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Carl Higbie, on his Newsmax program Carl Higbie FRONTLINE, didn’t mince words when he prefaced his segment on the SNAP program by saying, “I’m going to say something controversial,” and then went after the culture of dependency that government handouts encourage. Americans who pay the bills deserve someone in media willing to call out a system that too often rewards idleness and cheats taxpayers.
The facts about SNAP are sobering: in FY2024 an average of about 41.7 million people received benefits each month, and the program cost roughly $100 billion, most of it paid directly as benefits to households. Those are not abstract numbers — they are taxpayer dollars that should be used to lift people up, not to subsidize permanent dependency.
Congress and the states already have tools to demand responsibility, yet broad categorical eligibility and other policy choices have loosened the reins and expanded who can qualify without serious work requirements. Recent statutory changes have even altered work-rule enforcement, affecting millions of nondisabled adults and reshaping incentives in ways that deserve bipartisan scrutiny and overhaul.
Meanwhile, fraud and trafficking in the SNAP system remain real problems that eat at the program’s integrity and the public’s trust; watchdogs have repeatedly documented trafficking schemes and criminal prosecutions show how taxpayer dollars are siphoned off into illegal markets. Conservatives are right to insist on stronger EBT oversight, tougher penalties for retailers and traffickers, and more resources for enforcement so benefits reach only the needy.
Federal rules that allow states wide latitude in defining eligibility and in administering SNAP have created perverse incentives that activists and some policymakers exploit to expand rolls for political gain. Restoring honest eligibility standards and reclaiming state flexibility to impose meaningful work and training requirements would keep the safety net for the truly needy while pushing able-bodied adults back toward independence.
Higbie’s bluntness is the kind of straight talk this debate needs: stop treating poverty like a permanent lifestyle and start treating taxpayers with the respect they deserve. Practical reforms — clear work mandates, targeted aid for children and the elderly, enhanced fraud detection and stiffer penalties for abuse — are common-sense steps that would save money and restore dignity to assistance programs.
Washington elites and big-government Democrats love to virtue-signal about compassion while expanding programs that trap families for generations; hardworking Americans see the waste and want accountability. Conservatives should rally behind voices like Higbie’s, press state and federal leaders to enact real reform, and insist that government help be temporary, conditional, and designed to rebuild self-reliance rather than erode it.
