And, yet, nobody from the federal government has ever come back to me and asked me to show that I wasn't squandering my tax refund — made possible largely by a mortgage payments and charitable contributions — on filet mignon and cruises.
That said, the WaPo has it wrong — it's not so much of a double-standard (poor "entitlements" are scandalous, but not-poor "entitlements" are virtuous), as a shaming mechanism, a class warfare, so to speak, to get the not-poor resentful of those poverty-ridden parasites, vs., say, others who are doing even better than they are in the government largesse game.
The double-standard of making the poor prove they’re worthy of government benefits
Why it’s so politically easy to bash government programs for the poor.
And, of course, putting all these unnecessary restrictions in place and trying to enforce them costs a shitload of money. But government waste is the enemy, amirite?
Class warfare where people doing o.k. are jealous of the poor?
Seems like a stretch to me, Dave.
I don't take issue with people who need help getting that help, but it shouldn't turn into a lifestyle and there needs to be a better way to combat fraud.
+Mark Means Can you elaborate on what you mean by "lifestyle"?
I think Dave refers to, this is a class warfare, as its a mechanism used to create an us vs them system. Essentially government subsidies for middle class and up are ok, but the ones for the poor are not. And not only are the ones for the poor not ok, but we have to demonize them too. Such as Fox News report about how, GASP, poor people have refrigerators, microwaves, cell phones, and other common 1st world tools.
The demonizing part is what creates the warfare without adding much value.
+Mark Means I'll echo what +Jon Weber says. It's not so much "jealous" as "resentful" — as in "Why do they get free money and free food and free Obamaphones, and I have to work for a living?"
I have no problem with fighting fraud (though I suspect there is more tax fraud than welfare fraud, but let's by all means reduce the IRS's budget for that because everyone hates the tax man) — but, like fighting crime, the question of whether you accept punishing the innocent to catch the guilty, or allow some guilty to escape to ensure protection of the innocent, is a major decision.