The foolish farce surrounding ‘food-stamp fraud’

On Twitter, Fox News asked, “Food stamp fraud at all-time high: Is it time to end the program?”Taking the report at face value, the question is bizarre. The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, generally known as food stamps, is a nearly $71 billion program. If $70 million helps provide food for people who shouldn’t receive assistance, that’s 0.09% of the overall budget. In other words, according to Fox’s report, 99.91% of the money Washington spends on food stamps is spent appropriately. That’s an amazingly successful program.What’s more, if we continue to take Fox’s report at face value, since when do we “end” public programs in reaction to tiny amounts of fraud? If someone found 0.09% of misspent money in the Pentagon budget, wouldn’t it be silly to say we should scrap the Defense Department?But here’s the best part: there’s no reason at all to take Fox’s report at face value.As Ari Melber noted on last night’s show, Fox sourced the Agriculture Department, but the Agriculture Department hasn’t put out any new information about fraud. When we called the agency yesterday, department officials said they didn’t know where Fox came up with the figure.What’s more, the claim that food-stamp fraud is “at an all-time high” also appears to be incorrect, and the evidence suggests fraud in the system is far less common than it was in years past.So we’re left with a Fox report that got every relevant detail wrong. As for why the network made this mistake, one can only speculate, but don’t be too surprised if Republicans try to slash food assistance to low-income families next year, citing this Fox report to bolster their plans.