-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.
@bigfatmike:
“I am not suggesting for a moment that we withdraw constitutional protection from rude speech.”
““Rude” is a free rider that gets a pass with “controversial” but usually does not help communication or tell us anything important. It is “controversial” that requires protection.”
Well-said. 🙂
@Tony C.
What the hell are you talking about?
“passing along misinformation and untruths. ”
“She is a witch”
“You are not calling me a liar”
Considering that I see this stuff happening first hand and have been for years and you claim I am wrong, it can only mean one of two things, either I am lying or having mass hallucinations,
Which would also mean that a huge percent of those I know are also having hallucinations when they exchange their cards for non food items, cash, etc.
Since mass hallucinations is a very far fetched explanation, it pretty much means you are calling me a liar, but trying to cover it up with walls of text.
but then again, you seem to be suggesting that I am hallucinating.
Since you decided to take this to a very personal level, I ask you to provide evidence that you know for a fact that what I say is not true.
You are asserting that I am not telling the truth and now you must provide the evidence you have obtained to make this claim.
You need to provide evidence to dispute that:
1)five mini stores in my area (I counted them) will abuse the foodcard, three others have lost the privilege to accept them
2)I cant give exact numbers but I counted fourteen people i know personally who are on drugs and about 80% of their cards balance go to the drug man
3)One guy whose case manager “oversee’s” his money and has to personally take him shopping then he trades the meat to his drug dealer.
He has also personally called me and other friends, asking us if we want to buy his food.
4)the local halfway houses workers will buy the food cards off the residents
5)drug dealers will take stolen goods/food products/hygiene products for drugs
6)every single major food store, such as save-a-lot/Aldias/sparkle/giant eagle..has a real cop guarding inside the store, to prevent theft,panhandlers,and people trying to sell their cards to other customers, asking someone to buy your stamps is an arrestable offence.
7)over a hundred people including children eat at the mission daily and they do collect foodstamps, but the parents trade them off and even on the first of the month, the food line to the mission is long and the gym they eat at is full, nearly every seat, and every single parent collects foodstamps.
I can go on and on.
Now, since you claim i am not being honest or misinformed, you must provide where you get your knowledge from.
The way this works is I am innocent until proven guilty, and your empty opinions are not evidence of my guilt.
Either provide evidence, or apologize for your ignorance.
“witch hunt”?
You should be ashamed of yourself for such nonsense.
nick and Tina,
I’m thrilled to have finally given you two a topic that you can go on and on about for hours, if not days.
Please, keep ranting about me, you poor, persecuted, victims.
I love attention, obviously!
@nick spinelli “All 3 are completely incredulous @ those who don’t think fraud is a serious problem in this good program.”
What do you mean by “serious.” I would never suggest that fraud is not a serious problem.
I have argued that the best evidence tells us that fraud and trafficking are not wide spread, a little over 1% – which is a very different proposition.
I would further argue that the level of fraud and trafficking in no way support the proposition that things are so out of control that the only solution is to cut the programs back.
On the contrary the documented level of abuse suggest that well know law enforcement methods should work well to further cut abuse.
As a start, shutting down merchants who resell trafficked produces would do much to curtail trafficking.
Any undercover worth his salt ought to be able to figure out which merchants in a neighborhood are in the market for trafficked products. It would not be at all difficult to run a sting and shut down crooked merchants – if there were the will to do so
Tina, It is right on topic. So far we have 3 people here who have used Food stamps/SNAP. All 3 are fully in support of those resources used wisely. All 3 are completely incredulous @ those who don’t think fraud is a serious problem in this good program. All those who think fraud is 1% are down w/ fraud being a serious problem in military spending. Follow that thought process and make sure you have plenty of bread crumbs to get back home. Use your SNAP card. Oh wait..the know-it-alls have never even seen a SNAP card or Food Stamp. They don’t even know how they’re used..much less how easily abused. You can’t make this stuff up.
I am a strong person Nick… My son would never speak out so I am his voice and I have much to vent when it comes to bullies… adult ones being the worst as they are to serve as role models for our youth… do they? Or should they be held accountable for the bullies they raise such as Bob? Sorry for getting off topic here… But perhaps it is right on topic in a roundabout way.
10 Myths About SNAP
“Food Stamps” are now referred to as SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
1. Myth: SNAP is welfare.
Fact: The SNAP Program is a nutrition assistance program that changes lives and helps communities. It helps low income people buy nutritious foods. It is not welfare.
2. Myth: Other people need SNAP more; I don’t want to take them away from someone else.
Fact: SNAP is an entitlement program. Anyone who applies and is eligible will get SNAP benefits. This will not reduce the amount that goes to anyone else.
3. Myth: You have to go to the office and wait many hours to get an appointment.
Fact: The North Texas Food Bank’s SNAP Outreach coordinators can turn in an application for you and get a receipt. Any applicant can request a telephone interview.
4. Myth: I own a car, so I will be disqualified.
Fact: Your car can be valued up to $15,000, and possibly more, if you can prove that you must have it to maintain income or transport a disabled individual. A second car can be valued up to $5,000.
5. Myth: SNAP is only for families.
Fact: SNAP benefits are for anyone who applies and qualifies.
6. Myth: Other people will know I use SNAP benefits.
Fact: You use benefits by running a Lone Star card through the credit card machine at the grocery store. Other people are unlikely to notice.
7. Myth: SNAP benefits have to be paid back.
Fact: People who get the right amount of SNAP benefits do not have to pay them back. If you benefit because of false information, then you will have to pay them back.
8. Myth: SNAP is for people who can’t, or don’t, work.
Fact: Any able-bodied person between 18-60 who is able to work can receive SNAP benefits only three months in a three-year period when not working. This can be extended by the Texas Workforce Commission if they are compliant with the program but unable to find a job.
9. Myth: You can’t get SNAP if you have savings.
Fact: Your household may have up to $5,000 in assets for a family and $3,000 for an individual.
10. Myth: SNAP is not worth applying for since you only get $14.
Fact: The amount of SNAP benefits depends on household size, income and certain expenses. A mother with two children who works full-time at $7 an hour and pays $350 in rent could receive $180 in benefits. Elderly people who live alone receive an average of $53 a month and households with a disabled person receive an average of $126 in benefits per month. A single person with no income may receive $162 each month.
From the North Texas Food bank website
Nick… thanks. really.
People don’t seem to care about Tina or MichaelArm.
Tina, I pray for your bullied son. But realize, many adult bullies were the victim of bullies as children. They look upon their adult years as payback time. They see bullies everywhere and act preemptively to thwart the perceived threats.
Tina, Barrister Bob is a guy who thinks he’s not only smarter, but better than you. He is part of the gauntlet here. Condescension is a common characteristic of the gauntlet crew. But, some have been somewhat controlling themselves of late, believe it or not.
To the contrary… Bob proved he is not better, nor smarter than I by his childish remarks at the expense of others… now, does that not say mountains about a person’s character? And, are we not defined by our character? He does not bother me… how in world could he… I dismissed him with his first remarks… got bored, and decided to play a little.. Guess he did not see that…
Well said Tony.
RTC: I agree (re 1st Amendment). I think demands for “civility” and “politeness” are often just code for “Don’t get angry with me for saying how much I hate you and the people you care about.”
Prairie Rose, It is heartening to have someone who understands food on a micro and macro level. A BIG AMEN to the way we subsidize carbs, particularly corn and wheat. The USDA is killing us! We should be subsidizing tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, kale, etc. And I would indeed support w/ my tax dollars and make contributions and help out in the school kitchen as a volunteer if schools served high protein lowfat breakfasts to kids.
prairie rose,
If everyone engaged in nothing but polite and and civil discourse, amicably disagreeing with one another, then there’d be no need for First Am, protection. Rude, shocking, even disturbing ideas require protection. Take music for example: Pat Boone never needed to rely on the First Am. the way 2LiveCrew did.
Besides, why should an act of intimacy be so disgusting? There’s probably more than a few members of the Tea Party who’ve expanded their relationships upon learning of this intriguing and creative act. Who knows, maybe even Dick Army has tried it on his wife.
Santorum, now that’s disgusting.
“If everyone engaged in nothing but polite and and civil discourse, amicably disagreeing with one another, then there’d be no need for First Am, protection. Rude, shocking, even disturbing ideas require protection.”
Really?
I am not suggesting for a moment that we withdraw constitutional protection from rude speech.
But this seems to confuse “rude” with “controversial” or “iconoclastic”.
So everything would have been fine if MLK had only said “I have a dream” in a polite tone of voice?
Suffragettes would not have caused a ripple if they had said ‘please’ when they asked to vote?
So antiwar protestors would have been greeted with serious interest if only they used their respectful, inside voices?
If you really believe that “polite and and civil discourse” does not require protection then try using your most polite, civil voice to propose raising taxes, fire arms registration, or national ID at a Tea Party rally. Let us know how it works for you.
“Rude” is a free rider that gets a pass with “controversial” but usually does not help communication or tell us anything important. It is “controversial” that requires protection.
Tony C.
Well said and exactly on point. I always have trouble understanding how people can take an N = 1 event and generalize to N = x.
“There are abuses on a street corner in our neighborhood, so that means it is the same all across the country.” Then belittle statistical analysis in favor of a narrowly focused anecdote. How very Fox Newsiness of them.
MichaelArm says: And I really hate to repeat myself but I never once said that they need to shut down, overhaul, or can even stop the abuse done, why do you keep insisting that I am saying something I am not?
Now you got it wrong. Whether you believe what you say or not, you are passing along misinformation and untruths. That doesn’t mean you are lying, it doesn’t mean you want the consequences of it, but when you tell people you know firsthand that the fraud is rampant and pervasive you give them cover for their desire to harm or cripple the system.
Metaphorically speaking, you are the neighbor in the village saying, “Oh I’m certain she’s a witch, I’ve seen her perform magic and have her rituals, but I am not opposed to witches! She is definitely a witch, yes sir, I have seen it with my own eyes, but I am not opposed to witchcraft, even if practices round the clock like my neighbor.”
And (continuing that metaphor) that gives everybody else in the village cover to burn your neighbor alive, because your testimony convicts her of witchcraft.
That is what I mean by ammunition. You may believe the falsehoods you are spreading, but they are falsehoods, and give cover to those that wish to end this aid program and all aid programs in general.
MichaelArm says: I have said over and over that I don’t care that they abuse their cards, and that there really is nothing that can be done to stop it.
This is the part of the metaphor where you say, “I am not opposed to witchcraft, but my neighbor is definitely a witch.”
MichaelArm says: Apparently, you can’t read or you just choose to “hear” what you want to hear and make up the rest, just to have something to argue about.
Not this time, this one is on you. My post does not attempt to read your mind; I point out that by spreading lies (even if you believe them) and anecdotes of fraud that are not in the least representative of how the system provides aid (even if you think they are) you mislead people into thinking the system is broken, and that misperception of reality encourages them to lean toward “reforms” or “restrictions” or “drug testing” that just wastes program resources and reduces the ability to provide aid: The opposite of their intent, because you and people like you falsely convinced them there was a massive problem to fix when there was not.
And the actual greedy opponents of providing aid (even if you are not one of them) are benefited as well in their quest to selfishly shut down such aid programs on the grounds of rampant fraud that does not really exist (which they know, even if you do not), because you and people like you have convinced others that is plausible, when it is just a bunch of cherry-picked, exaggerated, or outright false claims you swallowed as truth.
MichaelArm says: Disturbing.
I agree, and I am not exaggerating; this is precisely how ACORN was gutted, an agency doing real good was brought down by lies, fraud, and rumors of rampant lawbreaking. This is how we backslide on our humanity toward others, and your behavior and petty anger and lack of research and inability to get past anecdotes and see them for the outliers they really are is indeed disturbing.
Pete,
Amen to that. That is not the Christianity I was raised up to believe in. It seems the seven deadly sins are becoming the new mainstream religion, especially Greed.
Enough to make baby Jesus (the real one) cry.
pmjokes, WoW, sorry to hear you might have to give up Max! That’s terrible. I live in MO. so I’m not close or I would be interested. All of our kitties have died over the last couple of years, old age, cancer, renal failure etc. and we really miss having kitties around since we’ve lived with them for 20+ years. I hope you can keep him or find him a forever home.
i hadn’t heard about the ebt glitch until i read it here a few minutes ago so i googled to see what it was about.
if you take advantage of a system glitch and you’re a person then you’re a low life s.o.b. if it’s a corporation then it’s just good business and the ceo gets a bonus.
the comments are some of the best. this one caught my eye
AmericaBlessGod 15 hours ago
They can still back track and find out who stole from the system. PROSECUTE!!! They already take advantage of the system and now this. Take their cards away and let ’em have road kill.
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americablessgod how very christian.
“if you take advantage of a system glitch and you’re a person then you’re a low life s.o.b. if it’s a corporation then it’s just good business and the ceo gets a bonus.”
Pete,
You’ve put your finger on one of the things that makes me most angry about this discussion. The media propaganda has turned the narrative about poverty against those in poverty and made them into people to be despised. It has been shown upthread that when we are discussing SNAP the fraud rates are incredibly low. The program is run efficiently and since I discussed my own involvement with Food Stamp Overpayments and how the government recoups Overpayments even if they happened years ago. All to no avail because people supply anecdotes from their own lives that are supposed to stand in for the experiences of tens of millions of people. We even see people here who have needed food stamps themselves alluding to “undeserving others.” Yet I wonder how they feel about the corporations and banks that have literally stolen trillion$ from this country and in the process have never paid their fair share. Who are the real criminals? Some people taking advantage of a computer glitch at Wal-Mart, or Wal-Mart that has had a personnel policy of recommending their employees go on Welfare, or food stamps to supplement what Wal-Mart refuses to pay them.
What is happening here is akin to the same game played for so many years in the South. The White Southern working class has been exploited since before the Civil War. The aristocrats of Southern States look upon them behind their backs as PWT (Poor White Trash) and yet they are told that those responsible for their unfair lot in life are Blacks and Latino’s. They are convinced that no matter how bad their lives are it is worse to be Black and Latino and at the same time though they are told that it is the Blacks and Latinos that are stealing things from them. Their focus is pushed towards hatred of victims like themselves and away from their real victimizers.
Along with this the Federal Government is made out to be the enemy and so hatred is directed there. The fact that the Federal Government is controlled by the .01% elite of this country, choking off the people’s ability to influence the system is never mentioned and the con game continues. Part of the anger directed on threads like this comes from the fact that there is and never has been any real problem with Food Stamps costing too much money, when compared to the trillion$ grabbed off by the real thieves in this country. People have always been given scapegoats by the powerful to distract their attention and this phony Food Stamp problem is one of them.