One of the most ripped off Federal government programs is the food stamp/SNAP program. We have discussed numerous instances of fraud ripping off the American taxpayer via SNAP fraud and that fraud continues despite Trump’s crackdown on the program:
1)The Department of Homeland Security has recently launched a coast-to-coast program to track down and arrest illegal immigrants allegedly defrauding the SNAP program:
Arrests have already been made in a number of arrests regarding illegal immigrant SNAP fraud.
Those already arrested are illegal immigrants from Haiti and Cuba.
DHS has been emphatic that they are only looking for those that received SNAP benefits deceptively, not immigrant families following SNAP rules.
The US Department of Agriculture believes that about 12% of SNAP payments were improper, amounting to billions of dollars being lost.
After decades of the American taxpayer being ripped off over food stamps it is refreshing to finally see the government doing the job it should have been doing from the beginning.
2)Let’s get into a specific SNAP fraud situation:
A recent report from the Fiscal Alliance Foundation estimates that the state government of Massachusetts improperly paid out over $1 billion in SNAP benefits from 2022 through 2024.
75% of the able-bodied SNAP recipients in the state were not working, a violation of SNAP rules.
The report estimated the state error rate was 14.1%, higher than the national error rate noted above.
SNAP enrollment in Massachusetts soared 40% over the past ten years, going from 785,000 in 2015 to over 1.1 million in 2024.
But during that time the state government allowed able bodied recipients to not work for the privilege of SNAP benefits.
A whistleblower cited in the report claims that the SNAP state fraud process has “rampant” along with a government workplace culture that discourages basic verification of SNAP eligibility.
According to Paul Diego Craney the executive director of the Fiscal Alliance Foundation: "More than a billion dollars in improper SNAP payments in just two years is not a rounding error, it is a complete failure of oversight. Taxpayers are being asked to fund a system where fraud is ignored, safeguards are weakened, and accountability is treated as optional."
The study also found that state Medicaid spending is up almost 50% since 2021, now eating up one out of every four dollars in the state government budget.
Emergency shelter costs funded by the state and its taxpayers is nearing $1 billion a year.
When government programs expand that fast it is usually a great bet that proper guard rails needed to prevent fraud and misspending do not exist.
Craney went on: "Beacon Hill has prioritized expanding enrollment over protecting taxpayers and ensuring these programs are being used as intended. When you combine skyrocketing caseloads with weak verification and rising error rates, you create an environment where fraud can thrive. Reform is long overdue."
With skyrocketing budgets and skyrocketing fraud and misspending, at some point there will be a financial reckoning and odds are the state taxpayers will not make out well.
3)Apparently many SNAP recipients should not be receiving those benefits, given what they are driving around:
According to recent government data, thousands of recipients of SNAP benefits are also cruising the streets driving high end expensive luxury cars.
Brooke Rollins, the Department of Agriculture secretary recently highlighted the problem from just one state, documenting what cars some SNAP recipients were driving: 3 Bentleys, 3 Ferraris, 11 Lamborghinis, 59 Maseratis, 141 Porsches, 244 Alfa Romeos, 306 Land Rovers and 2098 Teslas.
According to Rollins: “We need to defend our nutrition programs for those most in need, not for scammers gaming the system.”
According to an analysis done by the Foundation for Government Accountability, across the country about 14,000 SNAP recipients are driving luxury cars.
The analysis found that: “The luxury car brands [SNAP recipients are driving] are among the most expensive in the nation, with Lamborghinis costing over $680,000 … Ferraris are worth over $600,000 and Bentleys range from $250,000 to $414,000.”
As a taxpayer, and one whose wife drives a 13 year old Mazda and I drive a 9 year old truck, I am not happy that the Federal government allows my tax dollars to flow to the owners of luxury cars. These fraudsters certainly don't need to receive my hard earned tax dollars via SNAP fraud and negligence by the government employees running the program.
4)But Rollins wasn't done documenting the types of fraud that permeate the SNAP program:
There were 186,000 situations where deceased Americans’s Social Security numbers contend to get SNAP benefits.
500,000 SNAP recipients received benefits more than once a month, often across state lines.
Your tax dollars at work… supporting the style of others.
4)One more ridiculously offensive SNAP fraud scheme for today:
According to the Atlanta News First organization, Mercedes Reshard New, also known as Shawty Dred, was recently indicted on Federal charges of defrauding the SNAP program.
The indictment alleges that he stole $4.6 million via SNAP fraud.
The period of the alleged fraud spanned the years 2020 to early 2026 and involved New somehow qualifying for and getting 350 SNAP accounts.
Just between April, 2024 and November, 2025, about 19 months, he stole $660,000 in SNAP funds, about $35,000 a month on average or over $1,000 a day on average.
Despite this high level of theft, the government somehow did not notice the fraud for six years.
And it was not like New was discreet about his money, using his Tik Tok and Instagram accounts to show off his private jets, luxury cars, and stacks of cash.
The indictment cites 46 counts of mail fraud, 5 counts of identity theft, and one count for each of the SNAP transactions.
Makes you wonder how many other folks across the country are making themselves millionaires just like Mr. New strictly on the theft of SNAP dollars.
Be it Covid programs, Medicare, Medicaid, or SNAP, fraudsters across the country have been ripping off taxpayers for decades and it is only recently that the American political class realized that maybe something should be done to stop it. Keep in mind, many of these fraudsters are driving nicer cars than you but you paid for them!
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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