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Show UNITED STATES SENATE Time For Food Stump Reform On April 14th President Presi-dent Jimmy Carter said, " will resist to the utmost of my ability excessive spending by the ('ongress in fiscal year l7H, and I am going to oppose strongly strong-ly any spending substitution substitu-tion for projects that might be non-vital and which might initiate permanent programs or expenditures that can't be controlled in the future. " Can a President of less than six months stand-up to Congress? Congress is apparently determined to find out with the recently passed Farm Bill. As it now stands the Food and Agriculture Act of 1()77 contains price sup(Mrts for wheat and other food grains which far exceed what the President has said he will accept; but this is only part of his dilemma. The most expensive expen-sive Mrtion of the bill is the Food Stamp program. As authorized in the Senate's Farm Hill, delivery of food stamps has leen liberalized at a time when public opinion polls call for reform. Under the bill's provisions permitting a familv of four with an annual income of up to $10.(10 to receive fxd stamps, half the population of the state of Utah would be eligible. The lawmakers went one step further bv eliminating the purchase requirement for the stamps. Previonlv a familv has been required to s nd :20 of its income to pun ha- food stamps, unless the familv wa at the lw.ttoni of the pmcrtv scale. Now. however. stamps will be freely given to anyone who can qualify, at an increased cost to the American taxpayers of some $2 billion. Aside from being totally contrary to the President's request of April 14th. the action appears to completely eliminate the incentive for many families to become productive. During debate on the Farm Bill several Senators made an attempt to limit widespread fraud in the Food Stamp program. Senator Carl Curtis (H-Nebr.l (H-Nebr.l asked for photo-identification photo-identification of food stamp recipients, crosschecking cross-checking for duplicate applications, ap-plications, and an income survey. These are steps required re-quired of most citizens to cash a personal check. A similar program cut the caseload in one Fastern state by 11 and saved the taxpavers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Despite projected nationwide nation-wide savings of approximately approx-imately $'KI million, the Curtis proposal was defeated. This Congress is obviously not interested in controlling food stamp fraud at the present time. A Utabn who watched the Senate debate on the Farm Bill was overheard to sav later. " Every good idea and et ery program or proposed change that seemed to hate merit lias rejected. It looked to me like the sjxm-sors sjxm-sors of this hill had only one thin u in mind . . . make the I 'resident 'resi-dent back dnun." How will the President re- md ? |