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Paid-Off ‘Conservatives’ Are Fighting For Your Right To Use Food Stamps For Soda

Paid-Off 'Conservatives' Are Fighting For Your Right To Use Food Stamps For Soda

Coca-Cola

Conservatives

Department of Health and Human Services

Food

Food Stamps

Matt Walsh

Opinion

President Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Twitter

A lobbyist for the American Heart Association turned heads last week when he asked Texas Republicans not to exclude soda, ultra-processed deserts, and candy from the list of items that can be bought with food stamps, despite the fact that the medical group has for years warned that such foods cause heart disease.
The testimony seemingly prioritized a left-wing opposition to welfare reform over the group&#8217;s mission and expertise — similar to scientists who said during COVID that mass gatherings were dangerous unless they were Black Lives Matter rallies, contributing to a dramatic loss of trust in medical experts. The testimony by Alec Puente, <a href="https://newsroom.heart.org/file/yama-and-alec?action=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">director of government relations</a> for AHA, was so surprising that state Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst (R), chair of the Committee on Health and Human Services, repeatedly wondered if AHA could truly be taking the position.
“I often say I can never be surprised in this building, but for the American Heart Association to be against this bill, that might be the surprise of the session so far,&#8221; Sen. Kolkhorst said. &#8220;I would encourage you to look at what it restricts. I don&#8217;t know if y&#8217;all&#8217;s board voted on that.”
But now, AHA has retracted the testimony, with spokesman Steve Weiss telling The Daily Wire that “The Association’s position on Texas Senate Bill 379 was miscommunicated during the TX Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing last week. The Association is not opposed to the bill, which would restrict purchases of sugary drinks and certain other unhealthy foods within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).”
“The miscommunication at the hearing from our representative, who is based in Texas, was unfortunate. We have corrected the record and worked to ensure this will not happen again,” Weiss said via email. “The Association remains committed to increasing the consumption of healthy food and decreasing the consumption of sugary drinks across our mission-critical work in scientific research, public policy and public awareness.”
He would not explain how the organization’s lobbyist managed to inadvertently <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/witlistmtg/pdf/C6102025031113301.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">register in advance</a> specifically to testify against the bill, travel to the state capitol, and provide written and oral testimony that was the exact opposite of the organization’s mission. According to the Texas committee&#8217;s list of registered witnesses, Puente was joined by Walmart in opposing the law, while representatives from the Texas Radiological Society, Texas Medical Association, Make Texans Healthy Again, and End Chronic Disease showed up to support it.
Soda is the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha">single most frequently purchased item with food stamps</a>, despite the program&#8217;s stated goal of increasing nutrition for Americans. The AHA has lobbied cities to heavily <a href="https://newsroom.heart.org/local-news/measure-z-passes-in-berkeley-and-santa-cruz-to-support-safe-and-healthy-communities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax soda</a> to disincentivize workers from purchasing it, but Puente told the Texas legislators that tax dollars should continue to buy soda outright for those on welfare.
“While improving Texans&#8217; diet is a shared goal, the heart association is concerned about potential impacts of this bill on participation and population health,” <a href="https://senate.texas.gov/videoplayer.php?vid=21315&amp;lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Puente testified</a>. “Policies intended to reduce obesity should be focused on the population as a whole rather than singling out SNAP participants. While we know that SNAP is meant to be a supplement, healthy fruits and vegetables remain out of reach for many, and this will not change until benefit adequacy is addressed.&#8221;
He advocated for SNAP benefits to be increased while still permitting them to be spent on junk food, which he said would result in more purchases of fruit.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-611453" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></div>
“I certainly understand why that might be surprising,&#8221; Puente responded to rebuttal from Kolkhorst, the bewildered lawmaker. &#8220;If we were talking about the issue a bit more generally I think the position might be a bit more nuanced, but I think the basic position is going to be that for something like this, we would need to be confident that it would not have an impact on overall participation in the program.”
Puente did not explain why food stamp recipients would stop participating in the program if they could not buy soda and potato chips with it, why the heart association would have an interest in maintaining welfare participation rates, or how increasing food stamp benefits so participants could buy fruits on top of their existing load of artery-clogging sweets would reduce obesity.
His testimony was preceded by that of Grace Price, a 19-year old food activist, who said “SNAP kids consume 43% more sugary drinks than those not on SNAP.&#8221;
&#8220;With 72% of SNAP recipients also on Medicaid, we are paying for the problem and the solution,&#8221; Price said. &#8220;This isn&#8217;t complicated; even my six-year old niece knows candy and soda are unhealthy. You don&#8217;t need a masters degree to know they have no place in a nutrition program.”
SNAP is a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$124 billion-a-year program</a> that allows poor people to buy virtually any edible item with the exception, in most cases, of restaurant meals. Food stamps are even accepted at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/food-stamps-accepted-at-thousands-of-liquor-and-tobacco-stores-contributing-to-healthcare-fiasco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thousands of liquor or tobacco stores</a>, in case someone wants to pick up a Mountain Dew to chase their vodka or a bag of Skittles to go with their cigarettes.
Politicians from both parties have periodically noted the absurdity of including taxpayer-funded soda and candy in a nutrition program, with states like New York attempting to block soda. But SNAP is a federal program, and the feds have refused to allow states waivers allowing them to do so, even as pilot programs.
Now a coalition is forming between Make America Healthy Again advocates and Department of Government Efficiency proponents. Liberals have said DOGE will fail to balance the budget because such a large portion of federal spending is tied up in Medicare and Medicaid. But reducing obesity by improving diets among the poor could drastically decrease Medicaid spending relating to issues like diabetes.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who is from Texas, is expected to grant waivers to states who ask, and Arkansas has said it will do so. The change could also be nationwide; <a href="https://brecheen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=166" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marco Rubio introduced such a bill</a> in the Senate in 2023.
Roy Lenardson of the Foundation for Government Accountability testified in support of the bill at the Texas hearing.
“How is it going with our health in this country? If 42% of adults and 20% of kids are obese&#8230;and obesity has tripled since the 1960s&#8230;it&#8217;s not going great.&#8221; He told The Daily Wire that even Sonny Purdue, the agriculture secretary during Trump’s first term, blocked Maine’s request to exclude soda from the welfare program, and that special interests fight hard to keep the spigots of taxpayer money flowing for soda and candy.
<div id="attachment_842733" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-842733" class="size-large wp-image-842733" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-1024x556.png" alt="Antioch Tobacco &amp; Beer in Antioch, Tennessee / Google" width="1024" height="556" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-1024x556.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-300x163.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-768x417.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-1536x833.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-2048x1111.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Antioch Tobacco &amp; Beer in Antioch, Tennessee / Google</div>
He said such funding could explain the American Heart Association testimony, noting that it has received more than a <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/founders-day/second-century-campaign-donors">million dollars</a> each from Walmart, Pfizer, and Novo Nordisk — the maker of obesity drug Ozempic — and that <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/company-collaboration/food-system-strategy/aha-industry-nutrition-forum/industry-nutrition-forum-members" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PepsiCo pays it</a> to be part of its Industry Nutrition Forum.
&#8220;Voters put the MAHA movement’s hands on the levers of power, and the taxpayer-funded junk food cartel is sweating bullets,&#8221; Lenardson said.
The American Beverage Association, the industry group for soda manufacturers, is mounting a nationwide media offensive that attempts to persuade Republican lawmakers against reforms to the program. The industry group is attempting to cast the ability to buy taxpayer-funded junk food as an issue of liberty.
The ad campaign, called &#8220;<a href="https://yourcartyourchoice.com/about/">Your Cart, Your Choice</a>,&#8221; is spearheaded by the soda group in partnership with the National Confectioners Association, which represents candy manufacturers, and the Corn Refiners Association, which profits from high-fructose corn syrup.
“Restricting what one segment of the population can buy at the grocery store just because they need temporary government assistance goes against American values. These proposals treat families <a href="https://yourcartyourchoice.com/oppose-restrictions-on-snap-benefits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and veterans</a> as second-class citizens,” it says. “REJECT these so-called ‘reforms’ and take action to protect the freedom of food and beverage choice for all Americans,” it adds on top of an image of an American flag.
Its paid ads on X have been met with uniform derision, with one user responding: “Not your money, not your choice.”
In a statement to The Daily Wire, the group reiterated its liberty-centric argument for not restricting food stamp spending.
“Government meddling in Texans’ grocery carts does nothing to make us healthier and won’t save taxpayers a single dollar, but it will add new layers of red tape and empower government bureaucrats to force their ideas onto your shopping list,” said Americans for Food &amp; Beverage Choice spokeswoman Stacie Rumenap. “The working-class coalition that showed up this past election voted to reject bloated and inefficient government. Politicians should take note.”
The soda lobby is also <a href="https://yourcartyourchoice.com/oppose-restrictions-on-snap-benefits/?utm_source=x&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=social_x_social_20250312_E_no_1_" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoting unusual op-eds in conservative media</a> that try to convince free-market conservatives to rally around taxpayer-funded junk food.
Newsmax published one such piece, “Keep Bureaucrats’ Hands Out of American’s [sic] Grocery Carts – Please.” It was authored by Tom Giovanetti of the Institute for Policy Innovation, which, according to <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?page=3&amp;q=%22Institute+for+Policy+Innovation%22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax records</a>, is funded by PhRMA, whose members profit from treating the unhealthy

Alec Puente / Texas Senate

American Heart Association Retracts Opposition To Barring Soda, Candy From Food Stamps

Agriculture

Health

Texas

USDA

Welfare

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said this week that Americans who are receiving food stamps may soon be banned from using them to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">purchase junk food</a>.
Rollins made the remarks while answering questions from reporters outside the White House on Friday about working with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reform the SNAP program.
&#8220;I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, do we have the healthiest choices?&#8221; she said. &#8220;So when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they okay with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?&#8221;
She said that she looked forward to working with DOGE to see where the SNAP program is wasting money and if it is meeting the metrics required to hit its goals.
&#8220;Oftentimes, these government programs are started with the idea that you&#8217;re going to help people — it&#8217;s not a handout, it&#8217;s a hand up — and then years later, the programs are even bigger, and you&#8217;ve got more people on them,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And are we really giving people a hand up, or is it instead a handout? So if we can have a whole other group of really smart people looking at SNAP and other programs at USDA, that will allow us to ensure, what are our metrics for success? Are we meeting those metrics for success?&#8221;
&#8220;Will we ever take food out of a hungry child&#8217;s mouth? Of course not. This is the United States of America,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;But truly, this program has grown so large, especially in the last administration. Under Biden, I think SNAP, grew almost 30% more than before.&#8221;
<a class="c-link" href="http://dailywire.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://dailywire.com/subscribe" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-7935">PRESIDENTS’ DAY SALE! 40% Off DailyWire+ Annual Memberships With Code DW40</a>
According to the USDA, more than 42 million people received SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2023, costing the country well over $110 billion per year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins welcomes RFK Jr.’s help reforming SNAP to cut “bad food and sugary drinks”
“When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they okay with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who need something more… <a href="https://t.co/nFeooY3fkM">pic.twitter.com/nFeooY3fkM</a>
— American Values 🗽 (@AVPac_US) <a href="https://twitter.com/AVPac_US/status/1890865937936711863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Can Food Stamps Buy Junk Food? How DOGE Could Save Billions And MAHA</a>

US-Secretary-of-Agriculture-Press-Conference

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Suggests RFK Jr. Could Ban Food Stamps Being Used On Junk Food

Economy

Politics

Nearly 5,000 stores with words related to “liquor” or “tobacco” in their names accept food stamps, a Daily Wire review of government data found.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the food stamp program, currently allows more than 3,700 stores with “liquor,” “beer,” “wine,” or “spirits” in their names to accept food stamps. Food stamps aren’t allowed to be used for alcohol, but they can be used for nearly anything edible, so the stores are allowed to accept them on the idea that someone might want to buy snacks, such as a bag of chips, at the liquor store. Such stores are highly unlikely to sell much healthy food, and the snacks they sell are likely ultra-processed junk food sold in small quantities at a very high markup.
The findings highlight how the $113 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) often contributes to making people less healthy. Democrat and Republican governors alike have signaled support for reforming SNAP to block junk food in order to deal with persistent problems regarding health — or, as Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-governor-calls-incoming-trump-141200605.html">put it</a>, “Make America Healthy Again.”
Junk food and soda are permitted expenditures with SNAP, and soda is the number one most-purchased item. While alcohol and tobacco aren&#8217;t, the USDA essentially has to rely on store owners&#8217; honesty when reporting what was actually rung up. Selling ineligible products, or trading food stamps for cash, is unlikely to happen at major grocery chains, but far more likely to happen at inner-city liquor stores.
The stores include Bottles Liquor in Oakland, whose windows advertise luxury alcohols like Patron.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842769 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-1024x509.png" alt="" width="1024" height="509" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-1024x509.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-300x149.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-768x381.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-1536x763.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles.png 1756w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Or a store in Detroit with a sign that simply says LIQUOR, where signs advertise various beers, lottery machines, and the fact that people can access Bitcoin, a favorite for illicit transactions, there.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842773 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-959x576.png" alt="" width="959" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-959x576.png 959w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-300x180.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-768x461.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit.png 1502w" sizes="(max-width: 959px) 100vw, 959px" /></div>
Residents of Antioch, Tennessee who want to use a taxpayer-funded nutrition program at a store dedicated to harming both livers and lungs can check out Antioch Tobacco &amp; Beer, where signs advertise Bud Light, Sonoma Cigarettes, Rockstar energy drinks, and the fact that EBT — the debit card that holds food stamps — is accepted.
The federal government has ensured that SNAP can be spent at about 1,000 stores whose names contain “tobacco,” “smoke,” “cigar,” or “vape.” Those enjoying Reno, Nevada’s vices can spend their government benefits at Stay High Liquor &amp; Smoke.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842737 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-766x576.png" alt="" width="766" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-766x576.png 766w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-300x226.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-768x577.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-1536x1155.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high.png 1990w" sizes="(max-width: 766px) 100vw, 766px" /></div>
Phoenix residents who anticipate that after buying a blunt wrap, they might want a bag of Funyuns can check out “Cell Repair – Smoke &amp; Vape Shop,” where you can buy cannabis products and where the “EBT SNAP CARDS ACCEPTED HERE” sign is larger than the name of the store itself.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842777 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-773x576.png" alt="" width="773" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-773x576.png 773w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-300x224.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-768x572.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px" /></div>
Tobacco Depot in Stockton, California focuses its advertising on the fact that you can buy both cigarettes and glass pipes used for drugs, as well as that the store does “accept E.B.T.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842813 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-577x576.png" alt="" width="577" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-577x576.png 577w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-300x300.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-150x150.png 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-768x766.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1.png 790w" sizes="(max-width: 577px) 100vw, 577px" /></div>
In Huntington, Indiana, I Puff Discount Tobacco contains a marijuana leaf in its window and accepts EBT, perhaps for those who want to pick up a Mountain Dew if whatever they’re smoking dries out their mouth.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842791 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-1006x576.png" alt="" width="1006" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-1006x576.png 1006w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-300x172.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-768x440.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff.png 1338w" sizes="(max-width: 1006px) 100vw, 1006px" /></div>
On top of the 5,000 liquor and smoke shops, welfare beneficiaries — who are more likely than the general population to be obese — can spend their taxpayer-funded nutrition dollars at candy stores, like Angie’s Candy Store in Milwaukee.
Nearly 200 firms with &#8220;liquor&#8221; in the name have been found to have defrauded the food stamp program in recent years. <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-crains-ice-cream-liquor-c0201168.pdf">Crain&#8217;s Ice Cream &amp; Liquor</a> took food stamps, until the government was surprised to learn that it wasn&#8217;t a bona fide source of nutrition, instead finding &#8220;irregular transactions&#8221; of hundreds of dollars making &#8220;the case of trafficking&#8230; convincing.&#8221; Its receipts did not even indicate whether the items purchased were food or not.
Since 2017, 51 stores with the name &#8220;tobacco&#8221; in their name have been found to have committed fraud, according to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/retailer-sanctions-final-agency-decisions-fads?title=tobacco&amp;field_fiscal_year_value=&amp;order=field_fad_date&amp;sort=desc">USDA data</a>.
For example, inspectors visited <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/FAD-AmigosTobaccoShop-C0242309.pdf">Amigos Tobacco Shop</a> in Greenville, North Carolina three times, and all three times they observed food stamps being accepted for non-food items, presumably tobacco, by multiple clerks. The store was barred from accepting food stamps for six months, although the punishment was postponed because the store owner appealed, complaining that SNAP was &#8220;very important&#8221; to his tobacco store&#8217;s income stream.
<a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-t-j-cell-tobacco-c0224383.pdf">T&amp;J Cell &amp; Tobacco</a> in Milwaukee was authorized to take food stamps even though there are more than 90 stores within a two-mile radius, including supermarkets, that sell wide selections of food and accept the benefit. USDA investigators found that it was ringing up unusually high-dollar transactions, even though it offered &#8220;mainly snacks foods and beverages.&#8221; It banned the store for &#8220;trafficking&#8221; food stamps, which is when a clerk rings up fake products and gives half the amount to the customer in cash.
When inspectors visited <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-manchester-tobacco-outlet-C0208524.pdf">Manchester Tobacco Outlet</a> in Manchester, Tennessee, it didn&#8217;t even have a selection of staple foods for sale, which the owner said was because &#8220;we ran out of goods.&#8221; <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-os-pipe-tobacco-C0201725.pdf">Os Pipe &amp; Tobacco</a> of Denver was eligible to accept food stamps, until the government realized its owner was a convicted drug dealer.
<a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-liquor-beer-tobacco-outlet-C0197734.pdf">Liquor Beer &amp; Tobacco Outlet</a> in Charles City, Iowa, was allowed to accept food stamps. Investigators found it was ringing up high-dollar transactions even though it only sold small items like snacks and didn&#8217;t even have shopping baskets, leading them to conclude that it was simply laundering food stamps for cash.
&#8220;It is not plausible that the firm&#8217;s customers would carry large amount of merchandise around the store without the benefit of shopping carts or baskets or that customers would routinely do the bulk of their grocery purchases at a moderately-stocked convenience store rather than a nearby superstore or supermarket with significantly more inventory and lower prices,&#8221; investigators wrote.
On December 6, The Daily Wire laid out the case for how <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha">SNAP could be replaced</a> by a system that purchased healthy food in bulk from farmers, and sent them to needy people upon request. That could save money not just on SNAP itself, but on the Medicaid costs associated with obesity.
On Wednesday, Gov. Sanders <a href="https://governor.arkansas.gov/news_post/governor-sanders-calls-for-reforms-to-the-snap-program/">wrote</a> to Robert F. Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, and Brooke Rollins, his Agriculture nominee, that reforming SNAP could be part of the Make America Healthy Again agenda.
&#8220;Unfortunately, this &#8216;Nutrition Assistance&#8217; program is undermining the health of millions of Americans, on the taxpayer’s dime, by encouraging families to eat highly processed, unhealthy junk food,&#8221; Sanders wrote. She said soda, unhealthy snacks, and candy make up a large portion of SNAP purchases, which is harming her state, where 40% of residents are obese and one-third have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
She noted that a Stanford study by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Trump&#8217;s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, &#8220;estimated that prohibiting sugary drinks and soda from SNAP would prevent obesity in 141,000 kids and Type 2 diabetes in 240,000 adults. Since joint state and federal healthcare spending is quickly approaching $2 trillion each year, we should embrace commonsense, preventative healthcare policies.&#8221;
Sanders also said shifting the program to healthy, homegrown food would also support farmers, and said she would seek a waiver from SNAP to steer the program towards healthy foods in her state. In previous administrations, the federal government has refused to give states waivers blocking junk food, including New York, which wanted to ban soda.
On X, Jared Polis, the Democrat governor of Colorado, echoed his <a href="https://x.com/GovofCO/status/1866903155495079983">support</a>, saying, &#8220;Prioritizing healthy, fresh foods over junk food and soda will reduce the risk of having future health issues such as diabetes and cavities.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha">Why Can Food Stamps Buy Junk Food? How DOGE Could Save Billions And MAHA</a>

Antioch Tobacco & Beer in Antioch, Tennessee / Google

Food Stamps Accepted At Thousands Of Liquor And Tobacco Stores, Contributing To Healthcare Fiasco

Obesity

This is the first in a Daily Wire series about major government programs that could be reformed under the Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pays farmers not to grow food, while at the same time spending most of its budget giving “food stamps” to people who can use them to buy candy, soda, and snacks — at giant retail markups — in corner stores and elsewhere.
The food stamp program has exploded, from $56 billion in redemptions in fiscal 2019 to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/data-research/data-visualization/snap-retailer-management-dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$124 billion</a> in 2023. Perhaps not coincidentally, many on food stamps are more likely to be obese with related health conditions, and then be treated at taxpayer expense by Medicaid.
The current program is so inefficient that by USDA’s own estimates, it pays out $1 billion a month in food stamps to people who aren’t eligible, leading the Biden administration to call for <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/news-item/fns-005.24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“urgent”</a> reforms. Twenty percent of food stamp payouts in the District of Columbia, and close to 23% in South Carolina, are <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-fy23-qc-payment-error-rate.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">erroneous</a>. That’s a separate issue from fraud, which occurs when stores agree to trade food stamps for cash. The tens of billions of dollars spent on unhealthy food counts as neither waste nor fraud: it’s fully permitted.
Dramatically overhauling the food stamp program so that only healthy food can be bought could go beyond saving money. In a country facing an <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/farm-bill-2023-obesity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">obesity crisis</a>, it could help make America healthy again.
A <a href="https://www.foodpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/SNAPFoodsTypicallyPurchased_16.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2016 study</a> conducted by a contractor for USDA found that soda was the top item purchased with food stamps. That study likely significantly understated junk-food rates, because USDA refuses to disclose data on which products food stamps are spent on even though it can be tracked. The contractor found a workaround by getting data from a large grocery chain.
The money saved from reforming SNAP would only be the start of the benefits to taxpayers. A 2018 <a href="https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&amp;context=jflp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the Journal of Food Law &amp; Policy found that “medical costs associated with obesity (which largely fall on Medicare and Medicaid) are estimated to be at least $147 billion per year.” Some people who become obese through food stamps also end up on taxpayer-funded disability programs as a result. This month, the White House <a href="https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/white-house-proposes-big-expansion-of-medicare-medicaid-coverage-of-obesity-drugs-f151c9c1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> covering weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, which can cost $1,600 a month, for Medicaid recipients. The government would be paying both for junk food that makes people fat, and a lifetime prescription to try to take the fat off.
The food stamp program is officially called the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), and letting people use the credits on almost any edible item, no matter its nutritional value, has never been consistent with that intent. Even some Democrat-run states have recognized that, with states such as New York trying to make soda ineligible for food stamps. The federal government forbade them from even conducting pilot programs to test whether it would be beneficial. USDA, the Harvard study said, fretted that beneficiaries would be “stigmatized” if they couldn’t buy soda.
Of course, the argument that billions of taxpayer dollars should be used to make vulnerable poor people obese doesn&#8217;t come from the impoverished. It likely comes from corporate lobbyists for whom SNAP is big business. Soda manufacturers, convenience stores, and candy trade associations have all lobbied to keep junk food SNAP-eligible. They say it’s only <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120628000810/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/24/top-secret-what-food-stamps-buy/?page=all#pagebreak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“anecdotal”</a> that SNAP is often spent on sweets, leaning on the fact that USDA conceals what items are purchased.
USDA fought all the way to the <a href="https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/06/in-foia-decision-supreme-court-rules-that-food-stamp-data-is-confidential/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Supreme Court</a> to block journalist requests to see how much taxpayer money is disbursed to each store for SNAP reimbursements. That data could make the biggest launderers of food stamps glaringly obvious because they would be showing far more revenue than similarly-sized corner stores. It would likely also show what a bonanza the SNAP program is for politically-connected corporations like Walmart.
Yet when USDA asked retailers for <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2385494/those-at-the-front-lines-of-junk-food-food-stamp-purchases-rail-at-usda-secrecy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feedback</a> on whether it should keep hiding data about how food stamps are spent, on the logic that it was a “trade secret,” small retailers and clerks replied that, day after day, they saw people ring up taxpayer-paid junk food, and they thought the public should know about it. One retailer said, “I have customers come in and buy candy, sodas, and energy drinks with their EBT/SNAP cards. I personally don’t believe that that should be allowed since it is not considered a necessity.” A public health dietician wrote, “I find that SNAP funds are spent on unhealthy food choices, which is compounding our nation’s health problems… I suspect the retailers are part of the problem. We need to figure this out so that all of our citizens have access to healthy food choices.”
More than a decade ago, this reporter spent weeks <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/7/violations-dont-deter-food-stamp-vendors-hunger-fo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">touring stores</a> on the District of Columbia’s list of SNAP-eligible retailers. SNAP requires retailers to have a few healthy foods available, and while many of the stores had a few old vegetables lying around, the typical food stamp transaction was more likely to involve junk food like 20-ounce bottles of Mountain Dew and Kit-Kat bars.
Some of the stores openly engaged in criminal activity, selling individual “loosie” cigarettes, for cash. They plainly catered to criminals, selling glass “roses” used to smoke crack. One made room in its limited inventory for a selection of black ski masks—the types used in robberies—in the heat of summer.
SNAP inherently relies on the honesty of these stores to tell it how much business they did in food stamp dollars, then writes them a check. It is trivial for them to “launder” food stamps into cash, giving half the money to the customer and pocketing the other half, by ringing up ghost products. The SNAP bureaucracy seems to have been crafted precisely to make such fraud difficult to stop. The federal government puts the states in charge of doling out SNAP money, while retail anti-fraud enforcement is reserved for the feds, and there are only some 100 investigators to police a <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/data-research/data-visualization/snap-retailer-management-dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quarter-million</a> SNAP retailers across the country.
Even so, about one in twenty stores was caught for fraud within a seven-year period. One in three stores that was supposedly banned from accepting food stamps, was still accepting them. Some seemed to have simply “sold” the store — on paper, at least — to an associate to evade consequences. A store called Tobaccosville was among SNAP-eligible stores, until it was busted for fraud. It rebranded as Tobacco City and kept accepting them. Others just ignored infractions because the sanctions were toothless. Last year, Democrats introduced a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1427" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> that would make it even easier for corporations to engage in food stamp laundering to keep operating, called the SNAP Second Chance Act.
Even if it made sense for taxpayers to pay for food at marked-up, retail prices instead of finding economies of scale by buying in bulk, SNAP is duplicative. Women and children can already buy healthy food at stores through the Women and Children (WIC) program, and school-aged children get free breakfast and lunch at school in many states.
Replacing food stamps with a program that buys nutritious commodities from farmers in bulk, allows impoverished people to select what they’d like off a menu, and mails it to them — not unlike high-end meal services such as Blue Apron — is one big-ticket idea that could be considered by the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The time is right for Congress to dramatically reassess how America ensures that its poor are healthy. Food stamps are authorized by the “Farm Bill,” which ordinarily comes up for renewal every five years. But Congress wasn’t able to agree on a full five-year bill in 2023. After a <a href="https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/10/02/delayed-farm-bill-punted-until-after-election-with-congress-stuck-on-how-to-pay-for-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">short-term extension</a>, the incoming Congress and administration will have an opportunity to start from scratch next year.
Part 2: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/food-stamps-accepted-at-thousands-of-liquor-and-tobacco-stores-contributing-to-healthcare-fiasco">Food Stamps Accepted At Thousands Of Liquor And Tobacco Stores, Contributing To Healthcare Fiasco</a>

Overweight caucasian teenage boy with a bottle of cola

Why Can Food Stamps Buy Junk Food? How DOGE Could Save Billions And MAHA

Budget

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pentagon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pentagon</a> is recommending U.S. soldiers struggling with soaring food prices apply for welfare, in a move that underscores both low military pay and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/economist-reveals-when-america-can-expect-one-whopper-of-a-recession/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economic headwinds</a> facing the nation as a whole.
The recommendation came last month from Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston, and directs Army soldiers and their families to apply for food stamps through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known by the acronym SNAP.
&#8220;With inflation affecting everything from gas prices to groceries to rent, some Soldiers and their families are finding it harder to get by on the budgets they&#8217;ve set and used before,&#8221; <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/258256">the written guidance from Grinston reads</a>. &#8220;SNAP is a U.S. government program that provides benefits to eligible low-income individuals and families via an electronic benefits transfer card that can be used like a debit card to purchase eligible food in authorized retail food stores. Service members and their families may be eligible.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;The guidance points soldiers to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and links them to the federal welfare program’s website.&quot; &#8211;Billions and billions for Biden&#39;s suicidal Green New Deal and Ukraine, no money fo feed our soldiers and families!<a href="https://t.co/nEX2AckBWY">https://t.co/nEX2AckBWY</a>
&mdash; Laughing Libertarian (@William16723077) <a href="https://twitter.com/William16723077/status/1568608357191192577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The official guidance includes other lending and financial counseling programs available to soldiers and lists contact information to help them enroll in SNAP.
Although the Biden administration and much of the media insists the U.S. is not in a recession, the nation has experienced negative GDP growth in each of the last two quarters, meeting the traditional definition for a recession. In addition, inflation is running at nearly double-digit percentages and food prices in particular have risen at the fastest rate in decades.
Mackenzie Eaglen, is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies defense budgets and military readiness, said nearly a quarter of enlisted men and women can’t afford to put food on the table.
“What they need is more money,” Eaglen wrote in a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/inflation-catches-the-pentagon-flat-footed-army-paychecks-food-stamps-defense-department-budget-ppi-troops-11662405897?mod=hp_opin_pos_6">Wall Street Journal column</a> this week. “The Defense Department’s flat-footed response to inflation will result in a real—and cumulative—pay cut for service members.”
Eaglen said the Pentagon received more federal funding from Congress than it had requested, but ignored inflation concerns and short-changed the men and women who serve.
Now, she wrote, “Congress will have to appropriate even more to save America’s troops from the Defense Department’s negligence. It’s the only way to get troops and their families the financial lifeline they need.”
Base pay for the lowest-ranking Army private is $21,999.60, according to <a href="https://www.goarmy.com/benefits/while-you-serve/money-pay.html">GoArmy.com</a>. Salaries for enlisted men and women the lower ranks rise gradually through promotions, but not always by years of service alone.

US-MILITARY-TRAINING

Pentagon Tells Struggling Army Soldiers, Families To Apply For Food Stamps

Pentagon Tells Struggling Army Soldiers, Families To Consider Food Stamps Amid Soaring Inflation

Pentagon

U.S. Army

A homeless man named James recently broke down on camera how he spends his time in The Golden City while being broke. James, who claims he moved to San Francisco from Texas, told author Michael Shellenberger that he is homeless by choice and that it is &#8220;literally so f***ing easy&#8221; because of how the city government reacts to the homeless.
Shellenberger, author of a book titled &#8220;San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities,&#8221; asked James how he was able to obtain his funding. James explained, &#8220;F***ing phone call bro&#8230; $200 [in] food stamps and $620 cash a month. Forget about it. &#8230; This right now is literally by choice, literally by choice.&#8221;
&#8220;If we’re going to be realistic, they pay you to be homeless here,&#8221; James claimed.
Annually, the city spends $300 million in sheltering, feeding, and caring for the homeless. Last year, lawmakers expressed concerns over a portion of spending — $16.1 million — that <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco-paying-16-1-million-for-homeless-tent-camps/2484769/#:~:text=San%20Francisco%20is%20paying%20%2416.1,with%20a%20swelling%20homeless%20population.&amp;text=Six%20tent%20sites%20dubbed%20%E2%80%9Csafe,otherwise%20sleep%20on%20the%20sidewalks.">provided camping tents and food</a> to some 300 people creating a pop-up homeless village replete with its own city-provided security as a COVID-19 mitigation measure.
&#8220;Why wouldn’t I do it? You know, it’s f***ing free money dude,&#8221; James explained. &#8220;Why would I want to pay rent? I’m not doing s***. I’ve got a f***ing cell phone that I have Amazon Prime and Netflix on.&#8221;
James indicates that he cleans and sells fentanyl vials and also provides Narcan tutorials in the event one of his clients takes too much of the drug and is on the verge of dying, as <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10498607/San-Francisco-homeless-man-says-gets-paid-620-month.html">explained</a> by The Daily Mail:
<blockquote>&#8220;These two kids came up and they’re like: &#8216;Hey do you guys know where to get any oxycontin?&#8217; James told Shellenberger. &#8220;And I’m like, &#8216;look dude, I’mma tell you right now, you’re not going to get oxycontin out here on the street.'&#8221;
James said the teens had $40 to spend on drugs, which he used to purchase fentanyl for them.
&#8220;I said: &#8216;Ok, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to take your money&#8217; and I went and I got them fentanyl,&#8221; he said.
I f*****g brought it back and I set it down in front of them and I said “This is a gram of fentanyl. It is enough to kill six people who have never used it.&#8221;&#8216;
James said he showed the teens how much fentanyl he takes to get high and then provided a Narcan tutorial, citing how he knew they were going to continue to use drugs regardless of whether or not he helped them get high.
&#8216;I was like “I’m keeping your money and now I’m going to teach you how to save each others’ lives because you’re not gonna f*****g stop. I can’t steer you away from doing it, but the best thing I can do for you now is give you real drugs and show you how to do it properly and show you how to save your friend’s life,&#8221;&#8216; he said.
&#8216;And I showed them how to pull up Narcan and how to inject each other with the Narcan needle in case they died.’
He added: ‘I needed the money. Let’s be honest.’</blockquote>
As for why drug use is so rampant, James blamed police officers who do not illegal immigrants bringing in the narcotics.
&#8220;I’ve talked to the cops here,&#8221; he told Shellenberger. &#8220;&#8216;I’m literally 10 feet away from the drug dealers talking to you guys, why don’t you go arrest them right now?&#8217; And they’re like, &#8216;Arrest them for what?&#8230; San Francisco is a sanctuary city. We arrest the Hondurans and we put them in jail, they’re out two days later.'&#8221;
Shellenberger&#8217;s interview can be seen here:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
People say lack of housing forces local residents into the streets, but James says he came from Texas to San Francisco for the drugs, the non-enforcement of anti-camping laws, and the $820/month in welfare &amp; food stamps. James says he sold fentanyl, 2 weeks ago, to a 15-year-old. <a href="https://t.co/5qMr6tmlWs">pic.twitter.com/5qMr6tmlWs</a>
&mdash; Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) <a href="https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1491418120086454278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Homelessness in San Francisco

‘Why Wouldn’t I Do It?’: Homeless Man Breaks Down Why He Moved From Texas To San Francisco

Homeless

San Francisco

The United States Department of Agriculture announced on Monday that it will be increasing benefits from its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, otherwise known as food stamps. The move comes by way of funding from the American Rescue Plan, President Joe Biden&#8217;s COVID relief bill that was recently signed into law.
According to a <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2021/03/22/usda-increases-snap-benefits-100-household-funding-american-rescue">press release</a> by the USDA, the department plans to implement &#8220;a 15 percent increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits through September 2021, providing an estimated $3.5 billion to households experiencing food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.&#8221; The expansion of 15% &#8220;will provide about $28 more per person, per month, or more than $100 more per month for a household of four, in additional SNAP benefits.&#8221;
“We cannot sit by and watch food insecurity grow in the United States,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The American Rescue Plan brings help to those hurting the most due to the pandemic. It increases SNAP benefits so households can afford to put food on the table. It invests in working people and small towns and small businesses to get the economy back on track. And it makes the most meaningful investments in generations to reduce poverty.”
According to <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/34SNAPmonthly-3a.pdf">data</a> provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, participation in the program increased from the fiscal year of 2019 to 2020 by over 4 million persons. From the fiscal year of 2020 to 2021, it increased by almost another 2 million persons. However, the fiscal year of 2018 shows similar numbers to 2020 and 2021 at 40.7 million people participating in the program. The 2020 and 2021 fiscal year participation numbers were around 39.8 million people and 41.7 million people, respectively.
The data also includes information about the costs of the benefits program. In 2018, the cost was over $60 billion, but during the fiscal year of 2019, the cost went down to $55 billion. In 2020, the cost increased to over $74 billion.
An <a href="https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/arp-national-factsheet.pdf">information sheet</a> on the nutrition program extension states that without the COVID relief bill, the expansion of the program in place would end in June. It states, &#8220;The extension will provide an estimated $3.5 billion in relief directly to over 41 million people living in struggling households. In addition to helping millions of families put food on the table, additional SNAP benefits are shown to have a powerful stimulative impact on the economy.&#8221; It also claims that more benefits provided through SNAP help to reduce child poverty by half, which it says is one of the American Rescue Plan&#8217;s &#8220;most powerful estimated impacts.&#8221;
The expansion will also assist states as they give out more benefits through SNAP by providing &#8220;an additional $1.135 billion in administrative resources for states over three years, without requiring states to match those funds.&#8221;
The government benefits <a href="https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/361">website</a> says that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is the largest of its kind. It allows low-income individuals and families to use an Electronic Benefits Transfer card in order to receive help in order to purchase food. The website explains, &#8220;This card can be used like a debit card to purchase eligible food in authorized retail food stores.&#8221;
People who wish to check if they are eligible for the program can visit the SNAP eligibility <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/recipient/eligibility">website</a>.

72690018-F58C-4E3A-B609-228DA3836CF6_1_201_a

USDA Increases Food Stamps Program With COVID Relief Bill Funding

American Rescue Plan

Tom Vilsack

Last Friday, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKJb74hDrPg">joined</a> “Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler” on One America News Network to discuss far-left freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez&#8217;s (D-NY) (AOC) disingenuous reaction to the news that the Trump administration intends to tighten the rules pertaining to food stamp (SNAP) distribution for able-boded adults without dependents. As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Amanda Prestigiacomo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/reporter-calls-out-aoc-for-glaring-falsehood-in-viral-food-stamps-tweet">reported</a> last Friday:
<blockquote>On Thursday, democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claimed the Trump administration is on its way to cruelly starving children and single parents to death over welfare reform.
However, the claim, which of course went viral on Twitter, is not true. As highlighted by Daily Caller reporter Peter Hasson, the work-requirement reform only affects able-bodied folks from the ages of ages 18-49 who are childless.
“My family relied on food stamps (EBT) when my dad died at 48,” the congresswoman posted to Twitter on Thursday. “I was a student. If this happened then, we might’ve just starved.”</blockquote>
Hammer joined Wheeler&#8217;s program to dissect and break down the false and misleading premise of Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s tweet. Wheeler began by reciting the Left&#8217;s fear-mongering claims that children will starve, but said that she does not see evidence that this is true. Hammer began his response by playing off Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro&#8217;s signature line that &#8220;facts don&#8217;t care about your feelings&#8221;:
<blockquote>Well that&#8217;s because there is no evidence. Liz, my boss likes to say that &#8220;facts don&#8217;t care about your feelings,&#8221; which is obviously correct. But what I have noticed over my years in this business already — at the tender age of thirty — is that facts have an inherently conservative bias.
Now you see, this is just a perfect example of the kind of outright lies, distortions, obfuscations, exaggerations, and just general [un]truths that the Left is routinely forced to resort to in order to present their narratives. As you quite factually and elegantly laid out, [AOC] was nineteen years old [at the time]. Her mother could have claimed her as a dependent, so under these new rules, her mother would have still had SNAP payments. &#8230;
What is the broader point, that&#8217;s something I want to talk about as well, is focusing on &#8230; about [how] this was a Clinton-era law, okay? This [welfare reform] is a landmark Clinton-era law. It was not a small-potato bill — it was one of the legislative landmarks in the entire Clinton presidency. And what&#8217;s happening here, and we see this over and over again, Defense of Marriage Act, Glass-Steagall [repeal] financial reform — the Left in the year 2019, and really over the past five years in general, is engaged in a systemic breakdown, an extirpation of the roots out of the Clinton agenda. They are trying to move so far to the left of what the party stood for literally only 20 years ago, and this is part and parcel part of that project, I believe.</blockquote>
Wheeler then clarified that the new Trump administration rules will hardly abolish the SNAP program in any way; by contrast, it merely amounts to prudent means-testing.
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="AOC Lies about Food Stamps" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yKJb74hDrPg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hammer OANN 12.06.19

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: AOC Lied About Food Stamps

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Trump Administration

Under former president Barack Obama, enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food-stamp program known as SNAP, hit all-time highs.
In 2013, more than 48 million Americans were enrolled in the program. When Obama took office in 2009, there were 33 million using food stamps. That&#8217;s an increase of more than 48%.
But all that has changed under President Trump. Enrollment in the program has dropped by 3,899,257, according to the latest data released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The data covers up until November 2018.
That means SNAP enrollment is the lowest its been in a decade &#8212; since November 2009. SNAP costs U.S. taxpayers more than $5 billion a month, a whopping $60 billion a year.
Of course, no one should go hungry in America. But while the Democrats believe that handouts are the answer, Trump&#8217;s pursuing a whole &#8216;nother avenue to a solution: Jobs. Republicans (rightly) think that Americans would rather work for a living than get a free handout, and under Trump, the U.S. economy is providing millions of new jobs.
SNAP enrollment had begun falling in 2013, but not because Obama had done anything, experts say. When the numbers hit record highs, many state legislatures passed new laws that required food stamp recipients to make an effort &#8212; either to find a job, or to attend school or enroll in a job-training program.
But Trump has also added a new wrinkle to reducing the number of people on SNAP: His administration has proposed tightening eligibility requirements for legal immigrants and children of illegal aliens.
&#8220;A central theme of the Trump administration has been to expand prosperity for all Americans, which includes helping people lift themselves out of pervasive poverty,&#8221; Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in November, when new rules were proposed. Noting that the rules would save $15 billion over 10 years, Perdue said the changes would restore &#8220;the dignity of work to a sizable segment of our population, while it&#8217;s also respectful of the taxpayers who fund the program.&#8221;
A recent study showed that food stamp usage among people who recently immigrated to the United States in the past five years has dropped by 10%, even though the rules have not yet been passed.
&#8220;A new survey from the nonpartisan policy group Children&#8217;s HealthWatch found that &#8230; SNAP enrollment among immigrant families in the U.S. less than five years is down about 10 percent,&#8221; <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/food-banks-impact-trumps-immigration-policies/story?id=59292130">ABC News</a> reported in November.
Some 9 million people who are legal immigrants &#8212; or who are children born in the U.S. to people who entered illegally &#8212; are in the SNAP program.
And in his 2018 proposed budget, Trump offered a novel idea: Instead of giving needy people stamps they can redeem for food, why not just give them actual food?
The program would be called &#8220;America&#8217;s Harvest Box.&#8221; Perdue called it &#8220;a bold, innovative approach to providing nutritious food to people who need assistance feeding themselves and their families &#8212; and all of it is home-grown by American farmers and producers.&#8221;
&#8220;The USDA believes that state governments will be able to deliver this food at much less cost than SNAP recipients currently pay for food at retail stores &#8212; thus reducing the overall cost of the SNAP program by $129 billion over the next 10 years,&#8221; <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/12/585130274/trump-administration-wants-to-decide-what-food-snap-recipients-will-get">NPR reported</a>. &#8220;This and other changes in the SNAP program, according to the Trump administration, will reduce the SNAP budget by $213 billion over those years &#8212; cutting the program by almost 30 percent.&#8221;

More Than 3.8 Million People Drop Off Food Stamps Under President Trump

Barack Obama

Donald Trump

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would move to make sure able-bodied Americans work to receive food stamp benefits, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said could save billions of dollars in taxpayer money each year.
The Agriculture Department unveiled expanded work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. A move to expand such requirements was included in a $400 billion farm bill recently passed by Congress, but was stripped out at the last minute.
According to the proposed rule, those who are able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) would need to work at least 20 hours per week up to age 59 in order to receive government assistance.
&#8220;Under current SNAP requirements, ABAWDs must work or participate in an employment program for at least 20 hours a week to continue to receive benefits for more than three months over a 36-month period,&#8221; the USDA said. &#8220;States may request to waive the time limit in areas with an unemployment rate above 10 percent or where there are &#8216;not sufficient jobs,&#8217; which current regulations primarily define as an unemployment rate 20 percent above the national average.
&#8220;With today&#8217;s strong economy, that could include areas with unemployment rates of under 5 percent &#8211; a rate normally considered to be full employment. In 2016 there were 3.8 million individual ABAWDs on the SNAP rolls, with 2.8 million (or almost 74 percent) of them not working,&#8221; the USDA said.
&#8220;Long-term reliance on government assistance has never been part of the American dream,&#8221; said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. &#8220;As we make benefits available to those who truly need them, we must also encourage participants to take proactive steps toward self-sufficiency. Moving people to work is common-sense policy, particularly at a time when the unemployment rate is at a generational low.&#8221;
Some 40 million Americans who qualify &#8212; about 12% of the total U.S. population &#8212; receive assistance from SNAP. The Trump administration said Wednesday that enacting the proposed rule would save U.S. taxpayers $15 billion over the next decade, the Associated Press reported.
The Agriculture Department said the proposed rule &#8220;is meant to restore the system to what it was meant to be: assistance through difficult times, not lifelong dependency. Over time, without any changes in the underlying welfare reform legislation of 1996, that ideal has been watered down by out-of-control administrative flexibility in SNAP.&#8221;
&#8220;Americans are generous people who believe it is their responsibility to help their fellow citizens when they encounter a difficult stretch,&#8221; Perdue said. &#8220;That is the commitment behind SNAP. But like other federal welfare programs, it was never intended to be a way of life.&#8221;
&#8220;A central theme of the Trump administration has been to expand prosperity for all Americans, which includes helping people lift themselves out of pervasive poverty,&#8221; he said, adding that the proposed rule &#8220;restores the dignity of work to a sizable segment of our population, while it&#8217;s also respectful of the taxpayers who fund the program.&#8221;
Perdue said of the 2.8 ABAWD&#8217;s receiving food stamps but not working, &#8220;This is unacceptable to most Americans and belies common sense, particularly when employment opportunities are plentiful as they currently are. The nation&#8217;s economy is booming and unemployment is at lowest &#8230; since 1969.&#8221;

NO FREE RIDE: Trump Administration Plans To Make More People Work For Food Stamps

Electronic music artist Moby is under fire from fellow leftists after suggesting that poor people who use food stamps should be barred from buying food that isn&#8217;t &#8220;healthy,&#8221; and that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or, SNAP) should limit users to purchasing &#8220;cheap, healthy foods like beans, vegetables, fruit, and whole grains.&#8221;
&#8220;Right now, a congressional arm-wrestling match is pitting those who want to preserve funding for SNAP against those who want to gut it,&#8221; Moby wrote in a column for The Wall Street Journal.
&#8220;As I can attest from my childhood experience, SNAP really does help feed poor people, and no one wants to return to the days when America turned a blind eye to hunger,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;But it also puts a lot of unhealthful food on America&#8217;s plate. Its costs are huge, as are the added costs of treating diabetes, hypertension and other illnesses that poor eating habits cause.&#8221;
SNAP is meant to be a healthy food program, supplementary to state-based welfare programs. SNAP recipients can only use the funds to purchase fresh meat and produce as a condition of receiving an extended food benefit from the federal government, but many people still use it to purchase calorie-heavily foods like potatoes.
But what a poor person should eat should be up to the individual using the food stamps. Just because someone is poor doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean they can&#8217;t make their own decisions, or that they are somehow less capable of feeding their family than a musician who peaked sometime in the early 2000s.
And the internet, of course, reminded Moby that he may not, in fact, know what&#8217;s best for poor people because he happens to vote Democrat and cash million dollar checks.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
moby: we are all made of stars
also moby: life should be more difficult for poor people <a href="https://t.co/uxA6JXOCOm">https://t.co/uxA6JXOCOm</a>
&#8212; jon hendren (@fart) <a href="https://twitter.com/fart/status/983740656609734656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
dear moby 
this is a bad and classist opinion 
other people&#8217;s bodies are none of yr business 
-jss <a href="https://t.co/bMpuF9xVpc">https://t.co/bMpuF9xVpc</a>
&#8212; jes skolnik / texas calboy (@modernistwitch) <a href="https://twitter.com/modernistwitch/status/983737996582236161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
Some even got very personal.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
didn&#8217;t realize food stamps could be used to buy Moby albums <a href="https://t.co/o4ziTE1Tds">pic.twitter.com/o4ziTE1Tds</a>
&#8212; Kevin Nguyen (@knguyen) <a href="https://twitter.com/knguyen/status/983762805093552129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
In fairness to the poor people, Moby did once try to pass a measure in Los Angeles that would have required shelter animals to be fed vegan diets. So at least the poor people still get meat.
Congress is considering an extension for the SNAP program. Although the program has been the subject of much deliberation, it has never not been renewed.

Backlash Hits Moby After He Suggests Barring Poor People From Buying Junk Food

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