Deval’s anecdotes and LePage’s rage

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    Many years ago, a female acquaintance of mine had a rude awakening in a supermarket checkout line. She was a single mom, raising four kids on a meager salary and on-again, off-again child support. So she was eligible for – and used – food stamps.

    While buying groceries one day, two women behind her started making remarks about her coat, such as “Must be nice” and “Our taxpayer dollars at work.”
    So my friend paid for her order, waited for the two armchair critics to leave the checkout line and let ‘em have it with both barrels.
    The “expensive-looking” coat was a 10-year-old hand-me-down. In fact, a lot of her wardrobe was purchased from thrift shops or secondhand stores. So next time, she advised, stop judging people before you know all the facts.
    I thought of this tale after the hottest story of the week hit the newsstands: the uncovering of the EBT card abuse. While the information was released through the governor’s office, the data was actually acquired through a Freedom of Access request by the Maine Heritage Policy Council.
    Anyhow, after the initial rounds were fired, cooler heads prevailed and the percentage of questionable transactions turned out to be about .2 percent. Yep, that period is in the right place – about two out of 1,000.
    And even some of these purchases may have been at ATMs located in convenience stores that primarily sell gas, high-calorie snacks, booze and smokes.
    Last year, Massachusetts Gov. Patrick Deval was handed a similar study, also with a relatively small percentage of questionable EBT use.
    He promptly dismissed the transactions as “anecdotes” and blasted the Boston Herald for publishing another negative article on his administration.
    On the other hand, Gov. Paul LePage sounded almost delighted to get the EBT study, and claimed that it underscored his belief that the state has massive welfare fraud.
    So let’s take a breather.
    Discovering that two EBT transactions per 1,000 users might be shady does not constitute a crisis. It does show that the system needs to be monitored a little more carefully. A crook is a crook, whether they swipe $1,000 from their employer or use their EBT card for a birthday lap dance at a strip joint.
    A law was already passed last November by the Maine Legislature to restrict EBT card use from any business that earns more than 50 percent of its gross revenue from the sale of liquor or “adult” entertainment venues. So chances are that the data was collected before this law went into effect.
    Deval is wrong to call EBT card abuse “just anecdotes.” But LePage is equally at fault to describe Maine’s irregularities as a major problem.
    Like my friend wearing the expensive dress coat at the supermarket, things aren’t always as they appear to be on the surface.
    So let’s fix the system without beating up those who need it the most.
    Mike Lange is a staff writer with the Piscataquis Observer. His opinions are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.