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Kate Arents

Sonja Andrus

English Composition 027 1001

11-10-13

Food Stamps

Government and Food

History:

In 1933 the foundation of SNAPs, Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program, was built

and was a part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act or better known as the AAA. During the Great

Depression the farmer’s crop prices fell dramatically making a very low supply which was

difficult on the farmers to make a living for themselves. Thus the Federal Surplus Relief

Corporation (Food Stamps) was established to help support the farmers. The federal government

bought them at low prices and spread them out through the local areas.

In 1939 the Food Stamp Plan was created by secretary of agriculture Henry Wallace. The

program was for the low-income people that then could purchase a booklet of orange stamps &

also lead to blue stamps. With orange stamps they could buy starch, soap, matches, and only

foods that needed to be cooked. Alcohol and tobacco were not permitted. Blue stamps were used

to buy dry beans, flour, corn meal, eggs, and fresh vegetables. Every dollar people spent on

Orange stamps, they were given back $.50 in Blue stamps. This was a requirement for people to

make sure they were spending their money on food and not other unimportant items. As World

War II approached in 1943 the program ended. This event significantly stimulated the United

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States greatly and the depression decreased resulting in many people being lifted out of poverty.

There for no longer needing food assistance. However in 1961 the program was reintroduced

and edited to no longer have surplus food stamps or as they were called, Blue Stamps.

In 1964 the Food Stamps were more focused on helping people out of poverty. The low

income people that signed up would receive extra benefits if their income shows they qualify, yet

being limited to ensure only needed purchases were being made. People were still required to

purchase the stamps until 1977. Also they revised the program so that they didn’t discriminate

people because of their race, religion, national origin, etc.

In the 1980’s there was a significant rise in hunger for Americans. There for the program

had to meet budget cuts in 1981. In 1988 and 1990 some of the money was restored to the Food

Stamp program in the efforts to bring out the EBT card, which is an Electronic Benefit Transfer

card, to widen the range of participants in the program. This started to create a problem in the

early 1990’s resulting in too many people using the benefits, which in the late 1990’s the

requirements were changed to make it more difficult for people to qualify.

In the 2000 a lot of big changes were made to the Food Stamps program. The

qualifications were more open so the amount of participants increased quickly. Immigrants and

children 18 years or younger were able to receive the benefits as well. The EBT card was put

into effect at this time which made it so that the government funding could be transferred to the

cards, similar to a credit card or debit card.

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This is what the EBT cards looked like.

Their purpose was to reduce fraud and make purchases more convenient.

(“The History of SNAP” 1)

Recent Years:

The SNAPs program is one of the largest in the country for Federal food assistance today.

On the Snap to Health! website, it says, “Serving 14% of the population (more than 45 million

Americans), SNAP is a critical safety net program but also has the potential to be one of the most

important health and nutrition initiatives in the United States.” Many proposals are being made

to improve the program. For example since 1964 the program has proposed to limit purchases to

only be healthy foods and to cut out unhealthy luxury items like pop, frozen foods, candy, etc.

Nutrition is important for the people on food stamps. They should be in good health if the

purpose is to get them back on their feet instead of getting sick making them unable to work for

an extended period of time (depending on the illness).

Stacy Dean, the center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, did an interview

with Robert Siegel on NPR to tell about the people that make up the population on Food Stamps.

Stacy talks about the program including seniors, people with disabilities, workers, the

unemployed, and children. It comes to a shock to most people to hear that many of the

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participants on food stamps are children, veterans, and a significant amount of workers. The

people that work find themselves combining their wages with the benefits to budget for food.

Also Stacy Mentions that Wal-mart and many small businesses rely on the Food Stamp

participants to make purchases. This is why they accept it as money so they can get that

population of people as their customers. So not only are the Food Stamp owners able to use their

benefits at these stores but their purchases are what support the businesses they shop at.

As said before people have mixed feelings about Food Stamp benefits. Some think they are

very helpful and feel they couldn’t survive without them. As Stacy Dean discussed that some

people on food stamps actually do work and have food stamps, combining the two to take care of

themselves or family. There are people who even feel as if they don’t get enough. Maribel Diaz

tells about her monthly routine for shopping with her food stamps on the Marketplace website.

Maribel has 3 kids that are in school and no one to help her with them. Because of this and

other scheduling conflicts she only has time for a part time job. She qualified for $400 a month

in SNAP benefits. In order for her to get the most out of her SNAPs she has to shop at multiple

stores for each of the food groups. Everybody in the program would receive their benefits around

the same time so the markets in the area would be low on stock. Other items like toilet paper,

napkins, and detergent she had to pay for with her paycheck since SNAPs only covers food.

Even in the first day of shopping she goes through $250 to $300 of her benefits. There were

times Maribel found it embarrassing to use her SNAPs card if people she knew were around.

After she either had spent all her SNAPs or the markets were out of the affordable foods, she

finds herself still having to go to the churches for donated canned goods and food.

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So for some people Food Stamps can either help tremendously or sometimes still not be

enough. Maribel’s story is just one example of the large amount of people that use the Food

Stamp benefits to their full potential. The intention of SNAPs or Food Stamps is to help people

like her that have a family, work, or use their money wisely to get the best deals and make them

last. She does all three; there are multiple things people do to show they are trying and that they

really do need the help. The point is to give these people a little assistance to eventually result in

a better future for them.

Then again there are others that do not try as hard to do better or be better. Many people feel

there is too much money being given for this program and that the people need to start working

to earn things on their own. The people that are not working and do not plan on working is what

makes them disagree with food stamps. On the Fox Nation website there was an investigation on

a food stamp recipient Jason Greenslate. Jason is a surfer and rocker that is 29 years old and has

no job. He claims he qualifies because he is unemployed, giving him no reason to get a job so he

can receive $200 worth of benefits every month. On the Huff Post Politics website Rep. Tim

Huelskamp says, "Look for work. Start job training to improve your skills or do community

service. But you can no longer sit on your couch or ride a surfboard like Jason in California and

expect the federal taxpayer to feed you." Mr. Huelskamp has spoke for those against food stamps

and to get people to see it isn’t okay for people like Jason to sit and do nothing but yet receive

free money from the working people.

Some abuse their benefits by not earning them and then there are people that are over

dependent on Food Stamps and abuse them by selling them for money to buy other things. On

Snopes.com there is an article about a receipt that was found on the ground. It indicated a

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purchase of steaks, lobster, and mountain dew for a total of $141.78 all paid for with a Food

Stamp card.

(Schneider, 1)

After the receipt had been investigated, they later found out that the purchase was not made by

the owner of the Food Stamps card. In fact the owner’s boyfriend had sold the Food Stamps for

cash and the person that bought it was the one who made the purchases on this receipt. The card

owner’s boyfriend had later been arrested for the Felony of improper use of the Food Stamps. So

as seen here, there are laws against this but only if they are caught otherwise it can’t be

controlled.

So what are people using the cash for when they sell their food stamps? Some may say

for bills or for materials that food stamps can’t buy. Something that may have people startled is

on the Judicial Watch for Corruption Chronicles indicating that people are selling or exchanging

their Food Stamps for drugs, weapons, and contraband. According to USDA Inspector General

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Phyllis Fong told the panel, “In the last five years 779 probes have resulted in 1,356 indictments,

944 convictions, and 792 sanctions against individuals and businesses that have created the

system. The fraud has cost the taxpayers nearly $200 million.” These actions are what frustrate

the public. Both people against Food Stamps and for them because they are abusing what could

be used for people that truly need it.

There are people that don’t need Food Stamps but still qualify to have them so they apply

and take in the free money. On the Freedom Works website Andrew Montgomery tells how the

Daily Caller reported a story of Adam Sylvain, a student at George Mason University, who

recounts, “My roommate told me he applied for food stamps, and they told him he qualified for

$200 a month in benefits… He’s here on scholarship and he saves over $5,000 each summer in

cash. A few of our other friends who were in the room also said if they were able to, they would

get food stamps … They think that if they’re eligible it’s the government’s fault, so they might as

well.” The qualification standards are so open and easy for many to come by. People jump on the

opportunity without even taking into account if they even need it or not. The advertisement for

Food Stamps and SNAPs emphasizes enrollment over need to get as many people on them as

possible.

Even though this enrollment is so highly stressed there are people that need the benefits

but can’t qualify. According to USDA’s website on Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program

people have to qualify by having the same or less than the gross monthly and net monthly

income test. A household with an elderly person or someone on specific disabilities do not have

to qualify for the gross income test. Some states count in some specific possessions of the

household for their qualifications. One possession being the vehicle or vehicles owned by the

people in the household. This can be a downturn for many people that may have been able to

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qualify if their income was the only thing being accounted for. This being why many people get

declined for benefits because their numbers are slightly over the amount to qualify and yet they

are still struggling.

Present:

On October 1, 2013 to October 16, 2013 the government shut down for the first time

since 1995. The government could not settle on a bill to help cut back federal spending which

resulted in a shut down. During the 16 days they had to pass a bill to help cut back on spending

costs or the shutdown would continue. One of those bills being to cut costs on Food Stamps.

That bill was passes on Oct. 10, 2013. The Washington Post website has the details on the voting

results; 217 voting for the bill and 210 voting against it. A close number of 217 Republicans

winning the vote. Only 15 Republicans voted against the bill along with all 195 Democrats.

There were 6 lawmakers that didn’t vote and 2 that never showed up.

The bill had called for nearly $40 billion cuts to Food Stamp costs over the course of 10

years. This put many people into a very worried state of mind thinking that the amount of money

being cut can affect them greatly. Michael Taube on the Providence Journal thinks that these

cuts are completely necessary. Michael even mentions that Food Stamps are a crutch for people

based on $28.6 billion being how much money that was put into the program in 2005 and then

later increasing to $74.6 billion in 2012. Brian Francisco on Journalgazette.net also mentions

that Food Stamp spending has doubled in cost over the last 5 years to $82 billion a year. People

are getting more money in the program, with clams that the amount isn’t enough and more

people are applying. A very significant increasing of over $53 billion in only 8 years, so these

people can get more money and more people can apply. So now there is a ratio of 1 in 6 people

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in the program. As Stacy Dean mentioned, this number includes children, the elderly, disabled,

etc.

Yet it is still a very large amount of money being put into the Food Assistance Programs.

Many don’t seem to understand that because of this there needs to be cuts and that the amount

has already been blown out of proportion. The cuts being at $40 billion may seem high at first

but it is being distributed out through the states and within 10 years time. Brian on

Journalgazette.net Brian Francisco tells about how some critics are against the new bill,

“Various Democratic lawmakers described the GOP cuts as “cruel,” “mean” and “heartless”

during floor debate. They said the legislation would take food out of the mouths of 3.8 million

Americans, including 170,000 military veterans.” Michael tries to explain that people are not

being eliminated from the program. Just the amount given each month is going to decrease, but

the program will still be getting over $700 billion over the next decade.

In hopes of giving people a good perspective so they can prepare, Stacy Dean and Dottie

Rosenbaum show people what is going to happen and when it takes effect, shown on the Center

on Budget & Policy Priorities website; the cuts go into effect in November 2013 and there are

charts to show how much money is going to be deducted from the participant’s monthly check

depending on how large the households are. The larger the household the more money they get

monthly and there for are deducted more money but is still the same percentage of cuts as the

rest of the households.

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Table 1SNAP Cut by Household Size Beginning November 2013

  ARRA Maximum Benefits Through Oct. 2013

Maximum Benefits Beginning Nov. 2013

Monthly Cut

Total Cut FY 2014

Household of 1 $200 $189 -$11 -$121

Household of 2 $367 $347 -$20 -$220

Household of 3 $526 $497 -$29 -$319

Household of 4 $668 $632 -$36 -$396

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, “SNAP – Fiscal Year 2014 Cost-of-Living Adjustments and ARRA Sunset Impact on Allotments,” August 1, 2013.

This chart is one to show the different cuts and their results.

(Dean and Rosenbaum, 1)

According to this site the cuts for each state varies in numbers differently based on the amount of

people in each state that are signed up for the Food Stamp Assistance program. Once again the

larger the amount of participants results in larger cuts.

Table 2The SNAP ARRA Termination: Estimated State-by-State Impact in Fiscal Year 2014

 Total SNAP Benefit Cut to State

(in millions of dollars, from November 2013 through September 2014)

Number of SNAP Recipients in FY 2014(all of whom are impacted by the cut)

Total Share of Total State PopulationAlabama -$98 910,000 19%Alaska -$12 95,000 13%Arizona -$109 1,101,000 17%Arkansas -$52 501,000 17%California -$457 4,168,000 11%Colorado -$55 511,000 10%

This chart shows a few examples of what cuts look like for the individual states.

(Dean and Rosenbaum, 1)

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Depending on the state, some may think that things will get worse for them and some may be

unsure of how their people will react. Others may see it as a great opportunity to fix the economy

and strengthen the Food Assistance program back to how it should be. One in particular is

Virginia Fox, Republican of North Carolina. The Christian Science Monitor added a quote from

her on how she feels about the new Food Stamp bill, “We believe by reforming food stamps

we will save the program for the truly needy.”

Not only does the new bill call for cuts but it also includes new requirements to qualify.

Some new requirements being that the all able bodied participants must either be working or in a

job program to continue receiving benefits or to even qualify. By slowly decreasing the monthly

amount of money people are receiving, people will start to be pulled out of poverty and be

working again. Representative Marlin Stutzman says, “In the real world, we measure success by

results…It’s time for Washington to measure success by how many families are lifted out of

poverty and helped back on their feet, not by how much Washington bureaucrats spend year after

year.”-posted on Journalgazette.net. Stutzman is trying to explain that people on food stamps

need to stop focusing on how much the government is going to give them and instead get a job to

provide for themselves.

John J. Colby, is against the new bill and specific points like requiring people to get a job,

on the Providence Journal. John argues that there are not enough jobs available for all the

participants in the Food Stamp program and wages are declining. In his opinion they should take

out a smaller amount of money from the program and use it to create more jobs and increase the

wages. Getting people a job and being paid more but still decreasing Food Stamp cost, but more

slowly.

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Fact is what John proposes is already happening just at a much faster rate than it would

his way. He points out, “statistics show that 80 percent of families benefiting from SNAP have at

least one family member who is working.” Not taking into account how large the households are

or when this statistic was given. If Mr. Colby wants to defend his thoughts of there not being

enough jobs, then how is it that the 80% working Food Stamp participants were able to get job?

Even though there was a huge economic downturn in 2007 much progress has been made. On the

White House website there are results on the job growth in the last two years. A graph showing

Previous Administration (red) and Obama Administration (blue). Over the course of only two

years, multiple jobs have been made which gave many unemployed people work.

(“Two Full Years of Job Growth” 1)

So to make a requirement for people to get a job in order to receive food stamps isn’t necessarily

out of line or impossible. For the people that are unable to find a job and need Food Stamp

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assistance are able to enroll in job programs to at least show they are trying and work on their job

techniques.

After all the facts and debate that has presented itself for Food Stamps. A lot of it can be

opinionated as to what people believe should be done and that results in many combinations.

Based on facts, there is a much larger variety of what exactly can and should be done to cut back

on the Federal spending. To narrow it down can be a complicated process and there is always

someone that doesn’t seem to agree with it. These cuts and new regulations has many facts to

back up its reasoning and may very well be the reason why the bill was passed and is soon to

take effect.

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Work Cited

Abbott, Charles. “Food stamp debate holds up farm bill.” The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Oct.

2012. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

Cillizza, Chris and O’Keefe, Ed. “Who voted for and against the food stamp bill.” The

Washington Post. The Fix, 19 Sep. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

Colby, John J. “Redistribute Wealth, Don’t Cut Food Stamps.” Providence Journal.,11 Oct.

2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Dean, Stacy and Rosenbaum, Dottie.“Snap Benefits Will Be Cut For All Participants in

November 2013.” Center on Budget and Policies Priorities, 2 Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

Eclipse, Terra and Montgomery, Andrew. “Top 10 Reasons Food Stamps Need to be Reformed.”

Freedom Work. 13 June 2013. Web. 9 Sep. 2013.

“Eligibility.” USDA Food and Nutrition Service. 30 Sep. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Francisco, Brian. “40 Billion Food Stamp Cuts OK’d.” Journalgazetta.net. FortWayne.com, 20

Sep. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

Schneider, John. "Steaks." snopes.com. 25 Aug. 2011. Web. 8 Sep. 2013.

Siegel, Robert and Dean, Stacy. “Who Makes up The 16 Million Households Who Get Food

Stamps.” NPR, 19 Sep. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

Taube, Michael.“Why the GOP is right about the cuts for food stamps.” Providence Journal, 7

Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

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“The History of SNAPS.” SNAP to Health. 2013. Web. 9 Sep. 2013.

The Judicial Watch Blog. “Food Stamps Exchanged For Drugs, Weapons, Contraband.” Judicial

Watch. 9 March 2012. Web. 9 Sep. 2013.

“Two Full Years of Job Growth.” The White House. Feb. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Tyler, Jeff. "Shopping's Not a Snap With Food Stamps." Marketplace. 2 Aug. 2009. Web. 7 Sep.

2013.

“WATCH: The Unabashed Surfer Receiving Food Stamps to Buy Sushi and Avoid Work.” Fox

Nation. 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.