-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.
OS,
A perfect example of substantive addressable error.
Blouise,
Well, I thought I knew what I was going to write about this weekend, but you may have prompted me to do research instead. You temptress you. 😀
It is a good topic though, but one that deserves the proper in-depth treatment.
Headline in Wonkette:
“USDA Finds Farm Subsidy Waste, So GOP Will Cut Food Stamps”
Story at the link:
http://wonkette.com/527732/usda-finds-farm-subsidy-waste-so-gop-will-cut-food-stamps
Ari,
Again see the net loss created when Utah went to drug testing. Out of all of the welfare recipients in the entire state, only twelve were caught. At a cost of at least $100 per test. The cost does not surpass the benefit.
One need not associate with criminals to understand basic sociology, Shannon. The reality is that yes, there are problems with the current program, but deliberate abuse isn’t one of them as the recent experiment of drug testing in Utah evidences. It is also a maths problem as well. In any system of sufficient size and/or complexity there is going to be a certain amount of unavoidable error. That’s just the nature of complex systems. That error only becomes a problem when it rises to statistical significance and threatens the stability of the whole. The best (and only) thing that can be done is error mitigation – such as switching to debit cards which are much, much harder to trade upon than a paper coupon system. But the system itself will never be totally free from error. It’s just too large for that to be mathematically possible. Same goes for just about every thing done at a national scale. For example: say tomorrow you ended the boundless corporate and wealthy donors currently legal ability to donate cash to pols by re-enacting FECA like donations limits of say $5000. Period. No skirting around it it. No single donor, be they a natural person or a corporation can give more that that. You’d have a much cleaner electoral and lobbying system that would force legislators to do their job tending to the needs of the many instead of the needs of the narrow monied special interests, however, you would not end the basic error of graft even if it were properly criminalized. There are too many people and too many parts in that system to make zero error possible. But we can and should mitigate it as much as possible because that is an example of where error is threatening the stability of the whole system.
Big things are unwieldy. Some error has to be accepted. At what rate is the question.
That is their nature.
Gene,
That is an excellent idea and perhaps one for a blog post discussion.
There is no reason to allow the ignorance that is so prevalent within today’s Congress to stop the promotion and discussion of good ideas. Just look at the Prof’s determination in continuing to raise the idea of a 19 member Supreme Court.
Keeping on in the face of overwhelming ignorance is our duty to the Constitution.
It is true that some may sell their stamps for drugs but not all. Im a mother of two and depend a great amount on my stamps to feed my kids. Everyone who aplies for SNAP or any other state assistance should be drug tested, Then retested at every renewel. That way we can cut down on people miss using their benefits. I already struggle enough with SNAP, without i dont know what i would do.
OS,
A lot like pork I imagine.
Gene,
In the Corrections class in Criminal Justice programs, one of the things emphasized is the need for decent food in jails and prisons. Keeping inmates fed with proper nutrition and reasonably tasty food is a safety issue for correctional staff. Correctional officers have been killed in riots over lousy or inadequate food.
That paradigm extends to the free world too. Hungry people are dangerous people, especially if they perceive their kids are going hungry. It’s human nature.
The teabaggers and uber-conservatives who want to dismantle these programs in the interest of “saving money” had better anticipate the Law of Unintended Consequences. Wonder how slow roasted teabagger tastes?
You know, Blouise, you bring up a point that has been rattling around my head for some time now: the need for an expanded Bill of Rights. One that not only expands upon that base we already have, but one that codifies into it the existing jurisprudence in some regards (like freedom of speech and freedom of religion) and expands others (like a right to privacy). But given the highly partisan and fractionated nature of Congress today, I doubt seriously that any kind of comprehensive multi-section amendment could get out of committee let alone passed today.
Nal,
Try as hard as you might, logic and reason falls on deaf ears and barely skims the surface of shallow minds.
We are talking a fundamental human right of existence here … sustenance … the right to food … in a nation rich with food.
The only ethical challenge is to see a hungry man, woman, or child as we would see ourselves. Once that challenge is met, feeding the hungry is a no-brainer.
It is a fantasy to claim that fundamental right does not exist.
The legal ethics as to how a government should meet that right can be discussed in clearer terms once the right is recognized as basic.
I suppose I could expand that discussion by introducing the right of humans to migrate in order to find sustenance. One example would be the influx of Irish to these shores when the English government manufactured the Great Famine in order to starve the Irish out. (“Although the potato crop failed, the country was still producing and exporting more than enough grain crops to feed the population. Records show during the period Ireland was exporting approximately thirty to fifty shiploads per day of food produce. As a consequence of these exports and a number other factors such as land acquisition, absentee landlords and the effect of the 1690 penal laws, the Great Famine today is viewed by a number of historical academics as a form of either direct or indirect genocide.”)
👿
Shannon,
I’m equally shocked that a grown woman would not realize the reality of what drives crime and social unrest and that hunger is right up at the top of that list.
Oro,
I agree with the statements vis a vis “piddling”. Our current program is woefully inadequate to the end user. It basically gives them enough to subsist on junk food which, in turn, comes back to us in increased healthcare costs.
It is true, I do not know what drives crime. I do not associate with criminals. Surely hunger may drive someone who was once a law abiding citizen into a life of crime however it is but the tip of the iceberg. I have never said that SNAP should be eliminated. I do feel that there are kinks which need to be addressed, that’s all. Even you cannot say that the system in its current state, is not flawed albeit better than the system of yesteryear.
Gene —
I guess I’m thinking that a program which serves as its own stimulus for a large portion of our agra-food industry while helping to maintain the demand for farm products (including beef and other meats not part of the farm system subsidy) with just the average monthly $133 SNAP amount — well, why are we being so piddling with this program?
BTW, this is probably why the USDA might emphasize eligibility over need — it’s good for agricultural business
“A community in which thankfully many of us will never encounter.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLddA_G4A00
Better?
I suppose you’d let them eat cake, Shannon?
Ask the House of Bourbon how well that worked for them. Better yet, ask Napoleon how that worked out for him.
No matter if the side effect of food stamps is propping up Big Ag, letting significant numbers of the populace starve is a recipe for higher crime rates and civil discord.
Baby, meet bathwater. Bathwater, meet baby.
Let who eat cake? What does that have to do with anything? I am shocked how an intellectual debate can quickly turn into a bunch of children fighting in the sandbox…
“not necessarily the worst thing you can do with government money but let’s not pretend its a great example of humanitarian aid.”
Perhaps, Oro, but one cannot discount the social benefits of making sure the populace doesn’t have a significant portion of the citizenry not starving.
According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service –
Each $1 billion of retail generated by SNAP creates $340 million in farm production, $110 million in farm value-added, and 3,300 farm jobs
Every $1 billion of SNAP benefits also creates 8,900-17,900 full-time jobs
An additional $5 of SNAP benefits generates $9 in total economic activity
83% of SNAP benefits, equal to $53.4 billion, were spent at 36,500 supermarkets around the U.S.; the remaining 17% was spent at 180,000 small retail stores (including grocery stores, farmers’ markets, wholesalers, and meal services), for a total of $11 billion
SNAP beneficiaries spend more dollars on food in local stores than eligible non-participants
An increase in SNAP participation by 5% would result in 2.1 million low-income Americans receiving $973 million in SNAP benefits, generating $1.8 billion in new economic activity
http://www.snaptohealth.org/snap/the-real-benefits-of-the-snap-program/
Food stamps, from its inception, has probably been less about feeding the hungry than being just another means of maintaining a cheap, abundant supply of food while propping up the agribusiness complex; not necessarily the worst thing you can do with government money but let’s not pretend its a great example of humanitarian aid.
Thank you 🙂
RoninH, you sound like a complete narcissist. I will excuse your attempt at projection since it is a symptom of your illness.
“It is well known in that sort of community. A community in which thankfully many of us will never encounter.”
Oro…what are we supposed to see in that link?
hahahaha shannon why dont you just go ahead and confess you took it step by step huh oh and thanks for informing those who didnt know how to do it. what it is they need to do.. all you’ve done is lie in post after post.. oh and fyi why don’t you go look up the times article titled ” welfare the white lie ” that article was written in the early 2000s so exactly how many more hundreds of thousands do you think has since applied for and recieved food stamps? should we discuss the secular jewish sect who are so insualr they refuse to work period. they grow up get married and apply for welfare and then begin making babies non stop. im sure you read that article it was published a few weeks back.. i could give you the links to both articles but since you felt it your duty to mind other peoples business i do believe its time you got your own.. so why not spend some of your nosy time getting some real information instead of coming up with your lies.. also you would do better to begin worrying about the serial killer living next door to you.
@ chris take your tired axx somewhere else or better yet WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG. oops wait that would require a smidgen of intelligence and pure logic and you’re obviously very short on both.