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Racist disinformation about fraud within U.S. government funded food assistance programs has persisted for decades. Across USDA, Congressional Research Service, and Government Accountability Office data, the core number never moves much: about 1–2% of benefits get trafficked; most of the rest of the “bad” dollars are plain administrative or recipient mistakes, often caused by states.

TL;DR

@public_enlightenmentSNAP fraud is under 2%. But racist propaganda about food assistance spreads faster than facts. Let’s break down what the data really says—and why the lies keep coming back. #SNAP #FoodStamps #Shutdown #FactCheck #Fraud

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The Very Short History of Food Stamp Fraud in America Time, March 30, 2017

“...the real history of food-stamp fraud reveals that…that concern is misplaced today…the fraud rate has decreased from ‘about 4 cents on the dollar in 1993 to about 1 cent’ by 2006. And this decline has only continued, with the 3.5% rate of fraud in 2012 reducing to less than 1.5% today.”

No, SNAP Benefits Aren’t Mostly Used by Immigrants Wired, October 30, 2025

“A number of conspiracy theorists and right-wing influencers are claiming that immigrants are the main recipients of food stamps, while AI-generated videos on TikTok push racist stereotypes of Black people demanding more benefits.”

Who gets food stamps? Viral chart misleads about SNAP recipients’ race, ethnicity Politifact, October 27, 2025

“According to the most recent USDA data available, from 2023, white people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP benefits, at 35.4%. African Americans are next, making up 25.7% of recipients, then Hispanic people at 15.6%, Asian people at 3.9%, Native Americans at 1.3% and multiracial people at 1%. The race of 17% of participants is unknown.

The same report found that 89.4% of SNAP recipients were U.S born citizens, meaning less than 11% of SNAP participants were foreign-born. Of the latter figure, 6.2% were naturalized citizens, 1.1% were refugees and 3.3% were other noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents and other eligible noncitizens.”

[BRIAN’S NOTE: The One Big Beautiful Bill eliminated eligibility for noncitizens like undocumented people with a disability or those who are under the age of 18.]

Fact Check | Are Black people the majority of welfare recipients? Revolt, February 28, 2024

“The stereotype linking Black individuals to welfare has clear historical roots…The welfare queen stereotype has significant consequences for public policy and the way society views those in need of government assistance…By fostering negative perceptions of Black welfare recipients, the stereotype promotes the belief that the majority of Black people are on welfare or receive social assistance. These misconceptions routinely impact welfare reform, and hinders the development of compassionate and effective social policies aimed at addressing poverty and inequality.”

SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more The Handbasket, November 1, 2025

President Ronald Reagan infamously castigated “welfare queens,” followed by President Bill Clinton and then-Senator Joe Biden bemoaning the “culture of dependency” supposedly wrought by government assistance…Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for example, took racist delight in branding President Obama as “the food stamps president.” And on Thursday, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) suggested that Americans who couldn’t go one month without a SNAP allotment should “stop smoking crack.”

According to the Government Accountability Office, 70% of wage-earning adults who rely on government programs like SNAP and Medicaid work full-time, largely in the vaunted private sector. Notably, that includes workers at hugely profitable companies like Walmart and McDonald’s, whose low wages are effectively been subsidized by tax dollars without any of the blame or paternalistic lectures. As The Daily Yonder notes, SNAP recipients are also disproportionately made up of rural households (13.7% SNAP enrollment) compared to households in metro areas (11.4%), which runs against popular perceptions and tropes about need…

But beyond the particulars of who the program specifically benefits, what the conversation about SNAP also tends to miss is how it benefits everyone. SNAP users, for example, are often able to supplement cheap, processed foods with more nutrient-dense foods like lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, whole grains and dairy. People even use SNAP benefits to buy seeds to grow their own food.* What’s more, before we slashed research on critical public health issues, studies found that SNAP helped people with chronic health conditions like diabetes better maintain their medically-advised nutritional regimens. This is one small example of how programs allow Americans to lead healthier lives, get better jobs and remain more socially mobile, and save all of us (taxpayers included) from billions in expensive and unnecessary medical spending.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Errors and Fraud Congressional Research Service, April 7, 2025

“Errors are not the same as fraud. Fraud is intentional activity that breaks federal and/or state laws, while errors are mistakes. Certain acts, such as trafficking, are always considered fraud, but other acts, such as duplicate enrollment, may be either errors or fraud depending on the circumstances of the case. SNAP fraud is rare, according to available data and reports...”

LISTEN

Code Switch, NPR, November 8, 2025 (35 minute listen) The hidden history of demonizing SNAP recipients

WATCH

NowThis Impact’s Instagram

“Children who receive SNAP benefits are more likely to earn more as adults. It’s that simple.”

@nowthisimpact

NowThis Impact on Instagram: "Children who receive SNAP benefit…

Dr. Jessica Knurick’s TikTok

“Fraud rates in these essential public health programs are routinely under 2%, and most of it comes from providers, not individuals.”

@drjessicaknurickReplying to @Jacob actually fraud rates in these essential public health programs are routinely under 2%, and most of it comes from providers, not individuals. If we want to talk about real waste, let’s look here: — $600+ billion lost every year to tax evasion, mostly by the ultra-wealthy
 — Billions in Medicare Advantage overpayments to insurers gaming the system
 — Rampant overcharging by military contractors, with inflated prices for basic supplies If we’re serious about using tax dollars wisely, the problem isn’t programs that keep people fed and cared for. It’s the systems that reward exploitation at the top, and convince the rest of us to look the other way.

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NowThis Impact’s Instagram

“The right is pushing a racist lie about who uses SNAP to justify ending a program that 42 million Americans rely on. Instead of blaming our neighbors, we should be looking up.”

@nowthisimpact

NowThis Impact on Instagram: "The right is pushing a racist lie…

Last Week Tonight U.S. Government Shutdown and SNAP

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Instagram post by Food Bank for Larimer County

@food4larimerco

Food Bank For Larimer County on Instagram: "SNAP fraud has actu…

Instagram post by Caroline Waltzman

@carolinewaltzman.mha

Caroline Waltzman, MHA, CLSSGB on Instagram: "🚨 SNAP fraud is …

MEME

The shutdown coming to an end won’t end the lies and hate spread by those who serve the greediest at the top. By sharing this information you take one step towards a brighter, better-informed future.

Public Enlightenment provides the context we need to understand the news. If you want to support my work please consider a paid subscription. Every like, follow, repost, and subscription helps me continue the work of providing you with ways to improve our information ecosystem so that we all achieve healthier outcomes. Help me fight like hell to improve everyone’s media diet. Every single day.

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I livestream most weekday afternoons on TikTok (3:30pm ET). Watch my videos about information nutrition on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Easily access fact-based, pro-democracy news sources using the Lists on my Bluesky.

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Fight for democracy by replacing their toxic propaganda with healthy, pro-democracy journalism. By volunteering as an operative for the pro-democracy People’s Think Tank you might just save America.

This brief provides fact-based context to the issues of the day. Share it with someone. Then share the resources within as widely as possible across your social media and in your group chats. More here.

READ

US government shutdown enters 36th day to become longest in history The Guardian, November 5th

“The standoff began on the first day of October, after Democratic senators refused to vote for a government funding bill unless it included an extension of Joe Biden-era tax credits that lower costs for health plans purchased through Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. Tens of millions of Americans are expected to be unable to afford insurance once the credits expire at the end of 2025.”

The federal government is still shut down. Here’s what that means across the country NPR, Updated November 3rd

“Prominent Republican lawmakers have claimed the Democrats are looking to provide tax dollars to help pay for the health care of undocumented immigrants. That is not true.”

Why Trump Is Allowing Food Stamp Funding to Run Out The Nation, October 30th

“On the same day that Trump pledged to CNN that he would continue SNAP payments in November, his own Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the government wouldn’t. The next day, the USDA used its website to double down on the SNAP shutdown, using lies about immigrants and a false smear against transgender Americans in a partisan message that clearly violated the federal Hatch Act prohibition on using tax dollars for partisan purposes.”

Trump Is Illegally Withholding Food From Needy Families The American Prospect, October 29th

“But the reality is that not only is the contingency fund meant to be used in this exact fashion, it’s illegal for the Trump administration to refuse to do so. The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which reauthorized the food stamp program and changed its name to SNAP, states clearly that benefits ‘shall be furnished to all eligible households who make application for such participation.’”

The Hunger Games Begin Paul Krugman, October 28th

“Why are Republicans hostile to a program that benefits tens of millions of Americans? Pay attention to right-wing rhetoric about food stamps and you’ll hear again and again assertions that SNAP beneficiaries are lazy malingerers — the “bums on welfare” who should be forced to go out and get jobs.

But that myth is punctured by a quick look at who gets SNAP. The fact is, the great majority of SNAP recipients can’t work: 40 percent are children; 18 percent are elderly; 11 percent are disabled. Furthermore, a majority of recipients who are capable of working do work. They are the working poor: their jobs just don’t pay enough, or offer sufficiently stable employment, to make ends meet without aid.”

LISTEN

The NPR Politics Podcast (20 minute listen) Millions of Americans set to lose federal food aid Nov. 1 due to shutdown

WATCH

PBS NewsHour Report, November 3rd SNAP benefits will be partially funded as shutdown stretches on, White House says

Bernie Sanders’ Instagram Republicans: Don’t Shut Down The Government

@berniesanders

A post shared by Bernie Sanders on Instagram: "Republicans are poised to shut down the government.

Here’s how they can get my support:

1) Don’t take health care away from 15 million people with Medicaid cuts

2) Don’t increase premiums by 75% for 20 million Americans

3) Don’t don’t move us toward authoritarianism"

Sawyer Hackett’s Instagram If Dems are weak on the shutdown fight, why are Trump and Republicans desperately lying to spin it?

@sawyerhackett

A post shared by Sawyer Hackett on Instagram: "If Dems are weak on the shutdown fight, why are Trump and Republicans desperately lying to spin it?"

The Bulwark on Bluesky Kentucky Governor Beshear: ‘Trump has authority to fund SNAP’

Last Week Tonight U.S. Government Shutdown and SNAP

MEME

Did I miss something? Add more pro-democracy, fact-based reporting and commentary in the comments.

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Public Enlightenment provides the context we need to understand the news. If you want to support my work please consider a paid subscription. Every like, follow, repost, and subscription helps me continue the work of providing you with ways to improve our information ecosystem so that we all achieve healthier outcomes. Help me fight like hell to improve everyone’s media diet. Every single day.

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I livestream most weekday afternoons on TikTok (3:30pm ET). Watch my videos about information nutrition on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Easily access fact-based, pro-democracy news sources using the Lists on my Bluesky.

Here’s to healthier information,
Brian

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We got like this because the very rich mounted a decades-long, divisive public relations campaign designed to make the system work for them—not the people.

The Wealthy Conservative Strategy: Think Tanks

The strategy was simple: Shift public opinion towards the conservative elite agenda by flooding the media with propaganda. By 1995, media references to far-right think tanks outnumbered references to center or left-of-center research institutions by 7 to 1.1 Far-right think tanks provided the raw materials for a cultural revolution. Today those raw materials are pumped directly into the social media apps on our phones via memes and pundits.

The goal was clear: Sway policy in their favor and form a “counter-establishment…to undermine—and redirect—academia, Congress, the judiciary, executive branch agencies, major media, and even philanthropy.”2 Manufacture culture wars and exploit the resulting division, distraction, and cynicism at the ballot box. Think CRT, DEI, and “wokeness.”

...[they] had workshopped a pitch to the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, for a project to create “a modern-day Death Star” to wage “ideological warfare” on the “enemies of modernity”; their plan involved writing coordinated op-eds and promoting anti-woke content… - New Yorker

In 2018, while watching Trump’s State of the Union speech, billionaire operative Steve Bannon said the quiet part out loud when he told author Michael Lewis “the real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

Public Enlightenment’s Counter-Strategy: The People’s Think Tank

Our counter-strategy is simple.

Do what the think tanks that destroyed our society did—just in reverse—by flooding the zone with facts. All it takes is you buying in and spreading the word. You can literally fight fascism from your couch using the phone in your hand.

The conservative billionaires achieved their anti-democratic goals by disseminating hateful propaganda and disinformation throughout the media. You’re going to disseminate facts and context to your networks to dilute the propaganda.

We don’t need to hire operatives to generate our raw materials. Fact-based, pro-democracy newsrooms are already doing our work for us every day. We just have to spread it.

You and me, and millions more, overwhelming the algorithms and family group chats with facts. This is the vision. What’s stopping us from helping everyone, especially our MAGA friends and loved ones, be better informed? Only cynicism.

So Stay On Your Couch and Do Something!

Starting this week I’ll be producing briefs (under the banner of The People’s Think Tank) that provide context to the issues of the day. We live in a fragmented media environment so I’ll be sure to include something for everyone—articles, social media posts, podcasts, memes. Your mission is to access them, consume them, and then share them as widely as possible on social media and in group chats.

We know that fascism only exists where propaganda is strong and journalism is weak. If we replace the toxic information our fellow citizens are consuming with healthy, pro-democracy information, we will fight. And we will win.

Be a node in the pro-democracy propaganda network that will save America.

And you don’t have to wait for my first brief to come out tomorrow. Just take some time to share fact-based, pro-democracy information right now. Find a ton using my Bluesky lists here.

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