End Stigma, Give Food Stamps a New Name?

Reuters ^ | Wed, Jun 23, 2004

[Fiddlstix]

how about MarxMoney^TM

Sounds okay.
Works for me.

[Phantom Lord]

Neal Boortz has been on this for a long long time. Here is what he has to say today in NealzNuze today...

PUSH BUTTON PLUNDER

The federal government's get-out-of-work-free-coupons (food stamps) are going all-electronic. The program is being replaced by something called EBT, which stands for 'electronic benefits transfer.' So basically the program by which taxpayer money is wasted on parasites who are too lazy to provide for themselves will now become easier and more convenient. Welcome to the United States of America.

The food stamp program, which subsidizes the food purchases of 23 million, is a fraud and a rip-off of the American public. But nooooo...it's mean spirited to say that! Well guess what...the truth hurts. How many times have you been in line at the grocery store and seen some welfare brood mare with her litter checking out with all of this expensive stuff you can't afford to buy, and then she pays for it with her food stamps. But now...we don't want to stigmatize people with food stamps.....let's give them a credit card! That will fix things!

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said yesterday that the term "food stamps" no longer has the right ring for the program. She says her department is going to ask for suggestions for a new name "to better reflect the mission of this vital program." Since the mission of her program is seize money from people who actually earn it and give it to those that don't, I have a suggestion for a new name:

[DumpsterDiver]

I would start with either your local police department or city attorney's office. Tell them you need to know who handles fraud of this type. In the meantime, I'll try a quick search at Google and see what I can find.

[5by5]

That's why we should call them "vouchers." Imagine the outrage if the food stamp recipients were forced to use them at government run stores on inferior products.

But that's exactly what happens in public education.

[independentmind]

"I think we do need a new name," said Rep. Gil Gutnecht, Minnesota Republican and chairman of the House subcommittee in charge of the program. Like other name-change advocates, he said a new name would remove the stigma associated with the coupons and the tarnish of occasional scandals from black-marketeering of the coupons for illicit goods

Well, I don't know about other states but here in Virginia, the official term used is EBT card (electronic benefits transfer, I assume).

Anyone who thinks that fraud related to the program has been eliminated is mistaken. Virginia experienced significant employee fraud with EBT card issuances after Hurricane Isabel last fall.

[sphinx]

The hispanic supermarket near my house accepts food stamps for cigarettes.

Though not a smoker, I am still willing to regard cigarettes as one of the basic food groups, along with diet coke, pretzels, and kippered herring.

But seriously, my question is whether going to a card helps police this kind of thing. In principle it should because the computer codes could be set up to refuse payment on prohibited items and/or create an electronic record for computerized audit and enforcement action. Old-style food stamps are wide open to abuse because they are a form of money, and money is fungible. Food stamps became an underground currency. The card might help stop this.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

The Discredit Card

[headsonpikes]

Follow the money trail...

In retrospect, it will all seem so obvious.

I've concluded humans are predisposed to want to believe hooey rather than have to deal with actuality.

This is probably a social survival mechanism.

[DumpsterDiver]

This website looks promising:

Reporting Fraud
http://www.state.de.us/dhss/dms/arms/reportfraud.html

[dangus]

"Taxpayer's teat ticket?"

[jslade]

Next time you go to the market look at the terminel at check-out. There is a button there that says EBT. Stands for "electronic bank transfer". Or, as Neal Boortz has labeled it "push button plunder".

[Mr. Buzzcut]

The Socialist Security Card

[Ima Lurker]

What would you prefer instead:

I would prefer they got a job and pay for their own food. If it takes two jobs, then work two jobs. I would also prefer they postponed having children till they can afford to feed them.

However, I do agree completely with your last paragraph.

[Old anti feminist]

Taxpayer cards!

[presidio9]

I have been in this store when people were buying cigarettes with food stamps and there was a cop on line behind them!

[SupplySider]

I am for s--- canning the whole program...failing that, let everyone who wants food stamps to have to wear a t-shirt that says "on WELFARE, thanks, taxpayers" on the front and the back when they go to the store...we need to stigmatize it MORE, not LESS. Oh, if i were king... LOL The Capt.

If I were king, I would kill the program and put soup kitchens in the neighborhoods.In order to qualify for a meal, one would have to work for two hours in an a back room, assembling stuff or stuffing envelopes, etc. The meal would be lentil whole wheat gruel with carrots and an apple, with milk for children.

In other words, give some help to the (rare) truly needy, but make it fair and make it less appealing than buying potato chips at the supermarket. The gruel, by the way, which would undoubtedly be rejected by most, would be the answer to prayers in many third world countries.

I remember Newt floated the soup kitchen idea briefly, but it was shot down almost immediately.

[independentmind]

Poor people would still not be making enough to pay much in taxes, but they would begin to see how much is actually being spent on them.

Where did you get the idea that poor people don't already know how much is being spent on them? It's how to make them care about it that's the problem.

[prion]

What would you prefer instead: direct government commodity distributions (Bill Buckley once proposed this) or special government supermarkets for the poor?

Yes to the first, please. It's the way things used to work. Welfare powdered milk, welfare cheese, welfare powdered eggs. Direct distribution of nutritious, unpleasant food (actually, the welfare peanutbutter and welfare strawberry jam were excellent).

But how come you're fixated on food? In a land where you can get five packs of ramen noodles for less than the cost of a gallon of gas, what makes you think the poor need food above all? Really, it's an atavistic model of poverty.

[bondjamesbond]

America will feed it's poor. This is entirely appropriate.

However, it is inappropriate for any government agency to go out of it's way to increase the number of people on public assistance. If there is some inconvenience and embarrassment to being on the dole, it is not the government's job to eliminate them. The government should be doing everything it can to reduce the number of people on food stamps, or any other type of public assistance.

Unfortunately, the Agriculture Department has a perverse incentive. The more people on food stamps, the more money they get. More money, more staff, a nicer couch for the Secretary's office, etc. To garner these things, they will flush massive amounts of public funds down a rat-hole, with no consideration of whether or not doing so is a societally useful thing to do.

Now, to increase utilization of their program, they want to end the stigma associated with failing to be self-reliant. They want to tear out one of the underpinnings of American society, because they want a bigger piece of the Congressional money pie. But there is something deep in the human psyche that says failure is shameful and success is desirable. This attitude should be promoted, not discouraged.

[Xenalyte]

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:9_pjVYO6vOQJ:www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/foodstamp.PDF+%22food+stamp+fraud%22+%22new+york%22&hl=en

"Some retailers violate the Food Stamp Program by accepting food stamp benefits for the sale of unauthorized items such as tobacco, alcohol and paper products. This type of activity should be reported directly to the nearest office of the Food and Nutrition Service, USDA. The telephone numbers for these offices can be found in the Government pages of your local telephone book."