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EXCLUSIVE: The Bureaucratic Trick Costing You Billions-BBC Eligibility for SNAP Explained- · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We found Snap recipients had more than two thousand Tesla owners,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: two hundred Alpha Romeo owners, more than one hundred and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: forty four that we're receiving food stamps, we're driving porsches.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Before we had no accountability on any of these programs.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We now are requiring accountability. The Blue States are suing us.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: They don't want to share the data.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Good Friday morning.
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  Speaker 4: Nice have you with us on the forty seven Morning Update,
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: and we've got a massive story for you. You will not
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: believe just how much fraud and abuse there is with
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: food stamps in this country are known as Snap benefits,
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: and it's all been set up for there to be waste,
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  Speaker 4: fraud and abuse buy the Democratic Party line, simply to
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: buy votes. So how easy is it to get food stamps? Well,
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: you can be a multi millionaire. Yeah, you can drive
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: a Lamborghini or Ferrari, and we've got the receipts. It's
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  Speaker 4: the forty seven Morning Up day and it starts right now.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Story number one.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: When Donald Trump was elected, he promised he was going
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: to root out waste, fraud and abuse. We have learned
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: just how corrupt our government actually is. We've learned that
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Medicare and Medicaid there's massive fraud, hospice care massive fraud.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: We have learned that it's in food stamps. And now
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  Speaker 4: the Foundation for Government Accountability has exposed even more explaining
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: now that millionaires and lottery winners are collecting food stamps.
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  Speaker 4: You heard that right, under a massive, purposely created federal loophole.
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  Speaker 4: It is now possible for millionaires and lottery winners to
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  Speaker 4: get food stamps. The best way you can describe this
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: is it is fraud by design, and this is not
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: protecting the needy. It is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions,
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: which then turns into billions of dollars. And it's all
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: called broad based categorical eligibility. That is how they have
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  Speaker 4: now turned this entire system into a fraudulent system on purpose.
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  Speaker 4: And when I say they, I'm talking exactly about the
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  Speaker 4: Democratic Party. I want you to listen carefully to how
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: broad based categorical eligibility works because it may sound boring,
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  Speaker 4: but it's costing you countless tax dollars every single year.
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  Speaker 5: Today, one in eight people are enrolled in taxpayer funded foodstamps.
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: This program was designed to help the truly needy, but
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  Speaker 5: thanks to a federal loophole known as broad based categorical
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  Speaker 5: eligibility or BBCE, more than forty states are exploiting the program,
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  Speaker 5: giving foodstamps to millionaires, lottery winners, and millions of recipients
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  Speaker 5: with more than enough resources to buy their own groceries.
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  Speaker 5: In fact, millions of foodstamp recipients exceed the federal asset
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  Speaker 5: or income limits. Roughly one in five of those enrollees
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: have one hundred thousand dollars or more in assets. This
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  Speaker 5: loophole is no accident, it's fraud by design. Federal law
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  Speaker 5: requires states to check asset limits for anyone applying for
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  Speaker 5: food stamps. If your assets are too high, you don't qualify.
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  Speaker 5: But here's where the BBCE workaround comes in. If someone
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  Speaker 5: is deemed eligible to receive other welfare benefits, they automatically
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: qualify for food stamps.
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  Speaker 3: And states have fully weaponized this loophole.
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  Speaker 5: They created new types of welfare benefits like pamphlets, flyers,
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  Speaker 5: and hotlines not to provide aid, but to legally bypass
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  Speaker 5: income and asset limits.
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  Speaker 3: Let me just.
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  Speaker 4: Be clear about what you just heard states decided that
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  Speaker 4: there can be simple things that you can be given
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  Speaker 4: that then categorize and qualify you as receiving government aid.
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  Speaker 4: So if you receive a pamphlet on good parenting, single parenting,
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  Speaker 4: how to have a baby, or to not have a baby,
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  Speaker 4: any government pamphlet that they have deemed to be government aid,
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  Speaker 4: then you at that exact moment are automatically eligible for
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  Speaker 4: food stamps. That's why there's so many recipients through the
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  Speaker 4: BBCE requirements that actually have no business receiving these benefits
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: because it's all about exposing and going around the traditional rules.
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  Speaker 4: They have wide discretion at a state level on how
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  Speaker 4: to apply it, and then they want to make sure
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  Speaker 4: that as many people in their state can get into
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  Speaker 4: these programs. Most recipients, by the way, food stamps are
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  Speaker 4: not wealthy, but what we're witnessing is most are also
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  Speaker 4: not poor, and many of these families can afford their
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: own groceries. But because they were given a pamphlet from
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  Speaker 4: the government that the state deems, as you guessed it,
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  Speaker 4: a state benefit or government benefit, then automatically you are
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  Speaker 4: then eligible for food stamps. Now, this is why there
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  Speaker 4: needs to be massive reform because if you win the
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  Speaker 4: lottery or you're a multi millionaire, my tax hour should
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  Speaker 4: not be paying for your groceries.
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  Speaker 3: Keep listening.
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  Speaker 5: As long as someone qualifies to receive a pamphlet, they
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  Speaker 5: are categorically eligible for food stamps. It's really that easy.
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  Speaker 5: This is fraud and mismanagement at the highest level, and
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  Speaker 5: the consequence is that it drives up the cost for
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  Speaker 5: taxpayers and threatens benefits.
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  Speaker 3: For the truly needy.
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  Speaker 5: It's time for states to close the BBC loogle learn
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  Speaker 5: more at THEFGA dot org.
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  Speaker 4: Now, this was one of the most powerful one minute
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  Speaker 4: and forty second videos I've ever seen, because not only
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: does it explain exactly what's happening here, but now you
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: understand why you and I should be paying attention to this.
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  Speaker 3: So let's move to what we now know.
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  Speaker 4: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that's known as SNAP is
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  Speaker 4: now being reported that it is experiencing the highest levels
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  Speaker 4: of fraud and theft the system has ever seen. Estimates
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  Speaker 4: are now suggesting that there are losses up to Okay,
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  Speaker 4: this is the guestimates. The estimates that there are now
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  Speaker 4: losses of your tax dollars that are being gone through
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  Speaker 4: fraud and abuse and theft of more than twenty billion
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  Speaker 4: dollars annually. That is prompting increase federal, state and law
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  Speaker 4: enforcement action by the Trump administration, something that they promised. Now,
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  Speaker 4: the key aspects of the current Snap abuse they're saying
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  Speaker 4: is number one, massive ebt theft skimming.
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  Speaker 3: What does that mean?
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  Speaker 4: Criminal organizations are heavily targeting beneficiaries by using illegal skimming
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  Speaker 4: devices to then clone EBT cards. That results in hundreds
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  Speaker 4: of millions in stolen benefits each and every year. Then
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: there is trafficking. What is trafficking. It's the illegal sale
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  Speaker 4: of your Snap benefits for cash. It's become a significant issue.
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  Speaker 4: Many times you'll get one hundred dollars, for example of
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  Speaker 4: food stamps right on your Snap card and somebody will
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  Speaker 4: buy those from you for thirty forty fifty dollars whatever
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  Speaker 4: the market rate is that day in the black market.
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  Speaker 4: There's also improper payments. The program is seeing what they
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  Speaker 4: describe as a massive increase in improper payments, with a
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  Speaker 4: twelve percent rate reported in the fiscal year twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 4: That is often, they say due to administrative errors or
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: failure to verify data. Then you have the fraud line
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  Speaker 4: activity types. Investigations are uncovering individuals collecting benefits in not
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  Speaker 4: one state, but in multiple states, taneously using the identities
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  Speaker 4: of deceased individuals and misrepresenting their household income as well.
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  Speaker 3: There's also, what we've now learned.
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  Speaker 4: Today, a new aspect of this and it's costing you
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  Speaker 4: also millions of dollars. There's international crime involvement. Investigations are
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  Speaker 4: now exposing that international criminal organizations are involved in stealing
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  Speaker 4: benefits to fund other illicit activities. And then there's another
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  Speaker 4: type of fraud that apparently is massive that no one
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  Speaker 4: has been policing, and that is retail fraud. Some retailers
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  Speaker 4: have been implicated in now schemes where they exchange snap
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: benefits for cash, with some cases involving one hundreds of
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: thousands of dollars at a single location. Now the USDA's
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Food and Nutrition Services is now working, they say, to
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: replace stolen benefits and also improve EBT card security, including
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: moving towards chip technology that we're currently not using. We
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: also note the Office of Inspector General and the Secret
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Service are conducting targeted operations they say, to combat EBT fraud.
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: But that is not enough, which brings us back to
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  Speaker 4: the woman who's in charge of all of this, Secretary
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Brook Rawlins. Set in just one state, there were fourteen
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: thousand individuals, and this was a Republican state that was
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: receiving SNAP benefits. And the people that were receiving them
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  Speaker 4: were driving luxury vehicles. What types ferraris Bentley's Lamborghinis, Maseratis,
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  Speaker 4: more than one hundred and forty Porsches, more than two
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  Speaker 4: hundred and forty four Alfa Romeos, more than three hundred
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  Speaker 4: and six land Rovers. And where are the fraudsers coming
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  Speaker 4: from the most they're a bunch of woke liberals. They've
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  Speaker 4: drive more than two thousand and ninety Teslas. Here's part
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  Speaker 4: of what she had to say about the fraud and
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  Speaker 4: just how bad it's gotten sharing.
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  Speaker 1: Previously, no data was shared. We had no idea where
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the taxpayer dollars were spent. Just one red state. The
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  Speaker 1: recent dump of data, we found SNAP recipients had more
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  Speaker 1: than two thousand Tesla owners, two hundred Alpha Romeo owners,
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  Speaker 1: more than one hundred and forty four that were receiving
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  Speaker 1: food stamps. We're driving porsches again. This is the data
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: dumps we're getting because that we before we had no
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: accountability on any of these programs. We now are requiring accountability.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: The blue states are suing us. They don't want to
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: share the data. And can you imagine this was a
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: red state where there is actually some taxpayer accountability. Imagine
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: what's happening in the blue states if that's happening in
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the red state.
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  Speaker 3: Go back over those numbers.
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  Speaker 4: In a conservative state, you had fourteen thousand individuals receiving
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  Speaker 4: SNAP benefits that were driving luy vehicles. Three were driving Bentley's,
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  Speaker 4: four Ferraris, eleven Lamborghinis, fifty nine Maserati's, one hundred and
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  Speaker 4: forty one porches or two hundred and forty four Alpha Romeos,
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  Speaker 4: three hundred and six land Rivers, and over two thousand Teslas.
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  Speaker 4: These individuals, by the way, know what they're doing. They're
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: taking advantage of you and I, the American taxpayer. And
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: now what we're seeing is offense. Not only is Brooke
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  Speaker 4: Rawlings working together with a VP, the Vice President who's
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  Speaker 4: in charge of this task force to eliminate fraud, but
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: they now say that four point three million Americans have
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  Speaker 4: been moved off of the SNAP benefits, but they say,
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  Speaker 4: unfortunately there's more work that needs to be done. Now,
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  Speaker 4: let's just go back to that for a second. Four
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  Speaker 4: point three million Americans have been moved off of food stamps.
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  Speaker 4: That's how much fraud they were able to find it
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  Speaker 4: quickly and easily.
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  Speaker 3: Now we're moving.
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  Speaker 4: She put out an instatement the new Food and Nutrition
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  Speaker 4: Administration out of DC and into the.
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  Speaker 3: Heartland where it belongs.
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  Speaker 4: That also could change the leadership, getting rid of the
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: woke ideology in Washington, d C. They say they're shifting
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: staff close to those they support and making us more
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: efficient and responsive to the millions of families that are
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: touched by the USDA's nutrition programs. They say it's going
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: to deliver faster and better service for families who need
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  Speaker 4: nutrition assistance, and stronger support for American farmers who grow
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  Speaker 4: the food in for their tables, saying quote, we are
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: laser focused on serving the American people with greater efficiency,
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: and this reorganization will do just that. That is great news,
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: as there's another headline that says USDA announces the Food
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: and Nutrition Administration formally the food nutrition services and actions
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: will be moved to better serve the states. That is
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: what should be happening each and every day. Now, let's
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: go back to the fraud for just a moment. The
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: USDA's Food and Nutrition Services, they say this is costing you,
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: and this is what they're admitting to billions of dollars. Why,
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: it's pretty simple because Democrats have decided that it's the bet.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: The best thing they can do is bribe voters to
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: vote for them by allowing them to take these fraudulent benefits.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: So if we know that's what the left is doing,
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: and they're handing out these benefits to buy votes, then
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: this issue is front and center right now going into
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  Speaker 4: the midterms. Congress, the good news, is doing something about it.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: They're debating massive SNAP reforms, new laws that would tighten
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: work requirements nationwide. Lawmakers are also looking for cost savings and
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: fraud reduction, and they're going after the BBC because the
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: single biggest lever to shrink SNAP enrollment would be getting
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: rid of that massive loophole where you getting quote government aid. Yes,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: a pamphlet on anything from the state government automatically qualifies.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: You for food stamps.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: Now, Republicans are saying it's time to reform.
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  Speaker 3: You got to get rid of the loophole.
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  Speaker 4: It enables waste, It enables fraud, and it is an
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: enabling exactly what Donald Trump said, we must stop. They
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: want to reinstate the asset tests. Lower income thresholds are
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: what matter. They want to tighten eligibility. Democrats, of course,
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: are saying no. They believe that this is a lifeline
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: to buying votes. They say, if you push millions off
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: of food stamps, that could be millions of their voters
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: that would disappear.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Now, of course they're going to play the emotional game.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: They're going to say that Republicans are trying to starve people,
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: especially children, and any form of reform that means cuts
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: Democrats are going to use to their advantage. Get ready
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: for it. It's going to happen. So as we move forward,
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: I wanted you to know about this program. I wanted
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: you to understand the loophole, and I wanted you to
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: understand why this is so important going into the midterms
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: for the President of the United States of America. Say hey,
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: you shouldn't get food stamps just because you've got a
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: government pamphlet or you even cut a hot line number.
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: In some states, yes, even getting a phone number of
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: a government agency is considered government assistance that should not
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: make you eligible for food stamps period. And the reason
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: why forty six states are doing this is because they're
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: all trying to get their piece of the pie. They're
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: trying to get some of their money as fast as
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: they can from the federal government, and they don't even
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: care if it's going out for waste, fraud, and abuse. Now, luckily,
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: the president has a chance to fix this, and Republicans
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: better do their job.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: And that's exactly why I hope you'll.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: Take everything I just gave you and share it wherever
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: you can around the country.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here tomorrow.