The US Department of Agriculture has spent the past week notifying people that the country is (allegedly) overrun by individuals who are fraudulently claiming SNAP benefits, while (allegedly) driving luxury vehicles.
“In just ONE state, 14,000 individuals receiving SNAP benefits were driving LUXURY VEHICLES!” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on X last week. The official USDA account made similar claims, which were then amplified by figures like Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul.
Those numbers are questionable at best. For one thing, the report they come from doesn’t name the state where thousands of people are allegedly buying Ferraris while using government money to buy food. For another, that report doesn’t include any explanation of its methodology.
this could also massively boost overall public health because if everyone automatically got SNAP, they’d have no incentive to try to save money by buying shitty cheap convenience food
a lot of people would be able to spend the extra few dollars to get the frozen dinner with more vegetables, the fresh (cold) deli sandwich, the whole grain higher fiber options, etc.
and since you can’t use it on takeout/restaurants, a bunch of people are now more motivated to cook at home with their free food money (even if the cooking is just heating up prepared stuff that’s often healthier than fast food)
after 10 years or so we’d probably save billions in public health costs alone