Factoids That You Can Use

Food stamps are a shining example of the government's ineptness at administrating a federal program. Begun in 1964, the Food Stamp program has gobbled up billions of dollars in taxpayers dollars and done nothing to stamp out hunger. The program has been fraught with fraud, theft and bloated administrative costs. In fact in 2008, the program's bad public image prompted Congress to change its name to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It may be a catchy acronym, but nothing much has changed. Last fiscal year, taxpayers shelled out a record $56 billion to serve 28 million recipients, according to the Cato Institute. That works out to $2,000 per recipient. However because of an inefficient government bureaucracy, administration costs ate up a whopping $5.5 billion that never made it to the recipients. Fraud chomped off another $1 billion. Theft and over payments cleaned out another $1 billion. Yet the federal government keeps going back to the public trough for more money. As part of the stimulus package, Congress engorged SNAP with a fresh $20 billion. Despite inserting the word "nutrition" in the program's name, it has failed miserably in that regard, too. According to federal data, obesity rates are higher for adults and children receiving SNAP assistance. This should give pause to anyone who believes the government would do a better job than the private sector of administering the nation's health care.