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Today, City Council joined the Mayor and Democratic state legislators in pushing back on Gov. Tom Corbett's "war on food stamps," a plan to disallow the distribution of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance) to those with savings of $2,000 or more. Council introduced a resolution to urging Pennsylvania not to begin asset-testing, an idea that advocates have called both "inhumane" and "counterproductive," as it discourages attempts to climb out of poverty and makes it even more difficult to do so.
At a press conference with Mayor Nutter and US Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack this morning, Rep. Bob Brady also spoke out against the asset testing plan. "When you talk about the SNAP program, in my mind you talk about our children," Brady said today. Jeopardizing that is "utterly ridiculous. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, to talk about preventing a child form having a decent meal."
Believe it or not, he was the calmer of the speakers. "This is one of the most mean-spirited, asinine proposals that's come out of Harrisburg in decades," Nutter fumed, noting that children, senior citizens, disabled people and the working poor who comprise 92 percent of recipients aren't "gaming the system" to claim SNAP. In America, he said, "We encourage people to do the best they can, and when they are down we extend a hand to help lift them up. This is wrong. .... So obviously we're opposed."
While the Mayor and Rep. Brady made impassioned statements about the plan, Secretary Vilsack coolly made it sound outright ridiculous. "This is not going to save the Commonwealth money. In fact, it's likely to cost," he said, given that Pennsylvania's fraud rate "is among the lowest in the country" and that installing an asset test would require staffing and processes to enforce it. He noted that only 8 percent of SNAP recipients are actually also on cash welfare, contrary to public perception, and he pointed out that a dollar of SNAP benefits generate $1.80 or more in economic activity for grocers, food processors, farmers and related industries. The fraud rate nationwide was less than 1 percent in 2011.
While it's up to states to administer these federal dollars, Vilsack said the USDA would work to make Corbett understand the ramifications of installing an asset test. "We obviously have to respect that [federal-state] partnership," he said. "But we're hopeful that we can work with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to help them to understand the full implications of an asset test."
A bipartisan Congress approved the rules that contain the asset standards. They are still pretty inclusive. You can own a home, own a car, any kind of car, and have a second car so long as it is worth less than $4650, and you can have thousands in the bank, just no more than $2,000, or $3250 if you are a senior.
There are people who are working who are paying taxes to pay for this benefit who don't own a home, don't have two cars, or even one car, who don't have thousands in the bank. Yet these working low income people pay for food stamps for those who have a list of assets.
Is this really an anti-poverty strategy? Aren't food stamps for the truly poor, not the middle class?
A lottery winner can conceivably be on PA food stamps. So can Steve Jobs, or other millionaires, so long as they don't have too many properties or cars in their own name. That's WITH the asset test in place as proposed.
In a time of recession, isn't it more prudent to reduce costs (the more on the roster the higher the cost to administer to the state)?
Democrats seem like this is more about playing politics than really delivering needed relief here. They risk looking like hard partisans who won't work with the GOP, just as the GOP charges.— CleanupPhilly- Let's test some of the claims made by the Democrats here, and not simply accept the words of one party in a tough election year. Take the claim that there is "economic activity generated" by food stamps.
There is economic activity generated by all sales of food, however it is purchased, and food will still be purchased as people need to eat. Those with over-limit assets won't be using food stamps though. But they will still buy food. Grocery stores won't go out of business.
The claim that there is no fraud because no Democrat found any is also suspect. The PA State AG found that PA food stamps are cashed in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. How is that even possible, unless there is a black market for commodities like food stamps? Fraud is so pervasive that no one sees it. Or, PA's low income population is singularly well-traveled, more so than the middle class.— CleanupPhilly - Most people support welfare reform, including Democrats. Bill Clinton took this message to heart and won re-election.
The Democrats' push back risks a very real push back from the voters.— CleanupPhilly
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