Hey guess what dumbass? That cashier is likely on SNAP because she doesn’t get paid enough for her job. Or, she should be able to qualify, but can’t because she makes too much to be eligible but not enough to meet her basic needs. Also, with some reasonable exceptions, SNAP has work requirements. The entire SNAP caseload isn’t sitting around on their asses all day.

Just before the pandemic, 38 million people received SNAP. That’s more than 10% of people living in the US, which is a huge proportion given we’re talking on a national scale.

This is because for low-income individuals and families, SNAP is often their last line of defense against total financial ruin. Thanks to welfare reform in 1996, it is exceedingly difficult to qualify for TANF (cash assistance) and maintaining eligibility is a bureaucratic nightmare for families. And need has only increased; the ALICE website I referenced above produces state-level reports and found that in several states, ALICE families increased by wide margins in the last decade or so.

SNAP’s rules are more relaxed and it’s one of the only programs that adults without children in the household can even qualify for. SNAP is quite literally saving lives every day, and it’s preventing the suffering of the one in five US children (14.6 million) who receive benefits. We’re talking about kids who may not eat anything in a day but lunch solely because they go to a Title 1 school.

And that percentage on SNAP undoubtedly increased as people became unable to work and put food on the table due to COVID. We know that food insecurity has increased substantially since COVID. Thankfully, federal waivers are allowing states to give families more leeway during COVID, plus Biden’s truly commendable benefit increase.

This troglodyte probably knows people who receive it but they’re too ashamed to tell anyone. I wouldn’t even be surprised if she received SNAP at one point in her life either; from what I’ve experienced working in social welfare policy, the people who received public assistance as children are the harshest because they’re ashamed of their own past receipt.

And no, not every SNAP recipient is a perfect angel. 1.5% of benefits disbursed from FY 12-14 were trafficked. But does that justify limiting relief for the vast majority of families who really need it and are using it properly? How could the government or anyone possibly morally rationalize the costs that children would incur from that? Also, what is the utility of punching down on the entirety of the caseload, other than to inflate your own ego?