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Show community comments... by Sam Taylor Reprinted from the Mnah TlmAR-Tnrlpnonrlpnf Whatever other reforms are adopted to stop the food stamp fiasco, I believe this USDA auditor hit the nail on the head. The cheaters and rip-off artists must be put out of business. And food stamps should be reserved exclusively for those who genuinely need them. Give the President a little support with a letter to your Congressman. That is what It's going to take. sit A sometimes reactionary friend of mine recently came Into the office, Incensed because he had followed a reasonably well-to-do acquaintance through the checkllne at a local super market, and watched In amazement as the man paid for his purchases with federal food stamps. Upon doing some further checking, because that's the kind of guy he is, he discovered to his further amazement that he himself qualified for the stamps, and needed only to apply for them. He didn't, of course, because he really didn't need them. But he did do some letter writing and bellyaching, and hopefully, those comments will get Into the right hands In Washington. The whole episode was recalled this week when I read of President Gerald Ford's proposal to Congress, to reduce the eligibility requirements for food stamps so that Just those people who really need them will get them. The total savings, Mr. Ford predicts, will be in excess of one billion dollars a year. I hope that Congress gives his proposal a good look and a positive vote. It's time to begin containing a program that has obviously gotten out of hand. The dimensions of the food stamp fiasco, which only now are beginning to surface, are mind-boggling. Started in 1962 as an experiment to help feed 50,000 poor Americans at a cost of $14 million, it today serves some 20 million people, and costs the taxpayers $6.8 billion a year. Worse than the enormity of the program which Is a grim reminder of a warning by President Ford that by the year 2000 half of all Americans could be living off the other half Is the large number of able-bodied Americans receiving a free ride on food stamps. Strikers get food stamps. Unemployed executives get them. College students, some of whom are the children of the wealthy, get food stamps. Lynette Squeaky Fromme, accused of trying to kill President Ford, was on food stamps. She's still eating on the government, but now It's legit. The Agriculture Department, which used to be charged primarily with aiding and regulating American agriculture, administers the food stamp program. Today the program accounts for half of the Department's budget, putting the agency right behind the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as a welfare distributor. Although various reform proposals, including the President's, are now making the rounds of Capitol Hill, like all giveaway programs, the food stamp program :has its own constituency fighting the moves. In the meantime, Administration officials are having a nightmare of the fact that, although nearly 20 million citizens are now receiving food stamps, an estimated 29.2 million are eligible to get them under the current tax laws. A retired USDA auditor was quoted In the Washington Star as saying that what the program needs most is "teeth." He added later, "I'd make it a violation of federal law to cheat on food stamps. That might discourage people from ripping the program off. And I would prosecute every Ineligible person who gets food stamps, along with some sort of penalty against the food stamp certifiers who put that person on the rolls." |