Trump Budget Would Swap Food Stamps for ‘100% American’ Food Packages
57 replies, posted
[URL]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-12/trump-budget-swaps-food-stamps-for-100-percent-american-food[/URL]
[QUOTE]
In what would be one of the biggest shakeups of the U.S. food-stamp program in its five-decade history, President Donald Trump is proposing to slash cash payments and substitute them with "100 percent American grown food" given to recipients.
The changes, outlined Monday in Trump’s budget proposal, would reshape the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which supports roughly one in eight Americans, by reducing cash spending by about one-third from current levels.
The plan is part of an effort to reform SNAP and save a projected $214 billion over a decade. It would give all households receiving more than $90 a month in cash a food-aid package that would "include items such as shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit, vegetables, and meat, poultry or fish," according to the proposal.
Shares of Dollar Tree Inc. and Dollar General Corp. both dropped on Monday after the plan was unveiled.
The so-called USDA America’s Harvest Box "is a bold, innovative approach to providing nutritious food to people who need assistance feeding themselves and their families -- and all of it is home grown by American farmers and producers," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. The program would provide food-stamp recipients with "the same level of food value" as the current system, Perdue added.
[/QUOTE]
So, basically what I already buy, but without any choice in the proportion or quality of the stuff? If it's anything like a thing that my mom had access to a couple years back that sounds similar to this proposal, they'd be saving money only by virtue of it being bottom of the barrel and borderline garbage foods they'd give out.
Since there's no choice in the food you get, I guess that really fucks people with food allergies.
Honestly, we need to shake up the current food stamp program. As it stands, it directly encourages the consumption of shitty junk food, and it's causing quiet a bit issue with the lower-classes being unable to have access to healthy food.
I would much prefer a two-way system though. Ideally, we'd have a system similar too the one used post-1945 in the United Kingdom. Encourage the consumption of healthy foods, and make it so people are given rationing books which are linked too them and their immediate family. Said rationing book would include a photo ID of the individual, and maybe their families.
This would also be supplemented with surplus foods purchased from farmers. We had a program like this regarding grain and milk in the 50's ~ 90's, and it allowed for people to get quiet a good amount of food from the government.
[t]http://showandprove.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cheese.jpg[/t]
GI Cheese is an excellent concept for such a system.
Realistically speaking, these programs need to be managed in such a way though where selling foodstamps is illegal.
I've thought of something similar before and wondered why we don't use it, in the end I figured stamps were just more convenient, at the cost of being much more abuseable. My own idea for an alternative to food stamps was for food created for the government. It wouldn't be reject food, it'd be real food from some of the same factories that produce consumer and commercial foods, but packaged simply (example: metal can with black lettering, no paper label to keep costs down) and sent to a specialized warehouse where it could be redeemed through some sort of point system. I figured the reason it wouldn't work so well was because a central location would force people to take even more time out of their day to go there, but a delivery service would drive costs up too high to be a worthwhile replacement. But what do I know about the logistics of welfare food, maybe it can be done and save money while reducing fraud.
Another thing which I forgot to add in my last post: We should also create programs which encourage the construction of community fish, poultry, and other animal farms.
Doing so would help with the process of deurbanizing within big cities that have several derelict buildings, and it would also allow locals to do work within their own communities.
[QUOTE]Shares of Dollar Tree Inc. and Dollar General Corp. both dropped on Monday after the plan was unveiled.[/QUOTE]
[I]is this implying something[/I]
like wow :v:
This seems like an unnecessarily complicated solution to something that doesn't really need a fix. We have managed to keep a national food stamp program running for almost 50 years by simply tuning the numbers, I don't know why we have to switch to this convoluted system where the government buys and packages food from sellers (presumably distributors, not directly from producers) and gives it away.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;53127328]
Realistically speaking, these programs need to be managed in such a way though where selling foodstamps is illegal.[/QUOTE]
Selling food stamps is illegal. It's also negligable compared to the amount SNAP pays out. Even in the 90's it topped out at 4%.
[QUOTE=chipsnapper2;53127358][I]is this implying something[/I]
like wow :v:[/QUOTE]
Grocery stores fucking love benefits like SNAP and WIC.
[QUOTE=chipsnapper2;53127358][I]is this implying something[/I]
like wow :v:[/QUOTE]
That poor people buy a lot of garbage food-like product because the dollar store sells it cheap, yes. Hang out at a dollar tree and you'll see a lot of EBT cards, so offering these poor people healthier food would put a dent in Dollar Tree's earnings.
[QUOTE=Omali;53127390]That poor people buy a lot of garbage food-like product because the dollar store sells it cheap, yes. Hang out at a dollar tree and you'll see a lot of EBT cards, so offering these poor people healthier food would put a dent in Dollar Tree's earnings.[/QUOTE]
Wal-Mart accounts for between 18% and 22% of SNAP receipts, depending on what year you look at. They could lose [I]billions [/I]if food stamps receive a substantial cut as the one proposed.
Can't wait for more confusion at the checkout when the customers don't bother checking/can't figure out what items they can get x2 with WIC on top. It's annoying since I got to have manager approval to void off anything.
I wonder what percentage of the food is harvested with migrant labour :v:
If this program took foodstuffs direct from the farm and processed and distributed them as an entirely government-run enterprise, rather than just sending shipments of food featuring the products of the lowest bidding major processed food producers, this could be an amazing way of handling farm subsidies. Do away with the bulk subsidy method (where feasible) and instead buy farmers' harvests at fair market rates and feed the people with it. Food processing (e.g. pasturizing and bottling milk, washing and sorting and packing vegetables, etc. but not making potato chips and other highly-processed/refined foods) could be contracted out to private bidders, and that'd be the saner alternative to the government building raw food processing factories all over the country, but it'd have to be tightly controlled and inspected.
Such a program could be absolutely phenomenal and effective in feeding the poor while keeping the agricultural sector from withering. But I'm not sure if I trust the current administration and sitting Congress to build such a program and get rid of food stamps in favour of it.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;53127395]Wal-Mart accounts for between 18% and 22% of SNAP receipts, depending on what year you look at. They could lose [I]billions [/I]if food stamps receive a substantial cut as the one proposed.[/QUOTE]
Look forward to someone from Wal-Mart corporate getting Trump on the phone followed by a reversal Tweet by next next week, I guess.
Is this technically an expansion of the role of government? unless I'm reading this improperly.
[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;53127436]If this program took foodstuffs direct from the farm and processed and distributed them as an entirely government-run enterprise, rather than just sending shipments of food featuring the products of the lowest bidding major processed food producers, this could be an amazing way of handling farm subsidies. Do away with the bulk subsidy method (where feasible) and instead buy farmers' harvests at fair market rates and feed the people with it. Food processing (e.g. pasturizing and bottling milk, washing and sorting and packing vegetables, etc. but not making potato chips and other highly-processed/refined foods) could be contracted out to private bidders, and that'd be the saner alternative to the government building raw food processing factories all over the country, but it'd have to be tightly controlled and inspected.
Such a program could be absolutely phenomenal and effective in feeding the poor while keeping the agricultural sector from withering. But I'm not sure if I trust the current administration and sitting Congress to build such a program and get rid of food stamps in favour of it.
[/QUOTE]
I feel like SNAP is about as efficient as it will get under the current system. The government sends out benefits that can only be used on food then the beneficiary has a choice of where they want to get the food from, including being able to get super cheap, if not always healthy, options to make them last. The costs to the program itself have gone down year after year since 2013 and should remain low with unemployment bottoming out and wages either staying where they are or slightly increasing. You already have to be quite poor to even go on them and depending on the state there are several stipulations that must be met.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;53127445]Is this technically an expansion of the role of government? unless I'm reading this improperly.[/QUOTE]
The funny thing is, just like with his infrastructure proposal, it pushes the burden to the states.
[QUOTE] States will have substantial flexibility in designing the food box delivery system through existing
infrastructure, partnerships, or commercial/retail delivery services.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;53127462]This is an amazingly stupid idea. Homeless clients in particular lack the storage capabilities and is reccomended they buy as they go to prevent theft of food. No only will this hurt every major retailer, it will be a logistical nightmare trying to get this to everyone every month.[/QUOTE]
You don't honestly expect this administration to give the slightest shit about homeless people, do you? They already don't give a shit about the lower class or really even the middle class as it is.
ration boxes for the poor, because Trump and the GOP want to remind you that you are poor and filthy and should not be allowed to buy real milk with tax payer money.
Meanwhile, at the white house:
[IMG]http://barfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Trump-junk-food.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/130/590x/Donald-Trump-890653.jpg[/IMG]
If the "boost" from the tax thing amounting to $1.50 more a week for most middle to lower class people was an indication this should never come to be. It will probably amount to stuff that was never given away from church food drives that is close to expiration and borderline inedible with some boxed milk and jerky thrown in. And "100% American Grown" slapped on for no reason.
It's bad enough that people on SNAP have to be extra careful and tend to end up resorting to cheap junk. Having that taken away and being given a box of food that you had zero choice in and is of questionable origin and STILL may not be enough just seem worse.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;53127379]This seems like an unnecessarily complicated solution to something that doesn't really need a fix. We have managed to keep a national food stamp program running for almost 50 years by simply tuning the numbers, I don't know why we have to switch to this convoluted system where the government buys and packages food from sellers (presumably distributors, not directly from producers) and gives it away.
Selling food stamps is illegal. It's also negligable compared to the amount SNAP pays out. Even in the 90's it topped out at 4%.
Grocery stores fucking love benefits like SNAP and WIC.[/QUOTE]
People don't tend to sell their food stamps. They do sell the food that they get however.
This was a VERY common problem I witnessed while working security at a grocery store in a particularly violent part of Minneapolis. People would come in with their EBT card, buy a ton of steak/lobser/crab/expensive meat. They'd then use that to sell to local bars who run meat raffles (which is a real thing, and very popular in Minnesota) for cash.
Not saying that everybody was doing that, but it's not a hard system to exploit.
I also [url=http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/29/news/economy/stimulus_analysis/]read[/url] that food stamps give some of the best value in terms of return on tax dollars spent
How about those small government republicans huh? Soooooo hypocritical, jesus.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;53127328]Honestly, we need to shake up the current food stamp program. As it stands, it directly encourages the consumption of shitty junk food, and it's causing quiet a bit issue with the lower-classes being unable to have access to healthy food.
I would much prefer a two-way system though. Ideally, we'd have a system similar too the one used post-1945 in the United Kingdom. Encourage the consumption of healthy foods, and make it so people are given rationing books which are linked too them and their immediate family. Said rationing book would include a photo ID of the individual, and maybe their families.
This would also be supplemented with surplus foods purchased from farmers. We had a program like this regarding grain and milk in the 50's ~ 90's, and it allowed for people to get quiet a good amount of food from the government.
[t]http://showandprove.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cheese.jpg[/t]
GI Cheese is an excellent concept for such a system.
Realistically speaking, these programs need to be managed in such a way though where selling foodstamps is illegal.[/QUOTE]
At least let my poor ass eat what I want. Living on the poverty line isn't depressing enough so assholes need to make things even shittier by policing what we eat.
Like I get that some people have terrible diets and abuse the system or generally don't give a shit about their health, but how about dealing with that through proper nutrition education instead of diet policing.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;53127328]Honestly, we need to shake up the current food stamp program. As it stands, it directly encourages the consumption of shitty junk food, and it's causing quiet a bit issue with the lower-classes being unable to have access to healthy food.
[/QUOTE]
I thought republicans made it harder and harder to buy crap food and sweets with food stamps?
[editline]12th February 2018[/editline]
the larger problem is that some communities live in food deserts where there aren't any grocery stores to buy from
This is such a hilariously communist idea that it's bizarre that it's coming from a Republican administration
I guess anything goes when fucking the poor lmao
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;53127354]Another thing which I forgot to add in my last post: We should also create programs which encourage the construction of community fish, poultry, and other animal farms.
Doing so would help with the process of deurbanizing within big cities that have several derelict buildings, and it would also allow locals to do work within their own communities.[/QUOTE]
Why animals? Grow vegetables and fruit instead.
People in the US overeat meat already as it is, and usually cooked in fatty oils.
If you want people to get healthy, get them to eat a salad, not a pork chop.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;53127749]I thought republicans made it harder and harder to buy crap food and sweets with food stamps?
[editline]12th February 2018[/editline]
the larger problem is that some communities live in food deserts where there aren't any grocery stores to buy from[/QUOTE]
There is no real health or luxury standard for food you can buy with SNAP. As long as it's classified as food you can generally pay for it with EBT. This as opposed to WIC, which has frustrating and arbitrary limitations on how many and of what foods you are allowed to get per month that you have to track yourself.
[editline]13th February 2018[/editline]
[QUOTE=nox;53127748]
At least let my poor ass eat what I want. Living on the poverty line isn't depressing enough so assholes need to make things even shittier by policing what we eat.
Like I get that some people have terrible diets and abuse the system or generally don't give a shit about their health, [B]but how about dealing with that through proper nutrition education instead of diet policing.[/B][/QUOTE]
Yeah it's pretty telling that not only critics of food stamps but people on food stamps themselves believe it's impossible to eat on a healthy diet for cheap.
[QUOTE=CyclonatorZ;53127613]Meanwhile, at the white house:
[IMG]http://barfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Trump-junk-food.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/130/590x/Donald-Trump-890653.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
thats a really weird point of criticism
[QUOTE=Raidyr;53127856]
Yeah it's pretty telling that not only critics of food stamps but people on food stamps themselves believe it's impossible to eat on a healthy diet for cheap.[/QUOTE]
In some stores, soda is literally cheaper than bottled water. This isn't a surprise at all.
[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;53127742]People don't tend to sell their food stamps. They do sell the food that they get however.
This was a VERY common problem I witnessed while working security at a grocery store in a particularly violent part of Minneapolis. People would come in with their EBT card, buy a ton of steak/lobser/crab/expensive meat. They'd then use that to sell to local bars who run meat raffles (which is a real thing, and very popular in Minnesota) for cash.
Not saying that everybody was doing that, but it's not a hard system to exploit.[/QUOTE]
Still worth having even if a couple of people exploit it.
A potential fix to that specific issue would be to exclude stuff like lobster and fillet steak from the program, not sure of the logistics or if its even worth it. The only major issue would be people selling their food for drugs or to pay off debts, in both cases its better to tackle the root of the problem
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;53127886]In some stores, soda is literally cheaper than bottled water. This isn't a surprise at all.[/QUOTE]
You say that as if bottled water wasn't massively overpriced garbage to begin with.
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