EBT stands for Electronic Benefit Transfer” and is a system that allows government agencies to issue money via plastic debit cards.1 EBT cards are most commonly used for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, formerly known as the food stamp program. (As a side note, the government’s modus operandi for unpopular and unconstitutional programs is to periodically rename them and give them long and confusing names to remove them from the public consciousness.) SNAP is a federal aid program for low- and no-income families which automatically puts funds on their card once a month to allow them to purchase food. According to a 2010 study by the USDA, racial minorities are overrepresented twofold in the program, while whites are underrepresented by half.2 This is just another example of the huge gap between black and Hispanic tax consumers versus white and Asian taxpayers in America.3 With the millions of immigrants crossing the southern border over the past several decades, Mestizos have increasingly joined blacks at the welfare trough of the US racial spoils system. For example, the 2010 U.S. Census showed that most immigrant families, the majority of which are Hispanic, are on welfare:4
Surprise, surprise; Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs on behalf of their American-born anchor babies.
Even before the recession, immigrant households with children used welfare programs at consistently higher rates than natives, according to the extensive census data collected and analyzed by a nonpartisan Washington D.C. group dedicated to researching legal and illegal immigration in the U.S. The results, published this month in a lengthy report, are hardly surprising.
Basically, the majority of households across the country benefiting from publicly-funded welfare programs are headed by immigrants, both legal and illegal. States where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62%), Texas, California and New York with 61% each and Pennsylvania (59%).
And this is only going to get worse as the Obama administration has announced this week that it will be partnering with the Mexican government in order to increase SNAP participation amongst “Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.”5 In case you were wondering, “migrant communities in America” is a code phrase for “illegal immigrants” and the Mexican government “providing information” to Mexicans in America about this program is a code phrase for the Mexicans telling their people that “it’s cool, José, you won’t be deported for taking this money.” We are so used to the Republicans and Democrats stealing money from white people to fund racial minorities, even illegals, that it is difficult to imagine what a political party would look like if it actually cared about us and used our tax money to help us in concrete, even if unconstitutional, ways. The good news is that at least one party like that exists — the bad news is that it’s a Greek political party.
Greece has a corrupt political system. Those political parties elected to parliament can legally use public funds to finance their own operations and campaigns. In 2012, at a time when the country was in deep fiscal distress and people were starving on the streets, the ruling parties allotted around 15 Euros per voter to each party with seats in Parliament, amounting to tens of millions in payouts.6 This is seven times the percentage paid out by the much more financially stable Germany to its political parties.7 Despite this fact, the two major parties PASOK and ND are together almost 250 million euros in debt. This was one item in a long list of fiscal grievances which led PASOK and ND to lose much of their support in the May and June elections of this year to a number of newer, smaller parties on both the right and the left. One of these parties was the hardline Greek nationalist party Golden Dawn, which received just under 7% of the vote in both elections. The Golden Dawn wants Greece to remain Greek and has called for ethnically-based citizenship and the deportation of all immigrants. They have also vowed to fight governmental corruption, and as part of this have called for the end of state funding for political parties, saying in a party statement, “It is unacceptable for political parties to receive millions of euros when people are destitute.”8 Until that time, the Golden Dawn has announced that it will use its state funds to run programs which directly benefit the Greek people, such as soup kitchens and medical aid, as a way to “‘return’ the Greek people the money they gave [Golden Dawn] with their vote.”9 These programs are only open to ethnic Greeks; immigrants are excluded. Even a liberal reporter had to admit that, “[the Golden Dawn’s] actions should be acknowledged as a slap in the face of the established political world and particularly those claiming to be on the side of the poor and unemployed.” While our Republicans and Democrats are trying to find more ways amid our massive national debt to provide funds for immigrants, the Golden Dawn is using its funds for the betterment of actual Greeks. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a truly nationalist party like that here in America?
Footnotes
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Benefit_Transfer ↩
- http://www.fns.usda.gov/ORA/menu/Published/SNAP/FILES/Participation/2010Characteristics.pdf ↩
- http://taxfoundation.org/article/number-americans-outside-income-tax-system-continues-grow ↩
- http://nation.foxnews.com/illegal-immigrants/2011/04/05/most-illegal-immigrant-families-collect-welfare ↩
- http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/19/usda-partnering-with-mexico-to-boost-food-stamp-participation/ ↩
- http://venitism.blogspot.com/2012/05/holding-governments-accountable.html ↩
- http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=48512 ↩
- http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/06/golden-dawn-calls-for-abolition-of.html ↩
- http://greece.greekreporter.com/2012/07/16/golden-dawn-starts-kitchen-soups/ ↩
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