USA TODAY International Edition
‘America’s Harvest Boxes’ will deliver socialism
Who knew that President Trump and some in his Cabinet were closet Socialists. How else to explain their plan to slash a partnership between government and private industry that provides food for the poorest Americans and partially replace it with a program fresh from Cold War Bulgaria.
Since the 1960s, low-income Americans have received benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), popularly known as food stamps, and used them to buy food at about 260,000 retailers from Wal-Mart to corner groceries to farm- ers’ markets. Now, the Trump admini- stration has a bright idea: Eliminate much of the freedom to shop in private markets, add a dose of bureaucracy, and instead give the 42 million poor Americans using the program all the convenience of a soup line.
Under Trump’s proposed budget, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) would purchase food with its bulk buying power, put in containers called “America’s Harvest Boxes,” and somehow get them to 16.4 million households across the country. Just how, no one has explained. That will be a problem for the states. But the administration is sure of this much: Its plan would save nearly $130 billion over a decade.
Never mind that this would require a gigantic bureaucracy to store food, assemble boxes, let people pick up their boxes or distribute boxes to recipients, keep track of the addresses and moves, track who gets the boxes and who doesn’t, and find a speedy way to replace late or stolen boxes. Just how government would account for people with dietary restrictions or allergies is also unstated.
And there’s this: The boxes would provide only half of the monthly allotment, so the government would still be distributing debit cards. Twice the government and half the efficiency.
This from an administration that hasn’t shown much ability to get food to hungry people, even in an emergency. It fumbled a contract to deliver 30 million meals to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, pulling the contract after only 50,000 meals were delivered.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney found a snappy way to describe this new scheme, calling it a “Blue Apron-type program.” That’s about as sensitive to people on food stamps as “Let them eat cake.” Blue Apron is a delivery service aimed at well-heeled customers who want to purchase fresh ingredients to make fancy recipes without going to the store. Meals start at $9.99 per serving.
The SNAP benefit for each person in a single-parent household with children is about $1.40 per meal — not exactly fancy recipe resources.
This wacky idea has also taken attention from deep cuts to the program.
Republicans have a reputation for favoring free choice and private enterprise over government mandates and bureaucracy. Not anymore. With “America’s Harvest Boxes,” the Trump administration is delivering digital-age innovation that only Karl Marx would approve.