Those in the grocery store business will tell you their busiest day is the first day of each month, which is when some 40 million Americans have access to the funds they are provided through SNAP (previously known as food stamps).
Nov. 1 falls on a Saturday this year, which would normally mean an even bigger crowd at grocery stores.
While there is still time to resolve the government shutdown and keep the SNAP program going, the turnout will be noticeably smaller on Saturday. As of midnight Halloween night the USDA will stop providing SNAP funds. Although the USDA has enough reserve funding to keep the program going for about three weeks, the Trump administration said it will not use those funds for that purpose. Republicans say the reserve funds are for natural disasters. Democrats argue that taking away funds that feed millions is a pretty big disaster, bigger even, than most storms or fires or floods.
It should not come as much of a surprise that conservatives have a dim view of SNAP. Safety net programs have been under attack since the days of FDR’s New Deal, whose programs served millions of desperate people during the Great Depression. It was a rousing response to Hoover, who maintained a laissez fair attitude as the Depression began.
What began more than 90 years ago as a philosophical debate about the role of government that still persists today.
Of all of the federal programs, SNAP is the most humane. It is also the most vilified, maligned and lied about program among conservatives.
For years, conservatives have spun stores of lazy people who refuse to work spending lavishly at the grocery store, buying steak and lobster with SNAP money while the poor old working man – whose tax dollars provide the money for SNAP – can’t afford much more than bologna and vienna sausages.
There are stories – always anecdotal and mostly second-hand – of people on SNAP loading their groceries in trunks of new, expensive cars. Sometimes they have new iPhones or expensive jewelry, we are told.
This is supposed to prove that there is a lot of fraud in the program.
More recently, there’s a push among conservatives to restrict things like soda and sweets from SNAP under the dubious claim that they are looking out for SNAP recipients’ health. More likely is that these suggested restrictions align with their belief anyone who gets assistance should be rendered as miserable as possible.
According to the USDA data, 38% of SNAP households have at least one working member (remember elderly and children account for 58% of recipients) and 67% of SNAP enrollees earn their way out of the program within 24 months. The fraud rate in the program is 1%, among the lowest fraud rates in any federal program.
This actual data from the USDA destroys those to most common conservative-driven myths. Yet time and time again, the cries go up that the SNAP program is an enormous burden on the taxpayer, another distortion designed to cast the program in its worst possible light.
How much of a burden does funding SNAP create for the taxpayer?
The average taxpayer spends $38 per month in support of the program.
Just for context, the average taxpayer also spends $53 per month on alcohol, $26 per month of pet food, $23 per month on haircuts/styling. The average taxpayer budgets about $500 per month for vacations/travel.
The average taxpayer also spends $12 per month on oil industry subsidies (Exxon-Mobil alone had $461 billion in sales last year) and a whopping $426 per month on military spending, more than the combined spending of the next nine countries on the list of military funding.
Spending $38 a month to feed folks doesn’t seem like too big of a burden, does it?
Unless the impasse is broken before Saturday, the loss of SNAP benefits is going to create an overwhelming demand on local food banks and feeding programs. Even in normal circumstances, the demand for the food they provide exceeds demand.
Anyone who is able should rally around these programs by donating food, both perishable and non-perishable, or perhaps cash. If all you can afford to give is a can of beans, bring it. If you only have a few dollars to donate, donate them anyway.
Your neighbors are counting on your generosity. Don’t let them down.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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