The NH House All-Reps List "EBT Card" Dialog, part 2a:
O'Brien Refuses to Let Go of His Anger

additional commentary by Rep. Timothy Horrigan; July 9, 2012

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Every so often, a story goes viral in the right wing media about lazy welfare recipients using their EBT Cards to rip off the taxpayers. EBT stands for "Electronics Benefits Transfer": these EBT cards are issued by the Department of Agriculture. They look like— and are— ordinary debit cards, and they are used for several welfare programs. The most common program is the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (aka "food stamps") which can only be used for food. But there are a few other programs which pay cash benefits which can used for anything.

The Speaker of the New Hampshire House, Bill O'Brien, got a  lot of criticism for banning the Concord Monitor from a July 6 press conference about EBT cards.  He was angry with them over  an op-ed columnist's cartoons which compared him to Groucho Marx, Karl Marx and Adolph Hitler.  Two weeks later, he was still angry, and he clearly has no intention of letting go of that anger.  Ironically, the EBT card controversy has been going well for Da Speakah: no one (aside from a few oddballs like myself and rightwing gadfly Grant Bosse) has dared to defend the right of the poor and powerless to decide how to spend their tiny cash benefits.




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