Posted on 12/06/2018 8:09:45 AM PST by george76
Lawmakers say they have reached a deal on the massive farm bill, which has been hung up for weeks over demands by President Trump and House Republicans for new work requirements for food stamp recipients.
Negotiators have agreed to jettison those requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which were included in the House version of the bill but not the Senate version.
However, the White House has not yet signed off on the agreement and House conservatives may not support a bill that lacks work requirements.
(Excerpt) Read more at debtwww.thefiscaltimes.com ...
There shouldn’t even be a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Certainly not at the Federal level.
What there really shouldn’t be is a government ethanol program.
Hi.
If true, unacceptable.
5.56mm
What there really shouldn’t be is a government ethanol program.
Along with a host of other government programs like EITC, government supported student loans, and insurance subsidies.
Since there’s no delegated power for it I’d rather they nix SNAP.
True. Ethanol and student loans especially bad, but done too much because of Iowa’s position in the primaries, especially.
The ethanol, that is.
Food, not fuel.
Just damn! Maine SNAP use dropped bigly when the governor instituted a work requirement.
All paid for by massive debt, courtesy of our printed, fiat, centrally planned Federal Reserve monetary system.
Ethanol is unrelated to the Farm Bill.
About 80% of the ‘Farm Bill’ is actually ‘food assistance’.
I have many farm relatives. They have been convinced by politicians that they cannot survive without government handouts. It’s why flaming liberal Senators get elected in places like North Dakota.
If food assistance were reorganized along the lines of Obamacare, government would own every farm, food processing plant, grocery and restaurant. All citizens would get a ration card specifying exactly what they are allowed to purchase and eat, and at what price. Liberals would think this is an excellent idea and an opportunity to impose the tofu diet.
The problems with SNAP/Food Stamps are well known. In any program, people will cheat to access benefits to which they are not entitled. The system should be better policed. The left also tries incessantly to expand dependency, so they make more and more people eligible when they get the chance. These problems are endemic in any welfare system that involves more than a pick and shovel, with a check at the end of a long, sweaty day. They are not unique to SNAP. They are more visible in SNAP because everyone sees the results of cheating in the checkout line at the grocery store. But that's an argument for better policing, not for the elimination of vouchered forms of assistance.
Better policing: if it were up to me, I'd treat all income transfers, including welfare benefits (and fringe benefits, btw), as taxable income. (The exception would be personal gifts, since that money has already been taxed when earned by the gift-giver.) To maintain eligibility, recipients would have to file a tax return on April 15, just like working people. The welfare folks would have to add up their SNAP, WIC, TANF, housing and other benefits and pay taxes if they are above the zero bracket amount, which would be adjusted in light of the expansion of the definition of income proposed here. As a practical matter, welfare recipients would be paying little if any taxes, but the reform would at least show them how much they are costing the taxpayers. And it would be an efficient means of cross-checking benefits with tax and other records, and policing fraud.
For the record: I’d voucher the public schools and government-run health insurance as well.
I don’t agree with your basic premise, but greatly envy your ability to post a reasoned, succinctly stated, and well organized argument for your proposition.
We need more of that kind of posting here on FR.
Government welfare programs for farms and businesses are as bad as those for individuals. Breeds dependency and sloth in most recipients.
Rats get votes with handouts to many. Makes for a diseased, weakened America.
This program benefits BIG FOOD (Kraft-Heinz, Kellogg’s, ConAgra, Kroger’s, Safeway, Walmart) more than the poor.
And they don’t want no stinking means test.
K Street wins once again.
I used to sell to farmers.
They put on a pretty good show of being the most red-blooded, dyed-in-the-wool, Conservative Patriotic Americans you’ve ever met.
Until someone tries to cut their favorite subsidy.
Then it’s Katie Bar the Door!
Gotta feed all the newcomers from south of the border ;(
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