Can you tell the difference between the “paid” and the “volunteers?”
If you can explain what a “paid volunteer” is, you get to work in Washington, DC.
Two Senate Republicans identified a welfare loophole that allows ‘paid government volunteers’ in AmeriCorps to receive food stamps from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — for which they should not qualify, as a rule — in addition to a stipend from the government.
“The role of the SNAP program isn’t to provide additional money to paid government volunteers; it is to help feed hungry American families,” Sen. John Thune, R-N.D., said in a statement today.
I have nothing against volunteering. And I certainly don’t object to getting paid. But as soon as you’re getting paid, you are by definition no longer “volunteering.”
The gap between a professional prostitute and a “volunteer” sorority girl is vast. You confuse the two at your own peril.
I’ve written about the illogical idiocy of the “paid volunteer” movement before. One of President Obama’s first legislative victories was pushing through more money to pay people “volunteering” their time.
And we discovered the concept of “Deval-unteering” when Gov. Patrick expanded the “get a paid day off work to ‘volunteer’” program for state employees. MA Congresswoman Nikki Tsongas even had a “paid volunteer” running her campaign a few years ago!
The goal is obvious: Make collecting a government paycheck appear noble.
No, it’s not. A volunteer is noble. A paid government hack is a paid government hack.
Radio talk show host, columnist for the Boston Herald, stand-up comic and former GOP political consultant.