Thread: USA becomes Food Stamp Nation but is it sustainable?

State says it will try to sanction those who abused EBT cards during outage
October 30, 2013 at 1:38 PM - WWLTV.com

BATON ROUGE, La. - Saying there is no tolerance for fraud in the EBT program, Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Suzy Sonnier said Wednesday that her department is seeking approval to sanction card users who tried to purchase food over their allotted amount during a recent computer outage.

Sonnier issued a response to a letter from Sen. David Vitter who was requesting that something be done to customers who had 'stolen' food during the outage. On Oct. 14, a computer failure at Xerox, the company that manages the EBT card purchases, took down the electronic food stamp system for several hours in 17 states, including Louisiana.

Reports documented the stores' shelves being cleared at two Walmart locations that didn't institute the normal $50 limit in such situations. With no limit on the cards showing, people with the cards could purchase hundreds of dollars of food.

Sonnier said in a statement that her department is asking the USDA for the right to sanction those who broke the law, saying that Louisiana's SNAP program allows for a 12-month sanction from the program for a first offense, a 24-month suspension for a second offense and a permanent disqualification for a third offense. "DCFS has no tolerance for fraud or abuse of the SNAP program and works aggressively every day, using the latest technology, to hold people accountable. No unauthorized taxpayer dollars were used in Louisiana during the multi-state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) EBT transaction outage."

Weeks after a glitch allowed food stamp recipients to make unlimited purchases of groceries at stores, including two Walmarts in northern Louisiana, Sen. David Vitter went public with a call for the prosecution of the EBT card holders who misused the funds. “The outrageous theft and fraud at several Louisiana retailers, including at the Walmart stores in Mansfield and Springhill, is completely unacceptable,” Vitter said. “Like many citizens, I am appalled and believe there should be serious consequences for what occurred; so far, I have heard of none.”

In Mansfield and Springhill at two Walmarts, shelves were cleared during the outage as some shoppers spent beyond their EBT limits. Scenes of shopping carts piled high with items were captured on video and spread on the Internet and newscasts around the country. The carts, full of items, were later abandoned in some stores once balances were restored.

Vitter asked Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell and Secretary of Department of Children and Family Services Suzy Sonnier to aggressively to pursue the fraud. Sonnier said her department is efforting to do just that. Among his recommendations, Vitter wants to make sure that the retailers who didn't follow proper protocol are not reimbursed. Sonnier said that was being done.

During an emergency, according to DCFS, retailers are required to call the vendor Xerox Corp. for authorization on transactions up to $50 in purchases per card holder. Vitter wants to "(d)isqualify any EBT beneficiary who knowingly stole groceries during the outage," and "(w)ork to set up a local task force to pursue prosecutions of the theft and fraud cases." "Food Stamps have more than doubled in cost since 2008 and continue to grow in an unsustainable way, and the events in Louisiana unfortunately highlight the fraud surrounding the taxpayer- funded program. I believe there should be serious consequences for what occurred," Vitter wrote to Caldwell in a letter.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/ebt-229898111.html

Sonnier said her department is efforting

Is that a word ??

Food stamp cuts kick in as Congress debates more
Food stamp benefits will decline Friday for 47 million Americans who receive the federal benefits.
Families of four will now get $36 less per month.
14 hr ago | By Mary Clare Jalonick of Associated Press



WASHINGTON — More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps will see their benefits go down starting Friday, just as Congress has begun negotiations on further cuts to the program.

Beginning in November, a temporary benefit from the 2009 economic stimulus that boosts food stamp dollars will no longer be available. According to the Agriculture Department, that means a family of four receiving food stamps will start receiving $36 less a month.

According to USDA’s website, the maximum monthly allotment for a household of four in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia was $668 on Oct. 31. On Nov. 1, that dropped to $632.

The benefits, which go to 1 in 7 Americans, fluctuate based on factors that include food prices, inflation and income. The rolls have swelled as the economy has struggled in recent years, with the stimulus providing higher benefits and many people signing up for the first time.

As a result, the program has more than doubled in cost since 2008, now costing almost $80 billion a year. That large increase in spending has turned the program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, into a target for House Republicans looking to reduce spending.

Negotiations on a wide-ranging farm bill, including cuts to the SNAP program, began Wednesday. Five-year farm bills passed by both the House and the Senate would cut food stamps, reductions that would come on top of the cut that will go into effect Friday. But the two chambers are far apart on the amounts.

Legislation passed by the GOP-controlled House would cut food stamps by an additional $4 billion annually and tighten eligibility requirements. The House bill would also end government waivers that have allowed able-bodied adults without dependents to receive food stamps indefinitely and allow states to put broad new work requirements in place.

Farm-state lawmakers have been pushing the farm bill for more than two years, and Wednesday's conference negotiations represented the opening round in final talks. If the bill is not passed by the end of the year and current farm law is not extended, certain dairy supports would expire that could raise the price of milk. Farmers would start to feel more effects next spring. "It took us years to get here but we are here," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said. "Let's not take years to get it done."

The biggest obstacle to a final bill is how far apart the two parties are on food stamps. Lucas said at the conference meeting that he was hoping to find common ground on the issue, but House GOP leaders such as Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., have insisted on higher cuts, saying the program should be targeted to the neediest people.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sent out a statement as the meeting opened that said food stamp recipients "deserve swift action from Congress to pass a bill that provides the much-needed nutritional support for our children, our seniors, our veterans and our communities."

As Congress debates the cuts to the program, charities say they are preparing for the farm bill reductions as well as the scheduled cuts taking place Friday. "Charities cannot fill the gap for the cuts being proposed to SNAP," said Maura Daly of Feeding America, a network of the nation's food banks. "We are very concerned about the impact on the charitable system."

Daly says food banks may have to as much as double their current levels of distribution if the House cuts were enacted. The Congressional Budget Office says as many as 3.8 million people could lose their benefits in 2014 if the House bill became law.

http://news.msn.com/us/food-stamp-cu...ocid=ansnews11

What do you want to be when you grow up ?
The new answer may be "I want to be on the government dole just like mommy and whoever dad is"

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/11/9158...-1-occupation/

This is not yet found in the Oxford dictionary,
so it was "Googled" and discovered
to be a recently "coined" new word found on T-shirts on eBay:



Every once in a while somebody gets it right.

Read this one over slowly
and absorb the facts
that are within this definition!

I love this word
and believe that it will become
a recognized English word.

http://www.zazzle.com/ineptocracy_de...29279586191807
they have it for $22.95. if I had the extra money i would definitely buy it

and here is another with an assortment of items:
http://www.cafepress.com/+ineptocracy+gifts

Food stamp nation: Should this woman qualify for SNAP benefits?

Posted at 9:44 am on November 23, 2013 by Twitchy Staff

Think the food stamp system isn’t broken? Meet @_EatMyTweets13.

According to her Twitter feed, @_EatMyTweets13 called to check her food stamp balance earlier this month. She was surprised to learn that she’s still getting assistance and the balance has grown to $400.

HBD COURTNEY @_EatMyTweets13

My food stamp account looking like 400 because I didn't know I still was getting them . ��

12:56 PM - 4 Nov 2013

Many of our elected officials caw about how food stamp fraud, illegal sale of EBT cards and benefits that exceed need are the stuff of myth. Oh, and of course nasty conservatives hate the poor because they won’t increase entitlements.

But evidently @_EatMyTweets13 doesn’t exactly need SNAP benefits to meet her nutritional needs.

HBD COURTNEY @_EatMyTweets13

I might let them build up and sell them
My cable bill 140 ��

12:59 PM - 4 Nov 2013

There’s no evidence that this young woman committed food stamp fraud. http://twitchy.com/2012/04/19/twitte...ng-food-stamps All we know is that according to her tweets, she receives benefits she doesn’t seem to use. But D.C. pander-bears continue to protect a system in which people who do just fine without food stamps look forward to a taxpayer-funded payday each month.

What else do we know about @_EatMyTweets13?

She has an iPhone. (Service plans don’t come cheap.)

there's more ....

http://twitchy.com/2013/11/23/food-s...snap-benefits/