Posted on 01/04/2023 6:42:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The second the Speaker of the House kabuki theater is over, I want whoever the new chair of the Ag committee is to crawl down the USDA’s throat. And stay there for a while. I understand food stamps/SNAP were meant to help –help not lifetime support – the less fortunate through hard times and keep food on the table. But it has turned into yet another Biden administration constituency hand-out, where taxpayers are being held up by the accomplished money launderers operating in the various departments.
One peril of a large administrative state is the mischief agencies can get up to when no one is watching. Witness the overreach of the Agriculture Department, which expanded food-stamp benefits by evading the process for determining benefits and end-running Congressional review.
Ho, boy, did they ever pull the razzle-dazzle, all without the required Congressional oversight. And the Government Accountability Office caught them.
…The sneak started in 2021 when USDA rejiggered the Thrifty Food Plan, a metric the government uses to determine foods that make up a healthy nutritional basket. Agriculture uses that information, as well as food prices and inflation, to set benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (known as SNAP, or food stamps).
…The [15%] pandemic increase was set to expire in September 2021, so the USDA hurried to push through its 2021 increase on an abbreviated time frame, increasing SNAP benefits by an average of 21%. The result skipped over procedural safeguards, evaded Congressional review and produced its increases without a project plan or program manager. According to a review by Angela Rachidi at the American Enterprise Institute, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the 2021 increase in the Thrifty Food Plan added $200 billion to the budget baseline over 10 years.
In a nutshell, what the GAO found was that the USDA took their TFP pandemic emergency 15% hike, rushed through another increase before that expiration could foul things up, which jacked up SNAP benefits by an average of 21%. The GAO called Agriculture Secretary Vilsack’s department out for 3 specific breaches when they did so, and then noted that the USDA did basically an in-house review and sign-off of their own $200B sleight of hand.
…Specifically, USDA substituted a limited internal review of the TFP report for the formal peer review it had initially planned. This review was conducted by USDA officials who had been involved in the TFP reevaluation, and therefore were not independent.
Looks good to me! Look good to you?
What does that mean, exactly – that it’s adding $200B over 10 years to the bottom line? How could it be so much?
Welp. Part of that is because we now have over FORTYONEMILLION people using food stamps and you read that figure correctly. Almost 12% of the country is on food stamps. I have the figures – along with how costs have exploded in all of four years – right here in this gruesome chart (and keep in mind this doesn’t include the $200B).
Holyschamolymoly
41 million people relying on the government for food during covid.
They have lots of countries where the government provides "all you need" I never thought I would live in one of them.
pic.twitter.com/tAoAQoevIZ— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) January 4, 2023
Highway robbery without the highway and zero accountability for any of it.
…Abuse of process doesn’t get much clearer than that. The GAO review won’t unwind the increase, which requires action by the USDA. But the GAO report should resonate with taxpayers who don’t like to see the politicization of a process meant to provide nutrition to those in need, not act as a vehicle for partisan agency staffers to impose their agenda without Congressional approval.
All of this undermines transparency and accountability for a program that provided food stamps to some 41 million people in 2021. The Biden Administration is using the cover of the pandemic to expand the entitlement state beyond what Congress authorized. House Republicans can draw attention to this lawlessness and use their power of the purse to stop it to the extent possible with a Democratic Senate.
I hate to be a cynic, but it does make one stroke a chin about able-bodied people sitting comfortably at home while jobs go unfilled. What is it going to take to flush them out?
What is going to be the Republican intestinal fortitude for doing so? Nobody wants to be the bad guys who pull back bucks that are already being spent, however illegal their origin. I don’t know if they’ve got the…intestinal fortitude. I’ll stick to that. At the very least they can pull Vilsack in and rag him unmercifully while clacking the purse shut as best they can. Not impossible, but the degree of difficulty with Schumer still running the senate hampers any meaningful action.
“Meaningful action.” I actually just typed that.
‘Tis to laugh.
But at least now you know about it.
The Federal Food Stamp program is to subsidize the suppliers, not the recipients.
Food stamps are the gateway into the welfare system. If you qualify for food stamps you are automatically eligible for a free cell phone, and high-speed internet, so you know, you can look for jobs. It is also a short step into the Medicaid program. While there used to be a stigma associated with ‘living on the dole’, those times are long past and there are government workers who will try to see that you, the disadvantaged get all of the benefits to which you are ‘entitled’.
LBJ was a very smart evil Democrat.
The “Great Society” program destroyed the black family structure and made ongoing generations dependent on the govt and reliable Democrat voters.
It’s a neon welcome sign for all near and far to rip off the taxpayers and be a freeloader
There I said it
Very evil too.
I made some bad decisions in my early adult years; ended up being a mom of 2 kids living in the projects in LA with a jailed husband.
I was awarded $174 dollars a month (1986), and around $400 in food stamps a month, back when they were actually tickets you tore from a booklet-I prayed for the day that I could use cash from my work to pay for food!
I became so dependent on them, that I did not cut the cord until 1999, when I moved back up north.
The satisfaction that I got from paying my own way was a major catalyst for me to cut all forms of government cheese.
That’s why Congress put it under the Ag dept instead of HHS.
I believe that this also leads to inflation in food prices, as more $$$ are chasing a fixed supply.
Download The Tragedy of American Compassion [P.D.F]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvPZnYpb4nM
sorry, I screwed up—dead domain— still, a good book.
This does not even consider that, for households with school-aged children, the children are often receiving 2 or 3 “free” meals each school day (and some sending home on weekends and school breaks), which are ALSO paid for by the taxpayers.
I do not think we need to pay TWICE to feed the children.
I personally know of one department at an Ivy League university where every.single.student is receiving food stamps
They told me - you apply, and you’ll get approved immediately. No questions asked.
There’s absolutely no checks on resources or consideration for fraud.
Its an out-of-control leftist ideology meeting a massive enabling Fed.gov bureaucracy. Much like illegal aliens flowing into the USA.
Everything gangster government does is a racket.
No it is not, you have zero understanding, you realize how many seniors are on food stamps do you.
Exactly.
Around 1998 Star Parker’s book “ Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats: From Welfare Cheat to Conservative Messenger “ came out, you may enjoy reading it.
I thought it was a great read about a gal that got her life together, escaped the welfare system, and became a conservative.
It is theft and is unconstitutional.
That’s why The Turtle scuttled Marlin Stutzmans campaign for Senator 6 years ago
Stuntman was trying to make the Food Stamp Program stand alone and not hide the numbers behind other huge spending bills
The Chamber of Commerce wanted their own big spender, Todd Young
No it is not, you have zero understanding, you realize how many seniors are on food stamps do you.
When my mother was in her final illness, I was trying to find out if there were government programs that could help her her the expenses. Her Social Security check was enough to make her ineligible for any benefits from the state or county. Too much for food stamps, too much for MediCal. She had paid taxes, both Federal and state for something like 70 years. People who had illegally crossed the border were eligible, but not her.
The first question asked was, “Is she on food stamps?” As soon as I said no, I was told there really was nothing they could do. They, the social workers, were all very nice about it and sympathetic, and thought it sad that someone who had contributed to the ‘system’ all of her life, but rules are rules.
As to the gateway bit, I’m afraid it is true. If you qualify for food stamps, it opens the door to other free things as I mentioned. And those who manage the welfare programs are encouraged to get more people drawing benefits. More people on food stamps is a mark of pride for democrat politicians, they think it shows their compassion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
