Stop food stamp abuses
To the editor:
It’s time for Rick Scott and President Obama to stop playing politics with their budgets by cutting, slicing, dicing and carving benefit programs and entitlements affecting millions of people in Florida and the nation.
Being politicians, they never even looked at the biggest money gusher of all — the Holy Grail, otherwise known as food stamps.
This is the most highly abused, mismanaged and broken program in state and federal government. It needs immediate investigation and restructuring to save taxpayer money and stop the abuses of food stamp users.
As a worker at a local grocery store, I have seen the abuses first hand. First, let me describe the food stamp card. For those of you who don’t know, that nice looking credit card with the American flag is the food stamp card. Most shoppers never see the food stamp card processing a purchase. Recipients use the “food stamp swipe.” After the recipient checks out their groceries the T-bone steaks, jumbo shrimp, king crab legs, Boar’s Head cold cuts, some wine and beer and name brand groceries instead of store brands — comes the food stamp swipe. In one fluid motion, the card is cuffed in the hand hiding the telltale American flag and swiped in the card machine. It is then put right in their pocket, sight unseen by most. This is your tax dollars at work. Oh, did I say wine and beer? They are not covered by food stamps. When the cashier says $25 for the wine and beer, the food stamp recipient pulls out a $100 bill to pay for them. Do you have a $100 bill in your pocket?
Food stamps are a privilege, not a right. It seems to me that DCF, which issues food stamps, should be turned upside down. The selection process of who get food stamps is very prejudicial.
The next time you are in the grocery store and your cart is filled with store brand items, chicken and hamburger meat, and the guy in front of you with the steaks and shrimp does the food card swipe, get mad, get real mad, because that is your tax dollars at work. But not for you, you eat chicken and hamburger. When the newspaper has the state and federal politicians phone numbers and emails on the editorial page, get mad and tell them you want the food stamp program investigated.
Maybe some day, when they issue the food stamp card, it will include the book “101 Ways to Cook Chicken and Hamburger.” But don’t hold your breath. Food stamps are the Holy Grail for political lo longevity.
Fred Laier
Cape Coral
(Editor’s note: Some credit cards also use the American flag on the card.)