Waste, Fraud and Abuse? No one should starve to death in America

I have been listening to all sorts of Republican congressmen and women pontificating about waste, fraud and abuse as justification for their attempt to pass a bill that will cut back food stamps  40 billion dollars over the next ten years is in the proposed bill.  The cuts amount to 5% per year.  So far, I haven’t exactly heard what this waste, fraud and abuse really is.  Before September 5th I was curious.  After September 5, I think I need to demand to know the answer.

On September 5, we got a phone call informing us that my husband’s son Chris who had been a missing person for many years was dead in the Bronx, New York.  He was 46 years old.   He had lived in the San Francisco area for many years with his mother and his adopted father and despite some learning disabilities he had graduated from college.  Somewhere along the line college loans and the associated bill collectors hassled Chris until he vanished.  Despite the fact the California parents were no longer married the California dad looked all over for him and posted flyers over half of San Francisco. He contacted us and we had not seen him.  His brother had no idea where he was.  I think we all assumed he was still in California, maybe off living as Grizzly Adams in the Sierra Nevadas.

How does a person go from middle class and college to being found dead in section 8 housing, cause of death starvation?  We are trying to still figure that all out.  I tracked down neighbors through the medical examiner’s office and found out  that he had been placed in that apartment project  by some agency (still to be determined) and was on food stamps and had a benefits card.

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Food Stamps: Junk Food or Crab legs?

Food stamps brings out a host of resentments from those not on food stamps. People seem to resent luxury items such as crab legs even more than they resent poor people using food stamps to buy junk food.

Huffingtonpost.com:

WASHINGTON — More Americans are annoyed by the idea of food stamp recipients using their benefits to buy expensive food than their using them to buy junk food, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.

According to the survey, 54 percent of Americans think people should not be allowed to use food stamps to buy expensive items such as crab legs, while only 32 percent said that they should be allowed to do so.

By contrast, respondents were split on allowing those on food stamps to buy junk food, like potato chips, candy and soda. Forty-five percent said they should be allowed to buy those items and 42 percent said they should not.

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