Oregon #2 in Food Stamps: Used at Starbucks!

Food Stamps buys Starbucks, steaks, pizza & birthday cakes! – – Oregon #2 in dependency
By Taxpayer Association of Oregon

A Starbucks in a Salem Safeway gleefully advertised on their doors that they “accept food stamps” where they can be used to buy Frappuccino cold drinks and pastries. This is in addition to using food stamps to buy candy, soda pop, cookies, ice cream & birthday cakes. A Washington D.C. reporter tried to use his food stamps to buy the most expensive items in the store. He came away buying swordfish steak ($18/pound), $8 gallon of goat milk, $14 Chanterelle mushrooms & fancy European cheese.

Because students don’t work while studying, they easily qualify for food stamps and are famous for using them to subsidize their alcohol parties as they buy appetizers, snacks and mixed liquor drink accessories (tonic water, limes & lemons). Watching someone buy groceries with food stamps while paying cash for their lottery tickets & cigarettes is a proud Oregon liberal tradition (just don’t dare use a plastic bag, because that’s apparently wasteful).

Medical marijuana deduction
For a while, Oregon was one of three states identified that allowed applicants to deduct medical marijuana expenses from their income so they could better qualify for food stamps. It wasn’t until it was made public that the state reversed its policy.

Oregon gets $5M bonus for being America’s Food Stamp Queen!

The Human Services Dept. has been openly and diligently trying to identify new food stamp customers to enroll who are not even asking for it. Their efforts played a role in helping increase food stamp rolls by 60% and have been rewarded by the federal government. Oregon put out a proud press release announcing that they were awarded five million dollars for their food stamp recruitment efforts. Their efforts help rank Oregon as the 2ndhighest state in the proportion of its population under food stamps. That amounts to 785,000 people, roughly one of every five people in Oregon. When food stamps started in the 1970’s only 1 in 50 people were on food stamps, now it is 1 in 7 nationally. It costs Americans $78 billion.

Food stamps as economic boost?

A federal government press release touted that for every $5 spent in food stamps it creates nearly $10 in “economic activity for the community.” The logic is that you can double an economy with government payouts. Since the federal Food Stamp budget nearly tripled in size in the past three years do you honestly feel the tripling of economic activity coming from it in 2012? The USDA also created short soap opera radio ads where the characters happily sign up for food stamps. The ads were cancelled after public outcry.

— Help Taxpayer Association fight food stamp abuse and cut your taxes right now. Make an online $100 or $50 donation to mail TAO P.O. Box 23573 Tigard OR 97281

(Sources: KPTV-12 Dec 12, 2011, Daily caller, 12/7/2010, DHS Press Release 9/ 28/11, Huffington Post 7/13/12, SNAP Questions & answers USDA website, 2012, Wall Street Journal 6/20/12, Oregonian 7-12-2012, Fox News 7/13/2012)