The fact that lilMike won't discuss topics here or the fact that he knows he can post crap
elsewhere but will only come here to argue over a misspelled word?
AUBURN — A year ago, Leroy Fick lived in a “little box house” that lilted to one side, and made ends meet on $650 monthly disability and food assistance stipends.
“I lived very miserably for a long time,” said Fick, 59, of Auburn. “I never had much. My mom (now 93) helped me pay the utility bills.”
Back then, most folks paid no attention to him, he said.
“Now, everybody wants a piece of me,” he said.
Fick raised the public ire this week when news broke that he continues to use his Michigan Bridge Card, the electronic alternative to food stamps, despite winning a $2 million jackpot in the state’s Make Me Rich! lottery in June.
Because Fick received his winnings in a lump sum, the windfall does not affect his eligibility for food assistance, said Gisgie D. Gendreau, director of public relations for the Michigan Department of Human Services.
Bridge Cards, also known as electronic benefit transfer cards, are federally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the federal government sets the eligibility standards that the states must follow, Gendreau added.
State Rep. Charles Brunner, D-Bay City, said the state is not without options for changing the rules.
Forty other states have obtained waivers allowing them to consider liquid assets in determining eligibility, he said.
“The state should have, and could have, done something about this abuse of taxpayer dollars long ago,” said Brunner.
Today, Brunner asked the DHS to seek a waiver, as 40 other states already have, that would allow Michigan to consider liquid assets when determining eligibility.
He also called on Congress to change eligibility standards, and urged the DHS to ferret out other Bridge Card holders who have “major liquid assets.”
Fick, who received $200 in monthly Bridge Card benefits, ended up with $850,000 -- less than half his winnings -- after taxes.
With that money, he built a house, bought a car and invested the remainder “because it was the prudent thing to do.”
He says using the card also is prudent.
Fick now lives on about $1,500 in monthly annuities from investments, and $450 in Social Security disability payments.
I'm not questioning whether Fick should or should not still receive food stamps. What he did is legal and he shouldn't be criticized for it.
What assholes who say stuff like:
Food stamps are to help the poor get on their feet, not give you a temporary source of income so you don't have to touch the money you have in the bank. It's not to help you retire comfortably. It is to help poor people, real poor people, you know, those who have no retirement or savings or income....
are sheltered idiots who have no comprehension of what "real poor" is, least of all what "real life" is. Food stamps are not a "temporary source of income", they're a means of getting food so what little
cash you have can pay for
living expenses because you're poor.
This guy took his lotto winnings, bought a home and a car, and invested the remainder. He now, prudently, lives off the interest from the investments. Nothing wrong with that...
I also take great exception to the following:
Assets absolutely should be included.
WTF? So you work your whole life, scrimping and saving enough to put a down payment on a house and buy a decent car so that when your greedy boss lays you off so he can outsource your job to Mexico you have to end up destroying whatever little bit of integrity you have so you can live because that's the only way you can get food stamps to feed your family?
This coming from the folks who don't want the government to over-regulate us? Wait.
It's not us. Regulate us all you want, just leave the big oil companies alone!
Ponderous....
