On Fox News’ one-hour “Boomtown 2: The Business of Food Stamps” special Friday, Government Accountability Institute (GAI) president Peter Schweizer asked viewers on “Hannity” to type in the hashtag #EBT on Twitter to see how easy it was to engage in food stamp fraud.
On Twitter and other social media sites like Facebook, those with EBT cards that are meant for food often trade the cards for cash.
As Schweizer, who appeared on the special with Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, described, someone may take $150 in cash in exchange for a $250 EBT card.
While nearly 220,000 stores take EBT cards, only 100 federal employees have been tasked to monitor fraud. In addition, the USDA only monitors less than 10% of all food stamp vendors.
As a result, there is no way to measure the amount of fraud in the $75 billion-a-year food stamp industry. Government bureaucrats have said in their defense that only 1% of the food stamps program is subject to fraud.
“It’s very easy to do because it is a card that is interchangeable,” Schweizer said, noting the government does not want to even implement photo ID on the cards so as not to stigmatize the EBT card recipients.
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