Stamp(s) Of Disapproval

Folks, I’m neither an advocate of “Big Brother” nor his intrusions into our personal lives. I realize that in this day and age of mindless terror around the globe certain steps need to be taken to protect the innocent. However, I do feel that we’ve gone overboard. Do you really want to be in the same room — or building for that matter — when I take off my shoes to check for bombs? My feet are chemical weapons all on their own.
OK, enough of the funny stuff. In my many fact-finding missions around the Lowcountry, I’ve befriended a group of homeless folks. They are a friendly enough bunch of guys and I will write about them in a future column. One of them asked me a question last week that sparked my curiosity. This individual had just been released after spending several months in the county jail. He told me that he had over a $1,000 in food stamp credits and wanted to know if I was interested in purchasing some of them for .50 cents on the dollar. He said that was the going rate.
Due to an empty wallet or high moral standards (you guess which one) I declined his generous offer. It did make me wonder how often the credits are sold on the black market? I expect the figure across America might be in the millions or tens of millions of dollars.
What disturbed me even more was that his food stamp account had been accruing while he was in the slammer. This just ain’t right. While this guy was eating three meals a day at taxpayer expense, the government continued to give him money for food. I can only believe this practice is repeated many thousands of times across the country.
In this age of computers, why cannot there be some kind of coordination between law enforcement and the United States Department of Agriculture, the issuer of the colorful free for them food cards? It makes common sense to suspend benefits to the incarcerated. I guess either their families are eating the extra food or their edible assets are growing while the person is already consuming food on the public dole.
Is there any politician or bureaucrat brave enough to try to tackle this waste? I might even go so far as to call it fraud. Please don’t hold your breath waiting for someone to step forward. Funeral homes have enough business without the addition of thousands of oxygen-starved corpses. As Earl Pitts admonishes in every radio broadcast, “Wake Up America!”
James David Altman lives in West Ashley and has been a contributing columnist for several publications. He’s the son of the late former S.C. Republican House of Representative of John Graham Altman III. You can reach him at rabidreb@gmail.com