-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The Food Stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is a target for Republicans who voted to cut $40 billion from the program. The reasons that Republicans have given are so divorced from reality that one can reasonably suspect their true motivations lie elsewhere. The primacy of fantasy in the GOP has been recently evidenced by Michele Bachmann who sees signs of the End Times, a wished-for global apocalypse.
First up on the list of fantasies is by Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Arkansas) who said “the food stamp program [grew] exponentially because the government continues to turn a blind eye to a system fraught with abuse.” In reality, SNAP participation closely tracks the long term unemployment rate, prolonged by Republicans. The sale of SNAP benefits for cash, called “trafficking,” has been cut to $1 in every $100 of SNAP benefits. The reality is a one percent abuse rate, the fantasy is SNAP is “fraught” with abuse.
The next fantasy is that able-bodied people are getting food stamps instead of working. The reality is that 83% of all SNAP benefits go to households that include a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. The average individual gets $133 a month in SNAP benefits. It is ridiculous to imagine that a person is going to quit their job for $133 a month that can only be spent on food, but Republicans bear ridicule well.
The next fantasy is that SNAP recipients use their benefits to buy cigarettes and alcohol. The SNAP program uses Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards, similar to debit cards, that can be used in the supermarket checkout line only to purchase food. The Right likes to point to Jackie Whiton, a Peterborough, New Hampshire, store cashier who declined to accept an EBT card as payment for a pack of cigarettes. In reality, the EBT card contained state assistance money, not SNAP benefits, which can be used to purchase tobacco products. The store she worked for has a policy of accepting EBT cash benefits. In reality, Whiton was fired for violating the company’s policies.
The Republican war on programs that benefit Americans in need isn’t based on a philosophical commitment to small government. If it were, the $20 billion in farm subsidies, a welfare program for agribusiness, would be near the top of their hit list. According to a Greenberg report, the Republicans “are very conscious of being white in a country that is increasingly minority.” The report goes on to say that the “race issue [is] very much alive.” There you have it. Obama is taking their money and giving it to “Those People.”
H/T: Dave Johnson, Paul Krugman, Dottie Rosenbaum, Amanda Marcotte, Brian Tashman, WMUR.
Snap!
Shannon,
I see claims such as that all the time, but when pressed, it always seems to be that someone told them, not from first hand knowledge. If you know of any fraud anywhere in the public assistance program, the paragraph below provides you a means of reporting both online and by phone. Be my guest. Since you mentioned Craigslist, perhaps you would be so good as to share a few links with us so we can see it too.
Short version, since you and/or your daughter seem to know of such widespread abuse, you are obligated to report it. Otherwise, you are aiding and abetting a crime.
Contact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services toll-free at 1-800-447-8477. That number takes you to the US Inspector’s General’s Hotline. Representatives are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time. You can also fax your complaint to 1-800-223-8164 or email hhstips@oig.hhs.gov.
Sure, I will call and tell the Bigg Wigg and Turtle are using their benefits fraudulently. What an absolute moronic statement. Do you not think that I as a taxpayer would not report if I had the information to do so? Picking on me for bringing an issue to light does not fix the issue. Grow up.
Let’s not forget that Utah recently implemented drug testing for benefits. It cost a lot of money. It netted a grand total of 12 people.
In the entire state.
You don’t have to be a maths wizard to see that was a gross inefficiency that “fixed” a problem that wasn’t really a problem to begin with.
Shannon,
How would drug testing help, and who plans to pay for it? A single drug test can cost upwards of a hundred dollars each, depending on what it screened for. That does not count the need for getting a person to the place to be drug tested, so transportation will have to be provided for the disabled, shut-ins and otherwise infirm. Many of them have no cars and must depend on public transportation.
How can a person with a plastic debit card that only works at an approved food store give money to someone else or a drug dealer? They don’t work in an ATM.
In our area, grocery store cash registers have default settings so that non-food items will not be counted on the amount deducted from the card. If there are disallowed items in the shopping cart, the register will show a balance due that must be paid for in cash. In this era of optical scanners and digital cash registers, programming default settings is a snap (pun intended).
As I have said before, I don’t have all the answers but how it is done is that the beneficiary does one of two things, they accompany whomever they are selling their benefits to, swipe their card and then get paid cash in the parking lot or for the ones who have regular clients, they give their card to other person with PIN and exchange cash…then get their card back. When you are at the grocery store, pay attention…the cashier does not ask for ID with the use of these cards. Also, there have been ads on Craigslist for this very thing. It is not as infrequent as one may think. I would have never guessed it myself until my adult daughter started hanging out with the wrong crowd. So I asked. After I discovered what some people were doing, I asked other people I knew who receive benefits (I am not one of them). It is well known in that sort of community. A community in which thankfully many of us will never encounter.
Chris 1, October 12, 2013 at 11:12 am
Is there any way to filter out these political screeds and see this blog as it used to be — an interesting discussion of the law by an accomplished torts professor? I can see angry partisan writing everywhere else on the Web; I don’t want to here. Professor Turley: stop the guest blogging!
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Like SNAP is not the law?
We are talking about law here dood.
Is there any way to filter out these political screeds and see this blog as it used to be — an interesting discussion of the law by an accomplished torts professor? I can see angry partisan writing everywhere else on the Web; I don’t want to here. Professor Turley: stop the guest blogging!
David,
Thank you for this post. All the points you make are spot one, particularly regarding the fraud issue which has just about been eliminated through the electronic EBT Program. Those who claim it isn’t are being counter-factual. Now the fact is that this is an area where I have some expertise, which I’ll describe.
In 1997 I was brought in to be Deputy Director of the NYC Human Resources Administrations Office of Program and Fiscal Integrity. My primary duty was to reorganize the Office of Food Stamp Overpayment Claims. These claims occur when for one reason or another people get more (sometimes less) Food Stamp Benefits than their financial situation allows. The reason for my hiring was that USDA, which administers the Food Stamp Program had audited our “Claims” office and was threatening to take away $120 million in funds from NYC unless it examined all of the possible overpayment claims for the past 10 years and dealt with them. The “Claims” office had 55 employees, but only had three computers. The system used was an antiquated card system and its Director, who I subsequently fired, had run the office as a private fiefdom and was resistant to change. Since I had “carte blanche” from the Mayor’s (Giulliani) office. I at first took direct charge of the office, got rid of the current Director and reoganised it to include a modern computer system, that would add efficiency and accuracy to deal with all future Food Stamp Overpayment Issues. however, it didn’t end there. The USDA required me to go through every case file for the past 10 years and have it rebudgeted to determine if there was an overpayment made. If there was we were to collect that overpayment and had various resources including Income Tax intercepts to get the money back.
Ten years of Food Stamp possible overpayments represented an enormous amount of work. The case records were paper one and they each had to be reviewed and the checked with the Public Assistance computers and case records. The were more than a hundred thousand of these case records to review and to do the job I had more than 300 workers assigned to me. It took three years to complete the task and in the end NYC lost no funds and in fact the program realized some money in getting repayment from those who were “overpaid”
Now here is the kicker. There were three types of Food Stamp Overpayment.reasons to be determined. Fraud, Worker Error and Client Error. Fraud case could not be prosecuted criminally for the most part due to statuory limitations. But each one could and would be recouped financially providing the person was still alive. Fraud accounted for less than 2% of the cases. Client error cases existed when the client had made a non-fraudulent error that led to a food Stamp overpayment. These cases were also recouped if the client was alive. Client error accounted for 14% of these cases. Worker Error accounted for 84% of the more than 100,000 cases we reviewed. The problem was like income tax, figuring a food stamp budget before the full use of computers was a tricky thing and it was easy for a worker to make an honest mistake. Now with computerization those mistakes simply don’t happen. By the way the fact that there had been an overpayment due to worker error did not relieve the overpaid client of responsibility and all of those cases were “recouped”. It is also important to understand that the money was “recouped” even if the client was still on Public Assistance, by deducting an amount from each check until paid.
We hear much posturing about Food Stamps but the truth is that it is a well run program that supplies significant benefit to our country by assisting those in need with obtaining food to live one. The alternative really is starvation or criminality since people need to eat. The many who will nitpick at the program are usually ignorant of the reality, or somehow simply don’t care about other people’s hunger and that is sad.
Remember 9/10/01 when Rummy did a news conference pointing out that the Pentagon could not find “$2.3 trillion”:
(CBS News). The military budget has doubled since then.
OS, Decaf.
Those who want to drown SNAP in a bathtub have snapped.
I see all those claims of abuse, so I have a question for the complainers. Since you seem to be claiming to have first hand knowledge of abuse, how many such abusers have you reported?
You know of course, if anyone has any proof that any Federal or State program is being abused, you are duty bound to report it. You have seen those signs all over, with the hot line number on it, so there is no excuse for a claim of, “I don’t know how to report it.”
You actually have to know names to report and I am not speaking of “street names”. I had thought in Florida that legislation was passed which would require drug testing for SNAP recipients. I’m not claiming to have all the answers but there is an obvious need for improvement in the way the current system works and is monitored. I don’t think it should be eliminated, I think that it needs to be a tighter ship “so to speak”.
Right on cue, they show up, frantically trying to circle the wagons. OMG, Hispanic people might get some food, and they are some of those scary brown people. If fraud is so rampant, where are the stats instead of hyperbolic pearl clutching? Obviously, there is going to be misuse in any human endeavor, but is that really the reason for wanting to eliminate a program that helps defray the cost of food for the disabled, elderly or poor people with children?
The real reasons are a darker and more malignant cancer on our society. It is because sociopaths have once again achieved positions of power. Remember the story of Jesus feeding the masses with fishes and loaves of bread? Maybe there were a few in that crowd who were not really underfed and hungry, but they got food too.
Good account David.
Yep, Repos are despicable for complaining about a program that spends $40 billion for poor people while the Demos sent Trillions of $ to bankers (foreign and domestic). And yep, the Repos were right there with the Demos to send that money to the bankers.
Something is wrong in the land of Oz.
There will always be some who manage to misuse whatever comes their way. However, to punish needy people for not being perfect is a misuse of power in it’s own way. What we have here are hateful, spiteful people placed in the position of power and cannot stand to help others along the way because of their irrational fear that someone might (just might) take advantage of them.
How many, Shannon? Show some proof that “many” sell their benefits. And how do they manage it, since they are on debit cards?
Some people do need them however a system which would alleviate selling/trading benefits for cash would be sensible. If I know of 4-5 people who do this, wouldn’t you think that many others know of additional people who do the same thing?
In every area of everything there is some waste…. Why should the innocent continue to be victimized by the system…..
In all actuality many sell their benefits for 50 cents on the dollar in order to have cash to buy drugs and alcohol. The republicans are on the right track. Something needs to be done to stop that.
Oh Oliver….
Mr. Drumm:
I understand that you dislike Republicans – you make a very strong case that they are despicable.
Unfortunately, your defense of SNAP is less convincing.
A partisan writer could make a strong case about the consequences of SNAP; however it would be equally unbalanced.
I suspect that a Washington observer could make a very strong case that both parties are equally partisan and biased in their policies.
My mom grew up in the Depression. Thirteen kids, absent alcoholic father. She would go hungry most nights. My mom NEVER saw herself as a victim, no matter what life dealt her. But, she would get tearful the few times she spoke about how hunger changes you. Combine that w/ my Italian side, and I support programs to fee people. My wife and I have served spaghetti on Wed. nights @ a Madison food kitchen for 20 years. Our kids also did when they lived @ home. We also worked Thanksgiving, which is a pain in the ass actually. That’s when you get the folk who show up to help once a year and don’t know what they’re doing. This kitchen has the volunteers take shifts do we can all sit down and eat w/ the guests, a nice touch.
Here’s my problem w/ SNAP. They have spent millions of our tax dollars marketing SNAP to the Hispanic community. They did these soap opera type radio ads that almost made a family feel stupid or neglectful if they didn’t take this assistance. When called on it, SNAP QUICKLY stopped those ads, because they were horseshit. You provide food for people who need it. You don’t force it on them, or guilt trip people to take it.