Oh, SNAP! 186,000 dead people got tax dollars for food

OPINION:

On the heels of discovering 186,000 dead men, women and children were receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the agency is going to make all recipients reapply. 

Seems common sense. So wait for it, wait for it: Democrats are sure to oppose.

Here’s what Rollins said on a recent segment of Newsmax about the fraud and waste she’s found in SNAP: “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check. Now, that is what we’re really going to start clamping down on. But here’s the really stunning thing: This is just data from those 29 mostly red states.”

Imagine the fraud and waste taking place in the Democrat-run states.

The ray of light from the government shutdown is that SNAP gets a sort of do-over.

Those who were receiving SNAP now must reapply to reinstate their benefits. This gives the guards of the program the opportunity to make sure recipients meet the financial criteria — to make sure they don’t earn more than they should — and to make sure they’re, well, not dead.

Only the living get hungry.

Only the living should receive SNAP.

Could we all at least agree on that?

“[The reapplication requirement] is going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program — [we will] have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it,” Rollins said. 

America is a generous country. But even generous Americans have their limits.

And rooting out waste and fraud — these are no-brainers that cross political ideologies. At least, they should be.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.