President Trump Wants To Change SNAP Program

[Orlong]

This just made my day. Ive been saying for 20 years this is what we should do. President Trump wants to drastically cut the amount of food stamps handed out and instead provide boxes of food much like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh does. This way people aren't wasting food stamps on unhealthy garbage like chips, pretzels, soda, and candy. It also will net the families more food because they wont be able to irresponsibly waste food stamps on high value items such as tenderloin steaks, scallops, crab meat, and leg of lamb. If they want that kind of food, then get a job, or if working, get a second job or increase skills and get a raise. We will also save money because we can buy in bulk and distribute the food. We can get 1 million cans of kidney beans for a lot less per can than 1 million SNAP recipients each buying a can in the grocery store.

This will also remove the excuse that poor people have to buy expensive ready to cook food, and soda at convenience stores because they live in a food dessert. The food will be brought to them

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...ients-will-get

The Trump administration is proposing a major shake-up in one of the country's most important "safety net" programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. Under the proposal, most SNAP recipients would lose much of their ability to choose the food they buy with their SNAP benefits.

The proposal is included in the Trump administration budget request for fiscal year 2019. It would require approval from Congress.

Under the proposal, which was announced Monday, low-income Americans who receive at least $90 a month — just over 80 percent of all SNAP recipients — would get about half of their benefits in the form of a "USDA Foods package." The package was described in the budget as consisting of "shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit and vegetables." The boxes would not include fresh fruits or vegetables.

Currently, SNAP beneficiaries get money loaded onto an EBT card they can use to buy what they want as long as it falls under the guidelines. The administration says the move is a "cost-effective approach" with "no loss in food benefits to participants."

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 — thus reducing the overall cost of the SNAP program by $129 billion over the next 10 years.

Of course all the major grocery stores hate it because they will lose a lot of money over it. Boo Hoo Hoo. I only wish he wanted to totally eliminate the program and distribute all SNAP aid in the form of direct food, and all food should be generic branded. No Kraft, Heinz, Kellogg, etc...

[Draco-Onis]

Poor people shouldn't eat fruits, vegetables, meat and aren't allowed to be lactose intolerant? I am actually not against this if it is done right and include healthy foods and diapers. It would lower obesity among the poor and limit waste they can just do it as a site with a list of good choices to pick from.

[Orlong]

Poor people shouldn't eat fruits, vegetables, meat and aren't allowed to be lactose intolerant? I am actually not against this if it is done right and include healthy foods and diapers. It would lower obesity among the poor and limit waste they can just do it as a site with a list of good choices to pick from.

The boxes will contain canned vegetables and shelf stable canned meat like Spam, potted meat, Vienna sausages, corned beef, etc... They will also still get some "credit" to supplement the boxes of food. Diapers should never be allowed to be purchased with food stamps. People can use their cash assistance for that.

[Grapemask]

This is what idiots come up with when they have no idea how a system works, but just really want to control other people's lives. This is just more evidence for "low effort thinking" linked to conservative ideology, because it only takes a couple more cycles of thought to realize why this is ridiculous.

Ignoring that poor people aren't prisoners, ignoring that if they choose to spend their money on something you personally don't approve of nutritionally they are not given more money to buy something else with, it is simply infeasible to do anything else. Not everyone can eat everything. Giving them a box of food doesn't address needs. What if they can't eat X food in it? What if they dislike it? Among a million other ridiculous points.

Perhaps the foundational point here is the conservative mythology that people are on food stamps because they want to be. This is false. It's so false you should be ashamed to ever think it. People get food stamps because they need them - and most on them feel ashamed for it. They don't need your boot on their forehead or your kick to the groin on top of it.

[minteK917]

lmao $90 is already a pitiful amount. You really need to control half of it , thank god i was never poor in these kind of shitty system.

Also canned food and pasta lmao. So you are taking money to give them garbage instead of garbage. If you want to go authoritarian fucking do it right at least. Give them stamps, but make the stores complicit in that the stamps can only be used for fresh vegetable, fruits, meat, eggs, etc.

[Elegiac]

> Complains vociferously about regulations to discourage people from buying unhealthy food
> Cheers when regulations to prohibit people from buying unhealthy food are proposed

Totally not contradictory or self-serving at all.

I'd like to point out that, regardless of the costs, the food being offered in these care packages isn't fresh; it's likely to be highly processed, canned, or generally nonperishable stuff.

- - - Updated - - -

Diapers should never be allowed to be purchased with food stamps. People can use their cash assistance for that.

I suppose you think tampons or toilet paper shouldn't be purchasable with assistance either.

[wunksta]

Managing that system and shipping everything will probably cost way more than just giving people the stamps. The bureaucracy with welfare costs more than a basic income or negative income tax.

Trying to micromanage everything just increases the burden on everyone else.

[Breccia]

I only wish he wanted to totally eliminate the program and distribute all SNAP aid in the form of direct food

So, literally socialism?

[Redwyrm]

The same old trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist. Most likely because Trump saw a "special report" on Fox & Friends about people buying lobsters with food stamps.

[Kathandira]

The boxes will contain canned vegetables and shelf stable canned meat like Spam, potted meat, Vienna sausages, corned beef, etc.

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

[Deleted]

> Complains vociferously about regulations to discourage people from buying unhealthy food
> Cheers when regulations to prohibit people from buying unhealthy food are proposed

Totally not contradictory or self-serving at all.

I'd like to point out that, regardless of the costs, the food being offered in these care packages isn't fresh; it's likely to be highly processed, canned, or generally nonperishable stuff.

Give them stamps, but make the stores complicit in that the stamps can only be used for fresh vegetable, fruits, meat, eggs, etc.

Agreed. Poor people should not be nutritionally short changed. In fact, quite the opposite.

While I will agree with SNAP not being able to be used to buy chips, sodas, candy, etc. it shouldn't be replaced with other empty calories/carbs like pasta and breads. Kids need GOOD nutrition - it not only grows their bodies but their minds as well.

Also, there is so much food in the USA, no person - not a single one - should ever have to go to bed hungry.

[Azadina]

lmao $90 is already a pitiful amount. You really need to control half of it , thank god i was never poor in these kind of shitty system.

Also canned food and pasta lmao. So you are taking money to give them garbage instead of garbage. If you want to go authoritarian fucking do it right at least. Give them stamps, but make the stores complicit in that the stamps can only be used for fresh vegetable, fruits, meat, eggs, etc.

Yup, that was the most hilarious part of it all. Completely ass backwards way of approaching a "problem".

[Garnier Fructis]

Agreed. Poor people should not be nutritionally short changed. In fact, quite the opposite.

While I will agree with SNAP not being able to be used to buy chips, sodas, candy, etc. it shouldn't be replaced with other empty calories/carbs like pasta and breads. Kids need GOOD nutrition - it not only grows their bodies but their minds as well.

Also, there is so much food in the USA, no person - not a single one - should ever have to go to bed hungry.

I 100% agree with Ransath on something.

[Kathandira]

This relates to this situation well enough.

[RaoBurning]

I guess if you want to add a huge amount of overhead to the program and be markedly more inefficient, sure. It's a great idea.

[Elegiac]

I guess if you want to add a huge amount of overhead to the program and be markedly more inefficient, sure. It's a great idea.

Being vehemently anti-government means that you end up kinda sucking at governing, who knew?

[Breccia]

Agreed. Poor people should not be nutritionally short changed. In fact, quite the opposite.

While I will agree with SNAP not being able to be used to buy chips, sodas, candy, etc. it shouldn't be replaced with other empty calories/carbs like pasta and breads. Kids need GOOD nutrition - it not only grows their bodies but their minds as well.

Also, there is so much food in the USA, no person - not a single one - should ever have to go to bed hungry.

Let's not get too down on bread. If you were to put a couple of slices of whole wheat bread up against a half cup of dark red kidney beans they'd be surprisingly close in protein, fiber, calcium, and iron, while having about the same number of calories.

That's just being nitpicky, though. Glad to see so many people on the same wavelength on this one.

[taishar68]

I have a rule when friends or family need help., or a loan; if I choose to offer said help, I don't ask what they need it for...to me, it just doesn't matter. I get that it drives some people crazy, but I just never cared how that money was spent, because I always assumed that some portion of the help would be squandered, but most would be used as intended.

I grew up very poor, and was on public assistance until I was 18. I have been a working taxpayer my entire adult life, supported my family throughout. I was ashamed as a kid to use or need the assistance, but I am grateful for the chance I had to make a better life. I was lucky to live in a less observed time, where the mean, petty criticisms of the world were hidden behind closed doors and the social contract that said you don't kick someone when they are down. Today's poor live in a world where it's normal to be leveled with cruel, mean-spirited invective, either to your face or on social media (which they may get a reprieve from depending on their level of poverty), and are made to feel like being poor is a disease or a crime.

How about we simply realize that the few dollars a year that our taxes pay for assistance programs like SNAP aren't worth the outrage that occurs when a few individuals make choices we disagree with or feel morally superior to? Of course there will be fraud and excess, and that should not be ignored, but treat people with respect and not contempt, and maybe we'll see a better class of individual arise to make us all better. Or, we can continue to be shitty to people who need our compassion.

[Azadina]

I 100% agree with Ransath on something.

He must have had his account hacked or something. I mean, he just said something sensible and good, instead of "let the poor die if they are too lazy to bootstrap and afford food"

I'm shocked.

[Elegiac]

How about we simply realize that the few dollars a year that our taxes pay for assistance programs like SNAP aren't worth the outrage that occurs when a few individuals make choices we disagree with or feel morally superior to? Of course there will be fraud and excess, and that should not be ignored, but treat people with respect and not contempt, and maybe we'll see a better class of individual arise to make us all better. Or, we can continue to be shitty to people who need our compassion.

Very well said. There's a somewhat prevailing 'baby with the bathwater' attitude towards a lot of government programs, particularly public assistance; any flaw is taken as an absolute sign that the system needs to be dissolved rather than reformed, nor is there room for 'acceptable losses'. It's the product of a binary outlook in a lot of ways.

Of course, we all need to keep in mind that a lot of the complaints about SNAP and public assistance don't actually stem from concerns over abuse and inefficiency and are in fact glosses to cover up a pretty obvious anti-poor agenda.