Welfare Abuse: $7,000 Balance on Texas Food Stamp Card

During Obama’s first term, the number of persons taking federal food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), increased by approximately 11,133 persons per day — from a national total of 31,939,110 in January 2009, to 47,525,329 by October 2012, the last month reported.

Federal spending on SNAP has increased every fiscal year that Obama has been in office, from $55.6 billion in FY 2009 (when SNAP was still known as the “Food Stamp” program) to $80.4 billion on the food stamp program during fiscal year 2012—an increase of $$24.8 billion. [Source: CNSNews]

The food stamps program, like other government welfare programs, is rife with fraud and waste.

Francy Guerra’s mugshot

A recent example is a woman in Florida, Francy Yuliett Guerra, 28, who was found to have received $70,000 in SNAP benefits in a three-year period, although she is not eligible for food stamps. State officials said a fraud study they’re concluding found that hundreds of millions of dollars are lost to fraud, waste and abuse.

To be sure, there are food stamps recipients who are truly needy and deserving of help. But a recipient who has a balance of more than $7,000 in his food stamp “account” most certainly is not needy.

That discovery was made by a gas station clerk in Brownsville, Texas, who witnessed a customer using food stamps with a balance of more than $7029.32 of hardworking taxpayers’ money on his Lone Star SNAP card. Here’s the receipt:

Joey Horta reports for KGBT Channel 4, a CBS affiliate in Harlingen, Texas, Feb. 20, 2013, that the clerk contacted the local SNAP office, but was told they couldn’t do anything about it.

If a recipient doesn’t use up his/her monthly SNAP “benefits,” the balance simply rolls over in his/her SNAP “account” instead of returned to the ~~government~~ taxpayers. That’s how we can end up with $7,029.32 as the outstanding balance in this individual’s SNAP account, which begs the question of whether the individual actually needs food stamps assistance in the first place.

Even more sobering is the fact that nearly 1 out of every 3 people in just two counties in Texas are on food stamps.

The KGBT report says that according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, in the month of February 2013, there are more than 238,000 people in Hidalgo County and 119,000 people in Cameron County on SNAP, costing tax payers more than $28,000,000 and $13,000,000, respectively.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hidalgo County’s total population in 2011 was 797,810. That means 30% of the county’s population are on food stamps! In 2011, Cameron County’s population was 414,123, which means 29% of the county’s population are on food stamps.

Anyone with any sense knows that this is unsustainable. And yet, so many in America have eyes but do not see what is clear as daylight to the rest of us.