Originally Posted by astrahl

I am against Big Brother, too.
You cannot buy alcohol with food stamps, why should you be allowed to gamble with welfare money?
Same deal.

"People on the dole have just as much right to live their lives free from government interference as the rest of us."
I disagree. They are inviting the government into their checkbooks. Expect that the government will be concerned as to how the money is spent.

If the government can tell a scientist that, "We gave you this much money and you can only spent it on equipment." If that scientist wants to go to a conference that would benefit his or her research, they cannot use that same money. Why can't those restrictions, which already exist, be applied to this other segment of the population? NOT holding these people accountable for their spending when we hold other government money recipients accountable is discriminatory.