Barack Obama isn’t just the food stamp president. He’s the love stamp president — at least for recipients of the government hand-out living in Louisiana. CBS affiliate WAFB reports (h/t International Journal Review, reader teejk) that a store in the town of Gonzales that sells “adult specialty items” accepts all manner of credit cards, including EBTs, short for Electronic Benefit Transfer cards (aka food stamps). SNAP!
“Kiss My Lingerie” began accepting EBT cards eight months ago according to the owner, who said the store accepts every form of payment and does not discriminate against customers.
A woman who works near the store and asked not to be identified said [that] in the last few weeks, she’s noticed more people going inside the adult shop. She added that’s when she saw the message on the front door of the store that the EBT card is listed as an acceptable form of payment.
“We were told anything could be purchased there, with the food stamp card,” she said. “No child I know eats edible underwear.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Children and Family Services said the EBT card, or the Louisiana Purchase card, is not just for food stamps. There are also cash benefits available for other family needs. The only things the cash benefits do not cover are alcohol, tobacco, lottery tickets, casinos and adult entertainment.
According to state officials, “there’s no violation of the law with the store accepting the card for lingerie and other adult items.” But shouldn’t there be?
Last Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner was assailed by his Democratic colleagues as heartless when he lamented that, with the passage of the farm bill, “states have found ways to cheat once again on signing up people for food stamps. I would hope that the House would act to try to stop this cheating and this fraud from continuing.”
Rep. Charles Rangel, himself no stranger to fraud, delivered a stinging rebuke:
Whoever thinks feeding the hungry and the poor is cheating and fraud must have no heart.
Whether that includes providing the food of love to the romance-starved, Congressman Rangel didn’t say.
WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
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