For those in the U.S., how do you feel about food stampes (SNAP?)
 

There's been a lot of talk of the Trump administration either freezing Food stamps, reducing it, or even cutting it entirely. How do you feel about the food stamps (SNAP) program potentially ending, even if you don't use it?

Do old people, poor people, or foreigners deserve to have food stamp assistance to buy food?

GROSSLY abused. I know a bunch of people actively just selling their food stamps (that they don't even need) for money.

How do they get these stamps if they don't need them and why would someone be buying them if all they're used for is to get food?

They usually make juuuust low enough to qualify. But meanwhile they're already getting money from other things. And are you kidding? If someone wants to sell you $200 in food stamps for $50? That's a nice giant lobster night. Or two.

Most restaurants don't take food stamps. Food stamps are for actual groceries, and most of the time will not include pre-heated or prepared meals in there.

I don't think food stamps have any identifiable information, so if you have some, it's not like the grocery guy can tell it's not yours. So those assholes that sell em to other people are just running a scam for free money.

However, a lot of people actually do need food stamps and shouldn't lose them on account of the bad apples. That's like saying no one should be allowed to own a care since some people do hit and runs or drive drunk or whatnot.

Of course not. It's not for people taking their buddies for a nice dine out at Red Lobster. That would be nuts.

There is no actual "food stamps" and haven't been for decades. It's an EBT card that is like a debit card with your name on it and a pin number that gets reloaded every month on a certain day. But mostly these people will just go in the grocery store and buy what you want, they give it to you, and then you give them the cash so they can go buy their weed or worse.

Agreed. There just needs to be a WAY better system in place. I'm not even sure what it could be. Nothing is really stopping anyone from trading whatever they buy with the food stamp money for actual cash from people. I guess all that can really be done is make sure there is some kind of minimum work requirement or if they can't, then with definitive proof that they're disabled or if they've got mental issues, confirming that they're #1 real, and #2 irreparable, OR #3 that they're actively getting treatment for them (and I'm all for people with genuine mental issues getting the care and meds they need -- I am 100% OK with that being taxpayer funded) and not just cruising around doing whatever.

Isn't that exactly what the anti-gun people say about guns, though?

EBT is a bridge program. Not a lifestyle.

That's a version of what I used to tell my caseload of people when I was awarding Medical, TANF and EBT to the public as a Caseworker.

I'd answer this but..... ehhh. For so many reasons...

I've benefited from it before, so I think it's a good program. Many honest people could use assistance.

Can confirm, this is exactly what happens. Sadly, some people who need assistance still do this, because they'd rather get high than feed their kids.


They definitely need more oversight. Depending on your state and status, there may already be work requirements, and I know Goodwill is one of the places they send people, so it's a pretty low bar. I'd have to check to be sure, but I think the requirements are pretty lax for mothers, especially single mothers. That's how it should be, in theory, but it opens them up to a ton of abuse.

I'm fine with it if it's going to those who need it. There are, at least locally, restrictions on what can be purchased with it, though restrictions could probably be more tight to dissuade people spending it all on junk food.

People who actually want food buying them from people who are probably using the cash to buy drugs.

Though in some cases they may not have belonged to the seller at all and they maybe selling what was in a hacked account since some (most? all?) states do it as a debit card now.

ResidentEvil7 is not going to be a happy camper about this.

One day I will figure out how to become a welfare queen. I may have to start laundering my money from the IRS.

Just get a job paying you under the table and then you can reap the maximum monthly cash assistance AND the food assistance.

Seems like they blocked Trump from shutting down SNAP. I wonder how long that will last. I will be surprised if EBT is done away with. All those poor people and immigrants will become more of the homeless you see around and that's why we have government assistance. It's not to help people, it's to keep more homeless off the streets. It's bad enough almost every street corner has a homeless person.

Overall though poor people get our tax dollars.

More like, they are attempting to force Trump to dig into other monies that might be illegal to do so to keep people getting SNAP benefits. He's not shutting down anything, it's just running out of money. Like if you stop paying the power bill and then one day the lights go out... you're not "shutting down the power" it's just that the power coming in wasn't free.

I was also just looking at some pretty interesting stats. Apparently 52% of adult women on SNAP are obese, coupled with 37% of men who are also obese getting SNAP benefits.

Yeah, I notice the welfare queens are always the same fat black or hispanic women. Like if they were starving and had no food to eat, logically wouldn't they be real skinny and bony...and not like 300 pounds? I always wondered how they're so damn fat if they're on food stamps.

And this is not even counting the fact that most of them have like 5 or 6 kids because they can't be bothered to use protection. So they're sitting there wondering why they get pregnant and keep popping out babies and having more mouths to feed, and then sit there complaining they need more money to feed their families. And of course usually the man leaves the woman because they don't want no fat chick with 5 screaming kids so it's now a single mother by herself.

I do feel bad for the little kids, they really don't deserve this lifestyle because of the poor choices of the parents. The deadbeat dads who leave their kids and then either get arrested or killed or do drugs, and then the 300 pound mothers who look like they'll fall over any given moment.

Sounds like 2 judges put a pause on this. Hopefully this means the crazies won't be looting Walmart tomorrow like they threatened.


They got money, they're just refusing to touch it.

Oh, I'm not sure about that. I mean, there definitely are those, but there is a SEA of obese white women on said benefits. Most of them are still relaxing after the last "No Kings" (after arriving to it on their riding machines because they're too big to walk but still able to swing a "FASCISM!" sign). But apparently statistically it's mostly men on SNAP who are the mostly obese ones. But they apparently aren't as motivated to get out to the protests as the women. So we mostly think of the women. I don't really doubt that disparity, honestly.

Again, not that simple. Despite whoever is in your ear or pundit. There IS money "Around." But it's not clear if that can legally be allocated for something like food stamps vs. things like if there's a hurricane or earthquake and OMG, 10 million people need to be taken care of like NOW. Because if we put that to SNAP now then that money goes away. Two federal judges say it must (which kind of is equivalent to you can sue anything for anything, anytime), but there are other legal voices who are saying that's illegal to dip into these particular funds.

Just under half of those on SNAP are working anyhow, not “sitting on their asses”. 52% of those are single mums. Of the rest, the vast majority are retired, disabled, or children, so those often not in a position to work regardless.

It costs each American $36 per year to fund SNAP. It costs each American roughly $600 each per year to subsidise country wise company perks and tax incentives/breaks.

So maybe the actual solutions are reducing corporate subsidies and have them pay people better wages?

Because the cheapest food also tends to be the unhealthiest. Doesn’t matter how much or little you consume, in general if calories in exceeds calories out, you’re going to put on weight. And sugar (read HFCS here) is a bigger leader of fat gain than fat itself, but that’s biology 101.

Didn't they just give away millions to some other country. How bout don't and tend to your own country first.

There's money. Wether or not they want to use it is on them. Also that White House ballroom doesn't sound cheap.

Loan.

Privately funded.