Stealing? Here’s what ‘stealing’ is. In 2008, there was a table full of groceries that I could buy for $100. My $100 would purchase the entire table of groceries. Today I now have someone else competing for the groceries on that table. I show up with my usual $100. But now someone else shows up with $40 on their EBT card. This means that it now takes $140 to purchase the entire table of groceries. Yet I only have $100. So now I walk away with only 70% of those groceries, and the guy with the EBT card now walks away with the other 30%. And where did the $40 on the EBT card come from? It came from my paycheck. So as I see it, the guy with the EBT card is stealing 30% of my family’s groceries.
My late son was on Food stamps had an EBT card that he could only use for food. He tried to stretch it out by buying mostly store brand items, but say his balance on his EBT card was $40, he spend less then the 40 bucks, so he would not get over the amount.