Food Stamp Fraud
Posted by brazosconservative | Posted in Texas Politics | Posted on 19-10-2009
This post is because a friend of mine asked, more like begged me to post it. They don’t have a blog but have decided from time to time that they want me to vent because they cannot.
With that being said, what I am about to post is the absolute truth. I wish for the sake of our government it does not exist. I wish for those paying tax this was a misunderstanding, but it is not. So let me say that I have gotten information from multiple sources, the amount of fraud is probably sky high. It has to be if little old me knows about it, it has been scuttlebutt for a while.
In Texas you get what they call the LoneStar Card for food stamps. Each month at the first of the month Texas loads it up. The amount of money on these cards is staggering. I had heard $700, then I heard $900, the last amount I heard is $1500. Now remember this is for food alone, this is not for utilities or housing. They get another amount for welfare to include housing and utilities. This is a monthly food budget alone.
The amounts are far more than I ever spent. When I did some more digging I found out a few interesting items. First off, Food Stamp Fraud is rampant and here is why. If they don’t use the full amounts of the card the amount is dropped. And no one wants less money when it is free. Now this is the part I have heard about for months, I had hoped it was only in bigger urban cities. But it is our little rural area as well, the fraud is happening all the time. The way it works is let’s call her Althea. Althea has $900 on her card, this month she has tried to spend as much as she needed but she has a balance of $500 left over. Althea knows what I have found out, if she doesn’t use it Texas will lower the amount. Next month Althea is going to throw a BBQ for her family and friends, so she will use the money next month. Althea knows also what I know, people that work and pay taxes have far less money for food. Althea makes a decision to sell her $500 Lone Star Card, now she doesn’t have to sell it for $500. Althea can let it go for $200 and shop somewhere else like for clothes. Althea sells the card, gets the cash, and gives the pin number to the person buying the card.
Problem is Althea has been doing it for a long time, and will continue to do it. See she doesn’t have the need to earn money, or pay for groceries. There is nothing that makes her think twice about it, it is “her LoneStar card”, and it is free.
The LoneStar card is supposed to have anti theft devices on it, but whatever they are they don’t work.
When something is free for the taking, abuse will happen. If you do nothing it will get worse. The lack of fraud prosecution is revealing. I have not read or heard about huge cases of food stamp fraud being stopped.
Texan tax payers need to be aware of this, they need to speak out because if we don’t it will not go away. We are the ones buying the groceries for people unwilling to work, and frauding the state. This is one of the main reasons I would never want National Healthcare, I know what happens when the government tries to fix something. It gets worse, and fraud sky rockets.
Those of us who pay our grocery bills are being used and abused by the system and the food stamp users.




