During the government shutdown you heard a lot about SNAP/EBT/CAL Fresh benefits. I will explain the propaganda both sides were using. 90% of it is not true, 100% of it was deplorable. I will explain the program and the amount of “fraud” taking place. If you are reasonable, you will learn something, if you are far right or left, you will not; feel free to quite reading if you fit into the latter categories.
- Understanding what SNAP is. It is a supplement. People on SNAP are what I refer to as the “working poor.” They are folks working 12-15 hour days, possibly even 7 days a week, because the jobs they have pay minimum wage. They do this because their primary job doesn’t give them 8 hours a day or 30 hours a week to be eligible for benefits. These folks have their money run out around the 20th or so of each month. Sure, there are disabled folks on here to who cannot work.
- What you can use SNAP on. It’s essentially groceries and fast food. It will not work on alcohol and some prepared foods.As a result, you see the person in line having to swipe the card numerous times, and likely remove items that aren’t eligible for SNAP from their cart because the system will not take payment.
- How much is the benefit? It’s about $188 a month. Again, the point of this program is a “supplement” not a living benefit, think of it as “something extra.” Look at that figure again. Folks, it’s $188. Recipients getting this aren’t going out to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. If you live in the real world, the folks on SNAP, as Dave Ramsey says “are only seeing the inside of a restaurant if they are working there.”
As you can see above, this program isn’t one that folks are getting rich off of, it’s just a way to put food on the table during the latter part of the month. No one is living high on the hog here.
I will now refute the criticisms the uninformed on both sides of the aisle spew about this program.
- It’s rampant with fraud. This is flat-out, not true. First the benefit is so small that it’s barely worth the time to apply if you are doing it for nefarious reasons. I am sure your household income is verified, either via the IRS or State Tax Board so it would be pretty easy to catch the liars. If someone is working for cash or under the table, I am not sure how to catch those types, but it’s a small number. Now in regard to the folks selling their benefit card for cash to purchase drugs or alcohol, I am not sure how you stop that, but again that isn’t a large part of the program. Again, I just do not see a lot of people fraudulently being on this government program.
- These people did it to themselves. In some cases, yes, I will concede that point, having a felony on your record severely limits the jobs you can have. Not finishing high school also will limit you, as is the case with having children out of wedlock. However those people are the exception, the rule is what I am talking about. Most of these recipients are working multiple jobs and are barely able to tread water. This is due to C-suite types not wanting to pay a living wage to folks and cutting hours to not allow benefits to be offered.
- All they buy is junk food with it. This is mostly true unfortunately. Again, what we are dealing with here are folks with very little work skills, working for very little pay. Also, due to their schedule, they may not be able to cook or know how to cook. In that case buying, chips, cookies, cereal, frozen dinners, and soda is what they do. They can stretch these items out, I guess. Yes, this food is bad for you healthwise, but it does no one any good giving people who can’t cook; beans, rice and flour. It’s a deeply systemic problem that has been allowed to grow out of control.
- Illegals are getting benefits in large numbers. This isn’t true. Why would you sign up for a program and call attention to yourself, especially with the current group in the White House. Let’s all agree on something, it isn’t illegals pulling off the fraud.
- Not paying them during the shutdown will teach them a lesson. I heard this from a couple Republicans. Anyone else need proof that taking God out of our lives was a bad thing? Starving people to teach them a lesson? What is the matter with you. This is actually worse because the true “hunter/gatherer” mentality comes out and folks start doing drastic things to feed their families.
- Can’t food banks take care of it? Nope. The truth is they can barely handle their current caseload; this just made the issue worse.
As you can see from the above, I am making light of the fraud, and what these folks buy. The questions being asked and statements made are a problem. We should be asking how are 42 million Americans on this program? That’s a ton! How DID this happen? We can talk about fixing this but I feel we are too far gone. Where do you start when 42 million people are on it? RFK Jr., for all his faults, is onto something about limiting the types of foods folks can buy with these benefit cards. I do not think they should be accepted at fast food places either but again the bulk of these folks can’t cook, or their schedule doesn’t allow them the time. It’s a chicken or the egg type argument.
If we want to be real about the program, I think those of us that are reasonable would agree, 7/10 of these folks do have a need to be on the program and receive the benefits. They as stated work multiple jobs, weird hours, and just cannot get ahead. 1/10 are likely fraudsters, but how do you catch them? As detailed above, it’s pretty hard to catch the person selling their card for cash at the local park/street corner. This is also likely a number higher than is reality. The remaining 2/10 are where the real problem lies. These are folks who are clueless as opposed to the 7/10 who are helpless. These people put themselves into this situation by having a deserved criminal record, having kids when they cannot afford them, and other poor choices. These are the folks we need to stop assisting. They likely spend countless hours watching the tv on the couch and intentionally not picking up more hours at their job because they are lazy. Frankly put, we help out way too many clueless folks in this country, we are bankrupting ourselves as a result. This is the group DOGE should have targeted.
Chief
PS now back to your regularly scheduled programming of tossing out far right and left ideas about this issue.
Editor’s Note: One issue that is not refuted in the above is stolen identities and organized crime. I suspect the bulk of fraud is via this mechanism. In my experience, government is ill equipped to deal with fraud as the presumption of any government program is that the applicant is eligible.