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The House’s big, beautiful budget bill is bigger than it is beautiful, so it’s worth noting the better parts of the draft. The House Agriculture Committee is moving on a modest welfare reform in food stamps that will resuscitate the program’s connection with work. Americans who manage to sift through the media distortions will approve. By one think-tank estimate, nearly 13 million able-bodied adults were on food stamps in 2022, and the benefit covers some 12% of the U.S. population. People are supposed to work as a condition of benefits, but millions don’t. Live in California? The Biden Administration in...

If HHS Secretary and healthy food advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has his way, SNAP will stand for Soda Not Allowed Period. On Friday, Kennedy brought his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign to West Virginia, where Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that he will be seeking permission from the Department of Agriculture to put soda on the list of items that cannot be bought through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often referred to by its former name of food stamps, according to The Washington Post.

As DOGE’s efforts shift to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in social welfare programs including SNAP, Social Security, and Medicaid, The Drill Down podcast welcomes a nationally recognized expert in spotting how those programs are rife with fraud. Andrew McClenahan is, among other things, intergovernmental committee co-chair for an organization called the United Council on Welfare Fraud, and has investigated fraud in the food stamp program, including one bust several years ago that stopped a $100 million fraud scheme in South Florida. The group is made up of welfare fraud investigators from every state. In 2018, GAI published a report...

The American Heart Association is throwing its weight behind soda and junk food—literally. Instead of supporting legislation that would prevent food stamps from being used on sugary drinks and processed snacks, the AHA is fighting it. Why? Because it takes money from the very companies selling these products. Pepsi, Kellogg’s, and other big food corporations pump cash into the AHA, and in return, the organization defends policies that keep their products moving off the shelves, even at the expense of public health. The proposed legislation is simple. It aims to stop Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—taxpayer-funded assistance—from being used...

POV: 3K in food stamps and 7 kids and 7 babydaddies. We listen and don't judge.

WASHINGTON — Americans on food stamps may be banned from using them to buy “sugary drinks” and other junk food, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Friday. The newly appointed cabinet official said she will work with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — to prioritize food-stamp benefits for healthy food items. “Will we ever take food out of a hungry child’s mouth? Of course not, this is the United States of America, Rollins told reporters on the White House driveway. “Truly, this program has grown so large, especially...

New York City is ending a program that provided prepaid debit cards to migrant families living in the sanctuary city. In a statement obtained by FOX 5 New York, Mayor Adams announced the end of the pilot program for immediate response cards. (video in the link below)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vRzL_ftbB4

How great is Bidenomics working out for the people of Massachusetts? Our citizens are doing so well economically here that the number of active EBT cards – food stamps – has increased from 1,944,399 in July 2023 to 2,616,882 on Sept. 1 of this year. Nothing says the economy is great like a 34.6% increase in the number of food-stamp recipients in Massachusetts – in a mere 14 months. Isn’t this wonderful news? Happy days are here again. Just ask Kamala Harris. Way back in 1932, then-presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “I see one third of a nation ill-clothed,...

Via TikTok "Papa Biden" is paving the streets with gold for illegal immigrants, brags Leonel Moreno, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who is recruiting people to come to the US. He encourages illegals to invade homes and become squatters, so they get a free home by stealing them from Americans. Leonel Moreno, ‘migrant influencer’ encouraging others to invade the US, squat at homes is now on the run from authorities https://t.co/H3zbfx3m38 pic.twitter.com/5nSv5lra9N— New York Post (@nypost) March 27, 2024Stupid me, when I saw this video yesterday on Twitter I assumed it was anti-immigrant propaganda. It was just too outrageous, and too...

On Friday’s edition of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) argued against cuts to SNAP benefits because “people are aching” due to inflation, but argued that’s not Joe Biden’s fault and there were supply chain issues. After discussing crop insurance, Jackson said, [relevant remarks begin around 1:05:50] “I’ve come to look at SNAP as food insurance and family insurance that the government uses. So, when people cannot do for themselves, I think the government should help them. When the people can do for themselves, the government needs to step back. Right now, people are aching. There’s been auto...

An alarming study has spotlighted how 42 million food stamp recipients spend their welfare handouts on ultra-processed junk food. Coca-Cola, Sprite and other soft drinks are the most commonly-bought items via the $135 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a new study says. Candy, potato chips, frozen pizza, ice cream, cookies, and other ultra-processed food dominates the top 20 items, says a report from the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). Report author Matthew Dickerson says recipients spend 'spend significant portions of their allotments on junk food.' These 'non-nutritious foods' include 'sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, which can lead to poor...

We answer your questions about immigrants and SNAP BenefitsThe immigrant issue in Americahas reached a whole new level of scrutiny amid the recent waves of people coming into the country while searching for that American dream. Nations involved in this are people from Haiti, Ukraine, Palestine, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and any other country that is currently having socio economic or political issues. Amid all the incoming folks getting in the country illegally, the ones that are already living here and are also immigrants are concerned over what could happen to their welfare programs. Because many of these illegal immigrants...

The Biden administration’s massive expansion of food stamp benefits is linked to at least a 15% rise in grocery prices, a new study said on Thursday. President Biden’s Department of Agriculture rolled out revised nutritional standards for federal food benefits in 2021 that expanded the program by roughly 25% from pre-COVID pandemic levels. Overall spending on the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, according to findings from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) previewed by Fox News Digital. It went from $4.5 billion in 2019 to $11 billion in 2022, the study said.

An event at Harvard University encouraged some graduate students to apply for food stamps, despite the school's $53billion endowment. Earlier this year, Harvard University Health Services reminded grad students that they could fuel their bodies and stock their pantries by using government assistance to pay for groceries. 'Did you know that Grad Students may qualify to receive assistance paying for food & groceries?' read a flier for the event. Harvard's endowment makes it the richest university in the world, a fact that sparked outrage among community members who argued that paying graduate students a livable food stipend would barely even...

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Sound On,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Heather Boushey said that it is crucial that veterans and homeless people were spared the “onerous work requirements” for SNAP benefits in the debt limit and that it appears as though access to food stamps will increase on the whole, but estimates at this point are “very, both preliminary and subject to variance.” Boushey said, [relevant remarks begin around 4:30] “Listen, the important thing here is that the president focused on maintaining his priorities. And certainly, making sure that veterans have access, that homeless folks have...

More than half of all students, and nearly 40 percent of all faculty at New Mexico’s higher education institutions don’t have enough food to eat. The findings, from a new state-funded study, reveal troubling statistics representative of a worsening problem across America. New Mexico is taking steps to address it — and other states should pay attention. We’ve known about the problem of food insecurity among U.S. college students for a while. But the New Mexico research casts a wider spotlight on hunger’s broader impact on higher education teachers and administrators. It’s yet another data point that shows just how...

Federal spending jumped from $4.45 trillion in 2019 to $6.21 trillion in 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That is a 40 percent increase in four years. The pandemic supercharged the federal budget, and spending and deficits are expected to continue rising unless policymakers pursue major reforms.What is all the new spending since 2019? The answer is surprising, as shown in the two tables below. The main drivers of the recent increases have not been the largest three programs—Social Security, Medicare, and defense—but rather rapid growth in numerous other programs.Table 1 shows CBO spending for 2019 and baseline estimates...

One of the major causes of "food insecurity" is that low income people often have problems with money management. This is well demonstrated by people using their EBT money on junk food when they first receive a deposit on their card and then having no money/credit left at the end of the month. The once a month delivery made sense when the stamps were sent though the mail, but now everything is down on a debit card. It seems that it would be simple to change the card to a weekly or even daily dispersal instead of once a month....

<p>As the cost of living in the U.S. has gone up, government subsidies to help people pay for basics have disappeared one-by-one. Up next on the chopping block: Emergency allotments of a food-assistance program that supports 30 million Americans in 32 states.</p>

'It is time for this exemption to end,' said Sen. John Boozman... Able-bodied people without dependents must work 20 hours a week or be in job training to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress suspended the work requirement. Businesses are open again, yet 25 states have not fully reinstated work requirements. Of those, seven states allow work waivers in certain areas of the state. These seven are Colorado, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, and South Dakota. Eighteen states and territories have kept the work waiver across the entire state. They...