The US Department of Agriculture has spent the past week notifying people that the country is (allegedly) overrun by individuals who are fraudulently claiming SNAP benefits, while (allegedly) driving luxury vehicles.

“In just ONE state, 14,000 individuals receiving SNAP benefits were driving LUXURY VEHICLES!” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on X last week. The official USDA account made similar claims, which were then amplified by figures like Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul.

Those numbers are questionable at best. For one thing, the report they come from doesn’t name the state where thousands of people are allegedly buying Ferraris while using government money to buy food. For another, that report doesn’t include any explanation of its methodology.

  • brownsugga@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Go after the real welfare queens. The Walton family, Elon Musk, the oil and gas industry. Big corporate farming. Ending subsidies for oil and gas alone would pay for Medicare for all

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 days ago

    Businesses not paying workers fair wages like Walmart forcing 1.6 million by themselves to take public assistance like food support is going to effect a ton of people and be a huge draw on the system compared to any other fraud on the system.

    26.8% of 41.7 million is 11 million people. How much do you want to bet they can’t find 11 hundred people committing fraud against the system like employers are.

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/11/14/what-the-data-says-about-food-stamps-in-the-us/

    Tax payers subsidizing corporations to further exploit tax payers

  • Folstar@lemmus.org
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    7 days ago

    The Gang of Pedos has never let something as trivial as evidence guide their world view. Also not big fans of consent.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 days ago

    The Tax Evasion and Avoidance of billionaires is many times the entire budget of this kind of thing.

    You could literally make up for 100% fraud in things like food stamp by making somebody like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos pay the same effective tax rate as everybody else.

    Even if these claims from the far-right of widespread fraud and abuses in social security were true, they would still be like distracting people from a raging forest fire by waving a sparkler.

    • Jesusaurus@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      We just need to implement something like a 1% wealth tax for any entity (people or businesses) with net assets over say $5M. Having more than that has minimal justified purpose

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    7 days ago

    When I lived in a poor area I saw a ton of luxury vehicles but they were a decade older than most non-luxury cars and were beat to shit. I’d believe the numbers but I don’t think they say what this idiot is implying.

    Its demoralizing that this type of messaging resonates with such a large portion of Americans, honestly.

  • Pat_Riot@lemmy.today
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    7 days ago

    There’s also no knowing what folks had when the floor fell out from under them. That Escalade might have been half paid off when they lost their source of income. Conservatives’ve been on this same bullshit for decades.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      “He obviously took advantage of the system or did something illegal like selling drugs. Everyone knows it’s systematically impossible for a minority to get ahead on their own”

      Maybe a little too on the nose, but all their arguments are some variation of that.

  • bagsy@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Look over there at the guy stealing bread for his family, no mind the BILLIONS of dollars being stolen by this admin every week. God i hate the GOP.

  • StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    A remix of the old welfare queen lie. smh. Some guy probably used his mom’s food stamps card to get fast food once and they’re going to make it seem like a billion dollars in theft.

  • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    People experience job loss, lose their income become briefly eligible for food stamps get a job get off food stamps ALL the time during this difficult period they don’t lose their homes, cars, fancy clothes or their iphones.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.