Food Stamps vs. Corporate Tax Welfare: Which is Costing Americans More Money?

The war on food stamps rages on. Earlier this year, Obama signed the new farm bill in to law which carried with it a 1% cut in the supplemental food program SNAP amounting to about $8.6 billion dollars over the next ten years. While Republicans point to food stamp abusers cashing in their EBT cards on items like wild salmon, organic produce, and candy bars (egad!) the reality of the cuts affects roughly 850,000 families living under the poverty line in the northeastern states.

In fact, the black market accounts for just over 1 percent of the total food stamp program, which is far less than fraud in other government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, according to The New York Times, and the nearly $9 billion in cuts is far less than the $40 billion Republicans were pining for.

If saving pennies is the end result, politicians should set their sights on the Moby Dick of corporate tax loopholes. A recent report by the public advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice focusing on the top grossing Fortune 500 companies found the following:

“Tax subsidies for the 288 companies over the five years totaled a staggering $364 billion, including $56 billion in 2008, $70 billion in 2009, $80 billion in 2010, $87 billion in 2011, and $70 billion in 2012,” CTJ states. “These amounts are the difference between what the companies would have paid if their tax bills equaled 35 percent of their profits and what they actually paid.”

Case and point? A small percentage of Americans may be abusing the $180 they get every month in the form of 'handouts' from the government, but how can we so easily vilify people eating healthy food and ignore the elephant in the room sitting on a fat stack of illegitimate tax revenue.