Taxpayers kept in dark about $80B a year
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.
As a result, fraud is hard to track and the efficacy of the massive program is impossible to evaluate.
As the House debates the once-every-five-years farm bill, the majority of which goes to food stamps, there is a renewed and fervent call from a broad spectrum of camps that the information - some of the most high-dollar, frequently requested and closely held secrets of the government - be set free.
“We can’t release it based on federal rules. If it were up to us, I wouldn’t have a problem releasing the information. It’s taxpayer money,” said Tom Steinhauser with the division of benefit programs for the Virginia Department of Social Services.
The District said it would be illegal to tell the newspaper how many food stamp dollars were flowing to each local vendor, but first offered to sell The Washington Times the information for $125,000.
“Why don’t you just pay the charges? Your paper has a lot of money,” said David Umansky, spokesman for the District’s chief financial officer.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/24/top-secret-what-food-stamps-buy/
12 comments:
P.G. county population is 78% on food stamps.
They will all vote for Obama 12:27 comment...
Yea they are also using food stamps at places like skipjacks seafood to buy crabs....... I was in there and out of the ten or so people I was the only person not using an "independence" card.
I want to know more about the free cell phone bus!
Years ago when I had small children at home, we ate very well on food stamps. All the fresh vegies and meats that we wanted I could pile in the cart with no problem. Now we haven't received entitlements in years because we both work and I am happy for that. The strange thing is that we have never been able to eat as well as we did back then on the government dole. This system needs a serious overhaul!
If it's being spent on food, who cares.
I dont have a problem with people getting food stamps,just politicans getting rich off special interest.
>>>If it's being spent on food, who cares.<<<
Are you simple?
My taxes pay for food stamps / independence card. Yet I can't afford to eat as well as some of the folks who use food stamps. And I know some of these individuals and I'm familiar with their grocery habits.
You don't see a slight disconnect there????
It should be called a dependence card.
5:19 is on food stamps. And pays no taxes. Otherwise, he would know the frustration of working families who watch every penny they spend on ever-increasing food prices, yet stand in line at the grocery store (or at the Skipjacks?!) behind some single parent with five kids and a basket of sodas, chips, candy, and cookies. But their hair and nails are PERFECT. And they get in a car outside that most of us couldn't afford. Crabs, in my opinion, are a luxury item. I KNOW I can't afford them and I make good money. Of course, I also pay my own mortgage and electric bill. If you don't have to do THAT, then crabs, lobster, shrimp etc, are everyday foodstuffs. So are the latest Nike's and the best pot money can buy. And don't get started with the jewelry and tattoo's.
If it's being spent on food, who cares.<<<
Are you simple?
My taxes pay for food stamps / independence card. Yet I can't afford to eat as well as some of the folks who use food stamps. And I know some of these individuals and I'm familiar with their grocery habits.
You don't see a slight disconnect there????
June 25, 2012 6:18 PM
Don't know what you mean by a 'slight disconnect'.
I doubt you know that many people getting food stamps and their 'grocery' habits.
Sounds like you're on the low end of the wage scale. You don't pay a lot in taxes, although it may feel like you do, to you.
You may even get a full refund of your taxes and/or the earned income credit.
These people you bash have obviously qualified for food stamps, or they wouldn't have them.
It's not their fault they qualify for assistance and you don't. Which, is what sounds like is the real issue.
If you really know anyone who is getting food stamps by fraudulent means, report them.
If they get cut off, then you will know you were right. If nothing happens to them, then you will know that you didn't know as much as you thought.
I'm betting on the latter.
11:04
The problem is many that are getting them are just lazy. When they do get them they abuse them. The people that are working can't get assistance while the ones that don't want to work are being handed everything for free. What is the incentive to work, get married and support your family? Now you just pop out a few kids and the government will give you money. These same people will go out and work for a few months then when tax time comes they get a huge refund. People are just tired of having to bust their butt to support their family and then you get behind someone in the grocery store that has all type of high dollar food and they use our money to pay for it. There next transaction either involved buying videos, beer or cigarettes. I have seen it happen! This does not include the ones at the seafood restaurants that go in and buy a bushel of crabs then pay in cash for them to steam them.
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