The food stamp program seems to be a breeding ground of waste, fraud, and abuse. Some of the horror stories I’ve shared include:
- Using food stamps to buy luxury coffee at Starbucks.
- Buying steaks and lobster with food stamps.
- The Obama Administration rewarding states that sign up more food stamp recipients.
- Proposals to make it easier to use food stamps at fast food restaurants.
- College kids scamming the program for handouts.
- New York City giving food stamps to newly released prisoners and running foreign-language ads encouraging more people to sign up for the program.
- The Octo-Mom mooching off the food stamp program.
- The Agriculture Department running radio ads to lure more people into food stamp dependency.
With stories like this, I’m surprised my head didn’t explode during this debate I did on Larry Kudlow’s show.
So exactly how bad is the food stamp program?
One way of measuring the cost of the program, both to taxpayers and to the people who get trapped in dependency, is to see what share of a state’s population is utilizing the program.
I just did a “Mirror, Mirror” post on states with the most education bureaucrats compared to teachers and got a lot of good feedback, so let’s do the same thing for food stamps.
Here’s a rather disturbing map from the Washington Post.
A couple of things stand out. I can understand Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico being among the worst states because they have relatively low average incomes. And that’s sort of an excuse for Tennessee, though it’s worth noting that economically and demographically similar states such as Georgia and Alabama don’t fall into the same dependency trap.
But the state that stands out is Oregon. Based on the state’s income, there’s no reason for more than 20 percent of resident’s to be on the dole. The state does get a “high” ranking on the Moocher Index, so there’s some evidence of an entitlement mentality. And welfare handouts also are above average in the Beaver State as well.
It’s also disappointing to see that food stamp dependency has doubled since 2008 in Florida, Rhode Island, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. Though it’s a credit to the people of Utah that they’re still in the least-dependent category. But the trend obviously is very bad.
And it’s also depressing to look at the bar chart on the right and see that spending on the program has tripled in the past 10 years. Heck, food stamps were about 70 percent of the cost of a recent Senate “farm bill.”
P.S. A local state legislator asked an official in Richmond why Virginia got such a bad score in the ranking of teachers compared to education bureaucrats. The good news, so to speak, is that Virginia is not as bad as suggested by the official numbers. According to the response sent to this lawmaker, “VDOE has determined that the data it reported on school division personnel and assignments to NCES for 2005-2006 through 2009-2010 through the US Department of Education’s EdFacts Portal were inaccurate.”
The bad news, as you can see from this table, is that there are still more edu-crats than teachers, but the ratio apparently isn’t as bad with this updated data.
As a Virginia taxpayer, I suppose I should be happy. But it’s hard to get overly excited when other states are taking positive steps to bring choice and competition to education, and the best thing I can say about the Old Dominion is that we’re not quite as infested with bureaucrats as we originally thought.
P.P.S. I guess I should give the left-wing Washington Post some credit for sharing the map on food stamp dependency. And, to be fair, the paper did reprint this remarkable chart showing how bad Obama’s record is on jobs compared to Reagan and Clinton. And the paper also printed this chart showing how the economy’s performance is way below average under Obama.
[…] So if Congresswoman Fudge wants her state to give goodies to able-bodied adults with no children, that would be a decision for Ohio’s politicians (or, even more relevantly, Oregon’s politicians). […]
I don’t necessarily see a problem giving newly released prisoners food stamps, at least for a time. I know and have written to someone in prison for a few years, met some of his friends as a part of that, and know some of his family (the mom happens to be very frugal but has multiple immune disorders and can’t work). I’ve observed and have read about a lot of ex-prisoners who are unable to get work at all or even a place to live after they get out. People are usually not inclined to give them work, especially if they’ve been a long-time prisoner. And if they don’t have friends who can give them a couch to sleep on, many end up being homeless around here, living under the bridge in all kinds of weather.
While I very much agree with the need for every able-bodied person to be working, for some of us it’s not that simple to get a job, especially in some areas. Things are truly not always as they seem.
Even lottery winners–I’ve read how some people spend all their winnings within a short period of time and end up worse off than before. Maybe there needs to be some kind of enforced budget program for lottery winners, requiring the undisciplined ones to get their winnings over time, or at least be required to prove they have other income to rely on if they choose to spend it all in a year. It’s not good for THEM if they don’t use it wisely. – Just because you have a nice car, it doesn’t mean you necessarily have food to eat. You can’t eat your car or that new house of yours, or even pesticide-riddled grass in your yard, probably.
[…] Here’s a map showing which states (as of a few years ago) had the highest rate of food stamp […]
[…] Speaking of states, here are the states with the most and least food stamp dependency, and here is a ranking of states looking at the ratio […]
I know that there is alot of abuse and or over use of the food stamp program. I think that the implement of guidelines -like WIC-would have a significant impact and decrease participation. I dont think the programs goal involves any such desire.
What if for some people Food becomes your drugs, if you dont do drugs.( Goverment helpsfund Drugs too BUT..)Chances are you grew up in a working poor household.. most likely unstable.. Drugs ..alcohol.. All the things that you dont want in your children’s life.. Yet you feel bad because you are at work until late or just frikken tired from the day and dont want to or have time to prepare a nice healthy meal.And when you cant afford to buy alot of stuff to distract them from how crappy things are and you just want them to be happy.. Candy.. Cereal for supper.. Sneaks to get milkshakes.. Mcdonalds, pizza, their fave food (its never broccoli)..and then they grow up and have a really unhealthy relationship with food too.Because food equals family and together and love.Even at funerals you eat but mostly happy times and if youre sick and someone cares, they bring soup and holidays ,Halloween ,4th july parades ,thanksgiving,, all the happy good times that fade into and become life… Involve food. Goverment wants their hands all over that and are trying damn hard & its working alot if not most of the time. And with all the crap our food is loaded up with ,were too satisfied and full & bloated& heartburn& yet still hungry.. to start a food fight. We are civilized adults not unruly children
[…] praise for being the least likely to use Food Stamps. Their neighbors in Oregon, by contrast, are very proficient at […]
It depends on which city you’re talking about. In Miami, Florida, people can, and do, buy fast food and alcohol with food stamps. Many convenience stores let people do this. I don’t know how they get away with it; perhaps because Miami is a sanctuary city: Many of these convenience stores are managed by illegals/undocumented people. Regardless of how many people try to say that this food stamp fraud is not taking place, millions of us witness it in our own neighborhoods every day. Also, illegals get food stamps in Florida.
The beginning of this article is inaccurate and hyperbole. You cannot use food stamps to buy fast food or Starbucks or anything like that. Of course you can buy steak or lobster, that is FOOD. Hence the word, food stamps. Although I don’t know any poor people who buy steak or lobster, if they did the would run out of food faster and be hungry. You are more likely to see them buy beans, rice, stuff you can buy cheap and stretch.
[…] graphic, why are so many people in Maine taking advantage of the food stamp program? As shown by this map, why does Oregon have such a high level of food stamp […]
[…] of the latter form of corruption in programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, job training, food stamps, disability, […]
[…] of the latter form of corruption in programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, job training, food stamps, disability, […]
[…] Office, the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Institutes of Health, Food Stamps, , the Government Services Administration, unemployment insurance, the […]
[…] Office, the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Institutes of Health, Food Stamps, , the Government Services Administration, unemployment insurance, the […]
[…] Office, the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Institutes of Health, Food Stamps, , the Government Services Administration, unemployment insurance, the […]
[…] As you can see from the map, they not only have a very high participation/eligibility rate, but also have one of the highest overall levels of food stamp dependency. […]
[…] P.P.P.S. If you want to know how dependency varies by state, here’s a map showing welfare payments and another map showing food stamp usage. […]
[…] P.P.P.S. If you want to know how dependency varies by state, here’s a map showing welfare payments and another map showing food stamp usage. […]
Fight Greed!!! End Public Assistance!!!
[…] Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Which State Has the Highest Food Stamp Usage of All? […]
[…] a growing number of people are now aware that there’s been an explosion of food stamp dependency, so one hopes that all this knowledge eventually will translate into a new round of welfare […]
[…] Here’s a map showing which states have the most food stamp […]
Food stamps need to be limited to fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh meat (not lunchmeat etc), oatmeal, flour, sugar(baking needs) and milk! No prepared foods. No cooked foods from the market, no chips, dip, beer sodas. You know… Like the pioneers had in their wagons. Everything else are luxury items that we earn the right to buy!
I dont’ see everything that people buy with food card but I have seen what the buy at the Convenience stores. Junk food, 44 oz soda, large bag of chips, candy bars, Etc, etc!!! Not that don’t buy same items but I use the money that I work for. The Food card is limited on amount so I believe that people should be using like a Wal Mart or some other place that the prices aren’t elavated by 20 or 30%. Also, they should be buying food that would better nourtious their family than junk. Need to make it like WIC so they can only buy certain types of foods. Growing up poor we ate a lot of the cheaper food. lots of macaroni and Tomato juice. My wife grew up eating lots of potato’s and bean’s. Not much meat and espcially no lobster. Don’t matter if my child got straight A’s and was honor student.
[…] Here’s a map showing which states have the most food stamp […]
[…] Here’s a map showing which states have the most food stamp […]
During WWII, as a young boy, I remember how everything was rationed. No red meat/sugar/tires..etc. We survived by living a frugal life. As for the poorest of us, the community and churches stepped in and helped. Wonder how many today would have made it in those days??
[…] As you can see from the map, they not only have a very high participation/eligibility rate, but also have one of the highest overall levels of food stamp dependency. […]
[…] As you can see from the map, they not only have a very high participation/eligibility rate, but also have one of the highest overall levels of food stamp dependency. […]
[…] As you can see from the map, they not only have a very high participation/eligibility rate, but also have one of the highest overall levels of food stamp dependency. […]
Utah’s dependence has grown for one reason…..illegal immigrants.
FYI – the issue with food stamp spending is not just the acceleration of spending or possible fraud/waste, it’s the dependency that it creates. A point that Mitchell made in the above article as he always does!
Your ranting seems to suggest that fiscal conservatives and libertarians do not care for the truly poor. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. However, I’d argue that creating dependency of the poor is not to their benefit and ultimately harms them.
TLR wrote, “I mean, it’s full of ad hominems.” Pot meet kettle! LMAO!
You also wrote, “When we all get as loud and rabid against government give-away programs to private corporations and individuals like Congressmen and Senators and to their military contractors cronies, to their buddies in the banking and financial sectors, then please feel free to come back and make your voice known. Until then, you are a mere hypocrite and we don’t need to hear from you yet.”
Seriously, do you read this blog regularly?
“You and people like you are what is wrong with this country !!”
Well, since you could not possibly know much about me in the last hour-and-a-half since you authored your reply to my comment, we can safely disregard your post. I mean, it’s full of ad hominems. Move along, folks. Nothing to see up there.
Let me tell you why a “white” guy like me would write what I did. It’s not because I’m a tree-hugging, same-sex-hugging, Kumbuya-singing liberal. Far from it. I’m more conservative than Candidate Barry Goldwater. Only difference between us is I’ve had about 14 years or so to watch things really begin to accelerate out of control.
What I wrote, I wrote to make a point: There is only anectdotal, unverifiable evidence that people abuse food assistance. Part of the problem with any allegation of the sort is that we don’t know who’s definition of “abuse” to use. That lobster you see that mother buying? How could you possibly predict that wasn’t bought as a reward for a teenager who brought home good grades or some other of the millions of scenarios involving foods that you disapprove of?
“Poor people need to get in their place!” That’s what you were thinking, right? “How dare they inherit from a family member a car nicer than mine!”
When we all get as loud and rabid against government give-away programs to private corporations and individuals like Congressmen and Senators and to their military contractors cronies, to their buddies in the banking and financial sectors, then please feel free to come back and make your voice known. Until then, you are a mere hypocrite and we don’t need to hear from you yet.
What a load of BS Loudmouth !!!! You and people like you are what is wrong with this country !!You must make Obama proud by carrying on his racist card..and lies. to divide the people even more !!
As a minority in Florida where food stamps have doubled since 2008, I can testify that food stamps are being abused by people who don’t need or deserve them. I witness it almost every day, and I am so sick of it.
People don’t realize how many women in south Florida are pretending to be separated to collect food stamps, while they’re actually happily married to small business owners who hide their income to lie and get all kinds of government assistance. It sickens me because I know too many of them who make more than my family and would not qualify if they reported the truth. They use food stamps to buy brand name junk at the grocery stores, and make new car payments with the money they save on groceries. My family gets no gov’t help, not because I’m against it, but because we don’t “qualify”. We live on a budget and buy store brand at the grocery store. I resent everyone I know under age 50 on food stamps. A system that allows that kind of fraud, yet never helped me when I was in need, sickens me.
American citizens are entitled to food assistance, especially after government action crashed the economy and created the dependency.
Being against food assistance and other “entitlement” programs is merely a sneaky White Supremacist attack on minorities. The anti-entitlement crowd have their own entitlements. For instance, many feel entitled to have their government conduct the losing “war on pot”, and many of them feel entitled to endless wars against phantom enemies.
Truth is, the anti-food assistance crowd hates minorities and will not hire them, and then complain the loudest about “moochers”.
[…] Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Which State Has the Highest Food Stamp Usage of All? […]