The B in EBT stands for Bentley

I owe my mean old wife an apology because for years I have told readers that she is the reason I don’t own a Bentley. Sure, she won’t give me permission to buy one, but that’s not the reason.

The real reason is that I don’t have an EBT—Electronic Benefits Transfer—card. In one red state alone, more than 14,000 people with EBTs (food stamp recipients) own luxury cars. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins tweeted:

In just ONE state, 14,000 individuals receiving SNAP benefits were driving LUXURY VEHICLES!

🚗 3 Bentleys

🚗 3 Ferraris

🚗 11 Lamborghinis

🚗 59 Maseratis

🚗 141 Porsches

🚗 244 Alfa Romeos

🚗 306 Land Rovers

🚗 2,098 Teslas

And this is just in ONE STATE. We need to defend our nutrition programs for those most in need, not for scammers gaming the system.

These individuals are taking advantage of the American taxpayer. And together with the vice president’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this ends NOW.

4.3M Americans have been moved off of SNAP—but more work to be done!

Uncle Sam, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends
So, Sam, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

The state is not California, rather it is a red state.

The Foundation for Government Accountability in DC released a report earlier this month, “From Luxury Vehicles to Fake Emails: Why Food Stamp Program Integrity Is More Important Now Than Ever.”

It reported:

Somewhere in America, a Lamborghini owner is buying groceries on the taxpayer’s dime. A university professor is driving a $346,000 Rolls Royce and collecting food stamps. Foreign fraudsters are signing up for welfare from overseas using IP addresses traced back to China, Mexico, Canada, and more. And resources meant for the truly needy are instead siphoned off by people who have no business being on welfare in the first place.

This isn’t a hypothetical. It’s happening right now, in state after state, because the systems designed to prevent it are failing or simply don’t exist at all. Officially, more than one in every $10 spent on food stamps is in error—and even that excludes a significant amount of fraud.

This amounts to nearly $10.4 billion in improper spending each year—a sevenfold increase over erroneous spending 20 years ago.

This figure significantly understates the real waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, as the official rate ignores most erroneous payments; many instances of fraud and improper payments go unnoticed or uninvestigated; and the official rate does not account for food stamp trafficking, intentional program violations, and known fraud.

The FGA posted a picture of the cars it mentioned.

Each owner gets EBT.

States approve their applications through the BBCE—Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility—loophole, which allows states to ignore restrictions on eligibility such as income (you can now have an income twice the federal poverty level), eliminate limits on cars, yachts and savings, and states can also waive these limits.

43 states and DC use the loophole to line their pockets. You’ve heard of 10% going back to the big guy. 10.4% of the program’s benefits go back to the state governments.

Hence, up to 6 million people—14% of EBT recipients—should be ineligible.

EBT costs taxpayers $100 billion a year.

Closing the BBCE could save taxpayers $14 billion a year. Think about that the next time Congress complains about feeding soldiers one surf-and-turf on a special occasion. That costs $23 million—or $0.023 billion.

So while Senator John Kennedy was complaining about troops getting a nice meal before a heavy assignment, he ignored Rolls Royce drivers getting the same meal using EBT.

The FGA report noted, “Critically, these were newer vehicles, manufactured in just the last handful of years—not an old Porsche from 1978 or a Lamborghini from 1997. Moreover, the list is not of all new vehicles—just typical luxury vehicles that were newly manufactured.”

1978 Porsches and 1997 Lambos are classic automobiles, not used cars.

But if this doesn’t upset you, this should. FGA also reported:

A recent program integrity analysis of food stamp enrollment in a single state highlights just how pervasive waste, fraud, and abuse in the food stamp program truly is, even in states that devote significant effort to cracking down on fraud. From fake emails to foreign IP addresses to luxury vehicle purchases, the data is shocking.

According to this analysis, more than one in five food stamp enrollees did not have their identity successfully matched with the address listed on their application for benefits. Countless others had addresses that were marked as undeliverable or registered with a business rather than a residence.

Shockingly, hundreds of thousands of enrollees had their most recent verifiable address listed as being in another state—of which tens of thousands had no record of ever living in the state in which they were receiving benefits.

Democrats use taxpayer money to buy votes. Clinton the created BBCE loophole. Obama expanded it.

My wife and I are fortunate that we never needed food stamps. My Mustang is 16 years old. Her Hyundai is 12 years old.

Ronald Reagan complained in 1976 about a Welfare Queen driving a Cadillac. She was busted for fraud.

Today, states allow EBT Emperors to drive their Bentleys without fear of prosecution.