Poor ? Tough.

I'm always interested in reading newspaper articles that help me keep up with things happening in my old stomping grounds. This one, in today's Austin American Statesman, is about current problems in the Texas food stamp program. Actually, any reference to food stamps is a use of obsolete terminology, since a debit card process was implemented before I retired. The clients quoted in the article are kidding themselves if they think the people running their red state give a spinning shit about their problems.

Operating the food stamp program in a timely, accurate manner was hard enough when I was directly involved in it, and it was a certainty that any time we cut staff for budgetary reasons, backlogs and benefit errors would result. Ironically, conservatives used the problems they created with budget cuts to justify their privatization schemes --- as if transferring the operation of services intended to help poor people to profit-motivated corporations was a solution. At the risk of repeating myself, some things are better left to the public sector.

And speaking of Texas politicians, Numero Dos on the Waste of Oxygen list is still around, dancing and sounding off. Tom says the GOP lacks up-and-coming leaders, and is still being dominated by the crowd he used to pal around with. As they say, even a blind hog will root up an acorn now and then.