Cutting Federal Spending: The Case Of Food Stamps

Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 16 May, 2025 | Francis Menton

[MtnClimber]

In high school I worked in a grocery store. I estimate that half of the people using food stamps drove brand new cars, usually Cadillacs.

[Gen.Blather]

” I estimate that half of the people using food stamps drove brand new cars, usually Cadillacs.”

I also worked in a grocery store and that happened repeatdly to me. They’d pay with stamps, and I’d load their groceries into a new car.

I think welfare is a subsidy to car companies, luxury goods suppliers and drug dealers.

[oldasrocks]

We were behind a young couple that looked pretty healthy using their card to buy 3 carts of groceries. No cheap cuts of meat. Over $1,100

[Bobbyvotes]

And most are over-weight.

[Bobbyvotes]

Food stamps has a VERY BIG LOBBY supporting it. It is the big food companies.

[dljordan]

” I estimate that half of the people using food stamps drove brand new cars, usually Cadillacs.”

It’s Hispanic women with four kids driving a new Ram now.

[Cloverfarm]

At the same time that million$ are spent on food stamps, we are told child hunger is still rampant so we have to send food packages home with school kids on the weekend and set up summer feeding programs.

$o where does all the food stamp money go?

[small farm girl]

Yes, in MA they added around 100k to the food stamp roles last year...I think 1/3 of our state is collecting. It’s super easy to blow up the numbers when you enroll every illegal. 😕

[Candor7]

Proponents of the food stamp program say that it has long served as a critical lifeline for low-income families by ensuring that they ( my edit here).......have lots of beer money to purchase vast quantities of Colt 45 Malt Liquor.

There , fixed it.

[BobL]

“Food Research & Action Center”

Half of their funding is from the government, so I’m not surprised regarding their position on any added requirements.

They’re also linked up with Big Food, again no surprise.

[nopardons]

BTTT

[MtnClimber]

Yes, most were very overweight.

[equaviator]

SNAP will pay for Skittles and Sour Patch Kids but not for a bottle of multi-vitamins?...Makes no sense at all.

[econjack]

I remember growing up and seeing my Mom return from grocery shopping, sitting down at the kitchen table, placing her face in her hands, and start sobbing. I was maybe 12 at the time, and asked her why she was crying. She said: “I was waiting in line and the lady in front of me bought 6 Delicious apples. I love those apples, but we can’t afford them. The lady paid for them with food stamps. It’s not fair...”

Personally, anyone drawing ANY gov’t transfer payments from food stamps to welfare and rent subsidies, should show up for a gov’t job every morning. They can always sweep floors and clean toilets, but maybe that would encourage them look for a better-paying job.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

At the local Walmart, Hispanics will fill several grocery carts and pull out a handful of SNAP cards, running each of them through the card reader until the groceries are all paid for.

Meanwhile, the poor and elderly are in line with the bare minimum and probably have to cut costs elsewhere to pay for it.

Cut off ALL welfare to illegals.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

“At the same time that million$ are spent on food stamps, we are told child hunger is still rampant so we have to send food packages home with school kids on the weekend and set up summer feeding programs.

$o where does all the food stamp money go?”

The children are fed free breakfast and lunch at school and sent home with food at night. The parents are flush with cigarettes, tattoos and weaves and wigs.

Illegals use their food stamps to fill their stores and send home to their family.

Welfare is an underground money system funded by taxpayers.

Cut it off, set up grocery stores with basic healthy foods.

[SharpRightTurn]

“According to the latest data from the Department of Agriculture, as of February 2025 the SNAP program had some 42+ million “participation persons,” with the cost of the program running at just under $8 billion per month, which is close to $100 billion per year.”

Incredible. This should be up to the states. If they want to fund this and risk bankruptcy, fine. If they want to eliminate it, fine. The founders never envisioned the central government to be involved in give-away programs.

[Openurmind]

I have a real concern that radical extremism is going to support complete slash and burn. There are actually folks out there who truly need this. And for those who have not tried to get SNAP it is not easy, and despite the myths they really do not receive that much unless they have children. In fact the truly homeless living under bridges or in their cars are not even eligible because they have no permanent physical “home” address. They can get one time “emergency” help but cannot get anymore until they can prove a physical address.

[rlmorel]

In a supermarket near me:

This is a source of open irritation to me. I fully am onboard with a food safety net for people with low income. Not as a right, but because I believe it is the right thing to do.

Our Founders knew full well what they were doing when they didn't include food, shelter, and clothing in the Constitution. If you make something a right, that means someone is obligated to provide that right.

I have always felt that food assistance should allow for the purchase of certain classifications of goods such as meat like hamburger, poultry, and dairy (like milk and cheese) and items such as flour, beans, and rice.

How that is accomplished in practice is a detail.

The fact that food assistance lets people buy steak, lobster, Cocoa Puffs, Cheetos, and any number of other things I view as luxuries, (especially when I may or may not avoid purchasing things like these because I pay my own way) is a sign that this is not assistance to those in need, but is a wealth redistribution mechanism.

It is also fully in line with the actions of devotees of Cloward-Piven such as Obama and Clinton that they would get as many people as possible on these types of programs.