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Top secret: $80B a year for food stamps, but feds won’t reveal what’s purchased
The Washington Times ^ | June 24,2012 | Luke Rosiak

Posted on 06/25/2012 11:03:52 AM PDT by Hojczyk

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.

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.

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.

Told that the newspaper would not pay, the CFO’s office then said that only JP Morgan, to which it contracted out operations, had access to the store totals and that the office had never looked at them. After six months of the local government attempting to extract the information from JP Morgan, the District finally said that releasing the information would be illegal.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: clowardpiven; corruption; cultureofcorruption; democratscandals; destroyingamerica; fraud; gangstergovernment; grocery; lobbying; lobbyist; rkselection; transparency; welfarestate
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To: risen_feenix
Rather than focus on how some poor and/or unfortunate people are spending their food stamp money

Because there is a SH*Tload of fraud going on, and this is one way to root it out.

41 posted on 06/25/2012 12:08:22 PM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: Hojczyk

42 posted on 06/25/2012 12:08:47 PM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: Adder

“All digital” is like saying “all in a language” for all the good it does. French? Swahili? Afrikaans? Put that all in a book and expect everyone to be able to read it?

Retailers are consistent within themselves but are not set up to bubble lists of sold items in any consistent format back up to Uncle Sam. At best a UPC could be furnished, but there is no standard UPC for things like fresh produce sold bulk in a store. Adding categories of “counts as food but food stamp banned” items would increase overhead.


43 posted on 06/25/2012 12:09:57 PM PDT by raccoonnookkeeper (I keep raccoons in a nook!)
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To: Red Badger

You paid for a little bit of them, but the neighbors for the rest.

Breaking two laws is no righter than breaking one.


44 posted on 06/25/2012 12:11:05 PM PDT by raccoonnookkeeper (I keep raccoons in a nook!)
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To: SampleMan

I’d say the odds of Trayvon’s last purchase being on EBT > 50%


45 posted on 06/25/2012 12:11:59 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: Squantos

That would have been supplemental bennies not food bennies.


46 posted on 06/25/2012 12:14:07 PM PDT by raccoonnookkeeper (I keep raccoons in a nook!)
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To: nascarnation

Already in place by proxy IMO....:o)

Stay safe....


47 posted on 06/25/2012 12:15:54 PM PDT by Squantos
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To: raccoonnookkeeper

Yes, but what could she have done about it?
Call the cops?.........


48 posted on 06/25/2012 12:18:10 PM PDT by Red Badger (Think logically. Act normally.................)
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To: Hojczyk

Bought take-and-bake pizza at Papa Murhphy’s the other night. Went to pick them up and a sign in the window welcomed EBT cards. I won’t be back.


49 posted on 06/25/2012 12:19:14 PM PDT by manic4organic (We won. Get over it.)
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To: Squantos

Confine the purchases to rice and beans. Complete protein-It will keep them alive AND SLIM.


50 posted on 06/25/2012 12:20:05 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: manic4organic

I saw that as well...
I though - great, not only am I paying for MY family’s pizza, I’m paying for a bunch of other people’s as well.


51 posted on 06/25/2012 12:22:00 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: risen_feenix
"...their food stamp money..."

It isn't "...THEIR food stamp money..." money.

That food stamp money came out of mine and other taxpayers' pockets. Money I could have used to take better care of my own family.

There is RAMPANT FRAUD in the system and it needs to be ferreted out.

52 posted on 06/25/2012 12:23:23 PM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political party's in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: Red Badger

Being able to call police makes a thing right or wrong in your world?

And anyhow she could well say that you just took her shopping cart away, and produce records from the food stamp bureau to prove the purchase. It would be your claim against hers, but you would be in possession of the food she was on record as buying. Not too good for you.


53 posted on 06/25/2012 12:28:02 PM PDT by raccoonnookkeeper (I keep raccoons in a nook!)
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To: MrB

Why haven’t you already been boycotting the Safeway, etc. who sold frozen pizzas to food stamp card customers?

This is blind.


54 posted on 06/25/2012 12:31:16 PM PDT by raccoonnookkeeper (I keep raccoons in a nook!)
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To: raccoonnookkeeper

Read back carefully - I didn’t say I was boycotting, just that I was not happy about it, realizing that I was buying a treat for my family, and having to pay for somebody else’s family as well.


55 posted on 06/25/2012 12:34:24 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: raccoonnookkeeper

You’re taking this much too seriously. I would never do such a thing, nor would I even consider it. Everything I wrote is for entertainment purposes only.........


56 posted on 06/25/2012 12:36:56 PM PDT by Red Badger (Think logically. Act normally.................)
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To: Red Badger

The bible says something about those who deceive their neighbors then say oh, i was only joking.


57 posted on 06/25/2012 12:38:42 PM PDT by raccoonnookkeeper (I keep raccoons in a nook!)
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To: raccoonnookkeeper

Anybody who has been around FR for several years knows how I write, with tongue firmly planted in cheek...........


58 posted on 06/25/2012 12:41:19 PM PDT by Red Badger (Think logically. Act normally.................)
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To: raccoonnookkeeper

It also specifically states “he who will not work shall not eat”,

which is the actual topic here.


59 posted on 06/25/2012 12:41:58 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: Red Badger

No reason to apologize to a 3 1/2 month old.


60 posted on 06/25/2012 12:43:38 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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