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Chris Wysocki
Caldwell, NJ
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Monday, 10 March 2014
Surprise! States are still gaming the food stamp system to undo recently enacted cuts
Even when Congress tries to rein in spending, the welfare-state wealth-transfer machine finds a way to keep the gravy train rolling. Last month lawmakers thought they had killed the "heat and eat" scam, where $1 of state-funded "home heating assistance" triggers inflated federal food stamp benefits.
But now three states have upped the ante. In effect, they'll see your dollar, and raise you $20.
States are using what critics call a "perverse" legislative maneuver to partly undo congressional cuts to food stamps, despite efforts by some U.S. lawmakers to stop it.
The Washington Post reported Monday that three states so far are finding a way to avoid or minimize the cuts. The bill passed by Congress last month was supposed to save $8.6 billion over the next decade in food stamps. But New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania have figured out how to trigger additional spending anyway.
The trick, as many states have discovered, is for them to devote a relatively modest amount of funding to home-heating assistance. Under the law, states that give a certain amount to families could then qualify those families for additional food stamp money.
The old threshold was one dollar. Congress upped it to $20, thinking that would stop the abuse. Nope. New York simply increased their home-heating assistance by a measly $6 million dollars, thereby triggering more than $500 million in extra food stamp funding this year. A more than 80 to 1 return! Not bad for government work…
Connecticut and Pennsylvania are playing the same game. Other states are expected to follow suit.
And just like that, poof!, $8.6 billion in budget savings gets wiped out.
The welfare state will never be sated. Not even after it devours every last dime we have. The culture of dependency is too ingrained, its proponents too entrenched. It perpetuates perverse disincentives no matter what the cost because its success is measured by how many people are "served" by it, not by how many are elevated out of poverty into self-reliance.
And of course it helps that those who are "served" religiously vote for the politicians who fervently proclaim the need for even more benefits.
As Instapundit
keeps saying, they'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier
to please.
Posted at 14:20 by Chris Wysocki
[/economy]
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