Quote from gwb-trading:
Let me politely provide some context regarding the actual facts.
One of the primary reasons that the foodstamp outlays increased is because President Obama changed the eligibility criteria.
"The 2009 stimulus bill scrapped limits on SNAP benefits to adults without children and raised the maximum benefit by 13.6 percent through 2014. According to the Congressional Budget Office, about 20 percent of the $198 billion growth in between 2009 and 2011 can be attributed to the new eligibility standards, and hence will not go away once the economy recovers.
As Greg Beato of Reason magazine explains in a 2010 article, many states open them up to anyone receiving funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program. In practice, applicants with gross incomes well above 130 percent of the poverty line are now eligible."
The CBO office has reported multiple times that approx. 8% to 10% of Medicaid, Welfare, and SNAP payouts are fradulent. Waste is wrong - whether it is in the defense department or in public benefits. All areas of government should be reviewed for fraud and waste.
The only good news I have to report is that states are cracking down on food stamp fraud - in Cary N.C. , they recently arrested over 30% of the residents of the low-income housing complex for food stamp fraud. These people were selling food stamps (EBT cards) on craigslist. I will note that nearly all of those arrested also were charged with drug possession while living in free Section 8 housing. States are also cutting down on replacement EBT cards - meaning that you can not sell your card every month and then claim you lost it.
Unlike some others in the P&R forum, I support public benefits as a short term solution to help people in tough situations. The benefits should not be a long term support measure.
One of the primary reasons to support benefits (even for the most militant anti-government spending types) is to stop the lower class from rioting and tearing up the middle-class working neighborhoods - as well as the hope that some of those on benefits at some point return to being fully-employed productive tax-paying citizens.
As a volunteer with our local foodbank, I recognize that some families suffer from food insecurity and need a helping hand to move forward. I support private and public efforts to provide assistance to people in order to get people back on their feet. I am not about to classify everyone who needs help as leeches - many move on and get away from benefits.
However, there are some who are mired in a culture of free benefits for generations that have no inclination to improve their situation or stop taking from the taxpayers. At some point, there needs to be limits placed on the number of years of eligibility with an associated crack-down on fraud. The taxpayers will not have confidence in the integrity of the public assistance system if many people are abusing it.
