FNS and Lost SNAP Cards

A smattering of stories reporting on the Food and Nutrition Service's proposed regulation (out for public comment) permitting states to request justification for issuing a replacement SNAP (food stamp) EBT card when it's the fourth one within a year.  Here's the FNS post.

This bothers me, but probably not enough to do the research I'd need to.  I'm bothered in part by this language:

The proposed minimum threshold is based on an analysis by FNS of electronic transaction data that demonstrates a statistically significant difference when a client reaches his or her fourth replacement card, indicating that transaction activity is three times more likely to be flagged as potential trafficking, which is the exchange of benefits for cash or other consideration, compared to clients with three or fewer replacement cards.

Now I'd assume the EBT cards operate like a debit card; lose one, you notify the issuer and they put a hold on the account and you get a new card.   I can understand that some of the SNAP recipients are prone to lose their cards; while not a recipient I've trouble losing things as my senility comes on faster.  So what I would imagine happens: recipient goes to the store on Monday and uses the card.  Recipient absent-mindedly puts the card in the trash on the way out.  Recipient needs the card on Wednesday and finds it's missing.  Recipient notifies issuer.  If someone found the card and used it, then there'd be a couple days of transactions.  So I could handle issuing a replacement with no more justification than "I lost it and can't find it" and having the government cover the transaction costs..  And it'd probably be hard to differentiate between the misuse of a found card and the use of a card sold by the SNAP recipient, just by looking at the transactions.

But, from the language I quoted I'm not sure that's what's going on.

And my bottom line would be, the default position for the government should be no more forgiving than a commercial bank is.  

Obama's Personal Economic Stimulus: Eating Out

See this post at Ezra Klein showing the impact of a POTUS visit on a sandwich shop.

Failure To Rescue

That's the theme of Atul Gawande's commencement address (hat tip Ezra Klein).  Worth reading, since failure is inevitable, and recognizing and responding to failure is valuable. Unfortunately in government sometimes the people (political appointees) who fail are out the door before they have the chance to learn from their mistakes.

[Update: Orin Kerr at Volokh provides excerpts of two good commencement speeches, particularly the one on the role of luck in life.]

White House Garden Book: No Politics, No Gardening

A couple reviews of Mrs. Obama's book are in.  Grist says there's no politics in it (in the sense of urging political action to change food or garden policies); Obamafoodorama says there's no real how-to gardening in it.  Here's an earlier post on it: there's also no Obama daughters in it.

The Good Old Days of Steel and Coal

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money posts 1940 pictures of Pittsburgh.  A reminder that government works.

Racism Among the Establishment

Conservatives often point out quite fairly that eugenics was often a strong thread of Progressive thought:  it fit the Progressive optimism that everything can be understood and once understood can be improved.

However, I just finished the Jean Smith bio of Eisenhower.  It was interesting, moves along very well, sides with Montgomery in a couple instances and accuses Ike of spin (heaven forbid) in places, thinks well of Ike generally, but has a few howlers of errors which one may perhaps forgive on account of the author's advancing age (1.6 million sq ft in the White House?).

Back to racism: the pre-WWII military officer class was part of the WASP establishment (Patton loaned Stimson his horses to ride) and racism was common throughout, though not necessarily in the bedroom (witness McArthur and his mistress).  This isn't a theme of Smith's, but it comes through in several places.

32-Ounce Drinks

The mayor of NYC is proposing to ban drinks over 16 ounces.  Much ado about it.

However the good mayor and I both remember the good old days, though I'm a tad older and a lot poorer.

The Coke bottle we grew up with was 6.5 oz.

EWG and Crop Insurance

Politico is just one of several articles on EWG's attack on crop insurance, using data on crop policies and policyholders. (Here's the link.)

In 26 cases, policyholders received an annual discount — carried on the government’s books — of $1 million or more in 2011. In 10,152 cases, it was $100,000 or more, while the vast majority of farmers received far smaller discounts averaging closer to $5,000.
“The eye-opening analysis shows crop insurance is not only very expensive,” said Craig Cox, EWG’s senior vice president of agriculture and natural resources, “but also very, very generous to large and highly profitable farm businesses.”
Corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton are among the leading beneficiaries, just as they dominate American agriculture. At the same time, fruit and vegetable growers, which account for about one-fifth of farm receipts, are disproportionately represented since their crops tend to be high priced and therefore more likely subject to higher premiums.
Potatoes, tomatoes, apples, onions and grapes accounted for 36 percent of the high-end subsidies over $1 million, which carried some irony since environmentalists have long favored such specialty crops.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76913.html#ixzz1wf2BLmap

Politico points out differences between crop insurance and FSA's farm programs but ignores one.  Because of payment limitation, I suspect EWG will would not find as many city dwellers benefiting from subsidized crop insurance.  One of the things EWG seemed to delight in with their database on FSA's payments was the revelation of where recipients lived, particularly in big cities and wealthy ZIP codes.  I don't know if FSA and FCIC ever tried to cross-match their producers, but my suspicion is that crop insurance's "producers", those people and entities who are the policyholders, come much closer to matching John Doe's idea of who is a farmer is than do FSA's producers.  

Note: I changed "will" to "would" in the previous paragraph because it turns out EWG couldn't get identities of producers; Congress barred it.

USDA Techies Represented by Sheep

That seems to be the message here (via Govloop).  (At least they didn't use bulls.)

Water Fountain: Bottled Water::Home Phone:Cellphone

In the old days we had public water fountains and landline phones in the home, also pay phone booths in public spaces.  These were shared utilities, whether provided by government or family, NGO's or private business.

In the new days everyone carries her own bottled water and her own cellphone; nothing is shared, all is private and individual.