Trump wants to start charging stores to accept food stamps

[AthenaAwakened]

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/trump-wants-to-start-charging-stores-to-accept-food-stamps.html

• Donald Trump wants to charge retailers a fee for accepting food stamps as payment from the poor.
• The food stamp fee would be reassessed every five years.
• Budget office predicts $2.4 billion in new revenue from the fee, which is seen hurting independent grocers more than big chains.
• Separately, the Trump administration is proposing $191 billion in cuts over the next decade to the food stamp program.

There is a thread asking how horrible is Trump.

Pretty damned horrible.

He wants to starve poor people and penalize small business.

 

[Deepak]

I recall hearing a statistic that the average SNAP recipient gets about $1.34 per meal in assistance - this really is moustache-twirling levels of petty evilness.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/trump-wants-to-start-charging-stores-to-accept-food-stamps.html

• Donald Trump wants to charge retailers a fee for accepting food stamps as payment from the poor.
• The food stamp fee would be reassessed every five years.
• Budget office predicts $2.4 billion in new revenue from the fee, which is seen hurting independent grocers more than big chains.
• Separately, the Trump administration is proposing $191 billion in cuts over the next decade to the food stamp program.

There is a thread asking how horrible is Trump.

Pretty damned horrible.

He wants to starve poor people and penalize small business.

Trump is an asshole, yes, but let's make one thing clear. Trump is a fucking idiot. He isn't the one coming up with these ideas, he just supports them. There is an establishment portion within the Republican Party that came up with this insidious idea and we must give both parts of this ridiculous equation its fair share of scorn, hatred, and bad coffee.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Republicans are all upset about stories of people using their SNAP benefits to buy lingerie, Taco Bell, using it for bail money, lobster...

Wonder if they could compromise? I mean, taxes for prepared foods are often different from the taxes paid on raw food ingredients.
What if they only charged Fast Food places who want to accept food stamps? Or Lingerie stores?
Any establishment for which less than 20% of its sales are raw food, food ingredients needs to pay for the privilege of accepting food stamps. And charge them twice what would have been charged at grocery stores. It'll either generate revenue from the sales that piss the conservatives off, or it'll decrease the number of places that make those sales. Either way, the conservatives will be happy and feel they've accomplished something, and leave the grocery stores alone...

 

[braces_for_impact]

Republicans are all upset about stories of people using their SNAP benefits to buy lingerie, Taco Bell, using it for bail money, lobster...

Wonder if they could compromise? I mean, taxes for prepared foods are often different from the taxes paid on raw food ingredients.
What if they only charged Fast Food places who want to accept food stamps? Or Lingerie stores?
Any establishment for which less than 20% of its sales are raw food, food ingredients needs to pay for the privilege of accepting food stamps. And charge them twice what would have been charged at grocery stores. It'll either generate revenue from the sales that piss the conservatives off, or it'll decrease the number of places that make those sales. Either way, the conservatives will be happy and feel they've accomplished something, and leave the grocery stores alone...

This almost sounds good, but I suspect it will make food deserts much, much worse. I don't think your average convenience store would qualify with the 20%.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Just a random number. I seem to remember Kansas, when they went from a dry state to county-by-county, if your business was in a dry county, but 80% of your sales were food, you could sell alcohol.
Called the Pizza Hut Amendment to the Dry County statute...

Some other number could be established. Preferably by a study, rather than Repugs just being dicks..

 

[ideologyhunter]

Is it time to define, in full, who qualifies as a Forgotten Man?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Just a random number. I seem to remember Kansas, when they went from a dry state to county-by-county, if your business was in a dry county, but 80% of your sales were food, you could sell alcohol.
Called the Pizza Hut Amendment to the Dry County statute...

Some other number could be established. Preferably by a study, rather than Repugs just being dicks..

Prevent SNAP to be used on products with High Fructose Corn Syrup?

 

[LordKiran]

Just a random number. I seem to remember Kansas, when they went from a dry state to county-by-county, if your business was in a dry county, but 80% of your sales were food, you could sell alcohol.
Called the Pizza Hut Amendment to the Dry County statute...

Some other number could be established. Preferably by a study, rather than Repugs just being dicks..

Prevent SNAP to be used on products with High Fructose Corn Syrup?

I find it laughable that there's a problem when some poor man uses his SNAP card to buy a lobster but it's okay when we give millions of dollars in tax relief to various companies that they don't need. Just one more way the repugs try to make an enemy out of the poorest segment of society.

There was a time when I had stamps while I was working. Some days it was all I could do to buy some cheap snack crap to scarf down before work or during my break so I had the energy to get through my shift. What, do the reds just expect me to buy a can of string beans instead?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Prevent SNAP to be used on products with High Fructose Corn Syrup?

I find it laughable that there's a problem when some poor man uses his SNAP card to buy a lobster but it's okay when we give millions of dollars in tax relief to various companies that they don't need. Just one more way the repugs try to make an enemy out of the poorest segment of society.

There was a time when I had stamps while I was working. Some days it was all I could do to buy some cheap snack crap to scarf down before work or during my break so I had the energy to get through my shift. What, do the reds just expect me to buy a can of string beans instead?

Lobster tastes like ass (otherwise why do you need to dip every piece of that crap in melted butter?!), so any person using SNAP should be scolded for buying stuff that tastes like ass. Just because middle and upper class people are dumb enough to be convinced lobster doesn't taste like ass does not give poor people an excuse to fall for such lies!

 

[barbos]

people use lingerie as food?

 

[Elixir]

people use lingerie as food?

Where you been?

 

[Keith&Co.]

people use lingerie as food?

It's more of a topping.... Unless you're submissive.



Anyway, according to Republican watchdogs, there are lingerie shops that accept food stamps. Underwear is not specifically forbidden, whether vanilla or more risqué.
Cigarettes and other tobacco is forbidded, as is alcohol. Toilet paper, also is prohibited.

 

[cearn]

What, do the reds just expect me to buy a can of string beans instead?

`No, Mr Kiran, we expect you to die!`

/republicans

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Republicans are all upset about stories of people using their SNAP benefits to buy lingerie, Taco Bell, using it for bail money, lobster...

Wonder if they could compromise? I mean, taxes for prepared foods are often different from the taxes paid on raw food ingredients.

That does sound like a good idea--make food stamps go farther when used to buy the basic ingredients. Don't charge a fee, though, but rather $1 in food stamps can buy say $1.50 of certain items.

- - - Updated - - -

people use lingerie as food?

I thought it was a garnish.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Don't charge a fee, though, but rather $1 in food stamps can buy say $1.50 of certain items.

That'd be worse than a fee, though.
If I pay $x to accept food stamps, that's a flat rate for the year. I'm losing $x/year.

If I sell $1.50 worth of flour to someone with a $1 food stamp, I'm losing my profit on every bag of flour I sell. I either stop accepting food stamps or raise the price of chicken over in the deli to cover the costs.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Democrats are just as bad!!

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Don't charge a fee, though, but rather $1 in food stamps can buy say $1.50 of certain items.

That'd be worse than a fee, though.
If I pay $x to accept food stamps, that's a flat rate for the year. I'm losing $x/year.

If I sell $1.50 worth of flour to someone with a $1 food stamp, I'm losing my profit on every bag of flour I sell. I either stop accepting food stamps or raise the price of chicken over in the deli to cover the costs.

No--the state would reimburse the $1.50 on the bag of flour.

 

[bilby]

So, just to be clear; The Republicans believe that the BEST way to manage spending is the free market. If people choose for themselves how to spend their money, that's ALWAYS preferable to having the government make that decision for them.

Oh, unless those people are poor, in which case the government MUST prevent them from spending what little money they have in ways not approved by the government. You want to go hungry for a few days, and spend the money you saved on food on clothing to wear to a job interview; or a mobile phone to help you find work; or on bus fares to get to a prospective job? Sorry, you are too poor to make decisions for yourself. Only rich people make better decisions than the government.

If poor people need assistance, give them cash. Who cares if they 'waste' it? Who the fuck is anyone to tell them what is or is not 'waste'? If you don't have enough money to buy food, and you are given money to buy food, but choose to buy something else, then presumably you really seriously wanted that 'something else'. And the taxpayer is not one cent worse off if you don't eat because you spent your food money on something else. If people don't feed their children, take the children into state care (and that applies to a millionaire who chooses not to feed their kids, too). If people don't feed themselves, then that's their own lookout, and isn't the government's business. The government's duty is to make it possible for them to eat - if they adults choose not to eat, then so be it.

You don't get to tell people how to spend the money you provide. Not if you are an employer paying wages, and not if you are a government paying welfare. Because it is immoral, inhumane, and harms not only the recipient of the money, but also the entire society of which they are a part.

Food stamps should not exist. Give people money.

 

[repoman]

I agree