New Domestic Threat: Food-Stamp Riots

Jerome R. Corsi * WND

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With 20 percent of all American households on food stamps, amounting to 23.1 million households and 47.6 million individuals in July, an across-the-board cut in food-stamp benefits is scheduled to go into effect in November, even though most recipients know nothing about the coming change.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, the benefit increase granted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to help people adversely affected by the recession is scheduled to expire Nov. 1.

The USDA projects that the average monthly food stamp payment of approximately $272 per household will decline in November by $36 for a family of four.

Will the resulting drop in benefits prompt riots? A WND investigation has found the problem of abuse in income-transfer programs for low-income individuals and families is not limited to the USDA food stamp, or SNAP, program.

In the EU, austerity programs on government programs designed to transfer income to the poor has resulted in riots.

Food-stamp riot in Louisiana

On Oct. 14, when a temporary power outage caused the Electronic Benefits Transfer system, or EBT, that allows people on government assistance to buy food using a digital card with a set spending limit to go down in two Louisiana Walmart stores, chaos resulted when shoppers suddenly found their food stamp debit cards could not be used to buy food.

When Walmart corporate headquarters allowed people with food stamp debit cards to buy food anyway, shoppers in the Wal-mart stores Springhill and Mansfield, La., shoppers stripped stores bare, with the result that

Local law enforcement had to be called in when the EBT cards were once again turned on and Wal-Mart discovered shoppers with as little as cents on their food stamp debit cards were found attempting to steal as much as $700.

Customers turned ugly as overflowing grocery carts were left abandoned in the aisles.

According to an ABC News report, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family services ruled Wal-Mart would be responsible for paying for unauthorized purchases because the retailer chose not to adhere to procedures limiting sales to $50 per cardholder during emergencies.

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Read more at WND:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/new-domestic-threat-food-stamp-riots/#DJpul4c8xsR4sAcT.99