The US Department of Agriculture has spent the past week notifying people that the country is (allegedly) overrun by individuals who are fraudulently claiming SNAP benefits, while (allegedly) driving luxury vehicles.
“In just ONE state, 14,000 individuals receiving SNAP benefits were driving LUXURY VEHICLES!” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on X last week. The official USDA account made similar claims, which were then amplified by figures like Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul.
Those numbers are questionable at best. For one thing, the report they come from doesn’t name the state where thousands of people are allegedly buying Ferraris while using government money to buy food. For another, that report doesn’t include any explanation of its methodology.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
I’d rather a hundred people get benefits they “don’t need” than have one person go without the support they require.
Not that it’s even happening, but even if it were I really wouldn’t care even a little bit.
They honestly waste more resources on gatekeeping and means testing than they would ever save, and it’d LITERALLY cost less to just provide the same baseline benefits to everyone
Like maybe 25 years back I remember a viral video of someone in Cali or something buying a lobster with his food stamps and everyone was freaking out. I dont know much of the american food stamps system but I’m pretty sure just blew his budget or something. Really its just proved some idiot was doing dumb stuff for likes before TikTok.
Generally, any food product is going to be eligible. They give you a bank card that has your monthly funds on it. Prepared products such as from the delicatessen, alcohol, and cigarettes will be blocked but there’s not much else to stop someone from letting their benefits add up and then wasting them on something like lobster.
You don’t want to make this entire thing onerous for everyone, so there will be some activity like this occassionally. It’s not even something that would appear outside the statistical noise.
I was on SNAP several years ago. We saved a small bit of the relatively meager amount every month for like 6 months, then had a really nice BBQ for my kids bday. In a vacuum, I’m sure someone would have lost their shit watching me spend like $150 on steaks and burgers and sides using my SNAP card.
As a taxpayer, I’m glad you were able to do that. The poor deserve more than the bare minimum
Fuck it. I’d rather give free meals to everyone than pay one fucking penny towards the missiles we hurled into an elementary school. People gotta get their fucking priorities straight.
Enjoy that BBQ, I hope you have long lasting happy and guilt-free memories about that day. Money well spent in my mind.
My ex and I were on food stamps at one point so I hope that my message didn’t come across as spam on those who use them. I was trying to explain to who I thought was a non US person who was not familiar with how it works.
Yeah thats really what I wanted know. Cheers.
Oh, no, I didn’t think that at all! I was just adding my own story to the mix.
The only reason thats any different than just saving your own regular money for it and blowing that on the exact same thing is the optics.
Like if you get the bennies, its not like people know that every single time you buy stuff, only when you use that specific payment method
I think its really cool it rolls over like that. My old boss losses his crap if he sees the old save on food to splurge later. “If the peasants can survive on less than they should” mentality. Bloke also said ppl should feel more shame on the system and the cards was bypassing that shame. Can really feel the privilege from that guy. Ugh
Yeah, nobody commits that level of petty fraud if their life is going well.
If you want food stamps badly enough to jump through the hoops required, then that should qualify you by default.
Yeah, why aren’t we talking about all the fraud committed by billionaire oligarchs and trump and his inner circle?
When you influence or you are the people who write the rules, is not fraud, it’s smart investing
I remember some Republican chud or another saying they’d rather have innocent people imprisoned than let a single criminal walk free. Absolutely cannot fathom that mindset. Completely ghoulish.
Guess who said they’re fine having legal Hispanic citizens abducted from their homes and thrown in
SSICE camps if it means they’re actually getting some illegal immigrantsI mean i can imagine it, it’s just patently anti-American. Benjamin Franklin is widely quoted as saying “I’d rather let 100 guilty persons go, than imprison one innocent person.”
No, that was William Blackstone. Maybe Ben Franklin also quoted it, but he’s not the one who was famous for it.
Blackstone said ten, Franklin restated it as 100
I feel like if someone quotes another person and then that quote becomes associated with them more thoroughly it would count as famously said. Doesn’t stop the first person from being a thing just a matter of having less fame or relevance.
In principle, maybe, but I’m fairly well-read and I have literally never heard of that quote being attributed to Ben Franklin until the earlier comment so I don’t think that’s the case here.
Could be down to a bias of what you are exposed to, which can heavily influence what you hear. Anyways I think it was in one of his letters but I can’t quite remember cause I just woke up.
Apparently you’re right: the other reply cites the letter.
But still, Ben Franklin is famous for a ton of stuff, including actual published works full of quotable aphorisms like Poor Richard’s Almanack (as opposed to some random private letter that was only published after-the-fact). Meanwhile, Blackstone is remembered mainly just for Commentaries on the Laws of England, of which the Blackstone’s Ratio quote is part. Can’t we let poor old Mr. Blackstone have this one thing?!
What they mean is innocent people who don’t look like them. The moment there’d be any danger of them being locked up, they’d fine-tune their opinion to find a reason why it doesn’t apply to their case.
luxury vehicles
What do you want to bet they’re talking about poorly maintained 15+ year old lexuses and 30+ year old bmws? Just kidding, it’s most likely entirely unfounded.
I’d go even further and say that they are classifying vehicles themselves as a luxury, not even the make or model.
Remember when Fox News got all worked up because poor people had a microwave? And a refrigerator???
In my state, if your apartment doesn’t include a fridge-freezer and cooktop-oven, it’s not considered habitable.
You want more than ONE door on your car?!?!
Then you get an Isetta and they’re going to complain that you have a BMW.
🤣 exactly.
The good old “oh you’re poor? How come you have a phone then?”
Yeah that argument is so ridiculous.
You can buy lightly used phones on Swappa for a large discount even when we are talking about flagship phones. There are also situations where someone could be poor but have enough credit to get a phone financed with monthly payments that they can afford.
There are pre paid MVNOs in the US where you can get unlimited talk, text, and on device data, that also includes unlimited hotspot at fairly decent speeds (plus there are ways of bypassing hotspot speed caps, Tetherfi is an example open source app) for less than 30$ a month taxes and fees included. I have known people who have used their unlimited hotspot as their only internet at home.
Just because some of these people may have a high cell phone bill does not mean everyone else does.
I think it’s because a lot of people are like Mother Theresa. They’re of the belief that if you’re poor, you should suffer, because not doing so would be a moral failing. Being poor makes you a bad person.
They’re trying to bring back Welfare Queens. I’m sure almost everyone’s forgotten, but this was the kind of accusation that led to Welfare being viewed so negatively and eventually being renamed entirely.
Yep. Another Reagan lie.
Ironically, it’s middle-class suburban homeowners who are the real welfare queens. They may not get the actual government program called “welfare,” but they get so many other kinds of subsidies for their lifestyle that the stereotypical urban renter single mom is probably subsidizing them instead of the other way around!
I think Walmart takes the cake. They purposely dont give a lot of hours or benefits so their employees end up on SNAP who then use SNAP at Walmart.
The government is essentially paying their employees wages to then be spent at Walmart.
Better give the orange dotard regime an extra $600mil they don’t need nor even requested for the ballroom bunker, just to show the peasants where our true priorities lie.
Someone driving a hand me down 90s Lincoln worth $2500 isn’t exactly what I’d call luxurious.
This is literally just the '80s “welfare queen” lie.
We need to get rid of means testing. The largest money line for any government programs is the army of people making sure Americans need the program. People that don’t need government programs usually don’t use them. So hiring someone to make sure a wealthy person doesn’t cash in $150 worth of food stamps.
The same people who believed that in their 20s when Reagan said it are now in their late 60s and early 70s. You can see the problem.
The real welfare queens are projecting again.
Fuck all these lying sacks of shit.
So food stamp fraud fraud?
I got a call from the food bank thanking me for donating. She said the demand is shocking now. They don’t have enough. She was all “don’t worry we’re just calling to thank you, not to ask for more, just keeping you updated.” I shudder to think how much worse it will get by the time these gouls are through. I’ll keep donating while I can, I suggest everyone else do the same. Donating money goes the farthest because the banks have deals with supermarkets and stuff.
If I could, I think I can explain why they feel this way. This is not justification, but some insight. I believe all people should be allowed to live and flourish to the best of their free will and ability without harming others.
Those with siblings, think of this: it’s your birthday party. You’re 8. Your younger sibling is 5. All day, your younger sibling has been whining, complaining, and ruining “your day.” You are forced to share with this sibling, this sibling has stolen and broken your stuff, and embarrassed you. You are forced to play with this sibling, let him hang out with your friends, and this has translated into a kind of inner resentment. Anything that they do wrong, things that you would get punished for, is excused and waved away. “He can’t help it, he is young.” Then, as your birthday cake is being served, he gets the bigger piece. You have the feelings and emotional control of a small child. How does that make you feel?
The deepest feeling of rage and anger, the unfairness of it all, the entitlement that was taken from you.
This is how they feel about “the others.” They see handicapped and poor people “getting away with something.” They feel they worked hard to achieve their position in life, and now someone just hands them food and shelter. A kind of jealousy of them skipping some process. That they didn’t earn it. It’s a sense of revulsion usually reserved to rotting meat. But above all, they are projecting all their unaddressed issues of playing second fiddle to someone they perceive as having it easier than they had. And this is what the liberal side fails to address, because they are like the parents in this scenario. “They can’t help being poor/handicapped/disadvantaged.” They are right, of course, but that doesn’t address the feelings. The rich know it, as they themselves have the same emotional disconnection. Unaddressed childhood pain distanced by nannies, au pairs, and “please don’t play in the main areas, Stewart. You’ll soul the Matisse.” Raised by parents who have kids for prestige and legacy.
The conservatives listen to their inner, unresolved feelings. And those are very easy to manipulate by the rich, wealthy politicians. And being different makes it easy to label.
And if there is widespread food stamp fraud I am willing to bet 1k that it comes from Republicans.
A decade back I had a coworker tell me about her white upper middle class brother in law serving time in prison for benefit fraud. I literally cannot stress to you enough how many of these people think it’s ok to lie on government forms to get more money.
They’re deep in the lying and cheating game. They absolutely are speaking from experience. Remember the PPP loans?
I would rather 5 people abuse it than 1 person go hungry, but maybe I’m just civilized?
Either way we should attempt to curtail abuse, but with credit+debit+tax returns we could effectively combat egregious cases of abuse.
Either way we should attempt to curtail abuse
Should we? Sometimes it seems like the bureaucracy needed to do that costs more than the “waste” it saves. Frankly, I’m inclined to just ditch the means-testing entirely, declare that it isn’t “wrong” for people who aren’t poor to also use it, and (as you alluded to) make it up on the back end via income taxes.
this could also massively boost overall public health because if everyone automatically got SNAP, they’d have no incentive to try to save money by buying shitty cheap convenience food
a lot of people would be able to spend the extra few dollars to get the frozen dinner with more vegetables, the fresh (cold) deli sandwich, the whole grain higher fiber options, etc.
and since you can’t use it on takeout/restaurants, a bunch of people are now more motivated to cook at home with their free food money (even if the cooking is just heating up prepared stuff that’s often healthier than fast food)
after 10 years or so we’d probably save billions in public health costs alone
I think you would have to be a moron to not advocate for the curtailing of obvious abuse, or utilizing resources from other departments to assist with enforcement, or just have thorough screening that blocks abuse before it occurs.
I stand by my statement.
So let me get this straight: you think spending more money overall to provide aid to fewer people is A-OK, and yet I’m somehow the moron for wanting to save money and help more people?
That’s some hateful fucking bullshit on your part. You should be ashamed of yourself.
I’m sorry I called you a moron via the transitive property, I meant that more like its obvious, I realize that was a mistake.
You’re making a lot of choices for me and putting words in my mouth, and I don’t think our conversation will be productive from this point because you are not even considering my statements.
I hope you have an excellent day.
Dude, it seems everything the GOP claims lacks evidence.
My favorite term for this is “a post-truth society”.
especially coming from the mouth of the most infamous one, cruz.
Have you seen what the MAGAtards do when confronted by evidence? They say it’s all either fake news or AI. They’re a cult and cults don’t require evidence to maintain their beliefs.
It’s so depressing
No need for evidence. All these traitors need to do is say it and it is. When have Republican demons ever needed evidence?
