From the Washington Free Beacon:
Approving Food Stamps Costs the Economy $1 Billion
Meeting the federal government’s regulatory requirements for approving food stamps will now cost the economy $1 billion annually, according to a new report.
More:
“Every week, the White House approves dozens of paperwork and reporting requirements,” wrote Sam Batkins, the director of regulatory policy at the American Action Forum, in a report released Wednesday. “Many of them go unnoticed by the public and the vast majority are routine.”
“However, the burdens in the latest food stamp approval are profound: 14.6 million Americans will provide 658 million responses to the Department of Agriculture (Ag) annually, and it will cost households, states, and local governments $958 million to comply,” the report said. “The burden specific to the federal government is $356 million.”
And a few numbers:
“To put this into perspective, it would take 59,110 employees working full-time (2,000 hours annually) to comply with the required paperwork,” the American Action Forum said. “In addition, this SNAP program is now 53 percent of Ag’s aggregate paperwork burden. One program alone is now the majority of the agency’s regulatory burden.”
The United States has approximately 323 Million people and 45 Million people receive food stamps - this is almost 14% - a huge number. I do not advocate taking this away - there are people in hard times who need this lifeline. What I do not like is those people who game the system - selling their SNAP cards to buy alcohol and drugs and those who are able-bodied but choose not to work. We have made it too easy for too many.
