SNAP Expansion Will Harm, Not Help, Poor Families

For almost two months, there has not been a day without reference to the Biden administration’s unilateral action to put the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on track to cost taxpayers in excess of $1 trillion.

The press and its inside-the-beltway, pro-poverty advocates curated a delicate and coordinated effort to ensure that people applaud this administration rather than question it. That appears to be the Biden way across myriad issues, including the crumbling supply chain, vaccine mandates, and our fledgling foreign policy.

While the administration insists its update to SNAP was well within its authority — based solely on a couple of lines in the 2018 Farm Bill — no member of Congress, in good conscience, would have permitted such a provision if they knew the spirit by which it was negotiated was hijacked.

While the update to the Thrifty Food Plan is not new, this historically cerebral issue has turned into a political firebomb. The Biden administration, without so much as a peep, increased SNAP benefits by an average of 21%. Not only does it reek of impropriety, but it also questions whether the three branches of government are indeed equal. Congress, with the power of the purse, had no knowledge of this process beyond what the likes of Bloomberg, the Washington Post, or the New York Times reported.

Worse, the process shows what little regard this administration truly has for the health and well-being of recipients. To beef up the benefit, the Biden administration added calories to the diets of people in need, ignoring piles of research that show we have an obesity crisis on our hands, as well as an inactive young population. Out of desperation for a more dependent voter base and increased spending, this administration reduced itself to promoting obesity.

Not to mention, while grocers will not allow policymakers to better understand the purchasing patterns of SNAP populations, this administration gained access to store scanner data to increase the benefit by another 10%. It remains curious how an additional $254 billion in spending quiets the masses.

The Biden administration and the strongest proponents of welfare expansion love to say hunger is not a political issue, yet their own party politicizes welfare at every turn, by expanding dependency and securing every last dollar — without so much as a public comment, data point, or hearing — to keep families stuck.

Any rational human would choose the tens of thousands of misguided Democrat dollars in public benefits over work; this administration is single-handedly spearheading a cradle-to-grave safety net that traps people rather than lifts them.

I refuse to believe the only way to help families is with more handouts. Washington has done an exceptional job at creating a program or benefit to fill every void in a person’s life, including food assistance. Dozens of these programs exist to respond to a need, yet we have failed miserably at eradicating the perceived problem of hunger and have kept millions dependent on the system for generations. So, the question becomes: When will it end?

What was intended as a bipartisan exercise in good governance was manipulated to become the tool for partisan political appointees to eternalize welfare for all. Irrespective of the blatant disregard for congressional intent and the taxpayer, the cavalier attitude shown by these individuals is not unusual for an administration hellbent on ensuring the U.S. becomes the land of the unfree, home of the dependent.

Big government thrives on expansion, which ultimately requires the people to become dependent on it. What better way than with three meals a day.

Kat Cammack represents Florida's 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.