Fox News essentially functions as the media arm of the Republican Party, and on Wednesday it did its part to undermine a program that helps 44 million poor Americans. To that transparent end, an episode of "Fox & Friends" featured a segment titled, "Food Stamp Fraud at All-Time High: Is It Time to End the Program?" The piece goes on to claim that USDA figures reveal "$70 million of taxpayer money was wasted in 2016 due to food stamp fraud."
Comment: Any decently run country would have programs that help lift its citizens out of poverty, but the United States government has no decency and neither the left nor right side of the aisle are doing much to address poverty within the US. Food stamps can help some families during periods of hardship, however, the fact that 46 million American citizens rely on SNAP goes to show there is a much bigger issue at hand.
There are a number of problems with this episode, from the false fact buried in the query to the absurd answer it proposes. Obviously, no, we shouldn't scrap a program that serves 44 million needy people, because that would be disastrous for families, children and communities around the country. Especially since it's an argument based on lies and obfuscation, as Mother Jones writer Kevin Drum points out:
First, I have no idea where Fox's $70 million figure comes from—and I looked pretty hard for it. The Fox graphic attributes it to "2016 USDA," but as near as I can tell the USDA has no numbers for SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] fraud more recent than 2011.Drum goes on to note that even if the imaginary figure were real, it would account for a tiny fraction of cases.
That's not all: $70 million is a startlingly low figure. In the most recent fiscal year, SNAP cost $71 billion, which means that fraud accounted for a minuscule 0.098 percent of the program budget.
Comment: As it turns out, Food Stamp trafficking is actually somewhere around $910 million, which is more than 10 times the Fox News report. The issue here isn't even related to fraud, but the need of those who are unable to make it under a hegemonic government more interested in global dominance than creating favorable economic conditions for their own people. Food Stamps are just a band-aid on a gaping wound.
As Drum notes, that's not to suggest that having $70 million go to people who weren't eligible to receive the money isn't problematic. But as the Washington Post points out, if we really wanted to make sure federal funds aren't being wasted in unnecessary places, there are a few other sites we might want to look first.
Earlier this month, The Washington Post revealed that the Defense Department had deep-sixed recommendations that might save the agency up to $125 billion over the course of five years.
"Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power," our Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward wrote. "But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results."That's a potential savings of $25 billion a year — 357 times the amount of waste in the SNAP program.
Another example. On Wednesday, we reported about a long-running scam operated by Leonard Francis, a Navy contractor who, over the course of several years, defrauded the government to the tune of $35 million.
"As of writing, Fox News has not questioned whether we should disband the Navy," the Post wryly notes.
In fact, we can be 100 percent certain that the network would attack any messenger who suggests American military spending should be cut, though the U.S. spends more on its armed forces than the next eight nations combined. Yet Fox has no problem suggesting, based on flimsy evidence and illogical reasoning, that we should let millions of American adults and children go hungry. If the election of Trump wasn't enough proof of the right's complete and utter lack of morals, there's new evidence emerging all the time.
really corporate welfare. Walmart has some of it's best sales days on the day the SNAP cards are recharged. I've read that Walmart receives 18% of all government transfer payments......think about that for a second. I wonder what % of it's profits come directly from the US government. Walmart also underpays it's employees KNOWING that American taxpayers will pick up the difference.
And finally I know for a fact that SNAP abuse is rampant (people 'sell' their food stamps allowance for 50 cents on the dollar) as is the permanent disability program......it's to the point that, due to these programs, i know more people that don't work that do.
p.s. I'm not sure this can all be blamed solely on the US "government" per se as it's my belief that the corporations and banks have taken over said "government".....and most of them are multinational.