The president’s recent move to overturn Trump’s proposal to curb the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was not the first time he tried to keep Americans dependent on the government since assuming the White House, as the Biden administration rejected a Trump era rule earlier this year geared to require more recipients of food stamps to work if they wanted to receive the benefits.
Dems’ loophole paying America not to work
The Trump administration’s 2019 proposal would have ended states’ ability to determine their own limits for income and assets for SNAP – through an exemption from federal limits – according to a CNN report last week.
When the proposal was announced, then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue highlighted its benefits, while noting how it would make sure the nutrition assistance programs serves the people who need it most.
“This proposal will save money and preserve the integrity of the program,” Perdue said at the time, according to The Washington Post. “SNAP should be a temporary safety net.”
A further explanation of the reasoning and economic benefit of Trump’s rule was given.
“For example, the federal rule that a recipient’s income must be no more than 130% of the poverty line has been adapted by some states to be as high as 200%,” the Journal explained. “The USDA estimated the change would have saved the federal government $2.5 billion a year, and that 3 million people would have their food stamp benefits cut.”
Milking the system
The Foundation for Economic Education stressed the problems with the Democrats’ liberal food stamp program by noting how an extremely wealthy retired engineer, Rob Undersander, was able to receive food stamps after applying for them in Minnesota using the loophole Biden is keeping alive – the one Trump tried to get rid of.
Fully aware of how Undersander demonstrated that Americans can take advantage of the system, Democrats blasted him during a congressional hearing because he exposed how easy it is to tap into taxpayer funds without any need.
“These were not the first Democrats that wanted to send me to jail,” Undersander shared, according to the Journal. “The problem is, I was following their rules and the laws that they support.”
He did not understand how SNAP did not take applicants’ assets into account before granting benefits.
“I was shocked – I don’t like it when taxpayer money is wasted,” Undersander expressed.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) condemned the failed Democrat-backed program.
“[The loophole is] egregious and unnecessary,” Johnson argued. “A man with assets in the millions – who was able to receive more than a nominal SNAP benefit month after month because of Minnesota’s abuses of their administrative flexibility – Mr. Undersander is not alone.”
Covertly spending working taxpayers’ money
Similar to the way the Biden administration hid the cost of hidden agendas inside his proposed so-called infrastructure bill, Democrats snuck more welfare benefits inside of his stimulus bill.
“The Biden administration is quietly laying the groundwork for a long-term increase in food aid for tens of millions of Americans, without going through the ordeal of a fight with congressional Republicans,” Bloomberg reported last month. “The instrument is an obscure U.S. Department of Agriculture shopping list used to determine food stamp benefits, known as the market basket.”
Instead of incentivizing more Americans to get off the unemployment list and fill the millions and millions of jobs still not filled – even though the COVID-19 pandemic is in the wake – Biden still wants to increase the benefits of those not working.
“A review of the so-called Thrifty Food Plan – ordered by Biden two days after he took office – could trigger an automatic increase in benefits as soon as Oct. 1, a day after expiration of a temporary 15% boost in food stamp payments that Biden included in his $1.9 trillion Covid-relief package,” Bloomberg noted.
The director of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Poverty Research, James Ziliak, indicated the substantial financial boost Biden will give to welfare recipients – amounting to approximately $136 added to the $680 per month that was given before the temporary pandemic-related increase, making the maximum benefit for a family of four rise to $816 monthly.
“[The re-evaluation] could result in an upward adjustment of 20% or more in the benefits,” Ziliac noted, according to Bloomberg.
