GAO Report Shows Biden's Agriculture Dept. Illegally Boosts Food Stamp Benefits by $200 Billion

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

In this episode of Reasons Joe Biden Should Be Impeached…

Move over, illegal student loan wealth redistribution scam, there’s a new illegal scam in town, compliments of the same guy who brought you the student loan scam — Joe Biden. This time, the Department of Agriculture is abusing its authority and is illegally boosting food stamp benefits — by $200 billion.

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps, “provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency.”

Incidentally, check out some of the “healthy food” purchased with SNAP cards when you get a chance.

According to a Government Accountability Office report publicly released on December 14, Biden’s Agriculture Department abused its authority under the 2018 Farm Bill to speed up a review of food costs required by the legislation. It also broke its own guidelines when arriving at those costs.

As a result of these illegal changes, the Washington Examiner reported, SNAP benefits increased beyond inflation for the first time in 45 years. I know; try to control your shock and amazement, gang. (See: “Democrats,” “the ballot box”)

Here’s a bit of background, via the Examiner:

Since 1975, the USDA has created food plans that represent a suitable diet at four different price points: thrifty, low-cost, moderate-cost, and liberal. Food stamp benefit levels have always been set at the Thrifty Food Plan level. The USDA has reevaluated these levels three times since 1975, most recently 15 years ago.

The 2018 Farm Bill called for a new evaluation to be completed by 2022, with reevaluations every five years after that. This revaluation is essentially a computer model that inputs food, price, and nutrition data to create “Market Baskets” of foods and beverages necessary to support a healthy diet.

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So, according to the GAO report, the Biden administration essentially cooked the books to illegally boost benefits.

When presented with the evidence, the administration did what it always does: stood firm on its illegal activity. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack declared, in response to the report:

We stand firm on both the quality of our work and the difference it made in millions of people’s lives. We owed it to the American people to get the revaluation done well and get it done quickly — and that’s exactly what we did.

Ever notice how everything illegal, unconstitutional, or otherwise wrong the Democrats do, they always do for “the American people”? And to which American people was Vilsack referring? Hardworking people whose tax dollars are redistributed, or those who receive those dollars through wealth redistribution?

Incidentally, the notion that SNAP recipients must have housing and a mailing address is incorrect. People who live on the streets or in shelters can receive benefits — mailing addresses, or not.

Look, as a moral country, in my opinion, that is, we have a responsibility to help people who cannot help themselves, but we do not have a responsibility to take care of those who will not take care of themselves. Unfortunately, the Democrat Party disagrees and has done so for more than six decades. Take a quick trip through New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Portland, for example, for a reminder.

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As for Joe Biden and his equally corrupt administration, examples of ignoring the U.S. Constitution or existing laws abound. From the open-border disaster to the attempt to transfer contractual student debt from those who promised to repay it to those who didn’t take out the loans, to illegally boosting SNAP benefits in a further demonstration of the Democrat goal of bringing about an ever-increasing percentage of Americans dependent on the government — the Democrat Party, of course — for survival.

As I’ve written in the past, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, a socialist, famously said: “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”

Shaw was right — as evidenced by America’s Democrat Party.

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