The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been rife with fraud, abuse, and waste for years. We've reported countless stories of illegal immigrants stealing millions in fraud, including a man from the Dominican Republic who allegedly stole a dead man's identity and $12,000 worth of SNAP benefits, a Milwaukee grocery store owner who pleaded guilty to a $1.6 million SNAP fraud scheme, and the Boston store owner who stole $7 million in SNAP benefits.
Years ago, when I was in nursing school, going through a divorce, and working odd jobs to make ends meet, I was on SNAP for a short period of time. That's not something I'm proud of, but it's what I had to do. But that was a decade ago and, absent economic catastrophe, I have no plans to go back to that.
That's what SNAP was meant to be, by the way. A stopgap for a short period of time to keep food on the table until financial circumstances improve. It was not meant to be a lifestyle choice. But Democrats have made it such, because they believe government dependency is a legitimate way to live.
That's why Wisconsin Democrats are mad that more than 150,000 people are off of the state's SNAP rolls.
More than 15,000 Wisconsinites have exited SNAP food benefits rolls, a development that one might think would be cheered. Instead, Democrats are lamenting the loss of so many people dependent upon government. https://t.co/g0tJhUpyGc pic.twitter.com/GppEDWS0uk
— The Heartland Post (@HeartlandPostWI) April 21, 2026
Here's more from The Heartland Post:
Wisconsin’s SNAP numbers dropped 2.3 percent—right after Congress rolled out the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, which expanded work requirements for able-bodied adults up to age 64, removed certain exemptions, and mandated at least 20 hours per week of work, training, or volunteering. Able-bodied work requirements and the denial of non-citizen benefits have driven SNAP rolls down 38 percent nationally, with no harm to those who genuinely qualify. Nationwide, SNAP participation fell by 3.3 million recipients from January 2025 to December 2025, bringing total enrollment below 40 million for the first time since 2020, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins described the national trend as evidence of families moving toward independence.
Let's be very clear: these people aren't going to starve. They are not even going to go hungry, at least not any more so than the people who have to budget and pay for their own groceries. And I would be willing to bet it's because many of them weren't dependent on SNAP to put food on the table; they had the income to get groceries and were defrauding the system instead. I would also be willing to bet that many of these people are overweight if not obese, a sign they weren't going hungry, despite the media narratives to the contrary. As I pointed out last November, the media pick the worst "victims" of Republican policies, and obese SNAP recipients who are "starving" are near the top of that list. Amy Klobuchar did that too, humiliating a constituent by bringing her before Congress to testify she'd go hungry under SNAP reforms.
There's a diseased thinking on the Left that the government, whether via SNAP or some other program, is responsible for making people happy. It's not. But that was a Lefty's lament now that Florida joined other states in prohibiting SNAP users from purchasing soda and candy with those benefits.
As of today, Florida SNAP recipients can’t buy soda or candy because God forbid we allow a single mom and her kids a few moments of happiness at the end of the day. 😡
— Warren (@swd2) April 20, 2026
Candy and soda are relatively inexpensive things that SNAP recipients can pay for out of their own pockets if that's what gives them "a few moments of happiness." SNAP was meant to provide food to that would prevent people from starving, not treats. And that's what candy and soda are. But the entitlement knows no bounds. Another mom lamented that she wouldn't be able to buy her daughter popsicles under those new SNAP rules (but she had a manicure).
There's a lesson in all of this that the Left won't learn, but the rest of us should, and it goes back to something Ronald Reagan said when I was still a toddler: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you've got." SNAP benefits come from the government, who get to decide on what and how those funds get spent. The same applies to so-called Medicare for All, government-funded housing, and education. The government calls the shots, and it's not there to make sure you're happy.
The solution to that is to make sure you are not dependent on government for your food or your happiness.
