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Foodstamp Program Shutdown Imminent?
Zero Hedge ^ | October 15, 2013

Posted on 10/15/2013 11:14:21 AM PDT by Zakeet

When over the weekend, a Xerox "glitch" shut down the EBT system, better known as foodstamps, for nearly the entire day across 17 states leaving millions without "funding" to pay for food leading to dramatic examples of the basest human behavior possible, some of the more conspiratorial elements saw this merely as a dress rehearsal for what may be coming in the immediate future. While there was no basis to believe that is the case, a USDA (the currently shuttered agency that administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) memo obtained by the Crossroads Urban Center in Utah carries in it a very disturbing warning for the 46+ million Americans currently on foodstamps.

To wit: "understanding the operational issues and constraints that States face, and in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are directing States to hold their November issuance files and delay transmission to State electronic benefit transfer (EBT) vendors until further notice." In other words, as Fox13News summarizes, "States across the country are being told to stop the supplemental nutrition assistance program for the month of November, pending further notice."

The full memo first posted on the Crossroads Facebook page is shown below:

More on this dramatic development which, if implemented, would will result in significant unpredictable outcomes across the nation:

This is going to create a huge hardship for the people we serve here in our food pantry,” says Bill Tibbits who is the Associate Director at Crossroads Urban Center.

They posted a letter from the USDA on its Facebook page. It says in part, “in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are directing states to hold their November issuance files and delay transmission to state electronic benefit transfer vendors until further notice.”

“What this means if there’s not a deal, if Congress doesn’t reach a deal to get federal government back up and running, in Utah about 100,000 families won’t get food stamp benefit,” says Tibbits.

In other words, tens of thousands of Utah families may not be able to feed their children come November.

...

People out here are going to go without food,” says Loralee Smith whose been homeless since August and says the uncertainty is making her uneasy about where her next meal will come from. “I’m on food stamps, I don’t know if I’m going to get them, a lot of people are on food stamps and they don’t know if they’re going to get them.”

Others say if SNAP shuts down, they’ll find a way to feed themselves.

One hopes such "alternative" feeding arrangements will be peaceful, although in the most heavily armed nation in the world, and arguably the one where a massive portion of the population is now fully reliant on the welfare state for virtually every daily need, it is easy to see cutting off daily bread to tens of millions has a less than happy ending.

As the report notes, for people out on the streets like Richard Phillips, "It could impact us and it’s going to cause problems because you’re going to come to find out that people are going to steal and do what they have to do to survive."

Such a realization could come as a very unpleasant wake up call for the millions of other Americans who still live in their Ivory Towers, focusing on the daily gyrations of the S&P500, and largely oblivious of how the rest of America lives.

The full report on what may be the most catalytic event in the history of the US welfare state is presented below.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ebt; shutdown; snap; welfare
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To: Zakeet

Riots, people dying, exactly what obama wants.


21 posted on 10/15/2013 11:38:59 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
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To: Zakeet

Good.


22 posted on 10/15/2013 11:39:37 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (I will not comply.)
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To: PGR88
So, where do people who can't figure out how to feed themselves tend to live? (Could it correspond to the places where people who vote for Democrats tend to live?)


23 posted on 10/15/2013 11:40:35 AM PDT by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: Uncle Chip

That’s what I’m thinking on a reread.So the reports are not going in for Nov.effective now.Even if they come up with the money it will take awhile to get the system back up.Better stock up now folks.


24 posted on 10/15/2013 11:40:41 AM PDT by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
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To: UCANSEE2

Which film is that and is that Jesse Eisenberg?


25 posted on 10/15/2013 11:44:14 AM PDT by txhurl ('The DOG ate my homework. That homework, too. ALL my homework. OK?' - POSHITUS)
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To: cincinnati65
“Hey, let’s put water on it.....”

But...Brawndo has electrolytes.

26 posted on 10/15/2013 11:48:15 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (So Obama "inherited" a mess? Firemen "inherit" messes too. Ever see one put gasoline on it?)
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To: Palio di Siena

SNAP is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food stamps.

EBT is Electronic Bank Transfer and could be a bank card, debit card, or welfare card. EBT is how food stamps stopped being stamps.

The problem with EBT welfare, apart from normalizing or desensitizing it, is that money just drops into the account regularly without people having to maintain an address, landline, or other aspect of a stable normal life. It also makes fraud easier.


27 posted on 10/15/2013 11:48:42 AM PDT by No.6 (www.michigansuibukan.com)
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To: All

you know, along the lines of the reason for the popularity of duck dynasty, because people are starved for a show that doesn’t push, anti Americanism, homosexuality and the agenda of the non Christians in hollywood ....
I bet if someone opened up a store that had a huge sign that says they do not accept, ebt, I bet that people would flock to that store, and drive out of their way to do business there.


28 posted on 10/15/2013 11:49:21 AM PDT by willywill
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To: Zakeet

Shutdown of the foodstamp program will affect me and mine as much as the federal govt. shutdown has: Not At All.
Who cares? Let it burn.


29 posted on 10/15/2013 11:50:23 AM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: All armed conservatives.)
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To: No.6

Actually that is....Electronic Benefit Transfer.


30 posted on 10/15/2013 11:53:01 AM PDT by sheana
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To: No.6
The problem with EBT welfare, apart from normalizing or desensitizing it, is that money just drops into the account regularly without people having to maintain an address, landline, or other aspect of a stable normal life. It also makes fraud easier.

Amazing how that works.

A person can have HUD subsidized residence as well as a half dozen homeless personnas and EBT cards for all of them.

31 posted on 10/15/2013 11:56:28 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: Sooth2222

The left always like to point out all of the Red States where people get so much welfare.

Never stopping to think of all of those states where there exists heavily blue cites where almost all of it goes.


32 posted on 10/15/2013 12:12:21 PM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: Antihero101607
I wish this were a parallel universe.

It is.

33 posted on 10/15/2013 12:14:11 PM PDT by Chuckster (The longer I live the less I care about what you think.)
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To: Zakeet

Why is it that whenever something is declared immenent, it never happens.


34 posted on 10/15/2013 12:21:50 PM PDT by cornfedcowboy
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To: Zakeet

“EBT card...it’s everywhere you want to be”


35 posted on 10/15/2013 12:22:05 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad & lived with his parents most his life.)
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To: Sooth2222

Cities. Easy enough to understand.


36 posted on 10/15/2013 12:31:15 PM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: No.6
EBT is Electronic Benefits Transfer.

money just drops into the account regularly without people having to maintain an address, landline, or other aspect of a stable normal life.

My state has six-month recertifications. If the individual doesn't show up and complete the form and/or interview, benefits stop the first of the next month.

37 posted on 10/15/2013 12:36:22 PM PDT by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
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To: blackdog
THAT was something I wanted to know ... how long those phones were good for.

ALSO ... are they free LD, too ?

38 posted on 10/15/2013 12:39:19 PM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: Zakeet

Each card should give out 5% less each month until empty,, imho


39 posted on 10/15/2013 1:10:06 PM PDT by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: Zakeet

BTW when the program finally shuts down send them to Michelle’s garden.

Better they get wonderful veggies than they go to the squirrels.

Well maybe —


40 posted on 10/15/2013 1:18:38 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
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