Food Stamp Fraud

[G8trGr8t]

Since admins decided the other thread should be closed because they did not like the source or the story or one of the quotes or who the heck knows why, perhaps this one can remain open since it is direct from NBC news.

An Illinois grocer was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in federal prison Monday for defrauding government and nutrition programs.

Khaled Saleh, 48, the owner of Sunset Food Market in Waukegan was charged with illegally exchanging cash with customers using food stamp cards and nutrition coupons during an undercover investigation.

Saleh was sentenced to 30 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle.

Saleh, along with his wife, Fatima Saleh, 37, acquired more than $844,000 by paying customers approximately half the value in cash for goods purchased at other stores using their benefits.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...mp-fraud?lite=

And this is the tip of the iceberg, this happens every day in every town in this country.

[gatornana]

There's been fraud in gov programs for decades.....medicare, medicaid, welfare. As we move toward handing over programs like education and prisons to private, for-profits, expect more fraud.

[PSGator66]

The more government programs involving these types of programs the more fraud we shall have. Can't wait to see how some work the Obamacare.

[gatornana]

Originally Posted by PSGator66

The more government programs involving these types of programs the more fraud we shall have. Can't wait to see how some work the Obamacare.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...mp-empire.html

[enviroGator]

I think it should go back to how it was when I was growing up (FTR we did not get it), where they gave the people food rather than money to buy food. Less room for fraud, and it made people feel bad about being on gov. support.

I agree with safety net programs, but think they should be just enough to keep the people alive and healthy.

If they want more... go get a job and get it.

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by gatornana

There's been fraud in gov programs for decades.....medicare, medicaid, welfare. As we move toward handing over programs like education and prisons to private, for-profits, expect more fraud.

Good excuse, it's obvious the federal government has relaxed standards for welfare and disability. Medicare, Medicaid, and SS should not exist in their current form.

[gatornana]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

Good excuse, it's obvious the federal government has relaxed standards for welfare and disability. Medicare, Medicaid, and SS should not exist in their current form.

The topic is fraud.

[GatrHeel]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

Good excuse, it's obvious the federal government has relaxed standards for welfare and disability. Medicare, Medicaid, and SS should not exist in their current form.

Do you have a link to support your claim that the federal government "has relaxed standards for" disability?

And are you suggesting that the "relaxation" occurred under the current administration's watch?

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by GatrHeel

Do you have a link to support your claim that the federal government "has relaxed standards for" disability?

And are you suggesting that the "relaxation" occurred under the current administration's watch?

Well here is one from a California watchdog that should serve as a new example

http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/09/2...-general-fund/

The Obama Administration’s loosened eligibility requirements for Social Security Disability have swelled the number of those on Medicaid in California. It is Obama’s relaxed requirements for Social Security Disability — put into place by Obama Administration appointees and coupled with declining federal funds — that is busting the California general fund budget at this time.

This is an increase nationwide



http://news.investors.com/business/0...ama.htm?p=full

Now I was born in the morning but not yesterday morning. You don't get this type of increase without relaxing the system.

A record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program.

This is straining already-stretched government finances while posing a long-term economic threat by creating an ever-growing pool of permanently dependent working-age Americans.

Since the recession ended in June 2009, the number of new enrollees to Social Security's disability insurance program is twice the job growth figure. (See nearby chart.) In just the first four months of this year, 539,000 joined the disability rolls and more than 725,000 put in applications.

[PSGator66]

Speaking of working the system.............

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...-surprise-you/

[enviroGator]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

Well here is one from a California watchdog that should serve as a new example

http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/09/2...-general-fund/



This is an increase nationwide



http://news.investors.com/business/0...ama.htm?p=full

Now I was born in the morning but not yesterday morning. You don't get this type of increase without relaxing the system.

Your post shows absolutely nothing about how O did or did not change disability requirements. NOTHING.

And your graph shows that the numbers have climbed at nearly the exact rate that they did through the Bush years, so your comment about "you can't get this kind of change" is obviously wrong or your saying Bush did it too, which I'm pretty sure was not the case.

[Matthanuf06]

Lots of fraud on the front end with false applications

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by enviroGator

Your post shows absolutely nothing about how O did or did not change disability requirements. NOTHING.

And your graph shows that the numbers have climbed at nearly the exact rate that they did through the Bush years, so your comment about "you can't get this kind of change" is obviously wrong or your saying Bush did it too, which I'm pretty sure was not the case.

Really? That was provided in my very first link, but instead your eyes gravited on the graph and commented solely based on that

[G8trGr8t]

Originally Posted by gatornana

There's been fraud in gov programs for decades.....medicare, medicaid, welfare. As we move toward handing over programs like education and prisons to private, for-profits, expect more fraud.

so is it your belief that private companies are less effective at locating and minimizing fraud than the gubmnt is? Really?? If the gubmnt offered to pay any private corporation 50% of the fraud they could uncover the companies would be lining up at the gate to cash that check.

Private enterprise is much more efficient than the gubmnt will ever be. They have to be to remain in business. Unless you are too big too fail which seems to be what this gubmnt likes and encourages with their regulatory environment.

[GatrHeel]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

Well here is one from a California watchdog that should serve as a new example

http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/09/2...-general-fund/



This is an increase nationwide



http://news.investors.com/business/0...ama.htm?p=full

Now I was born in the morning but not yesterday morning. You don't get this type of increase without relaxing the system.

Thanks for the link. It contains this statement:

"It is Obama’s relaxed requirements for Social Security Disability — put into place by Obama Administration appointees and coupled with declining federal funds — that is busting the California general fund budget at this time", and then links to a June 2012 opinion article in Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrode...jobs-policies/

The Forbes article cites to a study by the "super-non partisan National Bureau of Economic Research" to explain the reasons for the rise in disability.

http://www.nber.org/bah/fall06/w12436.html

Of course, the study -- written in 2006 -- concluded that the "relaxed requirements" were the results of a law passed in 1984.

Got any other links?

And for the record -- I'm certainly not disputing that there's been a rise in people on disability. Nor that there are people currently on disability who should not be.

I do, however, reject the notion that this was the result of the Obama Administration relaxing requirements. Also, before responding with a new link, you may like to know that the most recent Commissioner of Social Security was a Bush appointee. He served from 2007-2013. Prior to that he served as Associate Counsel to both Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr.

[ncgatr1]

Originally Posted by gatornana

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...mp-empire.html

So the increase in the chance of fraud is good for business? I wonder how much of that money JP Morgan is making will offset the billions in fraud created and paid by taxpayers. Nice point.

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by GatrHeel

Thanks for the link. It contains this statement:

"It is Obama’s relaxed requirements for Social Security Disability — put into place by Obama Administration appointees and coupled with declining federal funds — that is busting the California general fund budget at this time", and then links to a June 2012 opinion article in Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrode...jobs-policies/

The Forbes article cites to a study by the "super-non partisan National Bureau of Economic Research" to explain the reasons for the rise in disability.

http://www.nber.org/bah/fall06/w12436.html

Of course, the study -- written in 2006 -- concluded that the "relaxed requirements" were the results of a law passed in 1984.

Got any other links?

And for the record -- I'm certainly not disputing that there's been a rise in people on disability. Nor that there are people currently on disability who should not be.

I do, however, reject the notion that this was the result of the Obama Administration relaxing requirements. Also, before responding with a new link, you may like to know that the most recent Commissioner of Social Security was a Bush appointee. He served from 2007-2013. Prior to that he served as Associate Counsel to both Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr.

Yep, Remember this?

Obama Administration illegally guts welfare reform

As The Washington Examiner revealed, “In a quiet move Thursday,” the "Obama administration ‘released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996.’" Its directive "allows the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to waive the work requirement at the heart of welfare reform. That reform, originally vetoed but later signed into law by President Bill Clinton, is widely viewed as the most successful policy initiative in a generation. Under it, the growth in welfare rolls was reversed and millions of people moved from welfare to work. Despite its success, however, many liberals remain opposed to reform. For example, in the years immediately after passage of the law, Barack Obama himself pledged to do all he could to undo it. Now, he has.” The Heritage Foundation called this action illegal and another sign of an imperial presidency. (This directive gutting welfare reform was issued by HHS after consultation with the White House).

[GatrHeel]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

Yep, Remember this?

Obama Administration illegally guts welfare reform

As The Washington Examiner revealed, “In a quiet move Thursday,” the "Obama administration ‘released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996.’" Its directive "allows the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to waive the work requirement at the heart of welfare reform. That reform, originally vetoed but later signed into law by President Bill Clinton, is widely viewed as the most successful policy initiative in a generation. Under it, the growth in welfare rolls was reversed and millions of people moved from welfare to work. Despite its success, however, many liberals remain opposed to reform. For example, in the years immediately after passage of the law, Barack Obama himself pledged to do all he could to undo it. Now, he has.” The Heritage Foundation called this action illegal and another sign of an imperial presidency. (This directive gutting welfare reform was issued by HHS after consultation with the White House).

Thanks, but I'm asking for something to support your allegation that the current administration has "relaxed" the standards for disability.

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

Good excuse, it's obvious the federal government has relaxed standards for welfare and disability. Medicare, Medicaid, and SS should not exist in their current form.

Unless, of course, you were decrying the 1984 law passed on Reagan's watch.

[G8trGr8t]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardf...for-taxpayers/

1 in 14 workers now on SSDI. More people added to SSDI than jobs created under this administration. 27 pages of mental health issues that could qualify every person in the country permanently disabled if you get the right doctor to support your claim. Political pressure to approve claims to get people off of UE and to lower unemployment percentage is a hard thing to prove but the swelling of the numbers of people on SSDI is a sure tell that cases are being approved easier than ever before.

And the gubmnt is giving people incentive to keep their children dumb so they qualify for SSDI.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politic...y-fraud-121012

Many people in hillside mobile homes here are poor and desperate, and a$698 monthly check per child from the Supplemental Security Income program goes a long way - and those checks continue until the child turns 18. "The kids get taken out of the program because the parents are going to lose the check," said Billie Oaks, who runs a literacy program here in Breathitt County, a poor part of Kentucky. "It's heartbreaking."
This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America's safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency. Our poverty programs do rescue many people, but other times they backfire. Some young people here don't join the military (a traditional escape route for poor, rural Americans) because it's easier to rely on food stamps and disability payments. Antipoverty programs also discourage marriage: In a means-tested program like S.S.I., a woman raising a child may receive a bigger check if she refrains from marrying that hard-working guy she likes. Yet marriage is one of the best forces to blunt poverty. In married couple households only one child in 10 grows up in poverty, while almost half do in single-mother households. Most wrenching of all are the parents who think it's best if a child stays illiterate, because then the family may be able to claim a disability check each month. "One of the ways you get on this program is having problems in school," notes Richard V. Burkhauser, a Cornell University economist who co-wrote a book last year about these disability programs. "If you do better in school, you threaten the income of the parents. It's a terrible incentive."

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by GatrHeel

Thanks, but I'm asking for something to support your allegation that the current administration has "relaxed" the standards for disability.



Unless, of course, you were decrying the 1984 law passed on Reagan's watch.

LOL, Disability welfare
Its all part of the welfare program. When someone claims mental illness because their unemployment runs out they go onto the welfare roles