How About Straight-Up Cash Welfare?

An interesting idea.

...Some have ruefully remarked that it would be far more efficient to hand out the entirety of the government dole as cash money, reducing (but of course not eliminating) the vast government welfare bureaucracy in favor of simple, direct wealth transfer via monthly check. There are all sorts of reasons that’s not going to happen. The government welfare bureaucracy does not want to be reduced; the public would react with outrage at the size of those monthly checks, since Food Stamp Nation’s benefits are often worth more than a middle-class salary; the power of government to control its dependents would be dissipated; and the architects of Food Stamp Nation do not trust their dependents to spend cash money wisely.  --ColdFury quoting Hayward

There are other reasons.  The phone companies who are the REAL beneficiaries of ObozoPhones, and the debit-card processors who are the REAL beneficiaries of the 'non-cash' benefit payment systems have hired very expensive lobbyists and the finest legislators money can buy (yes, I know that pond-scum is not usually expensive, but...)

Carney oughta spend a day with Hayward.  It could be dynamite.