OK...enough of SNAP saying what you want to hear. I work in a position that has me working alongside grocery and convenience store owners and managers...
SNAP is full of crap on THEIR propaganda! All kinds of able bodied men women and young adults are receiving food stamps--- many of them are also receiving all kinds of other aid (free stuff on the tax payers dime)
They buy CRAP with food stamps...everything from candy bars and ice cream to Quick Serve Restaurant food (QSR) that has been cooked and thrown in the cooler so they can purchase with food stamps. They can buy a ******* Slurpee so long as they wait until they are outside to open and stick a straw in it!
The Facts about Food Stamps Everyone Should Hear
A recent
US News & World Report article set out to unveil the facts about food stamps.
What are the so-called facts?
For one, the article claims that the food stamps program is not bloated, but rather, the surge in participation and spending is a result of the program doing what its supposed to do.
But what is it supposed to do?
Food stamps (or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as it is now called) were designed to ensure that Americans without the ability to provide for themselves are able to receive basic nutrition. However, application loopholes and policy changes over the past decade or so have allowed recipients to bypass income and asset tests, meaning many people are receiving food stamps who would not have been eligible under the programs original purposes.
One of the changes in eligibility requirements is broad-based categorical eligibility. This type of eligibility means that an individual who receives any service under another welfare program, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)even something as small as a TANF brochurecan be deemed eligible for food stamps. A full 50 percent of all food stamp recipients now enroll in the program through this broad-based categorical eligibility procedure. As Heritage welfare experts Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley write:
In states using this loophole, a middle-class family with one earner who becomes unemployed for one or two months can receive $668 per month in food stamps even if the family has $20,000 in cash sitting in the bank. Because of this, food stamps has been transformed from a program for the truly needy to a routine bonus payment stacked on top of conventional unemployment benefits.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has operated substantial outreach programs to pull more people onto the food stamp rolls. Some states have gone so far as to hire food stamp recruiters, tasked with filling a monthly quota of new food stamp enrollees.
Another fact, according to the author, is that much of the growth in food stamp costs is due to the recession and is temporary.
Thats partially true. Food stamp spending has roughly doubled in the past four years, and part of this is clearly due to the recession. However, food stamp spending has been on an upward climb since the program began back in the 1960s. In the decade prior to the recession, total government food stamp spending nearly doubled, from $19.8 billion in 2000 to $37.9 billion in 2007.
Read the rest hear
