SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which use to be known as food stamps... start[s] in Congress when billions of dollars are allocated in the Farm Bill, which is comprised of 78% funding for Food Stamps. The costs are split between the federal government and state governments. At every level of the process, big government and big business work hand in hand in the name of caring for the poor.
The Farm Bill is reapproved every five years; in the 2007 bill, the biggest lobbyists included the agriculture biotech giant Monsanto, which spent $8.8 million. Other large corporate lobbyists included American Farm Bureau, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo Inc., American Beverage Association, Tyson Foods, Coca-Cola Co, Wal-Mart Stores, and the GMA (Grocery Manufacturer Association).
Big Agriculture lobbies Congress knowing hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line for their corporations.
Lobbying also takes place at the state level, where Big Agriculture has been fighting off further regulation of SNAP. State laws cannot strictly mandate that certain purchases be forbidden with the use of SNAP; the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has jurisdiction on how SNAP money is spent. State laws are required to seek a waiver from the USDA on certain products. Nine states proposed bills to alter SNAP to make it a more health-conscious program, but none of the proposed measures passed due to the pushback by Big Agriculture.
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5 comments:
In some areas food stamps account for more than half or there abouts of Walmarts sales so it stands to reason they would lobby for more food stamps. Not only that a good portion of their own employees receive them.
This is why there will never be welfare reform in the form of limiting what items recipients purchase.
We The People do not matter.
As a staunch dyed in the wool conservative I keep on trying to tell everyone these big companies are not our friends.
They are also responsible for regulations in which the blame is then placed on the government. They lobby for more regulations so as to run out small competitors. It's a way around the anti trust laws.
For the real story listen to Micro Effect internet radio broadcasts.
Disgusting that WalMart employees qualify for assistance when the Walton family is pretty much richer than God...no one says they can't make a profit, but how much is enough?
Let's not forget the banksters in all this. Somebody makes a transaction fee everytime one of those cards are swiped.
Walmart is exactly the business Obama was talking about when he said they would not be where they are without government. In their case it's in the form of corp welfare, crony capitalism, and as 10:34 stated paying employees low non living wages knowing full well government entitlements will supplement them and the good republic robots will say things like the employees don't have to work there and walmart brings jobs.
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