Taxpayers Hurt By Scam

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Taxpayers Hurt by Scam “Food Stamp Scam Costs Taxpayers $330 million” authored by Laura Crimaldi was published on November 20, 2011, appearing in the Las Vegas Review- Journal. The article details a scam that some food stamp recipients were taking advantage of. Crimaldi opens the article detailing a scam that has cost tax payers as much as $330 million dollars a year (P. 2). The scam involved small businesses exchanging money for the customer’s food stamps, a federal offense that has resulted in 597 convictions and over $197 million in fines (P. 3). The author asserts that fraud of food stamps almost always happens at the bottom fifteen percent that handle food stamp transactions (P. 4). Crimaldi details that in 2010, 931 stores were dismissed …show more content…
These methods would include scanning social media and using mathematical formulas to locate stores that are involved in this scam. (P. 14). The federal government owes it to the taxpayers, who fund the program, to eliminate all possibilities for recipients or businesses that take advantage of it.
Poverty Is a Threat “Poverty in America: Why Can’t We End It” is authored by Peter Edelman. It appeared July 29, 2012, in the New York Times. The article details the author’s beliefs on why poverty in The United States still remains and his ideas on how to get rid of poverty. Edelman opens the article explaining the poverty percentage in 2000 was 11.3%, over 46 million Americans in poverty (248). The author also details about how social programs have helped get people out of poverty, programs such as Social Security and food stamps. The author insists without these social programs, the poverty number would be nearly double. Responding to thoughts about how social programs have failed, the author makes the comparison that the Clean Air Act has failed because we still have air pollution
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Crimaldi doesn’t specifically offer a solution, while Edelman does. I assume that because Crimaldi is a taxpayer and food stamps are funded by taxes, she wouldn’t want her taxes wasted by people taken advantage of her trying to help. Edelman offers solutions such as taxing the rich and creating more high paying jobs (250). These ideas connect on the basis that maybe if the rich were taxed, businesses wouldn’t be taxed as much, allowing them to play their employees more. This would create the possibility that since people were being paid a decent wage, there would be fewer recipients of food stamps and a less chance of it being taken advantage

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