-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.
Gene H:
My epistemology is ok, thanks for caring.
He bowls overhand.
pete, That’s The Jerk, we have more than our quota, as I stated previously.
Gene,
A famous action figure that can fly!
This place needs diversity, particularly socioeconomic and racial.
Bron,
It seems to me you’re experiencing an epistemological crisis in dealing with infinite regression and a lack of a central operating principle with which to test and interrogate the nature of reality. You should really add some Marcus Aurelius to your reading list. It’s good for you. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can probably read Meditations online somewhere for free.
mike s:
He may, I was just talking about addicted people and the stories they sometimes tell.
But that list you gave, dont you think that people who would do that would also commit food stamp fraud?
Or do they compartementalize their criminality and magically become good stewards of the governments money when they get their food stamps?
Now if you had said, they cut grass, work at McDonalds, do volunteer work for tips, bag groceries, walk dogs, etc, I would say you are right.
“But that list you gave, dont you think that people who would do that would also commit food stamp fraud?”
Bron,
Perhaps but like Willie Sutton they go where the real money is.
raff,
Being an action figure wouldn’t be so bad either.
His two cents is worth $37.
If I want psychoanalysis I’ll go pay and see a real shrink. Take care of yourself.
Gene,
I was thinking Buzz Lightyear! 🙂
You were given the greatest gift of a new heart, why don’t you respect it and get some freakin’ sleep to protect and nourish it! Sleep is critically important for the heart. A very smart guy like you must know that. You probably won’t be getting another one w/ Obamacare.
“How many drug addicts have you personally been around, while they ARE DOING the drugs, and actually watch them do drugs and listen to them discuss ways to get more drugs?”
PMJ,
You asked for it. My mother died when I was 17 and my father died when I was 18. When I went through his papers I discovered that he had done time in Federal Prison. That explained the fact that all of my parents closest friends were Italian. most of them connected by family to the Genovese Crime Family. It also explained stories my Father had told me about his younger days and the fights he got into and the gangs he was a member of. At that time I began hanging out with a fighting street gang known as the “Chessman”. Some of the guys were burglars and some were car thieves. I luckily missed two of the bloodier gang fights they participated in, but I was hauled in for a lineup once on suspicion of felonious assault. I wasn’t known much for my fighting abilities, but I was known as the craziest driver in the groups and I did much street drag racing. Strangely at the time I was in college on full tuition scholarship and self supporting with a 36 hour a week job. At that age energy seems boundless. The upshot of this gang was then began to deteriorate when heroin was taken up by one, then another member of the gang. I had people cooking and shooting up in the back seat of my DeSoto sedan. Heroin never attracted me, but only one other guy out of the 20 or so members stayed clean besides me.
In the 60’s I turned hippie and by the start of the 70’s I had become friends with big time pot distributors. They in turn were friends with some pretty bad hombres who were coke dealers. I would be a rich man today if I joined the crew, but being involved in crime has never attracted me, though knowing criminals did. During this time I was continually employed as a caseworker in the NYC Welfare Department. I was very good at what I did and I walked the so-called mean streets of NYC day and night. You’d be surprised by what I saw and who I ran into. Many very dangerous and or desperate people. The fact that I wouldn’t take part in the business gained me some respect, though others thought I was dumb. About that time in the 70’s I won a full time Scholarship to get a Masters at Columbia University. I did a paper there for sociology on the pot dealers I hung with analyzing the human structure of the gang. Got an A+ on it. After my food Stamp gig I retired from the City and started to work for non-profits. I created four programs for Drug Addicts who also had severe psychiatric issues. There were upwards of 120 people in all of the programs. Forty were located in 4 housed leased in a bad area to act as Drug Free housing for addicts who were taken from mental institutions. During that time I actually prevented four deaths, two from OD and two who were trying to kill themselves. I would make surprise visits at all times of the days and the nights to try to catch people using. That’s just the quick and dirty version of my experience and it is getting late. Suffice it to say, whether you accept it or not, this is an area where I have much expertise, both personal and professional.
Elaine:
I am saying you must look at all studies with a skeptical eye. But you do have to base your opinion on something.
Many theories and studies have been proven wrong with the passage of time. So how can you be certain the study you are referencing is right? It may be right based on what we know at the current time but in a week, a month, a year, more information may come to light which questions the original study.
Really, Elaine how do you know you are right about anything? How does Gene H know he is right? He reads a lot but how does he really know? It is his opinion and your opinion and my opinion. Does anyone really know anything at all? We just know what we read and experience on a daily basis. Humans are finite.
How do you know Matt Tiabi is right? How does he know his professors were right? How does he know he is seeing what is actually happening? He doesnt, it is just his opinion.
So what about a study proving your opinion of this or that, I can find 10 other studies saying the exact opposite. We believe what we want to believe.
Gene, Does OS think you’re a lawyer?
Europe’s in December Mike “been there, done that” Spindell. Let’s see, worked for the govt. his entire life, lived in NYC, then on a golf course in Florida. Quite a life. Never even left the Eastern Time Zone. You resent people who worked for a living, and you run outta here folks who are on assistance. Quite the progressive. I did love that boilerplate speech you gave to your namesake. When you said, “Perhaps I take life too seriously” I laughed, thinking of the equally narcissistic OJ saying of Nicole, “Maybe I loved her too much.”
“then on a golf course in Florida.”
Nick,
I will only say this once. I do live off a golf course in Florida, but I can’t afford to play golf. What is interesting is that I’ve never said that I live on a golf course, so the possibility exist that you’ve been investigating into my private life and revealing information about me that I don’t wish to share. It also goes both ways Nick and you really don’t want to go there. By the way the first commenter that JT banned was also looking into commentators personal information. The reality is Nick, you may be a Dick, but I am not without friends and resources myself. You reveal personal things about me and who knows what you will open yourself up for.
Mike,
He once parallel parked a train.
Bron,
If you want to think I’m a Marxist? You knock yourself out, sport. But if you’re going to make things up, I’d rather you think I was Buzz Aldrin. Just sayin’.
Regarding the issue of food stamp fraud: the data might very well be accurate. pmjokes may live in area with food stamp fraud as high as 30%. But, since the US is a pretty big place with the possibility of 0% fraud in other places, and that pmjokes sample size is his neighborhood, that number could even out for the whole US to 1%.
That said, as an analogy, the number of people who have been arrested for marijuana possession probably far outstrips the actual (and unknown) number of people who possess marijuana. It may be the same with food stamps. Therefore, pmjokes’ stories are likely correct. I’d like to think that is not the case; that the system is so well-regulated and enforced that actual and estimated fraud is only 1%, but this concern and his anecdotes do nag my mind.
The fraud should be investigated and stopped no matter the amount (just as it should with the military or any other department). Unfortunately, I think the enforcement-side of the food stamp program is probably very underfunded and maybe even short-staffed (it’s not the NSA, you know). Mike Spindell could probably clarify here since I’m only speculating.
I don’t remember reading any poster declaring the food stamp program should be dismantled, only that they know fraud exists, that it may be flying under the wire, and that they want the fraud reduced even more. One-percent, if accurately reflecting the known and unknown fraud, is pretty good and probably better than other programs, but it could still be better.
I’m not sure about the proscribed rules regarding the use of quotes, but I am going to take a chance here and offer my opinion that the quote posted at 8:20 was never said by any commenter on this thread. In my book, that makes it a lie.
But it is a long thread and I am happy to be corrected by and offer my apologies to its author should he choose to reply.
Gene H:
Sure you are, it isnt a bad thing necessarily. The more I read about Marx and his ideas, the more I see them in the daily back and forth here. To tell you the truth, I wish I would have read him when I was younger. His ideas are everywhere. He has had a huge impact on the intellectual direction of the world. Well he and Engles.
It is funny too [in a strange way] since his ideas dont work in reality. Even with a small group of people, most or all of the 19th century communes had to close or implement market based operations to survive. They all failed in pretty much the same way. The people started expecting others to work and there was a good deal of sexual freedom leading to conflict.
Granted they were based on Owens, Fourier and others but, hey a Granny Smith and a Winesap are still apples.