Americans spend $80 billion each year financing food stamps for the
poor, but the country has no idea where or how the money is spent.
Food
stamps can be spent on goods ranging from candy to steak and are
accepted at retailers from gas stations that primarily sell potato
chips to fried-chicken restaurants. And as the amount spent on food
stamps has more than doubled in recent years, the amount of food stamps
laundered into cash has increased dramatically, government statistics
show.
But the government won’t say which stores are doing the most
business in food stamps, and even it doesn’t know what kinds of food
those taxpayer dollars buy.
Coinciding with lobbying by convenience stores, the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
which administers the program in conjunction with states, contends
that disclosing how much each store authorized to accept benefits,
known as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP),
receives in taxpayer funds would amount to revealing trade secrets.
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8 comments:
everyone knows this program is rife with abuse. Time to end this monstrosity and make people get off their butts and work. I am amazed at how fat the people I see using these benefits are!
Visit WALMART end of each month and watch for the suvs,caddies,other big vehicles deive up and load four or five shopping carts full of items.I seen em used for steam crabs by the bushell.Fraud is also at the top of the administration.
Hell go to any seafood place and the money is being spent on bushel of crabs. you could feed a family for a week on what gets used for crabs
I always felt this program was very loosley run. It could be more like the WIC program with limited choices of quality foods specifically approved. With no limits most do buy processed food and that is what most everyone buys in stores today. To be more like WIC it will show people what are healthy choices vs processed food. Then it will also decrease the high sugar intake of soda, snack cakes other pastries and donuts, etc. It will also cut out fat crap like chips, pizza and the many processed heat and eat meals. Really simple to change but no Congress is so focused on so many other issues. Get down to basics. Where are you Michelle Obama, when we muscle to get this program overhauled?
Some stores (mostly convienience stores) still use the old type credit card machines that doesn't hold the information of the products purchased. Thus, they can buy smokes and beer on that independence card.
The government does not need to tell us what we should eat. I'm eating a potato chip if I want a potato chip. Yes, the program is supporting some that it shouldn't be, but it's been that way since well into the 80's. The problem with this country right now, is everyone wants to tell other people how to live, but they don't know how run their own lives. As long as people are spending it on food, I don't give a rats behind about it, it is not my problem. There are more people now than ever needing assistance, and they might of had the SUV before they got laid off. Once again not for me to question, and none of my business.
If you are a taxpayer, it DAMN SURE is your business. The government doesn't and cannot tell me what to eat because I pay for all of it (after giving them a rather large portion of what I make so OTHER people who have NEVER worked can buy "chips"). 5:52 sounds like he's trying to justify having an "independence" card and further, people who have a job and support their families (by WORKING!) SHOULD be able to tell the "I don't need no man" single parents in public housing for the last twenty years (but with the latest clothing, nail colors and hairstyle) EXACTLY how they should live. Don't like it?? Good. Get a job and quit using MY money.
Imclain, I usually agree with you, but I'm going to disagree with you on this issue. I do not receive food stamps, have never, and now that I actually need them because I'm making below what I've ever made, the hassle of dealing with the Department of Social Services is not worth the trouble. All I am saying is that some people blow their paychecks on fun toys, and then struggle to pay their bills. Some people want a fancy car and would live in a tent. If I get government assistance for my food, it is not no one else's concern for what I eat. If I choose to live on junk, and I mind you, that is usually the cheapest items in your area grocery store, that is my decision. If people on food stamps want to splurge and buy crabs every now and then, by golly, let them do it. Just like when you give a man a dollar, I was suppose to give him a dollar, not worry about where he spent it. I did my job by giving a needing man a dollar, that was all my job entitled. It is not my job to judge people.
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