demand for material, supplies and more services. There is a four fold multiplier effect of private payrolls in most local economies. Among businesses that are less capital intensive and more reliant on variable costs, that multiplier is even higher. The net of this is that every permanent government job created is a net drain on the overall economy.

  • Anonymous

    Actually, why is it even possible to buy bottled water with food stamps? Even if one doesn’t have running water in their home, suitable drinking water can be found almost anywhere in Maine. Assuming they bother to look, that is.

  • NotesFromME

    And the tens of millions of hard working middle class people who have been out of work for over a year now? I am originally from California, and I can tell you that there are plenty of engineers, accountants, technicians, and managers that flat broke at this point. The suburbs have been hit harder than almost anywhere else except the worst urban ghettos.

  • StillRelaxin

    A great example of the “Other end of the spectrum” was here in the paper just the other day in a story about Dawn Solomon stealing $4 MILLION from Maincare through her Living Independence Network Corp. (Gotta love those corporations!) business in Norway.  And folks want to come on here and cry about “someone” dumping a case of water.  Man, if the poor folks dumping water ever try to catch up with Mrs. Solomon and others like her we’re all gonna have to run out and buy boats!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    I’m a mother  who lived in bangor three children to feed  had two jobs still couldnt afford the deposits   rent worked  with broken rib cage   due to a fall from exhaution  im amazed of the lack of compassion here heart broken even towards the less fortunates  just because a few abuse  does  that mean we put them all the same basket I thank God t could’t afford  to take the highway took short cuts to save gas  i seen  lived in my car for weeks   i know what poor means  homeless  women children  with signs will work for food i thank god  i survived came through  proud of my children now serving this country sadden the responses  reaction towards the  poor oldwench my few dollors to help family in need i praise god im able too i walked in their shoes hope no one ever have too reality  some will no job guaranteed pray some have compassion gladly  pay taxes so these programs remains until w  ehave better sense how  we critisize helping our own people in this country  yet  trillions i send to  foreriegn countries   have jobs  unlike the economy is now

  • Anonymous

    just do away with all help… survial!

  • Anonymous

    Common sense says go back to surplus food, end of problem

  • Anonymous

    Carole, wishing you well with your fight against disease. Sorry to hear that you have to go through that. I do hope that you have applied for disability. You can apply online or you can call the Social Securtiy office and make a phone appointment.

  • Anonymous

    Ten egg yolks are good.

  • Anonymous

    Yes, the more sugar the better. Go eat some sugar.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    They are minimum wage jobs because they are non-skilled positions.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    They are minimum wage jobs because they are non-skilled positions.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    They are minimum wage jobs because they are non-skilled positions.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    They are minimum wage jobs because they are non-skilled positions.

  • Anonymous

    If it came down to going to work for minimum wage at McDonald’s or choosing to sit home with no job and starve…I’d get the job at McD’s…proud or not. It’s a choice.

  • Anonymous

    If it came down to going to work for minimum wage at McDonald’s or choosing to sit home with no job and starve…I’d get the job at McD’s…proud or not. It’s a choice.

  • Anonymous

    If it came down to going to work for minimum wage at McDonald’s or choosing to sit home with no job and starve…I’d get the job at McD’s…proud or not. It’s a choice.

  • Anonymous

    If it came down to going to work for minimum wage at McDonald’s or choosing to sit home with no job and starve…I’d get the job at McD’s…proud or not. It’s a choice.

  • Anonymous

    If it came down to going to work for minimum wage at McDonald’s or choosing to sit home with no job and starve…I’d get the job at McD’s…proud or not. It’s a choice.

  • Anonymous

    Shaw’s & other local grocery stores sell alot of cooking sherry too. It contains alcohol and can be purchased with food stamps as well. Yet another way around the rules governing the misuse of foodstamps.

  • Anonymous

    Shaw’s & other local grocery stores sell alot of cooking sherry too. It contains alcohol and can be purchased with food stamps as well. Yet another way around the rules governing the misuse of foodstamps.

  • Anonymous

    Shaw’s & other local grocery stores sell alot of cooking sherry too. It contains alcohol and can be purchased with food stamps as well. Yet another way around the rules governing the misuse of foodstamps.

  • Anonymous

    Shaw’s & other local grocery stores sell alot of cooking sherry too. It contains alcohol and can be purchased with food stamps as well. Yet another way around the rules governing the misuse of foodstamps.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    mermair are you serious  w ehave oj simpons who go taway two murders  you want  tax payers money be spend   interogated  this poor soul  for buying  not stealing water  then returning the bottles for a few cents  what is wrong with you he comitted  no crime  he has foodstamps he qualifies for  so he bought water  got  few cents for  bottles  while criminals  murdering  police needed  lets  have them chase  waste time on this  poor man  for a at most  80 cents wooooo

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    mermair are you serious  w ehave oj simpons who go taway two murders  you want  tax payers money be spend   interogated  this poor soul  for buying  not stealing water  then returning the bottles for a few cents  what is wrong with you he comitted  no crime  he has foodstamps he qualifies for  so he bought water  got  few cents for  bottles  while criminals  murdering  police needed  lets  have them chase  waste time on this  poor man  for a at most  80 cents wooooo

  • Anonymous

    ok

  • Anonymous

    ok

  • Anonymous

    Very well said

  • Anonymous

    Hi Carole, it is the caffiene in the cola that helps the migraine. Keep smiling.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3OPEIIL7Z6RHSVNYL6PBR73CMQ screenplay1999

    “Desperate people do deperate things. ”

    This money is not going to gas–it is going to pot or whatever drug/booze is available. This subject has been discussed ongoing with people admitting to others that is what they do. But no one wants to turn anyone in.

    “how will the goverment every be able  to stop it?”

    Perhaps it doesnt come out of your pocket but those of us who pay the most in taxes, are fed up with the entitlement mentality and the bleeding hearts who can’t think past today for the best of society..help by educating, but I understand politicians need to keep people dependent on them “for votes”. 

    Family should help family and not put a family member onto the backs of the rest of society. Charity begins at home then moves on to churches, and other organizations who will help with food and suppers, clothing etc. We as good citizens need to help people and not put it on on “taxpayer” money. These entitlements were meant to help those less fortunate not for those who live their lives off the system like they do in the UK[the rest of their lives unemployment bennies].

    We know people are working under the table and always have not been paying taxes in to the “government pigg chest”. We know the neighbors who get disability but are out cutting trees, splitting wood, playing golf, driving snowmobilies etc.

    We need to take care of business and being charitable does not mean being stupid..we never care where the money goes after we ease our conscience with a donation.  Well there are those ready to scam you because of our stupitidy and the governments payoffs for votes.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    jeff you sound like a tyran i like to see your income tax return   how totaly honest you are on everything you do claim for deduction which of you so perfect i like to be a fly better think again    this is a free country last I checked   ask license  treat people  on food stamps like criminals is your idea of justice   i pray you never   get into   politics

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    jeff you sound like a tyran i like to see your income tax return   how totaly honest you are on everything you do claim for deduction which of you so perfect i like to be a fly better think again    this is a free country last I checked   ask license  treat people  on food stamps like criminals is your idea of justice   i pray you never   get into   politics

  • Anonymous

    I LIVED in New Hampshire for 20 years.  NH is the cleanest state I’ve ever been to.  With just about everybody recycling now, the bottle bill is antiquated at best, a pain in the rear and filled with fraud at worst.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RMC67VVOVPDWXR4CRMPFHKUYBM me

    go apply howbri see firsts hand if they are not  accountable  see what they go through in order to qualify  for food stamps then come back  tell us  if you have any dignity left afterwards going through the whole process !!

  • Anonymous

    A few years ago i hired this person that was married had four kids and was working for $7-8 per hour at his old job. I gave this person a chance i paid him over $15 per hour, he was required to work overtime and i paid him 1.5 times his normal wage after 40 hours. After several months that person came to me explaining he was going to quit becuase he said” he didn’t like working the weekends.” After talking to him for several days trying to get him to stay (because i had invested time & money in his training) he told me the real reason he was leaving. He could not continue to bring home $1,100-$1,400 per week because his state benefits were going to be taken away! He quit a union job to stay on the State of maine system. So now every once in awhile i will see him at the bar on Sat night still on the system and working under the table for someone. When i called the food stamp program to complain about  how the system is run they informed me that they are understaffed and do not have the time to investigate all the calls. Good thing my bank doesn’t handle my money like the state does.

  • Anonymous

    A few years ago i hired this person that was married had four kids and was working for $7-8 per hour at his old job. I gave this person a chance i paid him over $15 per hour, he was required to work overtime and i paid him 1.5 times his normal wage after 40 hours. After several months that person came to me explaining he was going to quit becuase he said” he didn’t like working the weekends.” After talking to him for several days trying to get him to stay (because i had invested time & money in his training) he told me the real reason he was leaving. He could not continue to bring home $1,100-$1,400 per week because his state benefits were going to be taken away! He quit a union job to stay on the State of maine system. So now every once in awhile i will see him at the bar on Sat night still on the system and working under the table for someone. When i called the food stamp program to complain about  how the system is run they informed me that they are understaffed and do not have the time to investigate all the calls. Good thing my bank doesn’t handle my money like the state does.

  • Anonymous

    A few years ago i hired this person that was married had four kids and was working for $7-8 per hour at his old job. I gave this person a chance i paid him over $15 per hour, he was required to work overtime and i paid him 1.5 times his normal wage after 40 hours. After several months that person came to me explaining he was going to quit becuase he said” he didn’t like working the weekends.” After talking to him for several days trying to get him to stay (because i had invested time & money in his training) he told me the real reason he was leaving. He could not continue to bring home $1,100-$1,400 per week because his state benefits were going to be taken away! He quit a union job to stay on the State of maine system. So now every once in awhile i will see him at the bar on Sat night still on the system and working under the table for someone. When i called the food stamp program to complain about  how the system is run they informed me that they are understaffed and do not have the time to investigate all the calls. Good thing my bank doesn’t handle my money like the state does.

  • Anonymous

    A few years ago i hired this person that was married had four kids and was working for $7-8 per hour at his old job. I gave this person a chance i paid him over $15 per hour, he was required to work overtime and i paid him 1.5 times his normal wage after 40 hours. After several months that person came to me explaining he was going to quit becuase he said” he didn’t like working the weekends.” After talking to him for several days trying to get him to stay (because i had invested time & money in his training) he told me the real reason he was leaving. He could not continue to bring home $1,100-$1,400 per week because his state benefits were going to be taken away! He quit a union job to stay on the State of maine system. So now every once in awhile i will see him at the bar on Sat night still on the system and working under the table for someone. When i called the food stamp program to complain about  how the system is run they informed me that they are understaffed and do not have the time to investigate all the calls. Good thing my bank doesn’t handle my money like the state does.

  • Anonymous

    A few years ago i hired this person that was married had four kids and was working for $7-8 per hour at his old job. I gave this person a chance i paid him over $15 per hour, he was required to work overtime and i paid him 1.5 times his normal wage after 40 hours. After several months that person came to me explaining he was going to quit becuase he said” he didn’t like working the weekends.” After talking to him for several days trying to get him to stay (because i had invested time & money in his training) he told me the real reason he was leaving. He could not continue to bring home $1,100-$1,400 per week because his state benefits were going to be taken away! He quit a union job to stay on the State of maine system. So now every once in awhile i will see him at the bar on Sat night still on the system and working under the table for someone. When i called the food stamp program to complain about  how the system is run they informed me that they are understaffed and do not have the time to investigate all the calls. Good thing my bank doesn’t handle my money like the state does.

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • Anonymous

    Water is one thing but when people dump out mike it’s really sad.. I remember when I was a child  in the 1960s living in NYC before food stamps.  My family was very poor  we lived nothing but a bag of  surplus cornmeal for months and eat it with no sugar, salt, butter or milk.. Also my little sister and I used to check out the garbage in the back alley’s  looking for milk containers that people throw out thier windows hopeing to find some left over mike in one .Thats why it horrifies me when some  dumps milk….We do need food stamps for poor people.. The people who do dumb things like dumping water or milk need to stop drinking booze and drink the MILK or WATER!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3OPEIIL7Z6RHSVNYL6PBR73CMQ screenplay1999

    sorry for my long post below am not used to the edit ..and the post kept disappearing on me..so would do a rewrite…

  • Anonymous

    I have an IQ of 168. I hold three college degrees. But at the moment, jobs for writers, editors, radio announcers and college professors are in short supply. I do what I can, and work part-time. In the past I augmented my humanities-based ( meaning “low-paid” )income by working construction, landscaping, stage-crew and so on. But I’m turning 60 next birthday and I have 2 artificial hips. I can’t work the way I used to. Do you republicans actually begrudge me a few dollars of foodstamps after I have worked my life away? A high IQ does not translate into big bucks. I could never talke advantage of anyone, never make a killing selling something, never exploit a situation just for myself. I’m an old hippie and I always worked for others first. Some will say that is stupid.  But if everyone thought of others first, wouldn’t this be a lovely world? So anyway, now I’m old and pretty much broken down, and I suppose some of you want me to hurry up and die to make room for someone who is “useful.” You are so cold you gitter like diamonds. As the bard once wrote, O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!

  • Anonymous

    I have an IQ of 168. I hold three college degrees. But at the moment, jobs for writers, editors, radio announcers and college professors are in short supply. I do what I can, and work part-time. In the past I augmented my humanities-based ( meaning “low-paid” )income by working construction, landscaping, stage-crew and so on. But I’m turning 60 next birthday and I have 2 artificial hips. I can’t work the way I used to. Do you republicans actually begrudge me a few dollars of foodstamps after I have worked my life away? A high IQ does not translate into big bucks. I could never talke advantage of anyone, never make a killing selling something, never exploit a situation just for myself. I’m an old hippie and I always worked for others first. Some will say that is stupid.  But if everyone thought of others first, wouldn’t this be a lovely world? So anyway, now I’m old and pretty much broken down, and I suppose some of you want me to hurry up and die to make room for someone who is “useful.” You are so cold you gitter like diamonds. As the bard once wrote, O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!

  • Anonymous

    I have an IQ of 168. I hold three college degrees. But at the moment, jobs for writers, editors, radio announcers and college professors are in short supply. I do what I can, and work part-time. In the past I augmented my humanities-based ( meaning “low-paid” )income by working construction, landscaping, stage-crew and so on. But I’m turning 60 next birthday and I have 2 artificial hips. I can’t work the way I used to. Do you republicans actually begrudge me a few dollars of foodstamps after I have worked my life away? A high IQ does not translate into big bucks. I could never talke advantage of anyone, never make a killing selling something, never exploit a situation just for myself. I’m an old hippie and I always worked for others first. Some will say that is stupid.  But if everyone thought of others first, wouldn’t this be a lovely world? So anyway, now I’m old and pretty much broken down, and I suppose some of you want me to hurry up and die to make room for someone who is “useful.” You are so cold you gitter like diamonds. As the bard once wrote, O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!

  • Anonymous

    I have an IQ of 168. I hold three college degrees. But at the moment, jobs for writers, editors, radio announcers and college professors are in short supply. I do what I can, and work part-time. In the past I augmented my humanities-based ( meaning “low-paid” )income by working construction, landscaping, stage-crew and so on. But I’m turning 60 next birthday and I have 2 artificial hips. I can’t work the way I used to. Do you republicans actually begrudge me a few dollars of foodstamps after I have worked my life away? A high IQ does not translate into big bucks. I could never talke advantage of anyone, never make a killing selling something, never exploit a situation just for myself. I’m an old hippie and I always worked for others first. Some will say that is stupid.  But if everyone thought of others first, wouldn’t this be a lovely world? So anyway, now I’m old and pretty much broken down, and I suppose some of you want me to hurry up and die to make room for someone who is “useful.” You are so cold you gitter like diamonds. As the bard once wrote, O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!

  • Anonymous

    I have an IQ of 168. I hold three college degrees. But at the moment, jobs for writers, editors, radio announcers and college professors are in short supply. I do what I can, and work part-time. In the past I augmented my humanities-based ( meaning “low-paid” )income by working construction, landscaping, stage-crew and so on. But I’m turning 60 next birthday and I have 2 artificial hips. I can’t work the way I used to. Do you republicans actually begrudge me a few dollars of foodstamps after I have worked my life away? A high IQ does not translate into big bucks. I could never talke advantage of anyone, never make a killing selling something, never exploit a situation just for myself. I’m an old hippie and I always worked for others first. Some will say that is stupid.  But if everyone thought of others first, wouldn’t this be a lovely world? So anyway, now I’m old and pretty much broken down, and I suppose some of you want me to hurry up and die to make room for someone who is “useful.” You are so cold you gitter like diamonds. As the bard once wrote, O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!

  • Anonymous

    I have an IQ of 168. I hold three college degrees. But at the moment, jobs for writers, editors, radio announcers and college professors are in short supply. I do what I can, and work part-time. In the past I augmented my humanities-based ( meaning “low-paid” )income by working construction, landscaping, stage-crew and so on. But I’m turning 60 next birthday and I have 2 artificial hips. I can’t work the way I used to. Do you republicans actually begrudge me a few dollars of foodstamps after I have worked my life away? A high IQ does not translate into big bucks. I could never talke advantage of anyone, never make a killing selling something, never exploit a situation just for myself. I’m an old hippie and I always worked for others first. Some will say that is stupid.  But if everyone thought of others first, wouldn’t this be a lovely world? So anyway, now I’m old and pretty much broken down, and I suppose some of you want me to hurry up and die to make room for someone who is “useful.” You are so cold you gitter like diamonds. As the bard once wrote, O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!

  • Anonymous

    This so easy to fix do not pay the deposit on the container 
    Problem solved

  • Anonymous

    This so easy to fix do not pay the deposit on the container 
    Problem solved

  • Anonymous

    This so easy to fix do not pay the deposit on the container 
    Problem solved

  • Anonymous

    This so easy to fix do not pay the deposit on the container 
    Problem solved

  • Anonymous

    This so easy to fix do not pay the deposit on the container 
    Problem solved

  • Anonymous

    This so easy to fix do not pay the deposit on the container 
    Problem solved

  • Anonymous

    Go to Ohio where there is no recycled beverage law…the roads are littered with bottles and broken glass. If there is no incentive to return the bottles, there are many in our society who will throw their empties on YOUR lawn!

  • Anonymous

    24 dollars is about what bottle of jack cost. What a waste of aid.

  • OldWench

    I’d like to peek into your grocery cart to monitor your fiber intake because you clearly are NOT getting enough.

  • OldWench

    Oh for the love of Pete you need to get over yourself.  Not everyone wants to be like or live like you.  Narcissist much?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWFPOA5XX4TUQDWSFMPMIAGTWY Carole

    Thank you for your good wishes. I moved to Maine from CT for a  much needed fresh start in life. I always worked part time even being on Social Security disability  (major heart disease…) in CT.  I planned on working part time in Maine but the first round cancer pulled the plug on that one. I still want to be able to work or even volunteer say 4 or 5 hours a week. I have a need, want to give back and use my skills and education. Right now my medical team says my job is to get myself to the rest of my medical appointments and do those things like my wash, housework, buying food. My doctors are amazed that I have had zero help. You do what you have to do.  Yes, my current full time job is to get healthy and stay healthy. I hate being on disability – I am one of those giver types of people.  

    I never expected to get Breast Cancer once let alone twice. My life came a stop last fall. Cancer is a living breathing disease of and from hell. You live a healthy life and still get it, which burns me. I am worn out in ever way.

    Again, some of the posters are judging everyone. Everyone is not the same. Some people do not have any family or close friends. The churches in Maine are stressed out trying to help people out, you have fewer people attending church and more people asking for help. Not everyone is a  church going, believer but that is a different topic for another day.

  • OldWench

    I don’t give a flying fart what you used to be or how you used to be.  You are free to do whatever the heck you want to with your life but you have ZERO right to try to dictate what other people do.  It’s not always about you…

  • OldWench

    Yes, every program has guidelines and they are not decided by what YOU think everyone should do so you seriously need to get over it.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    … As long as you can be put to work carrying them out to my truck after looking at them.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    … as for backbone, I’ve already done that and the carbo slob took considerable offense.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    … as for backbone, I’ve already done that and the carbo slob took considerable offense.

  • OldWench

    I’ve been homeless too, so I really understand what it’s like.  I’m just thankful it was summer when it happened to my family.  There are still a lot of people with compassion…most of them are just out volunteering and helping people instead of posting on here.  There is no shame in falling on hard times…it happens to the best of us.  You should be proud of rising above challenges.  God rewards those with good and pure hearts…don’t forget that. :)

  • OldWench

    I’ve been homeless too, so I really understand what it’s like.  I’m just thankful it was summer when it happened to my family.  There are still a lot of people with compassion…most of them are just out volunteering and helping people instead of posting on here.  There is no shame in falling on hard times…it happens to the best of us.  You should be proud of rising above challenges.  God rewards those with good and pure hearts…don’t forget that. :)

  • OldWench

    Most of the reports of this water dumping has been reported at Shaws.  Most homeless people in Bangor spend the bulk of their days downtown.  Shaws is the only grocery store downtown.  It’s really common sense.

  • Anonymous

    An easy fix to the problem: make paying the deposit with food stamps ineligible, the same as with cigarettes or beer.  Problem solved.  Another thing to do is to make bottled water, soda & other items that require bottle deposits ineligible.

  • Anonymous

    That’s because the gene pool they were inbred from dictates they not work like most normal american’s

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWFPOA5XX4TUQDWSFMPMIAGTWY Carole

    Yes, It is the caffeine that helps. In drinking a cola you get the caffeine into your system very fast. I  have tried coffee and it does not have the same effect, it works but not as fast and not as good.

    No one is posting on (the food) that food banks give out. At least half of the food given out is junk food or non food. I take it or attempt to hand back as much as I can of it. At most food banks you do not get a choice in what you can take. However it is a huge help whatever I get.

    I am grateful for the help I have gotten. In many ways I am a very lucky lady who plans on being around for a long while. I am going to win my war with breast cancer. I will be an active contributor to society.

  • Anonymous

         Where’s the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s camera crew to record these dastardly acts? Put them to work doing something meaningful!

  • Anonymous

         Where’s the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s camera crew to record these dastardly acts? Put them to work doing something meaningful!

  • Anonymous

         Where’s the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s camera crew to record these dastardly acts? Put them to work doing something meaningful!

  • Anonymous

    My thought on this would be to enact a law that the deposits be paid by cash and then there would be nothing to exchange. Seems simple enough but sad that a few ruin benefits for the many that truly need the help. 

  • Anonymous

    Where is it people are “forced” to drink soda?  That  sounds more of a choice.
    I’m wondering why haven’t these water sucking companies been sued all day, everyday for drying up towns?
     

  • Anonymous

    Don’t cover bottled water.  Duh.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t cover bottled water.  Duh.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t cover bottled water.  Duh.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t cover bottled water.  Duh.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t cover bottled water.  Duh.

  • Anonymous

    They are saying food stamps pay the deposit and then they take back the bottles and get a slip or cash and spend it on items you can’t get with food stamps like, booze, cigarettes etc. The deposit doesn’t go back on the food stamp card.

  • Anonymous

    Need to open up a can a woop-azzzzzz ayuh

  • Anonymous

    Need to open up a can a woop-azzzzzz ayuh

  • Anonymous

    The best solution would be to remove water from the SNAP program. If people know they will be turned in for wasting water in front of witnesses, they’ll start emptying bottles in private. How will that help stop fraud?

  • Anonymous

    Yeah and if you have kids, they just put cash on the card for you to use however you wish. If you don’t feel like dumping out water, just make a couple babies.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah and if you have kids, they just put cash on the card for you to use however you wish. If you don’t feel like dumping out water, just make a couple babies.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah and if you have kids, they just put cash on the card for you to use however you wish. If you don’t feel like dumping out water, just make a couple babies.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah and if you have kids, they just put cash on the card for you to use however you wish. If you don’t feel like dumping out water, just make a couple babies.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah and if you have kids, they just put cash on the card for you to use however you wish. If you don’t feel like dumping out water, just make a couple babies.

  • Anonymous

    Who says I am demonizing everyone on welfare?   I do have an issue with people CHEATING.  Get it?  CHEATING <——— Read that word 

    Now just because I haven't personally seen it happen means it is OK?

  • Anonymous

    Maybe a few boxes of prunes would improve his attitude. Naw…..probally just a waste of good prunes.

  • Anonymous

    You mean adult kids are paying on the food stamp card? 

  • Anonymous

    I was paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin who wrote on poverty: “We should make the poor uncomfortable, to kick them out of poverty”.
    It is not “illegal to be poor” as you state  but government has no role in ending poverty. LBJ’s war on poverty (January, 1964) has been a farce since it’s inception, Hundreds of billions of dollars redistributed from tax payers such as myself to citizens that refuse to go out and make their own way. Well intentioned, sure but government is the worst conduit for delivering aid.

    There will always be poor people but look at the poor in this country: many if not most poor have cable or satellite tv service, cell phones, computers and automobiles. I am not begrudging anyone  the finer things in life, just make sure you are paying for them with your own earnings and not those of some working stiff.

    If you want to see jobs return to this country (by the way, they are not “our” jobs) you should demand that the government get out of the way of the private sector and create a climate that will allow businesses to grow. Even an illiterate fool such as yourself could become wealthy if the government would stop holding you back.

    BTW: Nice capitalization, punctuation, syntax, grammar and spelling. You would be well served by utilizing spell check at a minimum or a third grade remedial English class if you can possibly find the time in your busy day.

  • Anonymous

    I was paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin who wrote on poverty: “We should make the poor uncomfortable, to kick them out of poverty”.
    It is not “illegal to be poor” as you state  but government has no role in ending poverty. LBJ’s war on poverty (January, 1964) has been a farce since it’s inception, Hundreds of billions of dollars redistributed from tax payers such as myself to citizens that refuse to go out and make their own way. Well intentioned, sure but government is the worst conduit for delivering aid.

    There will always be poor people but look at the poor in this country: many if not most poor have cable or satellite tv service, cell phones, computers and automobiles. I am not begrudging anyone  the finer things in life, just make sure you are paying for them with your own earnings and not those of some working stiff.

    If you want to see jobs return to this country (by the way, they are not “our” jobs) you should demand that the government get out of the way of the private sector and create a climate that will allow businesses to grow. Even an illiterate fool such as yourself could become wealthy if the government would stop holding you back.

    BTW: Nice capitalization, punctuation, syntax, grammar and spelling. You would be well served by utilizing spell check at a minimum or a third grade remedial English class if you can possibly find the time in your busy day.

  • Anonymous

    I believe he was referring to the abuse of welfare by Dawn Solomon who stole $4M from Mainecare. This was in the paper just the other day. What I took him to mean was that dumping water to cash in on bottles is small potatoes next to what Dawn Solomon and other people in high positions do.  As for the small time crook who dumps water to cash in on bottles… no one thinks this is right, but it’s going to take ten lifetimes trying to recoup welfare loss if you make it your priority to go after the small time crooks dumping water instead of focusing on those at the other end of the spectrum… those who don’t steal hundreds, but those who steal millions.  And, since we don’t focus on them by the time they get caught and are ordered to pay restitution — they have spent all or most of it and it becomes impossible to recoup the loss because they declare that they are indigent. If we were proactive and focused on high end theft/welfare fraud the loss might not amass amounts as high as $4M.

  • Anonymous

    I believe he was referring to the abuse of welfare by Dawn Solomon who stole $4M from Mainecare. This was in the paper just the other day. What I took him to mean was that dumping water to cash in on bottles is small potatoes next to what Dawn Solomon and other people in high positions do.  As for the small time crook who dumps water to cash in on bottles… no one thinks this is right, but it’s going to take ten lifetimes trying to recoup welfare loss if you make it your priority to go after the small time crooks dumping water instead of focusing on those at the other end of the spectrum… those who don’t steal hundreds, but those who steal millions.  And, since we don’t focus on them by the time they get caught and are ordered to pay restitution — they have spent all or most of it and it becomes impossible to recoup the loss because they declare that they are indigent. If we were proactive and focused on high end theft/welfare fraud the loss might not amass amounts as high as $4M.

  • Anonymous

    Your the salt of the earth.

  • Anonymous

    Your the salt of the earth.

  • Anonymous

    flying fart….

    I am laughing so hard that I am crying. That was a good one!

  • Anonymous

    flying fart….

    I am laughing so hard that I am crying. That was a good one!

  • Anonymous

    Food stamps are not tender. Why not pay your car payment with them, that is why “so what”.

  • Anonymous

    but foreiners do….

  • Anonymous

    If/when you go to a food bank let them know that you have special diet needs. They should make adjustments for you. Maybe substitude the pasta for canned fruit, etc.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Fuller/1582370976 Chris Fuller

    Madame DeFarge would be so proud to read a few of the comments left on this board.

  • Anonymous

    Soda should be ineligible.  Period.  It’s anything but Nutritious as the N in “SNAP” stands for.  The program should be used simply for fruits, vegetables, juice, dairy, eggs, bread.  Not chips or candy or beer or cigarettes or donuts.
    I can understand water being eligible as well, but as other people have said, why not have the deposit paid in cash and not covered by the program.  They’d have nothing to gain.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QCC3ABRLTIU3EFA26HUIDQZTSM Chris

    Bonny…did you upgrade and move from New Mexico to MS…Also what would be your interest in BDN news stories…in New Mexico/MS?

  • Anonymous

    Easily preventable. Make cigarettes eligible for food stamp purchases. At least less water will be dumped.

  • Anonymous

    If it wasn’t for the Republican zookeepers, we would really be in trouble, thank you for the compliment.

  • Anonymous

    Can’t do that it’s against the welfare recipient’s civil rights and just think of the liability insurance and the man power to keep track of the hours worked and…..and………..and……on and on  and the simple fact of why work when I can get it for nothing.

  • Anonymous

    sometimes people work harder at stealing things then what a regular job would be…water board them with bottled water tell they tell the truth!!!

  • Anonymous

    sometimes people work harder at stealing things then what a regular job would be…water board them with bottled water tell they tell the truth!!!

  • Anonymous

    sometimes people work harder at stealing things then what a regular job would be…water board them with bottled water tell they tell the truth!!!

  • Anonymous

    sometimes people work harder at stealing things then what a regular job would be…water board them with bottled water tell they tell the truth!!!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWFPOA5XX4TUQDWSFMPMIAGTWY Carole

    April, thank you for this suggestion. I have asked this very question over and over again. The answer is always no you have to take what we have already bagged up.  I called several social service agencies they all said they have called the local food banks because some people are diabetics or have other medical conditions. It does not matter who you are, everyone is given the same amount and type of food. I wonder how much food gets thrown out because the food is going down hill or a person or family would not be able to eat it.
     
    I could not even if I had the energy to volunteer at a food bank or any agency that I might get help from. If I volunteered and got special bags of food it would be an ethical violation. I have seen special treatment of volunteers who are also clients. It becomes a very sticky situation overall. One of my areas of study is in non profits. Some of us are making every attempt to take as little as possible and also follow the rules and guidelines of the places we get help from.
     
     

  • Anonymous

    some people want to work …some don’t

  • Anonymous

    You’re right!  Moderation and some common sense.  Where did that go anyway?

  • Anonymous

    TO Me:   Since I can barely understand your comment due to so many grammatical mistakes, I probably won’t be able to respond to what you actually wrote, but I’ll give it a try.     The point is this, the food stamp program is meant to feed poor people a healthy (as healthy as they can) diet.  It is meant to supply them with food that will keep them from going hungry.  Buying a candy bar, chips, soda, and ice cream for a “special treat” is not why the program was made.  It’s meant to keep families from starving.  As far as military, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I have many military members in my family and they believe the same way.  Food stamps = Food, not junk.  As for your money going towards bank bail-outs, I’m not sure what that has to do with ANYTHING, but I’m sure you’re not contributing that much.

  • cfd130

    What the heck does food stamp fraud have to do with health care?????? People should NOT be allowed to do those things (OR BUY MT DEW, CHIPS, SNACKS, TOP BRAND ITEMS, CANDY ETC ETC-THE LIST CAN GO ON FOREVER) WITH MY TAX MONEY. Oh wait-if you get FREE food you should also get FREE health care-I see know

  • Anonymous

    hm. what are 3 popular things food stamps CANT buy. Show me, Drugs, Alchohol and Cigarettes. Sickening scammers should be disqualified no questions asked.

  • Anonymous

    This crap has been going on for years.  Really pissed off that our government hasnt had more of a sense of urgency to make this illegal and disqualify these leeching a-holes from receiving benefits that other people actually need.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Fuller/1582370976 Chris Fuller

    No offense, but we have all stole something. We have all told a lie to get something we need.
    More likely than not if, and when, we got caught nobody publicly humiliated us or took away our source of food.
    Is it possible that this guy deserves a second chance like we have all had at one time? And is it also possible that mandatory counseling for this person is a better option that tar and feathers? Just saying…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Fuller/1582370976 Chris Fuller

    No offense, but we have all stole something. We have all told a lie to get something we need.
    More likely than not if, and when, we got caught nobody publicly humiliated us or took away our source of food.
    Is it possible that this guy deserves a second chance like we have all had at one time? And is it also possible that mandatory counseling for this person is a better option that tar and feathers? Just saying…

  • Anonymous

    duh oldwench…ever heard of sarcasm???

  • Anonymous

    Anytime someone wants to give me $86.00 i will give them 24.00 in exchange why wouldnt they buy $86 in groceries and eat good for a few days.

  • Anonymous

    If  a man with 3 degrees is having a hard time making a living in Maine how do you suppose others are faring? Alot of people do want to work. Take the blinders off your eyes.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    If such a man has three degrees and cannot find work in Maine, he better move or ask himself why he wasted his time pursuing studies that are worthless in the market place.

  • Anonymous

    So in order to solve the problem, SNAP can be used to buy the water but only allow water in 1 gallon bottles to be purchased. These cards are swiped so why aren’t they tracked in order to be  looking for fraud. When I swipe my Rewards card at Rite Aid,they are tracking my purchases,so doesn’t the State have the technology to track purchases as well??

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    You are an “old hippy” whose educational choices, cultural values and vocational preferences have handicapped you as you enter your latter years. Should society bear the burden of your earlier choices? I certainly do not think so. It would not matter if you have six degrees and 20 points added to that rather impressive  intelligence quotient. Ultimately you thumbed your nose at practicality and those choices brought all that intellect crashing  head first into a lack of common sense. Quoting the Tempest might itself be a double irony with yourself as Miranda wondering how you could have missed the marvel of practical choices all this time. The lack of common sense will always negate book sense to a value of zero.

  • Anonymous

    so you think this is his 1st time doing this?

  • Anonymous

    If you don’t have a problem with it, then feel free to pay for this waste personally. I do not want my tribute to Caeser used in part to fund these definite scams. I have helped people in need directly and by donations. I don’t need simpletons like you trying to take my earnings and waste it because of your idiotic attitude.

  • Anonymous

    The same way they control the use of Health Savings Account cards…only certain products are allowed to be paid for with these cards…it occurs automatically at the point of sale system. Try to buy a non-scheduled item and it simply will not ring up. Now if someone has a definite need for water, then help ou by making the municipal water available, or the well tested. Maine is going down the tubes with the 70+%  increase in benefits brought on by the Dumbaldy administration.

    Help those truly in need, not the bums…

  • Anonymous

    The same way they control the use of Health Savings Account cards…only certain products are allowed to be paid for with these cards…it occurs automatically at the point of sale system. Try to buy a non-scheduled item and it simply will not ring up. Now if someone has a definite need for water, then help ou by making the municipal water available, or the well tested. Maine is going down the tubes with the 70+%  increase in benefits brought on by the Dumbaldy administration.

    Help those truly in need, not the bums…

  • Anonymous

    The same way they control the use of Health Savings Account cards…only certain products are allowed to be paid for with these cards…it occurs automatically at the point of sale system. Try to buy a non-scheduled item and it simply will not ring up. Now if someone has a definite need for water, then help ou by making the municipal water available, or the well tested. Maine is going down the tubes with the 70+%  increase in benefits brought on by the Dumbaldy administration.

    Help those truly in need, not the bums…

  • Anonymous

    Thank-you for your positive review.  We live in Swanville, so, not to far from Troy, really, and have some of those same hard water problems.  if you wouldn’t mind, would you publish a link to the device you have and recommend?  We’ve talked about a whole-home filter since we bought the house.  I’d be interested in taking a look at it…

  • Anonymous

    Listen, rucognizant1, you obviously missed my comment where I said I thought using it to purchase water in large containers (1-gal or more, maybe 5-gal, etc) should be allowed, with no deposit on the container, but that small “single-serve” containers should be banned.

    I would also think that perhaps the WIC program, or some other, could make arrangements with those who have had tested water that is unsafe, to work with a water delivery company, delivering large 5-gal jugs?

    I believe everyone has a right to potable water.  But not because it’s convenient, but because it’s essential for life.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CZJAELZYWFTELEXJ5OUSZNG4KQ Shao Ting

     That would be good. And you can also choose handbags with tiny handles just for your hand. No matter what kind of handbags you choose, make sure that they can work magic with your whole outfit and offer you a further touch of beauty and grace. 
      http://www.mbbagoutlet.com

  • Anonymous

    I know they don’t.  My mother, sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew live there.  

    What they DO have is a $100+ fine for putting your recyclable trash in the wrong bins, and/or throwing away containers (such as beverage bottles/cans) that are recyclable into the un-recyclable trash.  Don’t think that happens?  My sister threw the wrong thing into the wrong bin one time, and when the recycling staff found it, they tracked it back to their house, and were cited $100+.

    So if you think that’s a BETTER option, please, feel free to talk to our lawmakers.  I think most Mainer’s would prefer a deposit instead.

  • Anonymous

    That’s a pretty decent landlord, don’t blame you for not wanting to rock the boat.  I had my share of awful landlords (and a few decent ones.)

    I do think that buying bottled water, though, -is- a big deal (for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72MCumz5lq4

  • Anonymous

    Hey, I’m okay with NH’s recycling plan.  I’d support it.  That being said, doubt you’d get most Mainers to support it.  Frankly, as a collective society here in Maine, I think we’re to dang lazy.

  • ChuckGG

    Sure.  However, I’m at my home in Maryland and the unit is installed at the farm up in Troy, and I do not recall the brand.  I can tell you we put this in about 3 years ago.  I am pretty sure we bought it from Home Depot as we were re-doing the entire plumbing system so it was a good time.

    It was their top-of-the-line unit and we got that because it is totally automatic.   It was 45,000 grain (as they rate it).  We set the unit to recharge at 2:00 a.m. and after so many gallons (a lot) of water passed through the system.  The unit uses salt which one buys in bulk (very cheap) and I think we throw in a bag every couple of months.  It beeps at us if the salt level gets low.  The salt is used to cleanse the system and remove the minerals that were trapped by these resin beads that are inside the unit.  Apparently, after a number of years the beads need to be replaced but we have not hit that yet.

    It is interesting.  If you have not dealt with really soft water, it can feel strange on the skin at first – almost oily, but it is not.  It tends to cling to your skin.  It is quite nice, actually.  Soap lathers up really well and as I said, the “rust” stains disappeared and the water no longer has that iron taste.  Our sinks and toilets used to stain terribly and now they are pure white.

    My suggestion is to have the water tested to determine just what is in your water and if you see a high iron content, a water softener may be right for you.  I would confirm all this with a plumber and the water softener people.  I think we paid around $500 for it.  I checked with my plumber and he said that up in Troy, he had never installed one.  I guess people just “get by” without it.  The tipping point for me was when we had family and friends come up to visit in the summer and their white clothes got stained from using our washer.  Now, we could run a laundromat the way the clothes come out.  No regrets on installing one.  There was a slight warning that said if people were sensitive to salt, this might pose a concern but there is no way the water is salty or anything like that.  I guess they are concerned there might be some residual salt after the beads are cleansed and recharged but not that I could ever notice.

    Good luck!

  • Anonymous

    so instead of going on BDN and slandering someone for something they may or may not be doing, why not call up that number and tell someone who cares

  • Anonymous

    are food stamp recipients a subspecies to you? The likes of them? really?

  • Anonymous

    you would have made a great Nazi.

  • Anonymous

    im so proud of you and your google capability, try to stick to the point instead of ranting about your special interest in the future

  • OldWench

    I already have a job, thanks…

  • OldWench

    Pretend for a moment that you need to feed a family of 4 on $75 a week.  That includes 3 kids who you need to provide school snacks and snack drink for 5 days a week.  Also keep in mind that there will be no dining out meals because you can’t afford it.  In one week that is 28  breakfasts, 13 lunches, 15 school snacks and 28 dinners.  That is 71 meals and 15 school snacks…and doesn’t even include staples like flour, sugar, etc or milk and juice.

    People on foodstamps buy what is CHEAP that will last the entire month so their kids don’t go hungry.  Healthy food is expensive.

  • OldWench

    Glad you enjoyed it…I had to get my rant on for a minute there…so sick of the sanctimonious BS. :)

  • OldWench

    Yeah, I’m fluent in sarcasm…unfortunately it can be difficult to spot when it’s mixed in with so much stupid… (meaning it can be easy to miss a post made sarcastically when there are so many posts that are just plain stupid on here….not directed at you.)

  • OldWench

    I used to live on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River and worked on the NH side.  I still have family who lives there.  And yes, that option is better than taking away bottled water from people who receive food stamps.

  • OldWench

    NH isn’t the cleanest….Vermont is.  NH is the second cleanest, though. :p

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GUZWOYWFSRGHQARSRT2OXW25LE suzie

    These scams to convert benefits to cash are the product of desperate people.  I wouldn’t call them greedy because they are poor to qualify in the first place.  And, I can’t fault people for not being able to find a job in this economy.  Especially if you are old and poor. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/sammimullen Samantha Mullen

    So are you telling me that on my child’s birthday I shouldn’t be able to buy a cake, or cake mix so it seems? Where do you draw the line with crackers. Kids need healthy snacks, but should a mother not be able to buy a box of crackers to make snacks for their kid? Some of you forget that many people on foodstamps have kids. Shouldn’t every kid be able to have a sweet treat from time to time? My 8 year old daughter is very healthy. She loves fruits and vegetables, but a little picky on her meats. She doesn’t like soda much, and isn’t much for candy, but every now and then I make ice cream sundaes with fresh fruit and sprinkles. Shouldn’t every parent be able to treat their kid for ice cream, nachos, or even a soda every now and again? When it comes to the deposit, I see no problem in people having to pay their own. However, to say that the program shouldn’t allow anything but “healthy” food, it should be remembered that it is not only those who abuse the system who are on the system. There are those who have fallen on hard times and are just working with the system honestly and respectfully. It seems many feel that only people who use drugs, drink alcohol and sit around all the time, are benefiting from the system. What about the people who got laid off from a job and are having a hard time finding work? How about the family that was working their tails off, making it by, but with no savings. What happens when the car breaks down, the furnace won’t kick on, or the kids need glasses? Someone gets hurt and can’t work for a bit? There are good honest people on the programs and what really needs to happen, is they need to fix their issues up top, first. Make a budget that works. Tweak the system so it is more difficult to abuse. Get rid of the embezzlement issues, such as but not restricted to, the Solomon case. They need to take responsibility for the problems with the system. WE can’t fix it on our own, that is their job. Those who are going to con the system are going to try to con the system, but it is their job to prevent that from happening.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WUXQMOMFW26EODLA7I3WZLSNPM Jeff C

    If that is the case, then why doesnt the Bangor PD run the cards that are mis-using this form of aid, and therefore take those cards away from them.  I am sorry folks, but there are tons of kids going hungry because these jokers want to get enough from the bottle deposit to go buy themselves a beer or a pack of smokes..Take the cards, take the kids, and make these bums get a JOB.

  • Anonymous

    very simple solution to this practice. Make them pay the deposit at the cash register. Why are we “The People” paying for anything except consumable unprepared food? Sales tax, deposits etc. should not be included, that would eliminate snack foods and bottle deposits. Lawmakers get your act together.

  • Anonymous

    There is that saying about a pot calling the kettle black. I’d say that you need to get over yourself by the sounds of your replies to people. I realize I have zero control over others. I can only change myself, but as a tax payer and a citizen I have the right to express my opinion and to help educate people. 

    You are right, it is not about me…or you…it is about the collective. It is about our crumbling society and economy. It is about all of us. We as a country need to change our ways. Our lives can’t be just about ourselves and our families. We must have concern for all people. I am concerned about the health of the people in this country. I am concerned about our faulty food system and how our food choices eventually impact our healthcare system. 

    I have every right to express my opinion, but at least I can do it without calling someone names or being disrespectful. 

  • Anonymous

    I think some are missing the picture.Yes a case of water is only 4-5$. But it takes 40 empties to make 1$ so 8$ worth of water will get you 1$.  40 – 48$ worth of water=1 pack of cigerettes.I guess it really worth  isn’t..So who really loses out the families that really and truly need it.but they get there benefits cut  because of these selfish people

  • Anonymous

    I think some are missing the picture.Yes a case of water is only 4-5$. But it takes 40 empties to make 1$ so 8$ worth of water will get you 1$.  40 – 48$ worth of water=1 pack of cigerettes.I guess it really worth  isn’t..So who really loses out the families that really and truly need it.but they get there benefits cut  because of these selfish people

  • Anonymous

    I think some are missing the picture.Yes a case of water is only 4-5$. But it takes 40 empties to make 1$ so 8$ worth of water will get you 1$.  40 – 48$ worth of water=1 pack of cigerettes.I guess it really worth  isn’t..So who really loses out the families that really and truly need it.but they get there benefits cut  because of these selfish people

  • Anonymous

    I think some are missing the picture.Yes a case of water is only 4-5$. But it takes 40 empties to make 1$ so 8$ worth of water will get you 1$.  40 – 48$ worth of water=1 pack of cigerettes.I guess it really worth  isn’t..So who really loses out the families that really and truly need it.but they get there benefits cut  because of these selfish people

  • Anonymous

    I think some are missing the picture.Yes a case of water is only 4-5$. But it takes 40 empties to make 1$ so 8$ worth of water will get you 1$.  40 – 48$ worth of water=1 pack of cigerettes.I guess it really worth  isn’t..So who really loses out the families that really and truly need it.but they get there benefits cut  because of these selfish people

  • Anonymous

    “I don’t need simpletons like you trying to take my earnings and waste it because of your idiotic attitude.”

    Are you kidding me? Did you even read what I wrote? For the third time, I’m NOT condoning or defending this behavior, I was simply making a point of how difficult it might be to make it illegal. Congratulations on a nice, mean-spirited rant, though.

  • Anonymous

    15 school snacks: 1 bag of oranges, one bag of apples and a bunch of bananas: $9 
    15 snack drinks: water: $0 or frozen juice: $2.00

    7 breakfasts for four people, three being children: 3 doz eggs: $6, juice: $4, 3 loaves of bread $7 (But most schools have breakfast these days which would be free for those getting SNAP, as well as the days of lunch at school.)

    7 dinners for four people, three being children: 10 lg bag of potatoes: $5, 2 large bag of carrots: $4, bag of rice $3, 2 bags of frozen peas: $4, 2 bags of frozen beans $4, pasta $3, family pack of hamburger $10, family pack of chicken $6, family pack of pork chops $7, pasta sauce $3.

    If feeding your family healthy food instead of prepackaged food products is your focus, you can eat healthy, even on a small food budget.

  • Anonymous

    excuse me for saying but, you shouldn’t be able to buy soap with food stamps…..they are for food. If you don’t have the cash, don’t buy bottles that needs deposits. Buy concentrated juice….. You are right that I am lucky to have a job! After we moved it took 6 moths to find one, my husband and I both work 40 plus hours a week to support our young son! It kills me that I as his mother don’t get to put him to bed myself, but we are doing what we can! When I was pregnant (and also working) I was afforded the WIC benefit, and with this benefit I was required to pay the bottle deposit for any juices bought…..why should food stamps be different?

  • Anonymous

    Not the WIC program, like the WIC program…..I am not sure why you think that the WIC program is for those that can’t prepare meals, I got fresh fruit and vegetables vouchers….obviously those had to be prepaired. WIC is meant to be a supplement to families that are working, what would be the difference in giving vouchers for Meats, Cheese’s/Milk, Bread/Cereal, Veggies/Fruits, etc. Please explain why an employed construction worker needs to buy a soda with food stamps w/o paying the bottle deposit in order to be well feed? Doesn’t really add up.

  • Anonymous

    You can get your basic sugar from Juice, but your body doesn’t require you tom eat sugar…..sugar is found naturally in most foods

  • Anonymous

    maybe I am not reading this correctly, please excuse me if this was sarcasm….lol

  • Anonymous

     Liberal Soup N Quackers if your trying to be rude you have suceeded.  Who are you to judge this man? You are one miserable excuse…..

  • Anonymous

    I don’t think that everyone abuses it either…..but why not make it harder to abuse….if you don’t want to use a voucher ticket, or carry a list of things that are appropriate and are not appropriate then maybe they don’t need the help……If someone really needs help feeding their family, are they going to care if comes from a “debit” card or a voucher? I wouldn’t

  • Anonymous

    How did you get that out of what I said?  I don’t get food stamps but also don’t let my children have soda!!  Have you ever payed a dental bill?  That would be the reason.

  • Anonymous

    How did you get that out of what I said?  I don’t get food stamps but also don’t let my children have soda!!  Have you ever payed a dental bill?  That would be the reason.

  • Anonymous

    I’m not attacking anyone.  I just don’t think that it’s right to abuse the welfare system.  It’s made to help people not for people to live off of it.  Maybe you should think about that before you tell me I have a vengeful heart.

  • Anonymous

    I’m not attacking anyone.  I just don’t think that it’s right to abuse the welfare system.  It’s made to help people not for people to live off of it.  Maybe you should think about that before you tell me I have a vengeful heart.

  • Anonymous

    I’m not attacking anyone.  I just don’t think that it’s right to abuse the welfare system.  It’s made to help people not for people to live off of it.  Maybe you should think about that before you tell me I have a vengeful heart.

  • Anonymous

    I’m not attacking anyone.  I just don’t think that it’s right to abuse the welfare system.  It’s made to help people not for people to live off of it.  Maybe you should think about that before you tell me I have a vengeful heart.

  • Anonymous

    I’m not attacking anyone.  I just don’t think that it’s right to abuse the welfare system.  It’s made to help people not for people to live off of it.  Maybe you should think about that before you tell me I have a vengeful heart.

  • Anonymous

    How did I say that I was so high and mighty?  I don’t drive brand new vehicles and own new snowsleds.  I watch what spend.  I also don’t understand how you can justify dumping bottled water because they need gas money!!!  Get a job!!!!

  • Anonymous

    Obama even said (not recently) that our gasoline was cheap compared to the European’s and that we should be paying more for it. He got his wish.

  • Anonymous

    When you buy the water to pay the deposit….then when you return the product you get your deposit back. If you are paying with food stamps, you do not pay the deposit and you get the deposit back……do you see an issue? I do! No different then buying a soda in NH and returning it in Maine….

  • Anonymous

    by charging the bottle deposit………..

  • Anonymous

    sadly enough people that use SNAP benefits don’t have to pay the take on any items purchased (because the state of Maine would be paying their own tax) and bottle deposit also is not included in the final cost of produces (even thought they can still go to the redemption center and get it back, well in addition to cause they never paid for it in the first place).

  • Anonymous

    by charging the bottle deposit….why would that be so hard? If they are paying the deposit, there is no scam! them are dumping water to get the money back that they already paid

  • Anonymous

    It doesn’t even need to be made illegal! That’s the ridiculous part! 

  • Anonymous

    I Vote 3! If they are smart they would only have to pay the deposit up front once, then they could reuse it for their next purchase

  • Anonymous

    Thank you Professor, I understand the concept.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you Professor, I understand the concept.

  • Anonymous

    WIC (Women, Infants & Children) limits choices so why can’t food stamps?  No sugar cereals (no Lucky Charms or Froot Loops allowed), no flavored milks, 100% juice (no cocktails or fruit punch), no white potatoes, no fruit in syrup, etc.  This ensures that recipients are only given the most healthy choices.  Not sure why they can’t make the same rules for the SNAP program.  Nutritional ignorance usually (not always) accompanies low-income, low-educated people and if you take away the frozen convenience meals, boxed mac and cheese and sugar cereals and sodas, I’m sure whe’d see a huge reduction in obesity in the population of those on the system.  Just my 2 cents.

  • Anonymous

    WIC (Women, Infants & Children) limits choices so why can’t food stamps?  No sugar cereals (no Lucky Charms or Froot Loops allowed), no flavored milks, 100% juice (no cocktails or fruit punch), no white potatoes, no fruit in syrup, etc.  This ensures that recipients are only given the most healthy choices.  Not sure why they can’t make the same rules for the SNAP program.  Nutritional ignorance usually (not always) accompanies low-income, low-educated people and if you take away the frozen convenience meals, boxed mac and cheese and sugar cereals and sodas, I’m sure whe’d see a huge reduction in obesity in the population of those on the system.  Just my 2 cents.

  • Anonymous

    WIC (Women, Infants & Children) limits choices so why can’t food stamps?  No sugar cereals (no Lucky Charms or Froot Loops allowed), no flavored milks, 100% juice (no cocktails or fruit punch), no white potatoes, no fruit in syrup, etc.  This ensures that recipients are only given the most healthy choices.  Not sure why they can’t make the same rules for the SNAP program.  Nutritional ignorance usually (not always) accompanies low-income, low-educated people and if you take away the frozen convenience meals, boxed mac and cheese and sugar cereals and sodas, I’m sure whe’d see a huge reduction in obesity in the population of those on the system.  Just my 2 cents.

  • Anonymous

    WIC (Women, Infants & Children) limits choices so why can’t food stamps?  No sugar cereals (no Lucky Charms or Froot Loops allowed), no flavored milks, 100% juice (no cocktails or fruit punch), no white potatoes, no fruit in syrup, etc.  This ensures that recipients are only given the most healthy choices.  Not sure why they can’t make the same rules for the SNAP program.  Nutritional ignorance usually (not always) accompanies low-income, low-educated people and if you take away the frozen convenience meals, boxed mac and cheese and sugar cereals and sodas, I’m sure whe’d see a huge reduction in obesity in the population of those on the system.  Just my 2 cents.

  • Anonymous

    Me, I am not sure who you think is jealous here? If you want to buy an item that isn’t food (like a bottle deposit) it should be deducted from your food stamp card. PERIOD

  • Anonymous

    Me, I am not sure who you think is jealous here? If you want to buy an item that isn’t food (like a bottle deposit) it should be deducted from your food stamp card. PERIOD

  • Anonymous

    The FDA has studies over a 10 years period that households on SNAP benefits buy no more “junk food” that households that would have to spend their hard earned money on it. Just saying

  • Anonymous

    The FDA has studies over a 10 years period that households on SNAP benefits buy no more “junk food” that households that would have to spend their hard earned money on it. Just saying

  • Anonymous

    The FDA has studies over a 10 years period that households on SNAP benefits buy no more “junk food” that households that would have to spend their hard earned money on it. Just saying

  • Anonymous

    The FDA has studies over a 10 years period that households on SNAP benefits buy no more “junk food” that households that would have to spend their hard earned money on it. Just saying

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    You can’t buy hot meals, or anything that is prepared to eat.

  • Anonymous

    If you are taking a hand out from tax payers to get food, then yes it is everyone’s business what is buy….don’t like it? Buy your own food like I do….

  • Anonymous

    Well lets not fix a broken system because it would take time and money……wow

  • Anonymous

    Yes.  I know.

  • Anonymous

    People who are working two jobs and can still qualify for food stamps are defiantly down on their luck, but if they want to buy a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids they can use the money from their pay check that they don’t have to spend on food because they use food stamps…..Life isn’t always fair! Shame on you for demonizing those of us who work two jobs and are not on food stamps, who pay their own phone bills and cannot afford a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids because it’s more important that someone on food stamps gets that luxury….I don’t say this often but if you think Maine is a dictator state feel free to pack you bags and get food stamps from somewhere else!

  • Anonymous

    People who are working two jobs and can still qualify for food stamps are defiantly down on their luck, but if they want to buy a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids they can use the money from their pay check that they don’t have to spend on food because they use food stamps…..Life isn’t always fair! Shame on you for demonizing those of us who work two jobs and are not on food stamps, who pay their own phone bills and cannot afford a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids because it’s more important that someone on food stamps gets that luxury….I don’t say this often but if you think Maine is a dictator state feel free to pack you bags and get food stamps from somewhere else!

  • Anonymous

    People who are working two jobs and can still qualify for food stamps are defiantly down on their luck, but if they want to buy a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids they can use the money from their pay check that they don’t have to spend on food because they use food stamps…..Life isn’t always fair! Shame on you for demonizing those of us who work two jobs and are not on food stamps, who pay their own phone bills and cannot afford a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids because it’s more important that someone on food stamps gets that luxury….I don’t say this often but if you think Maine is a dictator state feel free to pack you bags and get food stamps from somewhere else!

  • Anonymous

    People who are working two jobs and can still qualify for food stamps are defiantly down on their luck, but if they want to buy a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids they can use the money from their pay check that they don’t have to spend on food because they use food stamps…..Life isn’t always fair! Shame on you for demonizing those of us who work two jobs and are not on food stamps, who pay their own phone bills and cannot afford a candy bar or a bag of chips for their kids because it’s more important that someone on food stamps gets that luxury….I don’t say this often but if you think Maine is a dictator state feel free to pack you bags and get food stamps from somewhere else!

  • Anonymous

    How would changing to a voucher system or charging a bottle deposit hurt more than you help?

  • Anonymous

    I get your point but I hold fast to mine…..I work (thank god I finally found a job) and so does my husband, we don’t get food stamps…who’s going to buy my kid a sweet treat or cake?

  • Anonymous

    I get your point but I hold fast to mine…..I work (thank god I finally found a job) and so does my husband, we don’t get food stamps…who’s going to buy my kid a sweet treat or cake?

  • Anonymous

    Amen to that!

  • Anonymous

    No but I guess if you want to accept state or federal assistance you could sign a waver of your rights…….I don’t think that I would support that though…

  • Anonymous

    Most city water in Maine is undrinkable, I don’t even like taking a shower or brushing my teeth with it but you have to deal. If i want to go but a 30 pack of drinking water for 4 dollars I’m going to do it whether I’m on SNAP or not. 

  • Anonymous

     If you have $500 dollars to go spend on a water treatment system all the power to you, most of us don’t have that kind of expendable cash flow.

  • Anonymous

    Lobster is allowed and stakes as well, the only thing you cannot purchase are “none food” items such as toothpaste, bathroom tissue, and meals of food that is prepared to eat (hot meals) ext. But who is going to tell someone that they can buy a bottle of diet soda or regular soda for that matter once a week (correct me if I’m wrong but is that a crime, don’t believe so).

  • Anonymous

    I like cube steak.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ron-Blanchard/1723676121 Ron Blanchard

    I see the ‘Stray Cats’ in Bangor are still at it.
    (keep feeding em Bangor/Brewer, and they won’t leave and this is what you get.

  • Anonymous

    Good call Chris, I did get transferred from Kirtland to Columbus AFB. I am active duty military but am Mainer.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BUXUYYAT2NY6VCRFLANUOW3ZHE FJ

    Maybe its time to end the food stamp program. Take the money saved by not giving out food stamps and open up more local soup kitchens and feed the poor. This  would also give them exercise by walking to a local soup kitchen a few times a day , which would help with the obesity problem we keep hearing about. Also people in your neighborhood will see you going in and out of the soup kitchen on a daily basis. That embaressment might lead to people filling out more job applications so as not be seen as a burden to your neighbors . For the few who are disabled and can’t go to soup kitchens some of these able bodied poor people can deliver meals to the elderly and disabled. That would give them an opportunity to work and give something back..     Just some Ideas I’m throwing out, because the system we have no is not working.   

    So in short  end food stamps open more soup kitchens hire some of the poor to help run them (also getting them off the system)  Hire some of the poor to deliver to the elderly and disabled creating more jobs and getting more people off the system. Lastly have local soup kitchens in each neighborhood so people can walk to them.  By making it less convient to be on the system more people will try to look for work and a way off the system. Also no more water dumping Bs to put up with.   Just my opinion  

  • OldWench

    Your family would starve because you would not have bought enough food to feed the entire family. 

    Also…you obviously don’t buy most of these items yourself because you cannot get a bag of oranges, bag of apples and a bunch of bananas for only 9 dollars.  I know this because I actually buy all of these items all the time.  

    Also…school breakfasts are only offered during a short window of time and many of the bussed children do not arrive in time to be able to have breakfast at school.  Also, most recesses have been taken away and children get a very limited amount of time outside and most don’t want to use that time eating breakfast at school, which is usually just cold cereal or some kind of pastry.

    The breakfast items you listed would not last an entire week.  You only list eggs, bread and juice.  You are only going to feed everyone one egg and toast and a small cup of juice?  What about milk?  Children of all ages go through A LOT of milk.  In fact, any nutritionist will tell you that they NEED a lot of milk.  At almost $4 a pop each gallon and at least 2 gallons a week it gets pricey.  

    Regarding the meats you listed…first, that meat would not last the entire week.  Why? Because the only family pack of ground beef you can get for $10 is usually a high fat level and almost half of it turns into grease.  The only chicken family pack you can get for $6 consists of mostly bone…very little meat and a family of 4 would use that in one meal, especially if the children are 5th grade and older.  Kids over 10 eat just as much as an adult.  You only got meat enough for 3, perhaps 4 meals.  My kids always ate two pork chops each and unless I got boneless chicken breasts they would eat at least 2, sometimes 3 pieces of chicken each.  I had one son that started eating everything that wasn’t nailed down by the time he hit the 3rd or 4th grade.  He is over 6 feet tall and very lean, always was.

    You’re just very, very unrealistic…and $75 would NOT buy all the things you listed.  I know because I spent many years feeding a family of four.

  • OldWench

    My replies to some people ARE harsh, and they are reserved for people whose sentiments and comments I find highly offensive, rude and way out of line.  I am a very tolerant woman about everything except for one thing…intolerance.  I completely own that I am being a jerk to you.  I am only doing it because you are being intolerant.

    Being concerned about something is fine…offering information and encouragement is fine. You cross the line when you judge and wish to dictate and force others to agree with you.  That’s not okay.  When you do that it takes everything good out of what you are trying to do and makes it all about control.

  • OldWench

    What you want is fine for you but you have NO right to push or force your beliefs onto others.  

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    Perhaps you could offer a rebuttal in favor of the welfare entitlement class who brought their shortcomings upon themselves rather than wallow in your progressive angst?

  • Anonymous

    Why in the world are we letting people purchase bottled water?  I can’t afford bottled water.  This is really outrageous.  We need to get a grip on what is happening, maybe distribute healthy food to the needy instead of allowing people to get what they please at high cost.  I for one am sick of providing funds for this kind of use.   

  • Anonymous

    Why in the world are we letting people purchase bottled water?  I can’t afford bottled water.  This is really outrageous.  We need to get a grip on what is happening, maybe distribute healthy food to the needy instead of allowing people to get what they please at high cost.  I for one am sick of providing funds for this kind of use.   

  • Anonymous

    Why in the world are we letting people purchase bottled water?  I can’t afford bottled water.  This is really outrageous.  We need to get a grip on what is happening, maybe distribute healthy food to the needy instead of allowing people to get what they please at high cost.  I for one am sick of providing funds for this kind of use.   

  • Anonymous

    Why in the world are we letting people purchase bottled water?  I can’t afford bottled water.  This is really outrageous.  We need to get a grip on what is happening, maybe distribute healthy food to the needy instead of allowing people to get what they please at high cost.  I for one am sick of providing funds for this kind of use.   

  • Anonymous

    Why in the world are we letting people purchase bottled water?  I can’t afford bottled water.  This is really outrageous.  We need to get a grip on what is happening, maybe distribute healthy food to the needy instead of allowing people to get what they please at high cost.  I for one am sick of providing funds for this kind of use.   

  • Anonymous

    Corporate welfare & white collar crime have nothing to
    do with this article.
    The pro-socialist bile should be hyped elsewhere.

  • Anonymous

    It is obvious that you are not concerned with the same things that I was concerned with when I raised my children. The prices I listed are the prices see in the store every time I shop. This conversation is not getting us anywhere because you are stuck in one way of thinking and I have another way of looking at things. You are confusing observation, opinions and suggestions with judgement. I have not once made any judgement toward people on assistance. I have mentioned several times that I have been there/done that. I wish you well, but I will not respond to you again.

  • Anonymous

    It is obvious that you are not concerned with the same things that I was concerned with when I raised my children. The prices I listed are the prices see in the store every time I shop. This conversation is not getting us anywhere because you are stuck in one way of thinking and I have another way of looking at things. You are confusing observation, opinions and suggestions with judgement. I have not once made any judgement toward people on assistance. I have mentioned several times that I have been there/done that. I wish you well, but I will not respond to you again.

  • ChuckGG

    I know times are tough for many.  Yes, I am fortunate in that sense.  I might add that I recall Home Depot offering us no-interest financing for 12 months.   I don’t think it would take long buying bottled water to get to $500.00.  Plus, you get the advantage of cleaner cloths and non-stained sinks and toilets.  Just a thought.

  • http://www.facebook.com/frank.st.clair Frank St Clair

    Yeah, an article about food stamp fraud is the perfect forum for discussing “corporate welfare.” You can’t even define the term, nor understand who pays when tax breaks for corporations are rescinded. 

  • Anonymous

    Perhaps …. you should just shut your judgemental, mean spirited mouth for a change?

  • Anonymous

    Perhaps …. you should just shut your judgemental, mean spirited mouth for a change?

  • Anonymous

    Quackers, we are sooooooo happy that this was your short answer.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MWFPOA5XX4TUQDWSFMPMIAGTWY Carole

    FJ  you have a right to your opinions. In fact before I moved to Maine and was a upper – middle class snob I might have posted something like this myself. But reality hit and the real world having moved to Maine and having breast cancer now twice. It appears from your posting you have never had to go to a local soup kitchen. It a sad fact but I have in my life had to use soup kitchens.

    If overall what you posting comes across like let’s go back to the days of poor houses, farms or debtors prisons. If you do not fit in to norm of society we have a big institution for you to live.

    To set local soup kitchens costs money. From what I have seen of Maine and moved here from CT you would be hard pressed to have these places in neighborhoods. What neighborhoods???  You do not seem to understand the lack of jobs in Maine and across the United States. Also you would have to pay the poor to work in these soup kitchen a living wage plus benefits, medical, vacation time.  This would add more people to the government payrolls. You would have to provide places for them to shower and clean clothing. Many of the people who use soup kitchen are homeless, they could do not give a hoot what anyone thinks about them.  I forgot you will have to pay for the food you are serving, you will have to pay rent even if it is at a church or the like. You will also have to have liability insurance if the place you are renting from will or cannot put you on theirs.

    I do not have numbers but many people who get food help are working, either full or part time.  What if you have children that is a posting by it’s self.  You would also have to create special meals for people who have medical issues. If I have to eat the meal and get sick after each and every meal we have problem. Most soup kitchen try to serve healthy meals however many of them cannot. So the meals are loaded with the nasty starches and not much in the way of fresh foods. Of course you end your meal with cake or something else that is high in sugar and fat.

    I do not have the answers – I have some ideas and suggests that could help but they are way too logical. I do know of some older people who get meals on wheels, which means they cannot get food assistance. So FJ in a way part of what you are posting is already happening.

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    They used to have  “surplus food commodities”.Canned pork chicken and beef.Dried fruit,giant cheese logs.That was a problem too,cause folks would find them unopened at the dump.So,what is the solution?

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Good point/Hey.Ill give them and even 25$ !!!
     

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Good point/Hey.Ill give them and even 25$ !!!
     

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Good point/Hey.Ill give them and even 25$ !!!
     

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Good point/Hey.Ill give them and even 25$ !!!
     

  • DonHorchKingofMen

    Good point/Hey.Ill give them and even 25$ !!!
     

  • jsscharf

    Isn’t this evidence that people are getting too much in food stamps?

    Where are the environmentalists? Wasting a resource and artificially increasing production.

  • Anonymous

    personally reasponsible: you said, “It’s time us hardworking Americans start asking about constitutional
    rights when our hard earned money is taken from us and given to drug
    addicts, alcoholics, and people who just don’t feel the need to work
    because the system owes them a living”
    That statement infuriates me.
    ” I have worked hard, physically, 24/7, painting murals & just plain house painting, for many years supporting 2 children as a single Mother. I am an Artist but I was never too proud to clean houses or bartend on the side to make ends meet. I am now 72 years old, & in fact I DID apply for a bartending  job last winter, The 6′ tall YOUNG MAN bartender/bouncer, got the job NOT ME!
    What really angers me is that the RESTRICTIONS we have NOW, put in place largly by CONSERVATIVES who believe in small government, and have consistantly voted against the interests of most of us/ free enterprise/capitalism on a very small scale, because they have been misguided into resenting small stuff like this food stamp issue, welfare recipients, while the BIG CORPORATIONS ARE ROBBING US BLIND.   These restrictions PREVENT ME from helping myself economically, by causing me to lose Mainecare Liheap, foodstamps………….if I earn over $300. extra in a month. SO if I sell you something for $350. today……I am forced to  then earn no less than $5,000. this year to cover the deficit. That puts me right back where I started,…………no gain. To really make it work, I have to earn $10,000. in a year.
    LETS BE REAL! How much artwork have YOU purchased this year? Would you pay for art lessons for your kids, a brochure for your business??
     A shop where I have my greeting cards owner says this year people are coming through like it’s a museum, oohing & aahing & leaving without buying!
    Not only am I losing income but also PRIDE OF EXERCISING MY TALENTS & SKILLS TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF, which served me well for over 30 years.
    I know there are some that game the system, always have been always will be, that’s human nature; BUT THEY ARE NOT THE CAUSE OF OUR PROBLEMS!

  • oldgrump

    Most sodas are high in sugar content and caffine.  Caffine is a diuretic that will cause loss of hydration.  Soda is NOT nutritional.  Water, on the other hand, is free of these additives.  Water helps keep the body hydrated, the reason they suggest you drink at least 2 liters of water a day.  Actually, the body demands water.

    Soda has many additives, preservatives, artifical flavorings.  If one relies on soda for hydration or “nutrition” they are, in essence, poisoning themselves and achieving the opposite effect.  Water helps keep the system flushed out, helps remove toxins, is easly absorbed by the body without pumping in empty calories.

    I have nothing against soda but I understand the “nutritional value”.  I am not adverse to having an ice cold Pepsi and you will find soda in my firdge.  However, to say “Soda is nutritional water is not” is so wrong on so many levels.  Soda is nothing but flavorings, sugar (or sugar substitute) and preservatives added to water.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZSBAAXFEXTIBDSRA5X3FA6TSG4 jersey

    Bangor Maine is becoming worse than most cities. And the state is focussing on stopping  2 adults are getting married? Do we see a problem here?

  • oldgrump

    “Simple answer-move”"I have a 20 year old daughter…..decided she wanted to live in LA so she stayed with some friends….”.

    A 20 year old single girl is quite different from a 30+ year old with family.  Packing a suitcase and hitchhiking, hopping a plane/bus/train is nothing for someone who is still fairly fresh to life.  When someone has lived in an area all their life, it’s going to be very rare for them to have a “friend” across the country who is going to house and feed them while they “find their feet”.

    It is not “simple”.  It would take planning and a great deal of angst to just jump up and go.  And, if you are the sole provider for the family, it’s easy to give up a job that at least pays something to leave them behind with no support while you go chase a dream?

    Then there’s the possiblity that said adventurer purchased a home back during the time when it was easy to do so.  Now they are saddled with albatrose that has probably  gone down in value in a market that is not moving.  So, they should just pack up the spouse and kids, walk away from the obligation and hope to find greener pastures in an employement market where you already have 50 applicants for every one position?

  • oldgrump

    Interesting.  I live in an area that has a horrid public water supply.  I do buy water so I can drink it.  I also have a couple of refillable, spill resistant “glasses” to use when I’m travelling.  Back in my school days, my mother bought this cute little thing called a lunch kit.  Guess what was in it?  A matching thermos (refillable, nondisposable, liquids container). 

    We are all aware that buying in “bulk” tends to be less expensive than buying in “single serving”. Thus, the ability to purchase a gallon jug of water and transfer some to a “single serving ” container is beyond the ken for some?

  • Anonymous

    Well then you must understand how easy it would be to stop this kind of fraud…..the argument that it is so little that this fraud is meaningless is lazy thinking

  • Anonymous

    In addition to your good points,I’ll add that phosphates in soda also leach the calcium out of your bones.  All in all, not so good stuff to just drink on occassion.

  • Anonymous

    So if anything short of pure capitalism is socialism.. is antthing short of pure socialism, capitalism? Capitalism is great when it’s mixed with elements of socialism. And yes coporate welfare & white collar crime do are relavent to this article because the are the other end of the spectrum.

  • Anonymous

    Not everyone can be doctors or computer programers or whatever else today’s lucrative careers are.  Are you suggesting that everyone who is not in a sucessful profession just up and go back to school and study to be one of the elite?  What are we going to do with all these well-educated people flooding the job market when there are only so many of these jobs to go around?

  • Anonymous

    I don’t mind paying taxes to help the needy.  But I belive that wealthy people and big corpoartions should be paying a larger percentage. The wealthy people of the WW2 generation saw it as their duty to give back. And we had a strong middle class back then. We had something called the American Dream that was taken away when the country swung to the right.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t mind paying taxes to help the needy.  But I belive that wealthy people and big corpoartions should be paying a larger percentage. The wealthy people of the WW2 generation saw it as their duty to give back. And we had a strong middle class back then. We had something called the American Dream that was taken away when the country swung to the right.

  • Anonymous

    I strongly belive in limiting food choices. Only healthy food. No soda, snacks jusk food, no bottled water either. That would make a big difference. Some poeple would buy anything if they could only buy health food and if that’s the case they don’t need it.

  • Anonymous

    Show me where it says that soda is better for you than juice.  Carbonation is from carbon dioxide, an odorless, tasteless gas so it has nothing to do with making soda taste good.  I think you need to do a little more research.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YY4RWDGTWHJ62GNFFQD722T54A Lisa

    I totally agree, probably the same people, this is why they are trying to make the rules more stiff, people that actually need the programs, dont qualify, but the people who dont  work, for what ever reason not always the right reason, actually make out like bandits,  guess i will have to talk to them see how i can benefit,  lol. 

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    No, there is nothing mean in what I have stated. If you are sponging off the work of others and believe you are entitled to be supported by others, then starve.

  • Liberal Soup N Crackers

    I said nothing about being a doctor or a programmer. I am suggesting that learning to join a pipe or run wiring or concrete can provide skills with which a man or woman can provide for their family.

  • Anonymous

    I’m starting to think you are just plain inflammatory or nutritionally ignorant.  Doritos=tortilla chips and cheese.  Trans-fat fried chips with artificially colored and flavored cheese powder.  Soda a staple.  And who eats 10 egg yolks a day?  How does that comment even support your argument?

  • Anonymous

    A whole-grain bagel with fat-free cream cheese is fine.

  • Anonymous

    I’m beginning to think she’s insane….

  • Anonymous

    If you think your child deserves a sweet treat now and then, that’s fine—just buy it the same way everyone who isn’t on the SNAP program buys them—with their discretionary income.  It is called  SNAP because it is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—it’s not the SSTP, the Supplemental Snack & Treat Program.

  • Anonymous

    If you think your child deserves a sweet treat now and then, that’s fine—just buy it the same way everyone who isn’t on the SNAP program buys them—with their discretionary income.  It is called  SNAP because it is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—it’s not the SSTP, the Supplemental Snack & Treat Program.

  • Anonymous

    She is a troll.

  • Anonymous

    She is a troll.

  • Anonymous

    WIC is for Women, Infants and Children.  It’s for pregnant and nursing women, infant formula and children up to the age of 5.  It’s NOT for construction workers or even men at all.  It’s for women and children at risk nutritionally or medically who need extra help. 

  • Anonymous

    WIC is for Women, Infants and Children.  It’s for pregnant and nursing women, infant formula and children up to the age of 5.  It’s NOT for construction workers or even men at all.  It’s for women and children at risk nutritionally or medically who need extra help. 

  • Anonymous

    I’m starting to see that.  Too bad I wasted my time responding….

  • Anonymous

    I read that a couple weeks ago and my jaw hit the floor. Have we completely lost our minds?     

    *****************************************
    I don’t think we have completely lost our minds yet, else the latest entitlement program wouldn’t be advertised in the post office.  Last week, while mailing out my bills and work invoices, I saw an advertisement for the latest government program.  As you probably know, Maine residents can get free classes to prepare to take the test for their G.E.D.  Now, these classes are mandatory—you can’t just schedule an appointment to take the test, even if you have only been out of high school for a couple months and you didn’t get your diploma because you didn’t have enough credits for Phys. Ed/Health.  But, here’s the unique thing about this new program.  The taxpayers of Maine will now PAY someone taking these classes $100.00 a week for as long as they need to take classes!  Now, for the kicker—it’s not for your average Mainer.  It is only for migrant workers!  I have absolutely no problem with migrant workers getting the training and education necessary to take the test for their G.E.D.—but to PAY them $100.00 a week while they do it is absurd!

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