An investigation conducted by the Wisconsin State Legislature's Joint Audit Committee last week revealed that the state's FoodShare program, which provides money for low income families and unemployed to buy food, may have committed fraud. According to the audit, $32.9 million of the $1.1 billion in FoodShare loans, which are comprised of both federal and state funds, were spent outside of Wisconsin which, while legally permissible under the federal FoodShare provisions, has suggested to some pundits and lawmakers that the program is being exploited by the program's beneficiaries.
State Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Powers Lake, who headed the investigation, asserted in an article in The Badger Herald that "some individuals are using their cards in Wisconsin when they're also using it out of state on the same day...we suspect that they're selling their FoodShare cards for cash."
Some may view this "scandal" as a dire offense of the state's financial resources, but all factors indicate that this is yet another shameless, invented crisis by the political right.
How do I know it's invented? Well, shoving aside the fact that spending FoodShare dollars out of state is completely legal and the total money spent out of state amounts to only 3 percent of the program's budget, it's worth noting that there were a grand total of 334 instances of actual FoodShare fraud reported last year.
The number of Wisconsinites that were benefitting from FoodShare in that same period was 829,720. Even if each instance of fraud were committed by a different FoodShare recipient, the amount of fraud generated from our state's program would be an infinitesimal .04 percent. This nearly inexistent level of crime in the system indicates that protecting tax dollars and upholding the law is not Kerkman's intention in bringing FoodShare fraud to light.
In fact, what she and other Republicans are doing here is what their party has attained mastery of: passing the most blame to the least among us. This year alone, we've seen Gov. Scott Walker pass a union-busting bill to "fix the budget," and Republican-spearheaded Voter ID laws to "protect democracy." Both laws show how the GOP's priorities are fixated on making sure that lower-class citizens (meaning not Republican) have the maximum number of disadvantages stacked against them. They can't collectively bargain, they can't vote and now, some state Republican representatives want to make it harder for them to eat.
According to FoodShare Wisconsin's website, the maximum monthly income for participants is $1,816, or two times the federal poverty line. Anybody who has to survive on a pittance like that should be allowed to buy the cheapest food wherever it's available, and the flexibility to move across the country shouldn't be taken away from the fragment of Wisconsinites who take advantage of this option. FoodShare, it bears repeating, is a program largely funded by the federal government, and there is no real legislative argument that proves why purchasing food in other states should be outlawed.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with FoodShare as it stands. If anything, given the unemployment rate at moment, the income limits for members should be raised to include more people.
If I were a public servant, I would not be directing my energy toward punishing my impoverished constituents. I would be more concerned that one in eight people in Wisconsin need federal assistance just to feed themselves and that my legislation has done nothing to make their plight any easier. If I saw individuals selling their FoodShare cards on Facebook, my first reaction would not be to prosecute them, but to express concern that an economic environment has developed that requires them to sell their food source for extra cash.
There are bigger, more systemic issues to address here than whether a few poor people steal food, but the Wisconsin GOP seems to have a different priority. First and foremost, it need to make sure the serfs stay in their place.
Ryan Waal is sophomore majoring in English. Please tweet your feedback to @dailycardinal or e-mail your thoughts to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
