-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.
It was also “refreshing” like mad, for about 1 min, every time I would load the page, but it stopped.doing it.
according to my status bar, it was showing a bunch of stuff loading over and over.
But its fine now.
oop, I went up thread, and you guys did see the same thing. Never mind.
I got the impression that the “Like this” feature was making this thread refresh, constantly. I couldn’t do an experiment, so I’m guessing.
Made everything hard to read, and comments would’ve been difficult.
Anybody else see that?
@nick, not to be weird or anything, but I have had a very tough life and ppl online wont push me around.
I dont really have anywhere online to belong and help so I would be more then happy to help here.
If you need me to do anything, just let me know.
not sure if we can Pm ppl here or w/e.
are there other blogs here worthy to post on?
again, thanks for the kind words and such 🙂
lol, I made this account a while back when i was trying out word press
Better name now? its my actual website with a.com 😛
Mmca66, You provide a prospective needed. Yeah, there will be folks who talk down to you, think they’re better than you. That’s who new people often run into first, say “screw this” and leave. I’m just encouraging you to stick around. The less pompous and condescending commenters will step forward. When I joined here I had a lot of people taking shots. There was an iconoclastic guy named Idealist. He mentored me, and helped me through the gauntlet. I just try to pay it forward. Idealist died earlier this year.
Nal, Thanks for all your work on this. The “Like this” is gone as is the problem. Coincidence?
@nick spinelli
what do you mean about us being what this places needs?
If its not apparent, I love a good debate and have nothing but time on my hands, but I feel like a total fool here and didn’t know I was helping.
I just like trying to be involved 😀
Shannon, When I was on Food Stamps back in the 1970’s, Pa. had a use it or lose it. That’s why @ the end of the month we went to a deli and bought beer w/ the stamps we had left. Just about any deli in town would let you do it. But yeah, fraud isn’t rampant!!
Michaelmca, Get used to the people stuck in the Dem/Rep box. It’s overwhelming @ times. Glad you’re hear, broadening our horizons. Can we get a shorter moniker for you? Maybe Mmca66, or something like that? It would be great if you stuck around.
Tina, I’m quite sure it would be fraud to buy anything but food, but the chances of you getting caught are VERY slim. I respect your being feisty. I REALLY respect your taking your bullied son’s education on yourself. I have a friend in Seattle who helps moms w/ home schooling. She was an education professor @ KU, moved from Kansas, and started that biz. She was doing it the last we spoke, but she’s in her mid 60’s.
Having your own biz is tough. I had one for 30 years and I’m sure you put your blood, sweat and tears into it. As I said earlier, I was on Food Stamps and used them to buy beer, it was a piece o’ cake. I was a Vista volunteer right after college. Part of the program is to live in poverty[$220/month in 1975]. Just keep speaking your mind. Some people will talk down to you. You can handle it. You and Michaelmca are just what this place needed. We still need more women of variety and black, Hispanic, and other cultures. Maybe you will help pave the way.
Buying food and then selling it to another store for cash isn’t fraud?
Bro, you’re not even being consistent in your reasoning.
On one hand you claim if a person doesn’t use up the stamps, they should reset to zero, to help control over all foodstamp costs
Then on the other hand, you claim its ok to buy food on the card and sell to another store, which is also violating the food and drug admin laws, as the store doesn’t have a paper trail and the handling of the food is not being done w/n the proper laws and transported with the proper equipment.
Plus, you also claim its legal to buy what ever food you want, including $100 worth of soda, which is true, but then you say the store clerk was right to try to refuse the sale.
Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but you seem to be contradicting yourself now.
if its legal to by the soda (as you admit) then not only was the clerk in the wrong, but the manager was also in the right to allow the sale.
And what the heck does being a Republican as Democrat have to do with this?
Talk about a complete red herring attack and generalizing people as if they must follow your idealism exactly.
Plenty of states roll over the balance left on the card, its just how its done, its not a problem,
So if you believe they should not roll over your remaining balance, should they also come and take any left over food you may have at the end of the month as well?
Plus, there are numerous reasons why a person wouldn’t use up their funds by the end of the month and they shouldn’t have them taken away.
I am glad Ohio doesn’t take them away, in my situation, I have no way to a real grocery store and because I don’t eat right, I don’t have a very good appetite.
Some days, I do not even eat at all.
But sometimes I find a ride to a real store, and I stock up the best I can and everything goes back to what most people consider normal eating habits.
I was just surprised that some states take back what isn’t used. My daughter doesn’t drive either so when I take her to the store, she tends to stock up as well.
@michaelmca66 – Technically that’s not SNAP EBT fraud. You are allowed to do whatever you want with your food after you purchase it with your SNAP card. It’s not ethical and I would think that you now have less food to eat. But hey you get $50 bucks or so to go buy smokes to get lung cancer and beer to go drive drunk with (if you have a car that is). Technically the retailer isn’t breaking the law. He is just reselling soda he bought legally. And the guy that sold it to him is kinda’ in a gray area too. The store clerk was right though. The manager just didn’t want the hassle. The clerk must have been a Republican as Democrats never make a public display over such superficial things. They are low-effort thinkers you know.
To: michaelmca66
Huh? Dude?? I am truly laughing now.. Bye all.. it was interesting. “was”
michaelmca66 – That may just be Ohio’s problem. The balance is supposed to go to zero if not used. Because, if you ain’t using it why do you need it? Connecticut zeroes it out. USDA would like this to be adhered to as it helps control costs and maybe fraud too (not sure how).
@Nal – Yes I did say you will have to keep logging in for every post with JavaScript off. But I noticed that JT runs a ton of JS’s and it really slows down the forum. Why so many scripts? What are they doing? Authenticating something. I know it’s also looking for bad words too.
Florida doesn’t zero out each month either. It accumulates.
@sonofthunderboanerges
True, on what you said about shopping trends, but what you describe is not evidence of any wrong doings nor can they personally watch every single person.
Your card is flagged for using out of state though, even though it will work, it will get you flagged, it happened to me last year, my case manager called me and I had to explain that I was visiting out of state friends for the weekend, and she still had to send me something in the mail that I had to sign and return to prove i still lived in ohio.
But yah, the majority of the fraud I been discussing isn’t actually traceable nor will raise flags.
Here is a very good example of why I believe this…
An arab store that doesn’t accept the food card, will accept 12 pacs of soda, he will give $2 for each 12 pac.
I know this is true because last year, I used to take a neighbor to target/walmart/kmart or who ever had specials on soda, he would buy like 25 or so 12 pacs and then take them to the Arab and get $2 for each one.
He would even get a list from the Arab of the kinds to get.
Once, the clerk actually tried to refuse him the purchase claiming it was illegal to buy that much soda with a foodcard, the manager said it was not their business to stop the purchase but the clerk was pissed off.
Dude told the manager it was for his kids birthday party, lmfao, the manager said, you don’t owe me any explanation, its your money and she apologized for the behavior of the clerk.
To this day, I wonder if she got fired, she made a huge deal about it.
@Nal – I did not notice any of what you and Nick were experiencing. But I know, as an programmer (on the side), that this can be done with JavaScript. It could be a joke aimed at you two (et al). Simply look for your WP credentials when you log in and make the icon visible and scroll your screen up and down quickly in a temporary loop. I know I could do that as I like sneaky stuff like that. However, it says that someone here has way too much time and cyber-control here to do such things. And I did warn “someone” before (wink-wink) that some people here have more cyber-empowerment then he thinks. I’m surprised IP-banning wasn’t been employed yet. I guess if so then “they” couldn’t watch the victims grouse about it…
@sonofthunderboanerges
Thanks for the info, i finally figured out how to get this blog to accept my wordpress log in, apparently it has issues with FB, seems ok now though.
If walmart knowingly is flipping the bill, good for them, I know many people dislike them, but i never really had issues with them.
Wish i could get to their store, but being w/o transportation, I can only walk to the dollar store for my needs, I haven’t had real meat in months, lmfao 🙂
Also, in Ohio, your previous card balance carries over if you don’t use it all.
Infact, I know a guy who ended up doing a few months in jail and for some reason, his card didn’t get shut off, even though it should have and when he got out, he had over $700 on his card.
But yah, good for walmart for what they did then. 🙂
Well, I do not know if that was intended for me… But, I believe it was.. So, thanks again, Nick. I do not have a play on words.. I am just average.. single mom, hard working with a failing business of 20 years, and now homeschooling my son of years of bullying… So, do I qualify for some assistance.. and what if I had a food card.. and I wanted to buy my son a new hoodie, pair of shoes, a game for his xbox, some good shampoo… would that be justified or fraud? You said to ask… and of course, this is a debate…