November 4, 2025 • 32 mins
The government shutdown didn’t starve America — it exposed our addiction to dependency.
In this episode, The Tenth Man unpacks the SNAP panic: forty-two million people “losing benefits,” the myth of American hunger, and the reality of how many safety nets already exist. From WIC to TANF to SSI, TEFAP, school lunches, and the Earned Income Tax Credit, we explore how a nation that calls its poor “starving” can also call them obese.
Our host shows how media misrepresentation turns welfare into a moral virtue, and how the very people who fund the system are treated as villains for asking where their money goes. Compassion for the truly needy is noble — but robbing the middle class to feed the lazy is theft.
When a nation treats the consumer of taxes as holier than the producer, it’s not feeding the poor — it’s starving freedom.
Commentary on trending issues brought to you with a moderate perspective.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
The Tenth Man (00:11):
The SNAP program shuts down and America's poor go
from obese to starvingovernight.
Suggestions for the idle poor onhow to maintain their 4,000
daily calories today, on TheTenth Man.
(00:33):
It is come as a bit of asurprise that the government
shutdown down has gone on thislong, because we started saying
originally that, well, peopleshould stop complaining because
they haven't lost a paycheckyet.
And they didn't lose one for acouple, maybe even three weeks.
But now it's gone on, and so noweven the people on SNAP are
gonna stop getting theirpaychecks, which is what they
(00:56):
are.
They get paid for doing nothing,but they are getting paid.
And we don't wanna discount thefact that there are a few
deserving, needy, poor.
It can only be a few in therichest country in the world.
But we're not talking aboutthose.
So if you want to criticize andsay, we lack compassion for the
(01:16):
truly needy, nope, not the case.
Not talking about the needy,we're talking about the
scammers, which is most of thepeople on SNAP.
Scammers might not be thecompletely accurate word.
How about deadbeats?
People who get paid for doingnothing when they could be doing
something.
So lack of compassion is not theissue.
(01:39):
Whenever Washington has a hiccuplike this, suddenly people act
like the only way you can getfood is from Washington.
Hmm.
You know, Washington is only acouple hundred years old.
How did people get food beforethat?
And then the headlines will say,there are 42 million people who
"rely" on food stamps forsomething to eat.
(02:02):
Huh?
That's actually factuallyincorrect because SNAP stands
for, well, the last threeletters are Nutritional
Assistance Program.
You know what the first letteris?
The S?
Supplemental.
Supplemental something thatDemocrats and deadbeats don't
understand.
SNAP is supposed to help you buyfood.
(02:24):
It's not supposed to buy allyour food for you.
There's just the possibilitythat there's other things you
could do rather than rely on thegovernment.
So let's talk about them.
And let's talk about the factthat they say how many families
there are on food stamps.
Yeah, but then with thepictures, always a single
(02:45):
mother.
The hero of today, the singlemom who can't get formula for
her baby.
Actually, you know, she could,she could breastfeed.
I know some people can't, butmaybe she could.
She could try because all thefeminist groups say that
breastfeeding is superior.
(03:07):
But you see, feminist groups areliberal, so they all get real
quiet as soon as you talk aboutgiving away free stuff.
And there's plenty of freeformula available.
There are food banks thatdedicate themselves to nothing
other than giving away formula,which might make sense.
(03:28):
I mean, there are people who useformula that you, you know,
there's the ones who can'tbreastfeed, as I said, and then
you might want to have somearound for when you go to work.
But the people on SNAP, they'renot the ones going to work, are
they?
Are they?
But before you go anywhere tolook for free food, maybe you
(03:48):
should just first look in therefrigerator and look in the
cupboard.
And I'm saying that kind ofsarcastically because we talk
about the poor in America.
The poor in the world are theones whom the UN defines as
living on some number less than$3 a day, not$20 an hour minimum
wage,$3 a day.
(04:09):
And those people, those poorpeople, they don't have a
refrigerator or a cupboard tolook in.
And that's to say if yourpaycheck didn't come on Tuesday,
are you out of food onWednesday?
Does anybody live that way?
Is anybody's house empty?
Because they haven't goneshopping or because they went
(04:30):
shopping the day after payday.
What's going on here?
Because we're told there arepeople who will say, if you
wanna find somebody who reallyknows how to manage his money,
look for a poor person.
Because they have to manage,they have to scratch and
scrabble.
So where is the scratching andscrambling here?
Where is there any hint ofadaptation.
(04:56):
But they are adapting.
People have said that, well, ifmy food stamps don't come, I'm
just gonna go out and stealfood.
Well, frankly, I don't care ifyou do because as far as I'm
concerned, most of the people onfood stamps, they're stealing
already.
And even if we don't want tocall it stealing, they're
getting something for nothing.
So whether they're getting itlegitimately from forcing a
taxpayer who on and, and we'reforced to pay, it's not charity.
(05:21):
Charity would be, if they askedus charity would be if they put
a checkbox on the tax form forthe people paying taxes to say,
yeah, I wanna give to foodstamps.
And then we would look aroundand say, huh, I think those food
stamps, they're doing a goodwork.
I wanna chip in for that andthen we would.
That would be charity.
But this isn't charity, it's,it's actually slavery.
(05:42):
They take away our money whetherwe like it or not.
They've decided that this personover here is more deserving
based on his skin, hiscircumstances.
This person is more deservingthan you are of the fruits of
your own labor.
When they say families, that'sinteresting too.
They'll say, uh, X percent ofthe families have children.
(06:05):
I'm fascinated.
Tell me more.
What percentage of the, of thefamilies have two parents?
What percentage of the familiesare a mother and a father, and
what percentage are agrandmother and no one else?
Because if there's agrandmother, if you get to the
point where the grandmother isproviding for the kids and
that's good, family is steppingin.
(06:27):
But now when you go from childto parent, that's two adults to
take care of that child when yougo to grandparents, that's four
more total of six adults able totake responsibility, who are
morally obligated to takeresponsibility and should.
So before they're getting foodstamps, where are all six of
those adults?
(06:47):
And they know the answer.
There's a birth certificate,there's a father's name on it.
Why can't the father take careof'em?
The father should be taking careof'em, except another thing the
feminists tell us is that womendon't need a man.
Well, they seem to needsomething.
They seem to need some kind ofhelp.
They seem seem to need a lot ofmen because we are the ones
(07:08):
paying the taxes that aresupporting them.
Not complaining about payingtaxes.
We'll talk more about thatlater.
So they're really not doing allthat well without a man.
So once you find there's nothingin the cupboard and uh, and
you've exhausted all the helpyour family can give you, then
(07:28):
you have to go to SNAP as asupplement.
You're not supposed to rely onit.
If you do, you're a bad parent.
You're a bad parent because youneed to be the first one taking
responsibility for your kids,and one of the things you can do
is good budgeting.
Because you know, SNAP benefitsnever expire.
(07:52):
But SNAP benefits have stopped.
You've gotta do something else.
You, you need to try budgeting.
You could have planned ahead.
You saw that there was gonna bethe potential for not getting
SNAP, so you need, you couldhave been tightening your belt,
going to the food banks, butwhat other federal aid is there?
Well, there's a lot.
There's WIC, Women Infants andChildren Program.
(08:13):
That's a program giving justbaby formula, milk, cereal, and
nutrition counseling to the poorwomen who can't find formula.
Then there's TANF, T-A-N-F,Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families.
This is what we used to callwelfare and this program, hands
(08:33):
out cash, hands out cash to thepeople who are needy.
And we emphasize there it is forthe needy, not the greedy.
So if you are truly in need,you're also eligible for this in
addition to food stamps.
So, and that's cash.
You can spend it anywhere.
Another program is SSI and thatgives monthly checks out to low
(08:54):
income, elderly and disabledadults, the most vulnerable.
Not everybody gets this program,and not everybody gets what it's
all about.
You see, this is for the mostvulnerable.
If you are not on SSI, you'renot the most vulnerable.
(09:17):
So we take care of the needy andpeople who are not on SSI and
those who are not on TANF shouldbe trying to do something else.
Then there's TEFAP, theEmergency Food Assistance
Program.
This moves hundreds of millionsof dollars worth of US farm
commodities to the publicthrough, through local agencies.
(09:39):
Well, it used to actually, yousee this is the old USDA program
where you could go get, and uh,we actually did this when I was
a kid, you'd go get powderedmilk and cheese and powdered
eggs and canned meat, and it wasactual food items and it was
designed to support farm marketswhile providing support for the
(10:00):
poor, eliminating agriculturalsurpluses.
But now there aren't anysurpluses, so we just dump money
into it.
We just dump money into that sopeople can get that too.
That's how the government works.
You set up something to solve aneed, and then you keep it going
forever.
And of course there's food banksand church pantries, and those
(10:23):
operate even when Washington ison coffee break.
These are wonderful because youactually get to choose whether
or not to give to them.
I support the one in, in, in ourtown and at our church along
with my taxes, which I don'tcomplain about.
And uh, the thing is, those foodbanks, they really don't ask a
lot of questions about youreligibility.
(10:44):
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
Ho hum.
You've heard all that.
You know about all these, youknow, there's a lot of
government programs.
Maybe you didn't know how manythere were, but we're not done.
And this one is huge.
Every child from a low incomefamily qualifies for free school
breakfast and lunch.
And many districts after haveafterschool snacks as well.
(11:08):
So the parents of school agedkids are actually double
dipping.
They're getting SNAP cards andthey're getting their kids fed
for free at school, at least twomeals a day.
That means all through thesummer when they had to feed
their kids at home, they had tospend more.
But as soon as school startedtwo months ago yeah, they had
(11:28):
two months worth of not havingto pay to feed their kids who
were going to school.
So that money just backed uponto the EBT card and they don't
expire.
So as many kids as you have inschool, you've got that much
extra money to spend.
So what about it?
Where'd that money go?
(11:50):
You know, if in a truly fairworld, when you, when you kids
start school, they would takethat money off your SNAP card
because you don't need it.
But people don't understand whatthat word need means.
It doesn't mean you want it,it's, it's need not greed.
If you want it, it's greed Ifyou need it, that's something
different.
(12:10):
So, and and also you'll seesomebody going to the store.
You'll see the lady pushing the,the, the shopping cart with her
six kids.
Okay?
She's got her six kids andsaying she can't get baby
formula.
Well, if you got six kids justby math f only the bottom two to
three kids can still be at home.
(12:32):
The rest must be in school,getting free school lunch.
Uh, but they don't expect us todo arithmetic like that.
They expect us to just let thetax dollars go, spend them,
waste them.
So all the wise poor people whohave to, who have to scratch and
scrabble and plan, they don'tactually plan at all.
(12:54):
And then here's another hugeone.
Don't forget the Earned IncomeTax Credit, and this one needs
an explanation.
We'll concentrate on this onebecause a lot of Americans don't
understand it.
And for our internationallisteners, you'll probably be
floored.
People on the lower end of thewage scale in America, do not
(13:17):
pay federal income taxes at all.
You have to make about$30,000 ayear.
Now how are you doing over therein Europe?
What's your, what's your averagemiddle class salary over there?
Alright.
It's not much above$30,000 ayear, is it?
Okay.
So if they make$30,000 a year orso, they pay no federal income
(13:37):
tax.
So not only that.
They don't pay any tax incometaxes, but they still file an
income tax return.
So in April they get a refundcheck of other people's money.
Yes, that's right.
They didn't pay in, but they getcash back.
Millions of dollars.
So it's as if you never bought araffle ticket, but you win
(14:00):
anyway.
So think about it.
Wages tax free, getting taxback.
And all your food is paid fortoo.
Now, food in most of the worldis a major expense, but in
America, the lower middle class,any, in any other country don't
(14:20):
have to buy their own food andthey don't pay any taxes.
So before we cry, famine, let'scount how many safety nets we
got.
We got SNAP WIC, TANF, SSI,TEFAP, school meals, food banks,
and Earned Income Tax Creditrefund checks.
(14:43):
It's a whole buffet line ofpublic provisions.
And funny, and again, for ouroverseas, overseas listeners,
think about it.
How many times have you beentold that America is a cruel
country?
We don't have any socialprograms.
Oh, we've got'em.
We've got'em.
We just don't have'em for thepeople who deserve'em.
(15:03):
And you know there is one otheroption.
Yeah, millions of Americans worktwo jobs when things get tight.
I've worked two jobs, hasn'teverybody.
Well, that's just, but that'sjust what you do.
That's called adulthood.
See, charity has its place, ifyou can even call this charity,
(15:23):
but you're still supposed tohave a, have survival skills.
Now there have been some hugemisre misrepresentations of fact
that the left keeps repeatingand unfortunately the right
keeps letting'em slide.
It's only here on The Tenth Manthat you get the plain truth
explained from the ground up.
And we don't just replay otherpeople's videos and then say how
(15:44):
horrified we are.
It's original material.
And if you value that kind ofstraight talk, subscribe to The
Tenth Man and tell a friend whostill believes only the
headlines.
Because you gotta read past theheadlines and that's what we do
here.
All original stuff.
So here's another hugemisrepresentation.
According to the networks, theminute a SNAP card freezes
(16:09):
America becomes like Somalia orYemen or Sudan.
And yet government health datashow that low income Americans
are more likely to be obese thanare the middle class.
So it's all the people paying inwho are the skinny ones, but of
(16:31):
course they are actuallyworking.
And you wanna know how the richget richer?
By short selling Coke and Pepsi.
You see the top food stamppurchase is pop.
So Coke and Pepsi just lost 42million customers.
(16:51):
The smart money is sellingshort.
Yeah.
'cause the, all the top SNAPpurchases are, are pop soda
chips and candy.
Now things like eggs andpotatoes, things that are
actually nutritious and cheap,those are at the bottom.
Those rank, they're in the top20, number 20.
(17:13):
And so, the same crowd that'swarning us about mass hunger and
starving babies, they want us tofund the 64 ounce colas.
That's two liters.
I dunno why we even said 64ounce.
They're two liters, here.
We are metric.
And the contradiction doesn'tbother'em because it serves both
(17:35):
sides of their narrative.
Remember, they're anything ifnot inconsistent.
'Cause they can campaign againsthunger, while also campaigning
for free healthcare to treat thediabetes that comes with it.
And that's no joke.
That's no joke.
The left is now demandingOzempic for all the fat poor
(17:58):
kids.
And who pays for that?
The same taxpayer they pay onceat, we pay once at the checkout
line and again at the hospital.
So more free stuff, America isnot Socialist?
Oh, yes, we are.
The 42 million people on foodstamps, most of them 30 million
are also on Medicaid, absolutelyfree medical care for the lower
(18:21):
middle class who also pay notaxes.
So does this sound like crueltyto you, a lack of compassion, or
is it just arithmetic?
Because you can't call a nationboth starving and obese at the
same time and, and, and, and betaken seriously.
If you wanna be compassionate,it requires telling the truth.
(18:44):
And the truth is, you could cutfood stamps today a hundred
percent, and people would stillmanage to get by and overall
health would go up.
Prove me wrong.
And we know that based on theamount of fraud that goes on,
the fraud proves that themoney's not needed.
A woman in the Detroit News,they profile her as a single
(19:06):
mom.
Then you actually read thearticle.
This was uh, last Sunday,November 1st.
Then you actually read thearticle and you find it's two
adult kids, 18 and 20.
So two adult kids and anotheradult in the house.
That's not what most peoplethink of when they hear about a
poor family.
It's three adults, but they'regetting SNAP And then come the
(19:30):
hustles.
You know, one reason they buy somuch soda, it's not because they
are drinking it all.
A lot of, a lot of states have adeposit.
You have to pay 10 cents on eachcan.
One one 10th of a dollar on eachcan of pop you bring home.
They'll buy the pop, dump it outin the parking lot and then go
turn it in and they're getting10 cents on the dollar on the
money that you spent.
(19:52):
In cash.
They can spend on anything.
You can go to online forums likeQuora and find people talking
about it.
Here's one of a man tellingabout how his mother took their
SNAP cards, their food stamps,down to a store once a month and
turned it in for 50 cents on thedollar.
She fed the kids with somethingelse and she used all that money
to buy liquor.
(20:13):
Another talks about a priceybrand of organic milk in
refundable glass bottles.
Well, the milk costs$8 but$3 isbottle deposit.
So what is that?
A 30% return 40, 40 cents on thedollar.
Buy the milk and pour it out ordrink it.
Hm.
(20:34):
But the left and the mainstreammedia say we are mean if we even
ask where all that money, allour money is going.
And it's a lot of money.
I How big?
Well, it's a whole lot of money.
Because SNAP runs near a hundredbillion dollars a year.
(20:54):
TANF or Welfare?
Another's 34 billion.
WIC, 7 billion.
TEFAP, the USDA food program,half a billion.
In other child nutritionprograms, I don't know what they
are,$21 billion.
Together$142 billion.
To picture that.
Well, let's just take the SNAP'cause that's what we're talking
(21:16):
about.
You take, Luxembourg is thewealthiest nation in Europe in
terms of GDP per capita.
Now they're kind of small, buteverybody admires Luxembourg
because they're so rich.
Well, the food stamp alone, foodstamp program alone, is more
than the entire Gross DomesticProduct of Luxembourg.
(21:37):
Our budget for food stamps couldbuy Luxembourg and have change
left over.
Okay, well maybe the nation ofLuxembourg is, is, uh, too, too
vague a reference or, or notrelative.
So let's think about some thingsthat the government actually is
supposed to provide.
The food stamp budget is enoughto fund the Coast Guard 10 times
(21:58):
over.
We all know what the Coast Guardis.
It's what we, we rely on to stopthe Fentanyl coming in to poison
us.
Or the Marine Corps (22:05):
the food stamp budget alone would fund
the United States Marine Corpstwice over.
And so when we have people onthe left, even now saying,
talking about President Trump'snew, extravagant White House
ballroom.
So remember the ballroom, thefirst major addition to the
residence in over a century.
(22:26):
And the$350 million that it costthat would fund the food stamp
program for a little over twodays.
It's a lot of money.
And you know, we have a lot ofmoney because America's smart
and knows how to spend smart,but you can't pay for
(22:46):
everything.
You have to fund what isessential and what it is the
government's business to fund.
But if everything is essential,then nothing is.
And the government was built tobuild and defend a nation, not
to finance people's snacks.
And I don't know whether we needa ballroom or not.
(23:09):
We're not gonna discuss thathere, but if we do, it's not
gonna build itself.
It needs the government to doit.
And yet you have to wonder whymore than 10% of Americans in
the richest country on Earth,more than 10% are supposedly
incapable of providing for theirown most basic needs.
(23:35):
All Americans should be workinghard, paying a taxes, and
contributing to the welfare ofthe genuinely poor people in our
country and in the world.
Speaking of the world, let'stalk about illegal immigration
and the controversy over whetheror not illegal aliens are
receiving food stamps.
(23:56):
Well, you don't have to debatethis one at all.
All you gotta do is look at theliterature of the immigration
agencies themselves, and theyadmit that the SNAP lapse is
going to adversely affectillegal immigrant families.
That's what they're saying.
But it's interesting when I'mresearching this, uh, in case
(24:18):
you don't know it, AI isdefinitely Woke because, uh, go
ahead and do this.
Go ask Google and you've got thelittle AI box.
You can ask, you can do a followup on there.
Go ask Google the question, areillegal aliens benefiting from
SNAP?
And then see what Google tellsyou.
Okay.
(24:38):
'Cause it'll say"No, becauseillegal aliens are not
eligible".
Hmm.
Was that what I asked?
So then go click that box at thebottom and say it.
Say, I didn't ask if they wereeligible.
I asked if they were benefiting.
And then that lying son of a gunthat is Google will be forced to
tell you this (24:59):
Well, illegal aliens don't get food stamps,
but their kids do.
The parents might be illegal,but the kids are born here and
the EBT card arrives addressedto the household and food is
what they call fungible.
(25:20):
It'll feed whoever's sitting atthe table.
And, and that that card, it'sjust like cash.
And this same pattern repeats'cause almost everything.
WIC, Medicaid, each one of thoseis available to houses with
US-born children, and some ofthem the, uh, agriculture
program, that one's probablytaken advantage more by illegal
(25:41):
aliens.
So the Democrats will say,illegal aliens don't get
benefits.
Technically true, practicallyspeaking, false because the
children of illegal aliens geteverything.
And nationally, with the numberof benefits that are already
available to the native born,you can bet the illegals are
(26:01):
gonna snap up anything left overwherever they are eligible, like
the TEFAP Agriculture program.
Some questions for the left, forthe pundits.
If America is so cruel, why dopeople keep coming?
Illegals keep coming, even fromCanada.
Why would they come from Canada?
And if illegal immigrants arenot benefiting from these
(26:24):
programs, why are the illegaladvocates warning about SNAP
affecting them?
And why is every SNAP officebilingual?
All the signs are in Spanish.
They translate paperwork andsigns.
And why would they do that,unless they're expecting Spanish
speaking clients.
They don't even hide this it'sprinted right on the door.
(26:46):
And yeah, I know a lot ofAmericans speak Spanish, happen
to be one of them.
It's called being bilingual, butAmericans can all read English.
You wanna be politicallycorrect, print it in Chippewa,
not Spanish.
You know, if we wanted to endall the debate, all the arguing,
we could just take politics outof it with one stroke of the
(27:10):
pen.
If you pay no federal incometax.
You don't vote on how the tax isspent.
No taxes, no vote.
That's fair.
That's just being responsible.
The American Revolution wasabout taxation without
representation because those twothings go together.
(27:33):
But now we live underrepresentation without taxation.
Tens of millions of peoplevoting to expand programs that
are funded entirely by otherpeople.
You know, having skin in thegame changes everything.
Free stuff is a lot differentwhen it's not actually free
anymore.
(27:54):
And here's the thing thatbaffles me.
Every creature on earth, whetheryou believe in God or nature,
nature or God, created everyliving being capable of
providing for both itself andits young.
Food, clothing, shelter.
Every bird gathers, every foxhunts, every fish finds food.
(28:20):
But only humanity, andspecifically only modern America
accepts as a fact the widespreadinability to care for oneself as
being a normal condition.
Heck, we praise it.
We fund it, and we vote to makeit bigger.
(28:40):
At the same time, we're praisingillegal immigrants for working
hard on the job, we're rewardingthe Native born for working the
system.
Charity is good, but it shouldbe rare, it should be targeted,
and it should be justified.
You know, we say the governmenthas shut down, but it sure
(29:02):
doesn't look like it.
The politicians are still on TVdebating, but the only thing
they're talking about ispayments to the people making no
contribution to society.
Sure they matter, but, whatabout the functions that only
government can perform?
Defense, air traffic control,border security.
(29:26):
These are the ones that we allowto grind to a halt or at least
not get paid for.
And why is it that a judge canorder food stamps to be paid,
but he can't order five Democratsenators to vote yes to reopen
the government?
And why does closing thegovernment mean air traffic
(29:47):
controllers don't get paid?
People we actually need thegovernment to provide, but
people who are frankly a burdento society, those are the ones
this so-called closed governmentis worried about.
That's the great moral inversionof our time.
We get called racist foropposing aid to freeloaders in
(30:07):
America, most of whom are white,as we're pointing out the true
famine and starvation in Africaand famine, the actual bloated
bellies, eyes clogged with fliestype of famine has moved from
Ethiopia to Somalia to Yemen,and now, right now, today,
(30:29):
Sudan, and yet we're here givingCoca-Cola away to illegals.
The poor in America are rich byworld standards.
They live better than the middleclass in much of Europe and pay
no federal income tax for theprivilege.
They receive food, housing,phones, medical care, and
(30:51):
utilities aid, and then theyignore the important issues of
the day to vote on the singleissue of getting themselves more
money.
Meanwhile, the working classpays both their own bills and
the bills of those who won'tbecome members of the working
class.
(31:13):
And if we ask any questions,we're not compassionate.
We're not Christian.
We get criticized for not takingcare of someone else's kids, but
they themselves are immune fromall scrutiny.
Above all, we are not angryabout paying taxes.
Nothing in this episode is aboutpaying less taxes.
(31:37):
We all like lower taxes, butthat's not what this episode is
about.
We've seen all the memes wherepeople who don't wanna pay food
stamps are stingy.
Far from it.
I'm proud, blessed, and happy tobe able to pay taxes, and I wish
everyone the ability to pay asmany as I do.
(31:59):
I'm only angry about wastingthem, about giving them to the
undeserving.
Compassion for the truly needyis noble, but robbing the middle
class to feed the lazy is theft.
When a nation treats theconsumer of taxes as holier than
the producer, it's not feedingthe poor, it's starving freedom.
(32:25):
So hold everyone accountable.
Trust me, they can handle it.
The SNAP program shuts down and America's poor go
from obese to starvingovernight.
Suggestions for the idle poor onhow to maintain their 4,000
daily calories today, on TheTenth Man.
(00:33):
It is come as a bit of asurprise that the government
shutdown down has gone on thislong, because we started saying
originally that, well, peopleshould stop complaining because
they haven't lost a paycheckyet.
And they didn't lose one for acouple, maybe even three weeks.
But now it's gone on, and so noweven the people on SNAP are
gonna stop getting theirpaychecks, which is what they
(00:56):
are.
They get paid for doing nothing,but they are getting paid.
And we don't wanna discount thefact that there are a few
deserving, needy, poor.
It can only be a few in therichest country in the world.
But we're not talking aboutthose.
So if you want to criticize andsay, we lack compassion for the
(01:16):
truly needy, nope, not the case.
Not talking about the needy,we're talking about the
scammers, which is most of thepeople on SNAP.
Scammers might not be thecompletely accurate word.
How about deadbeats?
People who get paid for doingnothing when they could be doing
something.
So lack of compassion is not theissue.
(01:39):
Whenever Washington has a hiccuplike this, suddenly people act
like the only way you can getfood is from Washington.
Hmm.
You know, Washington is only acouple hundred years old.
How did people get food beforethat?
And then the headlines will say,there are 42 million people who
"rely" on food stamps forsomething to eat.
(02:02):
Huh?
That's actually factuallyincorrect because SNAP stands
for, well, the last threeletters are Nutritional
Assistance Program.
You know what the first letteris?
The S?
Supplemental.
Supplemental something thatDemocrats and deadbeats don't
understand.
SNAP is supposed to help you buyfood.
(02:24):
It's not supposed to buy allyour food for you.
There's just the possibilitythat there's other things you
could do rather than rely on thegovernment.
So let's talk about them.
And let's talk about the factthat they say how many families
there are on food stamps.
Yeah, but then with thepictures, always a single
(02:45):
mother.
The hero of today, the singlemom who can't get formula for
her baby.
Actually, you know, she could,she could breastfeed.
I know some people can't, butmaybe she could.
She could try because all thefeminist groups say that
breastfeeding is superior.
(03:07):
But you see, feminist groups areliberal, so they all get real
quiet as soon as you talk aboutgiving away free stuff.
And there's plenty of freeformula available.
There are food banks thatdedicate themselves to nothing
other than giving away formula,which might make sense.
(03:28):
I mean, there are people who useformula that you, you know,
there's the ones who can'tbreastfeed, as I said, and then
you might want to have somearound for when you go to work.
But the people on SNAP, they'renot the ones going to work, are
they?
Are they?
But before you go anywhere tolook for free food, maybe you
(03:48):
should just first look in therefrigerator and look in the
cupboard.
And I'm saying that kind ofsarcastically because we talk
about the poor in America.
The poor in the world are theones whom the UN defines as
living on some number less than$3 a day, not$20 an hour minimum
wage,$3 a day.
(04:09):
And those people, those poorpeople, they don't have a
refrigerator or a cupboard tolook in.
And that's to say if yourpaycheck didn't come on Tuesday,
are you out of food onWednesday?
Does anybody live that way?
Is anybody's house empty?
Because they haven't goneshopping or because they went
(04:30):
shopping the day after payday.
What's going on here?
Because we're told there arepeople who will say, if you
wanna find somebody who reallyknows how to manage his money,
look for a poor person.
Because they have to manage,they have to scratch and
scrabble.
So where is the scratching andscrambling here?
Where is there any hint ofadaptation.
(04:56):
But they are adapting.
People have said that, well, ifmy food stamps don't come, I'm
just gonna go out and stealfood.
Well, frankly, I don't care ifyou do because as far as I'm
concerned, most of the people onfood stamps, they're stealing
already.
And even if we don't want tocall it stealing, they're
getting something for nothing.
So whether they're getting itlegitimately from forcing a
taxpayer who on and, and we'reforced to pay, it's not charity.
(05:21):
Charity would be, if they askedus charity would be if they put
a checkbox on the tax form forthe people paying taxes to say,
yeah, I wanna give to foodstamps.
And then we would look aroundand say, huh, I think those food
stamps, they're doing a goodwork.
I wanna chip in for that andthen we would.
That would be charity.
But this isn't charity, it's,it's actually slavery.
(05:42):
They take away our money whetherwe like it or not.
They've decided that this personover here is more deserving
based on his skin, hiscircumstances.
This person is more deservingthan you are of the fruits of
your own labor.
When they say families, that'sinteresting too.
They'll say, uh, X percent ofthe families have children.
(06:05):
I'm fascinated.
Tell me more.
What percentage of the, of thefamilies have two parents?
What percentage of the familiesare a mother and a father, and
what percentage are agrandmother and no one else?
Because if there's agrandmother, if you get to the
point where the grandmother isproviding for the kids and
that's good, family is steppingin.
(06:27):
But now when you go from childto parent, that's two adults to
take care of that child when yougo to grandparents, that's four
more total of six adults able totake responsibility, who are
morally obligated to takeresponsibility and should.
So before they're getting foodstamps, where are all six of
those adults?
(06:47):
And they know the answer.
There's a birth certificate,there's a father's name on it.
Why can't the father take careof'em?
The father should be taking careof'em, except another thing the
feminists tell us is that womendon't need a man.
Well, they seem to needsomething.
They seem to need some kind ofhelp.
They seem seem to need a lot ofmen because we are the ones
(07:08):
paying the taxes that aresupporting them.
Not complaining about payingtaxes.
We'll talk more about thatlater.
So they're really not doing allthat well without a man.
So once you find there's nothingin the cupboard and uh, and
you've exhausted all the helpyour family can give you, then
(07:28):
you have to go to SNAP as asupplement.
You're not supposed to rely onit.
If you do, you're a bad parent.
You're a bad parent because youneed to be the first one taking
responsibility for your kids,and one of the things you can do
is good budgeting.
Because you know, SNAP benefitsnever expire.
(07:52):
But SNAP benefits have stopped.
You've gotta do something else.
You, you need to try budgeting.
You could have planned ahead.
You saw that there was gonna bethe potential for not getting
SNAP, so you need, you couldhave been tightening your belt,
going to the food banks, butwhat other federal aid is there?
Well, there's a lot.
There's WIC, Women Infants andChildren Program.
(08:13):
That's a program giving justbaby formula, milk, cereal, and
nutrition counseling to the poorwomen who can't find formula.
Then there's TANF, T-A-N-F,Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families.
This is what we used to callwelfare and this program, hands
(08:33):
out cash, hands out cash to thepeople who are needy.
And we emphasize there it is forthe needy, not the greedy.
So if you are truly in need,you're also eligible for this in
addition to food stamps.
So, and that's cash.
You can spend it anywhere.
Another program is SSI and thatgives monthly checks out to low
(08:54):
income, elderly and disabledadults, the most vulnerable.
Not everybody gets this program,and not everybody gets what it's
all about.
You see, this is for the mostvulnerable.
If you are not on SSI, you'renot the most vulnerable.
(09:17):
So we take care of the needy andpeople who are not on SSI and
those who are not on TANF shouldbe trying to do something else.
Then there's TEFAP, theEmergency Food Assistance
Program.
This moves hundreds of millionsof dollars worth of US farm
commodities to the publicthrough, through local agencies.
(09:39):
Well, it used to actually, yousee this is the old USDA program
where you could go get, and uh,we actually did this when I was
a kid, you'd go get powderedmilk and cheese and powdered
eggs and canned meat, and it wasactual food items and it was
designed to support farm marketswhile providing support for the
(10:00):
poor, eliminating agriculturalsurpluses.
But now there aren't anysurpluses, so we just dump money
into it.
We just dump money into that sopeople can get that too.
That's how the government works.
You set up something to solve aneed, and then you keep it going
forever.
And of course there's food banksand church pantries, and those
(10:23):
operate even when Washington ison coffee break.
These are wonderful because youactually get to choose whether
or not to give to them.
I support the one in, in, in ourtown and at our church along
with my taxes, which I don'tcomplain about.
And uh, the thing is, those foodbanks, they really don't ask a
lot of questions about youreligibility.
(10:44):
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
Ho hum.
You've heard all that.
You know about all these, youknow, there's a lot of
government programs.
Maybe you didn't know how manythere were, but we're not done.
And this one is huge.
Every child from a low incomefamily qualifies for free school
breakfast and lunch.
And many districts after haveafterschool snacks as well.
(11:08):
So the parents of school agedkids are actually double
dipping.
They're getting SNAP cards andthey're getting their kids fed
for free at school, at least twomeals a day.
That means all through thesummer when they had to feed
their kids at home, they had tospend more.
But as soon as school startedtwo months ago yeah, they had
(11:28):
two months worth of not havingto pay to feed their kids who
were going to school.
So that money just backed uponto the EBT card and they don't
expire.
So as many kids as you have inschool, you've got that much
extra money to spend.
So what about it?
Where'd that money go?
(11:50):
You know, if in a truly fairworld, when you, when you kids
start school, they would takethat money off your SNAP card
because you don't need it.
But people don't understand whatthat word need means.
It doesn't mean you want it,it's, it's need not greed.
If you want it, it's greed Ifyou need it, that's something
different.
(12:10):
So, and and also you'll seesomebody going to the store.
You'll see the lady pushing the,the, the shopping cart with her
six kids.
Okay?
She's got her six kids andsaying she can't get baby
formula.
Well, if you got six kids justby math f only the bottom two to
three kids can still be at home.
(12:32):
The rest must be in school,getting free school lunch.
Uh, but they don't expect us todo arithmetic like that.
They expect us to just let thetax dollars go, spend them,
waste them.
So all the wise poor people whohave to, who have to scratch and
scrabble and plan, they don'tactually plan at all.
(12:54):
And then here's another hugeone.
Don't forget the Earned IncomeTax Credit, and this one needs
an explanation.
We'll concentrate on this onebecause a lot of Americans don't
understand it.
And for our internationallisteners, you'll probably be
floored.
People on the lower end of thewage scale in America, do not
(13:17):
pay federal income taxes at all.
You have to make about$30,000 ayear.
Now how are you doing over therein Europe?
What's your, what's your averagemiddle class salary over there?
Alright.
It's not much above$30,000 ayear, is it?
Okay.
So if they make$30,000 a year orso, they pay no federal income
(13:37):
tax.
So not only that.
They don't pay any tax incometaxes, but they still file an
income tax return.
So in April they get a refundcheck of other people's money.
Yes, that's right.
They didn't pay in, but they getcash back.
Millions of dollars.
So it's as if you never bought araffle ticket, but you win
(14:00):
anyway.
So think about it.
Wages tax free, getting taxback.
And all your food is paid fortoo.
Now, food in most of the worldis a major expense, but in
America, the lower middle class,any, in any other country don't
(14:20):
have to buy their own food andthey don't pay any taxes.
So before we cry, famine, let'scount how many safety nets we
got.
We got SNAP WIC, TANF, SSI,TEFAP, school meals, food banks,
and Earned Income Tax Creditrefund checks.
(14:43):
It's a whole buffet line ofpublic provisions.
And funny, and again, for ouroverseas, overseas listeners,
think about it.
How many times have you beentold that America is a cruel
country?
We don't have any socialprograms.
Oh, we've got'em.
We've got'em.
We just don't have'em for thepeople who deserve'em.
(15:03):
And you know there is one otheroption.
Yeah, millions of Americans worktwo jobs when things get tight.
I've worked two jobs, hasn'teverybody.
Well, that's just, but that'sjust what you do.
That's called adulthood.
See, charity has its place, ifyou can even call this charity,
(15:23):
but you're still supposed tohave a, have survival skills.
Now there have been some hugemisre misrepresentations of fact
that the left keeps repeatingand unfortunately the right
keeps letting'em slide.
It's only here on The Tenth Manthat you get the plain truth
explained from the ground up.
And we don't just replay otherpeople's videos and then say how
(15:44):
horrified we are.
It's original material.
And if you value that kind ofstraight talk, subscribe to The
Tenth Man and tell a friend whostill believes only the
headlines.
Because you gotta read past theheadlines and that's what we do
here.
All original stuff.
So here's another hugemisrepresentation.
According to the networks, theminute a SNAP card freezes
(16:09):
America becomes like Somalia orYemen or Sudan.
And yet government health datashow that low income Americans
are more likely to be obese thanare the middle class.
So it's all the people paying inwho are the skinny ones, but of
(16:31):
course they are actuallyworking.
And you wanna know how the richget richer?
By short selling Coke and Pepsi.
You see the top food stamppurchase is pop.
So Coke and Pepsi just lost 42million customers.
(16:51):
The smart money is sellingshort.
Yeah.
'cause the, all the top SNAPpurchases are, are pop soda
chips and candy.
Now things like eggs andpotatoes, things that are
actually nutritious and cheap,those are at the bottom.
Those rank, they're in the top20, number 20.
(17:13):
And so, the same crowd that'swarning us about mass hunger and
starving babies, they want us tofund the 64 ounce colas.
That's two liters.
I dunno why we even said 64ounce.
They're two liters, here.
We are metric.
And the contradiction doesn'tbother'em because it serves both
(17:35):
sides of their narrative.
Remember, they're anything ifnot inconsistent.
'Cause they can campaign againsthunger, while also campaigning
for free healthcare to treat thediabetes that comes with it.
And that's no joke.
That's no joke.
The left is now demandingOzempic for all the fat poor
(17:58):
kids.
And who pays for that?
The same taxpayer they pay onceat, we pay once at the checkout
line and again at the hospital.
So more free stuff, America isnot Socialist?
Oh, yes, we are.
The 42 million people on foodstamps, most of them 30 million
are also on Medicaid, absolutelyfree medical care for the lower
(18:21):
middle class who also pay notaxes.
So does this sound like crueltyto you, a lack of compassion, or
is it just arithmetic?
Because you can't call a nationboth starving and obese at the
same time and, and, and, and betaken seriously.
If you wanna be compassionate,it requires telling the truth.
(18:44):
And the truth is, you could cutfood stamps today a hundred
percent, and people would stillmanage to get by and overall
health would go up.
Prove me wrong.
And we know that based on theamount of fraud that goes on,
the fraud proves that themoney's not needed.
A woman in the Detroit News,they profile her as a single
(19:06):
mom.
Then you actually read thearticle.
This was uh, last Sunday,November 1st.
Then you actually read thearticle and you find it's two
adult kids, 18 and 20.
So two adult kids and anotheradult in the house.
That's not what most peoplethink of when they hear about a
poor family.
It's three adults, but they'regetting SNAP And then come the
(19:30):
hustles.
You know, one reason they buy somuch soda, it's not because they
are drinking it all.
A lot of, a lot of states have adeposit.
You have to pay 10 cents on eachcan.
One one 10th of a dollar on eachcan of pop you bring home.
They'll buy the pop, dump it outin the parking lot and then go
turn it in and they're getting10 cents on the dollar on the
money that you spent.
(19:52):
In cash.
They can spend on anything.
You can go to online forums likeQuora and find people talking
about it.
Here's one of a man tellingabout how his mother took their
SNAP cards, their food stamps,down to a store once a month and
turned it in for 50 cents on thedollar.
She fed the kids with somethingelse and she used all that money
to buy liquor.
(20:13):
Another talks about a priceybrand of organic milk in
refundable glass bottles.
Well, the milk costs$8 but$3 isbottle deposit.
So what is that?
A 30% return 40, 40 cents on thedollar.
Buy the milk and pour it out ordrink it.
Hm.
(20:34):
But the left and the mainstreammedia say we are mean if we even
ask where all that money, allour money is going.
And it's a lot of money.
I How big?
Well, it's a whole lot of money.
Because SNAP runs near a hundredbillion dollars a year.
(20:54):
TANF or Welfare?
Another's 34 billion.
WIC, 7 billion.
TEFAP, the USDA food program,half a billion.
In other child nutritionprograms, I don't know what they
are,$21 billion.
Together$142 billion.
To picture that.
Well, let's just take the SNAP'cause that's what we're talking
(21:16):
about.
You take, Luxembourg is thewealthiest nation in Europe in
terms of GDP per capita.
Now they're kind of small, buteverybody admires Luxembourg
because they're so rich.
Well, the food stamp alone, foodstamp program alone, is more
than the entire Gross DomesticProduct of Luxembourg.
(21:37):
Our budget for food stamps couldbuy Luxembourg and have change
left over.
Okay, well maybe the nation ofLuxembourg is, is, uh, too, too
vague a reference or, or notrelative.
So let's think about some thingsthat the government actually is
supposed to provide.
The food stamp budget is enoughto fund the Coast Guard 10 times
(21:58):
over.
We all know what the Coast Guardis.
It's what we, we rely on to stopthe Fentanyl coming in to poison
us.
Or the Marine Corps (22:05):
the food stamp budget alone would fund
the United States Marine Corpstwice over.
And so when we have people onthe left, even now saying,
talking about President Trump'snew, extravagant White House
ballroom.
So remember the ballroom, thefirst major addition to the
residence in over a century.
(22:26):
And the$350 million that it costthat would fund the food stamp
program for a little over twodays.
It's a lot of money.
And you know, we have a lot ofmoney because America's smart
and knows how to spend smart,but you can't pay for
(22:46):
everything.
You have to fund what isessential and what it is the
government's business to fund.
But if everything is essential,then nothing is.
And the government was built tobuild and defend a nation, not
to finance people's snacks.
And I don't know whether we needa ballroom or not.
(23:09):
We're not gonna discuss thathere, but if we do, it's not
gonna build itself.
It needs the government to doit.
And yet you have to wonder whymore than 10% of Americans in
the richest country on Earth,more than 10% are supposedly
incapable of providing for theirown most basic needs.
(23:35):
All Americans should be workinghard, paying a taxes, and
contributing to the welfare ofthe genuinely poor people in our
country and in the world.
Speaking of the world, let'stalk about illegal immigration
and the controversy over whetheror not illegal aliens are
receiving food stamps.
(23:56):
Well, you don't have to debatethis one at all.
All you gotta do is look at theliterature of the immigration
agencies themselves, and theyadmit that the SNAP lapse is
going to adversely affectillegal immigrant families.
That's what they're saying.
But it's interesting when I'mresearching this, uh, in case
(24:18):
you don't know it, AI isdefinitely Woke because, uh, go
ahead and do this.
Go ask Google and you've got thelittle AI box.
You can ask, you can do a followup on there.
Go ask Google the question, areillegal aliens benefiting from
SNAP?
And then see what Google tellsyou.
Okay.
(24:38):
'Cause it'll say"No, becauseillegal aliens are not
eligible".
Hmm.
Was that what I asked?
So then go click that box at thebottom and say it.
Say, I didn't ask if they wereeligible.
I asked if they were benefiting.
And then that lying son of a gunthat is Google will be forced to
tell you this (24:59):
Well, illegal aliens don't get food stamps,
but their kids do.
The parents might be illegal,but the kids are born here and
the EBT card arrives addressedto the household and food is
what they call fungible.
(25:20):
It'll feed whoever's sitting atthe table.
And, and that that card, it'sjust like cash.
And this same pattern repeats'cause almost everything.
WIC, Medicaid, each one of thoseis available to houses with
US-born children, and some ofthem the, uh, agriculture
program, that one's probablytaken advantage more by illegal
(25:41):
aliens.
So the Democrats will say,illegal aliens don't get
benefits.
Technically true, practicallyspeaking, false because the
children of illegal aliens geteverything.
And nationally, with the numberof benefits that are already
available to the native born,you can bet the illegals are
(26:01):
gonna snap up anything left overwherever they are eligible, like
the TEFAP Agriculture program.
Some questions for the left, forthe pundits.
If America is so cruel, why dopeople keep coming?
Illegals keep coming, even fromCanada.
Why would they come from Canada?
And if illegal immigrants arenot benefiting from these
(26:24):
programs, why are the illegaladvocates warning about SNAP
affecting them?
And why is every SNAP officebilingual?
All the signs are in Spanish.
They translate paperwork andsigns.
And why would they do that,unless they're expecting Spanish
speaking clients.
They don't even hide this it'sprinted right on the door.
(26:46):
And yeah, I know a lot ofAmericans speak Spanish, happen
to be one of them.
It's called being bilingual, butAmericans can all read English.
You wanna be politicallycorrect, print it in Chippewa,
not Spanish.
You know, if we wanted to endall the debate, all the arguing,
we could just take politics outof it with one stroke of the
(27:10):
pen.
If you pay no federal incometax.
You don't vote on how the tax isspent.
No taxes, no vote.
That's fair.
That's just being responsible.
The American Revolution wasabout taxation without
representation because those twothings go together.
(27:33):
But now we live underrepresentation without taxation.
Tens of millions of peoplevoting to expand programs that
are funded entirely by otherpeople.
You know, having skin in thegame changes everything.
Free stuff is a lot differentwhen it's not actually free
anymore.
(27:54):
And here's the thing thatbaffles me.
Every creature on earth, whetheryou believe in God or nature,
nature or God, created everyliving being capable of
providing for both itself andits young.
Food, clothing, shelter.
Every bird gathers, every foxhunts, every fish finds food.
(28:20):
But only humanity, andspecifically only modern America
accepts as a fact the widespreadinability to care for oneself as
being a normal condition.
Heck, we praise it.
We fund it, and we vote to makeit bigger.
(28:40):
At the same time, we're praisingillegal immigrants for working
hard on the job, we're rewardingthe Native born for working the
system.
Charity is good, but it shouldbe rare, it should be targeted,
and it should be justified.
You know, we say the governmenthas shut down, but it sure
(29:02):
doesn't look like it.
The politicians are still on TVdebating, but the only thing
they're talking about ispayments to the people making no
contribution to society.
Sure they matter, but, whatabout the functions that only
government can perform?
Defense, air traffic control,border security.
(29:26):
These are the ones that we allowto grind to a halt or at least
not get paid for.
And why is it that a judge canorder food stamps to be paid,
but he can't order five Democratsenators to vote yes to reopen
the government?
And why does closing thegovernment mean air traffic
(29:47):
controllers don't get paid?
People we actually need thegovernment to provide, but
people who are frankly a burdento society, those are the ones
this so-called closed governmentis worried about.
That's the great moral inversionof our time.
We get called racist foropposing aid to freeloaders in
(30:07):
America, most of whom are white,as we're pointing out the true
famine and starvation in Africaand famine, the actual bloated
bellies, eyes clogged with fliestype of famine has moved from
Ethiopia to Somalia to Yemen,and now, right now, today,
(30:29):
Sudan, and yet we're here givingCoca-Cola away to illegals.
The poor in America are rich byworld standards.
They live better than the middleclass in much of Europe and pay
no federal income tax for theprivilege.
They receive food, housing,phones, medical care, and
(30:51):
utilities aid, and then theyignore the important issues of
the day to vote on the singleissue of getting themselves more
money.
Meanwhile, the working classpays both their own bills and
the bills of those who won'tbecome members of the working
class.
(31:13):
And if we ask any questions,we're not compassionate.
We're not Christian.
We get criticized for not takingcare of someone else's kids, but
they themselves are immune fromall scrutiny.
Above all, we are not angryabout paying taxes.
Nothing in this episode is aboutpaying less taxes.
(31:37):
We all like lower taxes, butthat's not what this episode is
about.
We've seen all the memes wherepeople who don't wanna pay food
stamps are stingy.
Far from it.
I'm proud, blessed, and happy tobe able to pay taxes, and I wish
everyone the ability to pay asmany as I do.
(31:59):
I'm only angry about wastingthem, about giving them to the
undeserving.
Compassion for the truly needyis noble, but robbing the middle
class to feed the lazy is theft.
When a nation treats theconsumer of taxes as holier than
the producer, it's not feedingthe poor, it's starving freedom.
(32:25):
So hold everyone accountable.
Trust me, they can handle it.
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