This morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson stood before the cameras and declared that Congress must be “good stewards” of taxpayer money.
His example of waste and fraud? The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—SNAP.
It’s always food.
It’s always the poor.
It’s always the same performance.
When politicians talk about “fraud,” it’s never about the defense budget that bleeds nearly $900 billion a year or the corporate subsidies and no-bid contracts that vanish into private pockets. It’s always the grocery money. It’s always the mother at the checkout line, the veteran on disability, or the child who depends on that EBT card for breakfast.
Yes, fraud exists in every government system, but the amount discovered in SNAP each year is microscopic—a fraction of one percent of total spending. Yet that’s where the outrage is aimed, as if feeding people were the great moral hazard of our time.
One in Seven Americans Is Hungry
Forty-two million Americans depend on government aid for food. That’s roughly 15 percent of our population—one in seven people. In a nation that throws away 80 billion pounds of food each year, that number should humble every one of us.
And here’s the truth you rarely hear on television: the majority of SNAP recipients are white, not Black or Brown. Yet every time this topic is raised, the imagery and rhetoric focus on “inner-city welfare” and “urban poverty.” It is propaganda rooted in America’s oldest lie—that poverty is the fault of people of color.
The real story is that poverty is policy. It is the predictable outcome of decades of stagnant wages, rising housing costs, and political games that treat human need as weakness.
The Racial Misdirection
For generations, those in power have weaponized race to divide the working class and keep voters distracted from the real issue—who controls the wealth. When white voters are convinced that their Black and Brown neighbors are taking advantage of them, they stop noticing that their own wages have barely moved in forty years while corporate profits soar.
The racial scapegoating of public assistance isn’t just immoral—it’s strategic. It hides the fact that the same people condemning “handouts” are often the largest beneficiaries of government spending themselves, from farm subsidies to defense contracts to tax loopholes.
The Debt Ceiling and the False Gospel of Austerity
The current debate over the debt ceiling is a perfect example. Every few years, our leaders stage the same drama—threatening to shut down the government and cut essential programs in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” But the debt ceiling isn’t fiscal policy. It’s political theater.
The United States cannot run out of dollars any more than a scoreboard can run out of points. We are monetarily sovereign; we issue the currency in which our debts are denominated. The real constraint is not money—it’s resources, productivity, and moral will.
When Congress refuses to feed the hungry or fund healthcare to “save money,” it’s not being conservative. It’s being cruel.
Selective Stewardship
Speaker Johnson’s call for stewardship would be admirable if it were honest and consistent. But stewardship means caring for the whole house, not just the line items you dislike. True stewardship would investigate waste in the trillion-dollar defense sector, corporate welfare, and tax loopholes that drain the Treasury far more than food aid ever could.
Instead, the spotlight always shines on the programs that serve the most vulnerable, often accompanied by the dog whistles of “illegal aliens” and “dependency.” It is a cynical distraction designed to make the public resent compassion.
The Real Fraud
The real fraud isn’t in SNAP—it’s in the narrative.
It’s the fraud of pretending that poverty is a character flaw instead of an economic design.
It’s the fraud of politicians who collect lifetime healthcare while denying it to others.
It’s the fraud of declaring a moral crisis over a $120 billion nutrition program while ignoring a $34 trillion national economy that could feed every child in America ten times over.
A Call to Honesty
If we are serious about stewardship, then let’s start with the truth:
- Most people who receive food assistance work full-time.
- The majority are white.
- The fraud rate is lower than in almost any corporate or defense program.
- Hunger is not partisan; it’s human.
We are not a broke country—we are a broken one, fractured by misinformation and sustained by denial. We will never heal until we stop measuring responsibility by who we punish instead of who we protect.
Looking Ahead
Over the next two weeks, I’ll unpack this issue more deeply—how the debt ceiling became a weapon of politics, how misinformation shapes public opinion, and how both parties have failed the American people.
This series will lead up to the release of my new book, A Manufactured Disaster: The Collapse of Public Trust and the Myth of the Debt Ceiling.
If you’ve ever wondered why the richest nation in the world pretends it can’t afford to feed its people, stay with me. We’re going to separate myth from math, and fear from fact.
Thank You & Call to Action
Thank you for reading this blog. I appreciate your continued support in raising awareness about the issues that impact our relationships, families, friendships, and the institutions and environments—political, social, and economic—in which we live and work. Please share this blog—and explore my other articles and videos—each one created to educate, empower, and uplift. Together, we can challenge the belief systems that hold us back and press forward into openness, love, consideration, and peace—opening doors of opportunity for all.
Subscribe today to The Power Is Now TV for insightful shows on real estate, business, and wealth-building.
Become a member of EricFrazier.com to access exclusive business and personal financial consulting resources.
Eric Lawrence Frazier, MBA
Your trusted advisor in business and wealth
www.ericfrazier.com | www.ericfrazieruk.com
NMLS #451807 | CA DRE #01143484
Schedule a consultation: https://calendly.com/ericfrazier/real-estate-mortgage-consultation-clients
42 Million Americans Rely on Food Aid — and Most Are Not Who You Think
This morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson stood before the cameras and declared that Congress must be “good stewards” of taxpayer money.
His example of waste and fraud? The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—SNAP.
It’s always food.
It’s always the poor.
It’s always the same performance.
When politicians talk about “fraud,” it’s never about the defense budget that bleeds nearly $900 billion a year or the corporate subsidies and no-bid contracts that vanish into private pockets. It’s always the grocery money. It’s always the mother at the checkout line, the veteran on disability, or the child who depends on that EBT card for breakfast.
Yes, fraud exists in every government system, but the amount discovered in SNAP each year is microscopic—a fraction of one percent of total spending. Yet that’s where the outrage is aimed, as if feeding people were the great moral hazard of our time.
One in Seven Americans Is Hungry
Forty-two million Americans depend on government aid for food. That’s roughly 15 percent of our population—one in seven people. In a nation that throws away 80 billion pounds of food each year, that number should humble every one of us.
And here’s the truth you rarely hear on television: the majority of SNAP recipients are white, not Black or Brown. Yet every time this topic is raised, the imagery and rhetoric focus on “inner-city welfare” and “urban poverty.” It is propaganda rooted in America’s oldest lie—that poverty is the fault of people of color.
The real story is that poverty is policy. It is the predictable outcome of decades of stagnant wages, rising housing costs, and political games that treat human need as weakness.
The Racial Misdirection
For generations, those in power have weaponized race to divide the working class and keep voters distracted from the real issue—who controls the wealth. When white voters are convinced that their Black and Brown neighbors are taking advantage of them, they stop noticing that their own wages have barely moved in forty years while corporate profits soar.
The racial scapegoating of public assistance isn’t just immoral—it’s strategic. It hides the fact that the same people condemning “handouts” are often the largest beneficiaries of government spending themselves, from farm subsidies to defense contracts to tax loopholes.
The Debt Ceiling and the False Gospel of Austerity
The current debate over the debt ceiling is a perfect example. Every few years, our leaders stage the same drama—threatening to shut down the government and cut essential programs in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” But the debt ceiling isn’t fiscal policy. It’s political theater.
The United States cannot run out of dollars any more than a scoreboard can run out of points. We are monetarily sovereign; we issue the currency in which our debts are denominated. The real constraint is not money—it’s resources, productivity, and moral will.
When Congress refuses to feed the hungry or fund healthcare to “save money,” it’s not being conservative. It’s being cruel.
Selective Stewardship
Speaker Johnson’s call for stewardship would be admirable if it were honest and consistent. But stewardship means caring for the whole house, not just the line items you dislike. True stewardship would investigate waste in the trillion-dollar defense sector, corporate welfare, and tax loopholes that drain the Treasury far more than food aid ever could.
Instead, the spotlight always shines on the programs that serve the most vulnerable, often accompanied by the dog whistles of “illegal aliens” and “dependency.” It is a cynical distraction designed to make the public resent compassion.
The Real Fraud
The real fraud isn’t in SNAP—it’s in the narrative.
It’s the fraud of pretending that poverty is a character flaw instead of an economic design.
It’s the fraud of politicians who collect lifetime healthcare while denying it to others.
It’s the fraud of declaring a moral crisis over a $120 billion nutrition program while ignoring a $34 trillion national economy that could feed every child in America ten times over.
A Call to Honesty
If we are serious about stewardship, then let’s start with the truth:
We are not a broke country—we are a broken one, fractured by misinformation and sustained by denial. We will never heal until we stop measuring responsibility by who we punish instead of who we protect.
Looking Ahead
Over the next two weeks, I’ll unpack this issue more deeply—how the debt ceiling became a weapon of politics, how misinformation shapes public opinion, and how both parties have failed the American people.
This series will lead up to the release of my new book, A Manufactured Disaster: The Collapse of Public Trust and the Myth of the Debt Ceiling.
If you’ve ever wondered why the richest nation in the world pretends it can’t afford to feed its people, stay with me. We’re going to separate myth from math, and fear from fact.
Thank You & Call to Action
Thank you for reading this blog. I appreciate your continued support in raising awareness about the issues that impact our relationships, families, friendships, and the institutions and environments—political, social, and economic—in which we live and work. Please share this blog—and explore my other articles and videos—each one created to educate, empower, and uplift. Together, we can challenge the belief systems that hold us back and press forward into openness, love, consideration, and peace—opening doors of opportunity for all.
Subscribe today to The Power Is Now TV for insightful shows on real estate, business, and wealth-building.
Become a member of EricFrazier.com to access exclusive business and personal financial consulting resources.
Eric Lawrence Frazier, MBA
Your trusted advisor in business and wealth
www.ericfrazier.com | www.ericfrazieruk.com
NMLS #451807 | CA DRE #01143484
Schedule a consultation: https://calendly.com/ericfrazier/real-estate-mortgage-consultation-clients