Wondering why your groceries are costing so much more? Read and Learn

One thing that concerns me about this is that not only was I completely unaware of it, if I hadn't literally stumbled across it while going down some internet rabbit hole, I still wouldn't know about it, and maybe never would have. It does explain why food prices have spiked so dramatically, but given this admin's priorities, it is not at all surprising.

Our esteemed President increased spending on EBT by a whopping 27% in 2021, which is Unconstitutional per the W. Virginia v. EPA decision, and overall since 2019, spending on EBT has more than doubled! The increase in 2020 is somewhat understandable, given the pandemic and our overreaction to it in shutting down virtually the entire economy, but it's 2023 and it should have gone back down by now, not continued to increase. Of course, none of the extraordinary and emergency Covid spending has been clawed back, instead it's become, sadly, the new norm.

Below is a quote/summary from the article that you can find here.

 

Oh look it’s the Foundation for Government Accountability. Don’t they have more child labor laws to get removed?

 

So what your saying is that Biden increased benefits for SNAP recipients, and the private sector raised their prices because of that so they could make more profits ? You realize that the only way for what your claiming to have happened, is that the costs for those items didnt raise, but because their was more money for those products in the market, the companies all the way thru the food chain raised prices to make more money, without increased costs…

So is it Biden giving people more money to feed their families, or greed form the producers? Lemme get that for you: unless you can show a cost increases in the production of those items, this is just more corporate greed!

Be honest, your mad that your food costs have risen, but your blaming Biden for feeding the poor, and not the food companies who are now just being transparent an just raising prices because of their greed !!!

https://time.com/6269366/food-company-profits-make-groceries-expensive/#

But yeah…Joe Biden…..right ?

 

What's that got to do with the President increasing spending without Congressional authority?

 

Who said it was without Congressional authority?

 

It's simple... More money chasing the same, or fewer goods will end up with price inflation. It's simple Econ 101, which you would know had you taken that class at any point during your life. Since EBT funds can only be used to purchase food, it would have an even more targeted effect, which we see in the real world with the increase of food prices outpacing the increases we've seen in pert near everything else, save perhaps gasoline. On top of that, increasing spending like that without Congressional approval is a no-no, as the POTUS doesn't have that authority.

As for your oh so typical whining about heaven forbid a company increasing their profitability (oh, the horrors!), well, that's economics.

 

The fact that Congress did not authorize such an increase in EBT spending, naturally.

 

Yeah, but the problem is that they did authorize it.

 

Oh, yeah? Got a bill number?

 

The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (P.L. 115–334, the 2018 Farm Bill)

Got any other questions?

 

Actually they did. The changes are the result of a law passed in 2018 by a Republican Congress, which ordered a review of the program’s assumptions and gave the Agriculture Department four years to do it. In January, President Biden urged the department to speed up the process so that benefits reflect the true cost of a basic healthy diet.

 

LMAO !!!!

 

Don't you just love it when these people post stuff without doing even the tiniest bit of checking on it first?

 

You have zero idea how inflation works. Prices increase as demand increases. If Biden gives more to food stamps it increases the demand which increases the cost because prices ensure availability. Let’s say government forced the snowcrab industry to charge 10$ a pound vs the $25 a pound at the grocery store. This would cause supply issues and you wouldn’t see crab readily on shelf. Free market prices ensure availability by restricting it to where the market sees fit to consume. It’s not always just about profits. If a grocery store couldn’t keep the expected items in stock they would lose business to competitors anyway. Likewise if something is so over priced it doesn’t move then prices would drop. Prices dictating the movement of goods is good no matter the situation

 

It’s funny you,LMAO. Because it’s accurate. It was also a Republican bill

 

No, it is not always good "no matter the situation"

For example there are places called "food deserts" in low income areas because "prices dictate" that those areas not be serviced. How is it a "good thing" to have areas, especially low income areas, where people do not have access to food?

 

Signed into law by a Republican President.

I'm pretty sure that he was LMAO because it was so easy to rebut the original poster's claim that this was not authorized by Congress.

He wasn't laughing at me, he was laughing WITH me.

 

Yes, actually, I do. You see, I looked that bill up, and grabbed a few interesting tidbits from the USDA's website, which included the following, which are directly copied and pasted:

• The 2018 Farm Act increases FY2019-FY2023 spending by $1.8 billion (less than 1 percent) above the level projected for a continuation of the previous farm act.
  
• While eligibility guidelines in SNAP are unchanged, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that SNAP caseloads and expenditures will continue the decline that has occurred since their historical highs in fiscal 2013.
  
• The CBO estimates that this provision will reduce SNAP spending by $576 million from 2019 to 2028.

So, in essence the bill you suggests authorized a doubling of spending in 3 short years was intended to reduce real spending, not increase it. Therefore, I call bullshit.

 

Section 4002 of the bill..

4002 RE-EVALUATION OF THRIFTY FOOD PLAN.
Section 3(u) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012(u)) is amended by inserting after the 1st sentence the following: ‘‘By 2022 and at 5-year intervals thereafter, the Secretary shall re-evaluate and publish the market baskets of the thrifty food plan based on current food prices, food composition data, consumption patterns, and dietary guidance.’’.

The "Thrifty Food Plan" is how SNAP benefits are calculated. The REQUIRED (by this bill) recalculation of the Thrifty Food Plan is the reason for the increase in the SNAP benefits.

Any other questions?

 

Well it’s still good. Many if not all of these places have very high crime. The cost to do business in high crime areas is much greater than doing business in a low crime area. High crime areas have higher loss from theft, costs of security, costs of violence. In these areas it is not cost effective to do business because of the community, not because of capitalism.

 

Does not square with an anticipated half billion dollar reduction in expenditures. But none of this changes the more crucial fact... More money chasing the same or fewer goods causes prices to go up. We have doubled the amount of free food that producers are required to buy for the lazy class, and as a result that has increased spending on the same amount of available food, ergo prices go up as we have seen in the real world. We don't have any time machines (that we know about, anyway) so there is no undoing what has already happened, but those increases can and should be reversed, which will cause food prices to fall, as you would then have less money chasing the same amount of goods.

It's simple supply & demand, but that is a concept few seem familiar with these days.

 

Congress has no legislative authority to give anyone money.

 

No, the "crucial fact" is that you were claiming that Biden did something unconstitutional.


I don't care what it "squares with". It is the law. The recalculation was required by the law. The recalculation was done and the result was the increase in SNAP benefits that you are complaining wasn't authorized by Congress.

Well there it is, in black and white, it WAS authorized by Congress and not only "authorized" but REQUIRED.

By a Republican Congress signed into law by a Republican President.

 

The cost to do business is the very core of capitalism.

Your position is that it is a "good thing" that people, through no fault of their own, are stuck in areas that lack access to food because businesses, using the principles of capitalism, have determined that the cost to do business in these areas is too high.

 

That sounds like a great business opportunity