President Trump Wants To Change SNAP Program

[Paranoid Android]

the government largely stopped providing this kind of direct food aid (in favor of pure currency subsidy like SNAP) because it turns out to be super inefficient, introducing a ton of unnecessary waste and overhead (ex: government cheese.)

we have pretty developed systems for distributing food to the population already, but I guess republicans are happy to abandon market-based solutions as soon as they have a chance to stick it to poor people

Oh don't worry it will be privatized and we will have companies overcharging us taxpayers to give bad nutritional food to people who need it. We all know this will happen.

[zenkai]

Nah, it just sounds like you're making shit up.

On the off chance it is true; who cares? Most SNAP recipients use it as it is intended.

I wish I was making it up, unlike a lot of posters here, I don't lie.

[Dontrike]

Regardless of your political beliefs I think we all can agree that government assisted food should be nutritious food that helps your body, and it should be enough to sustain a person, it should never be used for junk food or anything that isn't food.

I have a friend who has been on SNAP since 2002, he was 400lbs, now he is almost 800lbs because he spends all his food stamps on junk food. Does it sound like he doesn't get enough food to live on?

Your example doesn't work as the reason he's fat isn't because he's getting assistance, but because he has no self control. He has a lot of other issues that aren't buying junk food.

I won't disagree that food should be used on more personally responsible food items, but cutting out soda and candy bars isn't going to stop your friend, as an example. Some juices are just as bad as soda and you could easily find ways of buying something as bad as candy bars. At that point we'd be talking about coming up with a rule for a case by base basis and then some companies will make new products that get around those for even more time to be spent trying to block people from buying it.

[Resurgo]

Wow, I'm stunned to see a post from Ransath I can at least agree with here...

[Lenonis]

I wish I was making it up, unlike a lot of posters here, I don't lie.

*looks at this* *looks at avatar* *looks at this*

Irony is officially DOA. Time of death, 12:48PM CST.

[zenkai]

Your example doesn't work as the reason he's fat isn't because he's getting assistance, but because he has no self control. He has a lot of other issues that aren't buying junk food.

I won't disagree that food should be used on more personally responsible food items, but cutting out soda and candy bars isn't going to stop your friend, as an example. Some juices are just as bad as soda and you could easily find ways of buying something as bad as candy bars. At that point we'd be talking about coming up with a rule for a case by base basis and then some companies will make new products that get around those for even more time to be spent trying to block people from buying it.

Juice is just as bad as soda because of the high sugar content but he has a terrible diet, he mostly eats chips and drinks soda.

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Wouldn't it be much easier to say what can't be bought with EBT then this stupid program?

Yes, won't stop people from selling their food stamps 50 cents on the dollar but it does solve half the problem.

[Elegiac]

Yes, won't stop people from selling their food stamps 50 cents on the dollar but it does solve half the problem.

Do you actually know what EBT is, or are you just talking out of your ass?

It's extraordinarily difficult to engage in food stamp trading by virtue of the fact it's issued through electronic debit.

[Orlong]

So, literally socialism?

No this applies to people who choose to apply for welfare. Its literally a handout that they are asking for. Socialism is forced on everyone

[Vanyali]

Wouldn't it be much easier to say what can't be bought with EBT then this stupid program?

Yes. Which is already done to a large degree. People just have it stuck in their heads that people on SNAP are eating better than them "for free".

Spoiler: if they're eating better than you, you're buying shit food by choice, and should work on that instead.

[Orlong]

That is some shit tier food. Like, shit you feed animals.

No it isn't. It tastes pretty good. I'm betting you never even had a slice of Spam before. Hell its the State meat of Hawaii. They serve it in fine restaurants and even have a Spam Parade every year

[Elegiac]

No it isn't. It tastes pretty good. I'm betting you never even had a slice of Spam before. Hell its the State meat of Hawaii. They serve it in fine restaurants and even have a Spam Parade every year

The Emperor has no clothes, and spam has no flavor.

Also, it isn't remotely healthy and might as well be junk food.

[Zan15]

Regardless of your political beliefs I think we all can agree that government assisted food should be nutritious food that helps your body, and it should be enough to sustain a person, it should never be used for junk food or anything that isn't food.

I have a friend who has been on SNAP since 2002, he was 400lbs, now he is almost 800lbs because he spends all his food stamps on junk food. Does it sound like he doesn't get enough food to live on?

I wish I was making it up, unlike a lot of posters here, I don't lie.

So full of shit its not even funny

Even at max 194 a month or 6.47 dollars a day or 2.16 a meal......your "friend" somehow found the ability to gain 400 lbs.??

There is not enough junk food you can buy each month for 194 dollars that can make you gain 400lbs.

[The Casualty]

So is this intended to be like WIC where there is just a pre-approved list of items you can get every month or do they intend on a whole division of people to create, distribute, and catalog these care packages (from the articles I have seen it seems to be the latter)? And how does this all work with the nature of food stamps? For instance, WIC is easy, as there is just a list. If you qualify for WIC, you get what's on the list each month.
Food stamps however can wildly vary from family to family. It's easy if you set up a baseline of what a family getting $X per month should get, but what about people who get half/a quarter as much? What do you cut out? Who creates the regulations on what gets cut out first? Care packages from churches or outreach typically do not contain perishable items like fresh produce. How does this program anticipate handling this?

It also sounds like there would need to be local food distribution centers to handle this. I see articles telling me how they are going to save all this money, but no actual information on how that is going to work, especially with all the extra manpower and potential facilities needed.


If someone were to tell me that food stamps can be improved to make sure people are getting healthy food choices at a better savings to the tax payer, I would certainly listen and hope they are on to something but this seems to be the most ass-backwards way of making improvements.

I always look at what people pay with while I'm waiting in line.

I know this isn't related, but do you honestly not see anything unhealthy with this statement? I know I shouldn't treat anything you say as truth and fact, because "hey it's the internet" and you are pretty much a space cadet, but c'mon...

[Zan15]

Juice is just as bad as soda because of the high sugar content but he has a terrible diet, he mostly eats chips and drinks soda.

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Yes, won't stop people from selling their food stamps 50 cents on the dollar but it does solve half the problem.

Won't stop people from selling the stupid Trump Box that comes everyday to deliver 6 dollars worth of food....that will cost 9 dollars to deliver. We will end up spending more on the logistics of this program then we currently spend on the whole program today.

Food distribution is expensive.

[Orlong]

Sounds to me like you are just advocating trying to kill poor people via sodium overdosing.

Canned food does not a healthy diet make.

Not to mention I cannot FATHOM that shipping boxes of food is anything other than orders of magnitude more expensive than the current program.

Since its the government shipping them, they can be sent for free through USPS. Just like any other federal mail. Also while yes there is a lot of sodium in canned meat, there is none in canned vegetables, nor boxed pasta (unless youre looking at complete meals like boxed mac and cheese), bags of dried beans, canned fruit, and many other shelf stable things

[Breccia]

Since its the government shipping them, they can be sent for free through USPS.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

The funny part is when you suggested sending millions of pounds of food per week would somehow happen for free!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[The Casualty]

Since its the government shipping them, they can be sent for free through USPS.

Nothing is free.

The USPS has been doing abysmally as more correspondence is done online than ever before, even cutting hours of service in many areas. Do you propose increasing funding to the USPS and hiring more people to handle this demand?

[unfilteredJW]

I wish I was making it up, unlike a lot of posters here, I don't lie.

It's like your posting history isn't visible to all.

[Orlong]

Agreed, and its absolutely heartbreaking how much food is wasted. I used to work at a large grocery store and I was disgusted by how much perfectly good food was thrown out. Dented packaging, oddly shaped or bruised produce, etc. Food was destroyed because it didnt look "good" enough. It wasnt even expired.

That's because people don't want to buy nasty deformed fruit and vegetables and it would just sit on the shelf till it rots anyway. I suppose your store could have used it to make things to sell at the deli like salads or dips instead of throwing it away though

[cubby]

Regardless of your political beliefs I think we all can agree that government assisted food should be nutritious food that helps your body, and it should be enough to sustain a person, it should never be used for junk food or anything that isn't food.

I have a friend who has been on SNAP since 2002, he was 400lbs, now he is almost 800lbs because he spends all his food stamps on junk food. Does it sound like he doesn't get enough food to live on?

You should really take a look at some data points on the subject and see exactly how WELL the program works. If you're expecting perfect functionality with a program well, I guess this is your first time around the block.

SNAP works as well as it can. Trump is in la-la land if he thinks his changes are any kind of improvement.