Here's An Idea to Help Reduce Government Waste and Fraud - Cut Food Stamps!

Now before you go getting all, "Hey, you want poor people to starve" on me, hear me out. Right now, approximately 13% of the United States population receives Food Stamps. President Obama's most recent budget plan included $72.5 billion for this ballooning entitlement program. That's an increase of 30% over the $55.6 billion spent in 2009.

Today, food stamp funds are issued on electronic cards. While this change in the distribution of Food Stamp dollars was intended to reduce fraud, the improper payment rate of this program by government agencies alone costs tax payers about $1.7 billion per year. And that's just the tip of the food stamp waste-berg gouging holes in the Titanic Budget hull.

Waste:

Food stamp distribution has skyrocketed since 2008. Renamed the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2008 - for the purpose of making the receipt of food stamps more user/social-friendly - the Obama administration began pushing states to give federal food aid to people without verifying their finances. Yes, the same brilliant minds who made it easier for people to buy houses they could not afford - by forcing banks to lower their lending requirements - decided the best way to reduce government fraud and waste was to encourage more people to apply for food stamps and make it nearly impossible not to qualify.

In a letter to all regional offices the associate administrator for SNAP, Jessica Shahnin said, "Applicants will not need to provide documentation verifying their resources." As Ms. Shahnin simply explains, "When a household is categorically eligible, it means that the state agency does not use certain program rules, such as asset and gross income limits." Additionally, anybody who receives some other entitlement - such as Medicaid - is automatically qualified to receive food stamps in most states. They call this little waste pump, "categorical eligibility."

Ms. Shahnin also describes how their new SNAP initiative qualifies most - if not all - U.S. households to receive food stamps. According to the limbo-standards of this new "Broad-based categorical eligibility" idiocy program, anyone who asks for an informational pamphlet or dials some 800-number to inquire about federal assistance is automatically eligible to get SNAPped. Imagine that. With excruciating standards like this, even those evil rich people - whose increasing tax rates fund the majority of these entitlement programs - can now actually qualify to eat at their own expense.

Fraud:

According to the government's website:

"Abuse and fraud in the state's Basic Food program and other taxpayer-funded benefits are serious crimes that will not be tolerated by the state and federal governments. It undermines the integrity of programs designed to help families during difficult economic times such as we are experiencing now, and it diverts limited benefits from those who really need our help - vulnerable children and adults."

Yeah, well, that all sounds good. But how about enforcing some of the rules laid out in the Food and Nutrition Act you passed back in October of 2008. A good place to start would be the rule that forbids the use of SNAP funds to obtain cash by intentionally discarding products for the container's redemption value. It has been two years since the FNA was passed but much of it has yet to be put into practice because the USDA hasn't done their job by establishing the penalties for violators.

Last year, two SNAP fraud entrepreneurs in Bangor, Maine spent $86.79 of tax payer generosity for twenty cases of bottled water containing 24 bottles each. Immediately following the food stamp transaction, the men wheeled their cart behind the store and systematically poured the contents of each bottle onto the ground. With their cart now full of empty bottles the men returned to the store and proceeded to feed all 480 empty bottles into a redemption machine. From there it was just a hop and a skip to the customer service counter to redeem their voucher for $24.00. And the fraud gets better.

Thirty-five year old Trunona Damal, an eight-year employee of the Department of Social Services used a government database to steal the identities of seven people and defraud the agency (i.e.: the American tax-payer) out of $25,000 in food stamp benefits. Oh yes, Trunona had a good thing going and although she was a thief she wasn't greedy. While Ms. Damal did keep some of the food stamp cards for herself she also shared some twith her family members. Awwwww... sweet thing. Of course, the rest she turned into cash by selling them at a discount. One $668 food stamp card was sold for a whopping $400.

In 1993, a USDA study estimated that the illegal redemption of food stamps by unscrupulous retailers alone cost tax payers $815 million. Again, we are assured by government employees in charge of these screw-ups that this is a small percentage in the "overall abuse of the program'. So, because all of these government morons keep telling us the fraud isn't "a lot", the American tax payer is supposed to just keep smiling as our collective pockets are picked by scam artists?

In October of 2009 a Detroit store owner plead guilty to charges of receiving reimbursement of $900,000 from the federal government for food stamps he purchased from customers for half that amount. According to Carl Hobbs, head of the District Attorney's Welfare Fraud Division, they convicted 434 people for entitlement fraud and reclaimed restitution of almost $2 million. And that was only from those who got caught.

Also in 2009, the Department of Human Services said there are more than 3,000 cases of food stamp fraud in Oregon alone. The head of the state's food stamp program, Belit Stockfleth said that, while 3,000 cases of fraud sounds like a lot, it's not even half of 1 percent of the total number of individuals that receive food stamp benefits in his state. I wonder just how many people Mr. Stockfleth could be forced to feed at his own expense before yelling, "Hey, that's enough?"

While the government insists the new electronic paper trail makes fraud investigation more efficient, Beverly Ford of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting said it was the efforts of the government to investigate and prosecute fraud cases that appears to be trivial. According to testimony before a House of Representatives subcommittee in July 2010, the Government Accounting Office, the Inspector General and the Secret Service focus only on "high impact investigations." This means that, while government food stamp distributors keep telling us the levels of fraud they uncover is not "a lot", the truth is they are just too lazy to do anything about the overwhelming majority of retailers who traffic fraud on what they consider to be unimportant levels.

In his address to the American people on Wednesday, April 13th, President Obama mocked those who say the reduction of waste and fraud will help reduce the financial gluttony fest called government spending. Oddly, Mr. Obama forgot that he said waste and fraud reduction was how he planned to fund Obamacare. It makes your head spin sometimes, doesn't it?

So, where you might think I am some elitist, uncompassionate snob who wants the poor to starve, you're wrong. In fact, I started a project to put my own money where my proverbial mouth is when it comes to actually helping the truly needy in my own neighborhood. So when it comes to a willingness to HELP those in need, I have what they call "skin" in the game. What I want is for our government to stop expanding and funding entitlement programs with my tax dollars when they have no intention of monitoring and enforcing the rules they institute to control these waste/fraud beasts. And now our lawmakers are promising to cut spending while poised to raise the debt ceiling. For crying out loud, that's like telling me you're going to go on a diet as soon as you move into your favorite McDonald's.

Sources:

Aleksandra Kulczuga , " Record numbers receive food stamps as USDA turns blind eye to recipients' finances ", The Daily Caller

Yaron Brook, "The Government Did It", Forbes.com

"DSHS statement on federal food stamp fraud investigation", Washington State Department of Social and Health Services

Rob Stigile, " Bangor food stamp scam dumps water for deposit using taxpayer funds ", The Bangor Daily News

Kevin Ellis, "Social worker accused in $25,000 food stamp fraud had criminal past", Gaston Gazette

Mike Mcintire and LIisa Chedekel, "Food Stamp Fraud Prevalent Nationwide, Federal And State Officials Say", Hartford Courant

Andrew Leonard, "Obama climbs back into the ring", Salon.com

Jose DeJesus MD , "Obamacare speech - Cutting through the clutter", Physician Entrepreneur

Patricia Campion, "Kheprico", Kheprico.com

www.kheprico.com/