Paul Prentice, writes in the WSJ‘s letters section, in response to this article:
Discounted SNAP cards are easily purchased in the secondary market. Perhaps it is true, as Mr. Vilsack asserts without citing data, that SNAP fraud has been reduced. But here in Colorado, it is easy to turn SNAP money into legalized marijuana and almost anything else besides food.
Mr. Vilsack also claims that raising the minimum wage would reduce SNAP usage. Just the opposite is happening in San Francisco and Seattle, where people have been priced out of the job market by the higher minimum wage and pushed onto the food-stamp rolls. So what is actually behind the push to maintain SNAP in its current form? Mr. Vilsack reveals this—it is Big Food, as represented by the National Grocers Association and the Food Marketing Institute—along with all other secondary beneficiaries from the spending.
