'The [food stamp] cut involved the so-called heat-and-eat program, in which food stamp benefits are increased for those who qualify for a small amount of state heating assistance so that they do not have to choose between heat and food. Several states were providing only a token amount of fuel aid, as little as $1 a year, to prompt the extra benefits of $90 or so a month, and many lawmakers saw that as gaming the system.
So negotiators on the farm bill agreed that states would have to pay a minimum of $20 a year in fuel aid to prompt the benefits. Republicans thought this would save more than $8 billion over a decade, because they assumed the states wouldn’t want to pay $20. Democrats went along because it was better than the original Republican plan to cut $40 billion from food stamps.
But to the shock of Republicans, at least eight states decided to do the right thing and raise their heating-aid payments to $20. New York and Connecticut were first, followed by Rhode Island, Oregon, Massachusetts, Vermont and Montana. Even Gov. Tom Corbett, Republican of Pennsylvania, agreed to go along.
This provoked an outburst from the House speaker, John Boehner. “Since the passage of the farm bill, states have found ways to cheat once again on signing up people for food stamps,” he said last week. “And so I would hope that the House would act to try to stop this cheating and this fraud from continuing.”'
Because following the law — a law he helped craft — in order to help the needy is, apparently, "cheating."
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The Plot to Cut Food Stamps, Foiled
Republicans are furious that states have decided to be generous to the neediest families.
It's all so frustrating the lengths that our government is going to screw over the needy.
I am very fortunate enough to not be in that need right now.
+Sam Hetchler Not our government. The Republicans. I have many issues with the Democratic party, but this recent 'attack the poor' trends are almost exclusively a Republican tactic.
+Thom Miller What you say is true, but both sides of the isle are not innocent here.
+Sam Hetchler Yes, but one side is a lot more guilty than the other. It's like arguing that the guy who took a few bucks of change out of your car's ashtray is as bad as the guy who stole your car. They're both bad, but hardly morally equivelent.
The Dems are guilty of a multitude of sins, and blindly supporting them is counter-productive.
But, taken as a whole, they seem a lot less harmful than the GOP in so many areas.
French fried potatoes aren't good for your health, but they're better than french fried nightshade.
Complying with the rules is ‘gaming the system’.
Now as a wargamer I have seen people insist on sticking to the letter of the law, rather than what is obviously historical. But when making a law you lay down exactly the rules, this isn’t the same thing. You don’t say ‘You must do x’, then complain when they do ‘x’.
US law does seem very badly applied/written.