Some Citizens get nifty new debit cards

I'm jealous! Here are some of the comments on the new card:

"[The new debit card] gives you a lot more privacy in purchasing merchandise." - Frederick Henry, 35, of West Palm Beach, Fla.

"The more money you have in your hand, the more you spend. But with [the new debit card], I budget myself for the month" - Jessette Santiago of New York City

"[I'll take either the debit card or the paper format] as long as I have something to eat" - Phillip Harrison, 67, of Manhattan

Wait, how'd that last one get in there?

Because the new debit cards replace paper food stamps:

...The food stamp program has its roots in the Depression era. It operated as a temporary measure from 1939 to 1943. After 18 years of studies and legislative debate, it was restarted as a pilot program in 1961 and made permanent three years later as part of President Johnson's Great Society.

In signing the law on Aug. 31, 1964, Johnson said the program, "one of our most valuable weapons for the war on poverty," combines humanitarian instincts with the best of the free-enterprise system, improving the diets of low-income people "while strengthening markets for the farmer and immeasurably improving the volume of retail food sales."

And, anyone who's driven through, for instance, South L.A. can see the massive benefits such programs have wrought.

Politics · Tue, 06/22/2004 - 19:34 · · Importance: 1