Free Republic

<p>Progressives will tell you that food stamp fraud is basically a problem that doesn’t exist. At best they’ll admit that, perhaps, there are a few instances where a store sells something to a customer that shouldn’t be covered by the SNAP program - but they’ll claim those minor transgressions are extremely isolated cases. They’ll regale you with tales of the hard-working poor who hold down two jobs and receive welfare just to make ends meet.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government shutdown Oct. 1 could immediately suspend or delay food stamp payments to some of the 46 million Americans who receive the food aid. The Agriculture Department said Tuesday that it will stop providing benefits "within the first several days of October" if Congress does not pass legislation to keep government agencies open.

Washington (CNN)—Corinne Cannon had a tough time adjusting to motherhood after the birth of her first child, Jack. "We were ecstatic to have him, but he was a difficult infant," Cannon said. "He cried pretty much all the time, and it was so emotionally exhausting." That's an experience many new mothers can relate to. But Cannon knew she had the resources and support to get her through that many families do not have. She felt compelled to help them, so she called local organizations to ask what she could do. Over and over, the answer she got was "diapers." Nearly...

Unemployment has dropped in recent years, yet still—far too many people are participating. One out of every seven Americans received SNAP benefits in 2014, and the program cost $74.1 billion, making it one of the largest means-tested welfare program. You’d think the improving jobs situation would translate to the number of SNAP beneficiaries declining by a much larger margin. But that hasn’t been the case. Another reason for saying that food stamp numbers aren’t really going in the right direction? Look at how the SNAP demographic has changed. Before the 2008 recession, 55 percent of SNAP households consisted of children...

The quickest and surest way to make things more expensive for most of us is for someone in our government to attempt to make such things “free” for some. As I noted earlier this year, the largest “charity” in the U.S. is government (which, of course, brags about it!). Americans gave a total of approximately $3.4 billion (about $2.4 billion from individuals) to private charities in 2013. In the same year, Americans received over $600 billion from means-tested (recipients required to be below a certain income level) government programs (housing, food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, and the like). When non means-tested...

In a blog posted on Friday on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website, the department boasts that food stamp spending at U.S. farmers markets has increased “nearly six-fold” since 2008. “National SNAP redemptions at those outlets totaled $18.8 million during fiscal year 2014 (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30), a nearly six-fold increase since 2008,” the blog states, calling the increase “a win-win for all.” (SNAP is the acronym for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamp program.) […] Calling food stamp payment at farmers markets a “top priority” for the USDA, the department is providing free wireless equipment to...

the nation’s legal and illegal immigrant population hit a record 41.3 million in the summer of 2013 – up 1.4 million since July 2010. ... refugees from both Africa and the Middle East were users of the most cash assistance – noting that 91.4 percent of refugees from the Middle East were on food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

From the Conservative Tribune: “Right now American conservatives are arguing over the idea that the US should provide at least a minimum safety net for citizens who fall on economic hard times and need assistance to get back on their feet. One thing conservatives are not arguing about, however, is the idea that too many freeloaders consider such assistance an entitlement and abuse it for as long as they can. The use of food stamps is a case in point. More and more families use food stamps as their primary means of receiving not only groceries but also questionable items...

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The Oklahoma Republican Party on Tuesday removed a Facebook post that compared people who receive food stamps to wild animals after it set off a social-media storm. Titled a "lesson in irony," the post from Monday night says the U.S. government is proud that its food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, this year reached 46 million people. "Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us 'Please Do Not Feed the Animals.' Their stated reason for the policy is because 'The animals will grow dependent on...

Illinois and Michigan have traded places on two key metrics for measuring prosperity and opportunity, and both changes are embarrassing for the Land of Lincoln. The first major change came in October 2014, when Michigan surpassed Illinois for total factory jobs. Michigan now has 25,000 more factory jobs than Illinois even though the Wolverine State’s economy is only three-quarters the size of Illinois’. Now, new data from the Department of Human Services shows the embarrassing role reversal has come full turn. In March of this year, Illinois bumped off Michigan to become the Midwest’s No. 1 user of the Supplemental...

A record 21.7 million American kids get free or reduced-price lunch during at school. But when summer vacation starts, the vast majority of them go without this essential, federally funded benefit. Fewer than 4 million kids -- or just 18% of those in the school lunch program -- are fed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's summer food program. While that's a record number for the 40-year-old initiative, many advocates and government officials say more needs to be done. "In the summer, when those school meals disappear, children find themselves hungry and with few options," said Duke Storen, a senior...

Kids in low-income communities statistically do poorer in terms of school performance near the end of each month, in part, because “they start getting hungry” as their food stamps “start running out,” said President Barack Obama at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Santa Monica, Calif., on Thursday. “Too many of our kids still go hungry in this country,” said Obama. “I was looking at some statistics, because we're looking at policies around hunger and the SNAP program, and the performance of children in lower-income communities in school dips at the end of the month in a statistically significant way,”...

On the 50th anniversary of Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous report on the breakdown of the black family in urban ghettos, Baltimore has descended into the tragic violence and chaos he predicted. In a report titled, “The Negro Family: The Case for Action,” Assistant Secretary of Labor Moynihan, warned that the deterioration of the black family, would result in soaring crime rates if it continued unchecked. In the most famous passage of the 1965 report, Moynihan, who would later become a Democratic U.S. senator, wrote, “From the wild Irish slums of the 19th-century Eastern seaboard, to the riot-torn suburbs of Los...

(KFYI News) Two Valley shop owners are arrested of for allegedly defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) out of at least $250,000, according to the Department of Economic Security. Aamir Sheikh and Shahbano Sheikh face charges including fraudulent schemes and artifices, unlawful use of food stamps, money laundering, computer tampering, theft, and related offenses. The men, who own stores in Phoenix and Mesa, allegedly allowed non-eligible SNAP items to be purchased using SNAP benefits. “The Arizona Department of Economic Security is vigilant about ensuring those who need assistance receive it,” said Director Tim Jeffries. “When individuals choose to cheat...

If someone’s pay suddenly doubles, she may lose rental assistance, child care subsidies, and more. In L.A., a worker who currently makes $9 an hour and works 40 hours a week (which is not a given, but that would be a full-time workload) will earn $360 a week, or about $1,440 a month and $18,720 a year, before taxes. If that worker is a mom with two children, she is below the poverty line. She qualifies for a bevy of federal and state programs like food stamps, rental assistance, child care subsidies, health care for her children, and Medicaid because...

The bloated federal agency charged with feeding the poor—and eradiating “food insecurity” in the U.S.—blew nearly $7 billion to provide “ineligible recipients” with the welfare benefit and there appears to be no end in sight to the fleecing. In fact, the agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has for years violated a measure known as the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA) that requires agencies to conduct annual risk assessments to identify programs that make “significant improper payments” of $10 million or more. Not only has the USDA violated IPERA in the last four years, it also refuses...

Soon it could be possible to apply for food stamps over the phone, with proponents arguing that in-person interviews add too much extra administrative cost. A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) looked at whether it should get rid of in-person interviews for those who apply to receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is commonly known as food stamps. The program is the nation’s largest food-assistance program.

henever Republicans talk about trimming the federal food stamp program, Democrats decry them as cold, heartless or worse. But new research shows that cutting food stamps could actually make the country healthier. The U.S. Department of Agriculture looked at data from 2007 through 2010, then compared average weights of those on food stamps — officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — to those who weren't.

Baltimore Is Not About Race Government-induced dependency is the problem—and it’s one with a long history. By William McGurn May 4, 2015 For those who see the rioting in Baltimore as primarily about race, two broad reactions dominate. One group sees rampaging young men fouling their own neighborhoods and concludes nothing can be done because the social pathologies are so overwhelming. In some cities, this view manifests itself in the unspoken but cynical policing that effectively cedes whole neighborhoods to the thugs. Opinion Journal Video Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Jason Riley on what prompted the violence and what comes next....

The big Agribusiness corporations are some of the most corrupt corporations in America. The New York Times had an article in 2013, on the Agribusiness corruption in the $1 trillion farm bill. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/business/richer-farmers-bigger-subsidies.html?_r=0 The Food Stamp programs and free school lunch programs, are a means by which Agro-business corporations can increase their revenues, by selling food to the Federal and State governments at above market prices. The food stamp program was never intended to help the poor. Even the USDA website admits that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was intended to help Agribusiness corporations sell surplus food that they were...