You've probably heard by now that Boehner and his caucus are screaming bloody murder over a loophole in the bill they passed to cut almost $9 billion in nutritional assistance to the poorest families in America, one of the Republican Party's biggest legislative priorities for the current session. Their base was ecstatic when it passed. But now 8 states and Washington DC have already figured out how to use the loophole to keep food stamp assistance flowing. Now the House Republicans circulated a memo claiming they will thwart the states' plans to save their people from starving
Under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, low-income families can qualify for additional food stamp benefits by showing a heating bill, but some states also allow those without a heating bill to qualify simply by showing they receive even the smallest amount of payment from the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
Seventeen states had been sending the nominal LIHEAP payments, often amounting to just $1 per year, to trigger additional food stamps for those residents without a heating bill, but the farm bill set a new minimum of more than $20 to try to discourage the practice, commonly referred to as “heat and eat.”
The seven states that have announced they will not let the farm bill disrupt “heat and eat” this year have vowed to send $21 to households to make sure they don’t lose the additional food stamps.
Media attention to the growing number of states preventing food stamp cuts intensified after House Speaker John Boehner railed against the states’ actions.
“Since the passage of the farm bill, states have found ways to cheat, once again, on signing up people for food stamps,” the Ohio Republican told reporters March 12. “And so I would hope that the House would act to try to stop this cheating and this fraud from continuing.”
…“Various media outlets have reported on the announcements of these states,” says the memo, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. “The press reports assume that the change in behavior of these states eliminates the savings estimated from the reforms included in Section 4006 [of the farm bill]. This is false and fails to recognize CBO [Congressional Budget Office] considerations included in the savings estimate.”
The NY Times editorial noted that the work-around by the states to save their citizens "has infuriated a party that doesn’t believe that poor families should get public assistance in buying groceries." Republican leaders, according to the Times are in shock.
The 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.
…Cheating? The states are doing exactly what the farm bill-- which Mr. Boehner supported-- encouraged them to do: pay more to some of the poorest families in America so they neither freeze nor starve during a brutal winter. Mr. Boehner seems unaware of it, but millions of families have never recovered from the recession, and his chamber has not only refused to help them by stimulating the economy but is trying to push them through the safety net.
In a letter to Mr. Boehner, Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut said it was “shameful” to describe the states’ efforts as cheating. “Your demonization of states that have elected to provide this benefit impugns the children, the elderly, the disabled, the low-wage workers and veterans who receive such aid by implying that they are a party to something criminal,” he wrote. “To the contrary, I think most would argue that denying residents of my state $112 a month in nutrition assistance is morally wrong.”
If Mr. Boehner really wants to crack down on cheating, he might look to the carried-interest tax loophole, which allows hedge fund managers to mischaracterize their income as capital gains and costs the Treasury $11 billion a year-- far more than extra dollars for food stamps. In his world, fraud occurs only when the government helps those who need it the most.
