4 ms·

Can you find any examples, ever, of the government threatening stores for giving discounts? They are trying to starve people as a political tool.

by anthem2025 11mo ago

tpmoney 11mo ago
Not for food stamps, but here's the feds going after a pharmacy for gift cards and co-pay waivers from 2015: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/pharmacy-company-agreed-pay-5-million-settle-claims-it-gave-gift-cards-and-waived https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/pharmacy-company-agreed... Here's one for a pharmaceutical company, the details aren't quite clear but it sounds like they were funding co-pay assistance programs for their medications specifically but not others: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/teva-pharmaceuticals-agrees-pay-425-million-resolve-kickback-allegations https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/teva-pharmaceuticals-agre... Here's a broader NPR article from 2008 covering the same idea: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/09/609150868/why-cant-medicare-patients-use-drugmakers-discount-coupons https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/09/6091508... Here's a 2024 article on the possibility of subsidizing outpatient housing for drug rehab being a violation of the statutes: https://www.startribune.com/many-minnesotans-in-addiction-treatment-get-free-housing-is-the-aid-illegal/601170124 https://www.startribune.com/many-minnesotans-in-addiction-tr... Here's a attorney website noting that any exchange of cash for EBT benefits is a violation of the law: https://usda.attorney/snap-violation/ https://usda.attorney/snap-violation/ and a discount that is explicitly for EBT users is almost certainly a violation of that. Realistically the fact that there is an entire process for getting a waiver for "incentives" for SNAP recipients (https://www.fns.usda.gov/form/snap-incentives https://www.fns.usda.gov/form/snap-incentives), and that particular site has been up since before Trump took office and this one from 2023 for a government program that specifically says you must apply for a waiver: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/healthy-incentives https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/healthy-incentives suggests that this is another one of these cases in this administration where the brokenness of the system that has always been there is only finally coming to light for a lot of people. Conservatives were not wrong when they said (paraphrasing) that a government powerful enough to give you everything is a government powerful enough to take away everything too. It's just in this weird timeline we find ourselves in, it's the "conservative" party that's being the monster they feared for decades.
- anthem2025 11mo ago
  [dead]

Can you find any examples, ever, of the government threatening stores for giving discounts? They are trying to starve people as a political tool.

tpmoney 11mo ago

Not for food stamps, but here's the feds going after a pharmacy for gift cards and co-pay waivers from 2015: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/pharmacy-company-agreed-pay-5-million-settle-claims-it-gave-gift-cards-and-waived https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/pharmacy-company-agreed... Here's one for a pharmaceutical company, the details aren't quite clear but it sounds like they were funding co-pay assistance programs for their medications specifically but not others: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/teva-pharmaceuticals-agrees-pay-425-million-resolve-kickback-allegations https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/teva-pharmaceuticals-agre... Here's a broader NPR article from 2008 covering the same idea: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/09/609150868/why-cant-medicare-patients-use-drugmakers-discount-coupons https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/09/6091508... Here's a 2024 article on the possibility of subsidizing outpatient housing for drug rehab being a violation of the statutes: https://www.startribune.com/many-minnesotans-in-addiction-treatment-get-free-housing-is-the-aid-illegal/601170124 https://www.startribune.com/many-minnesotans-in-addiction-tr... Here's a attorney website noting that any exchange of cash for EBT benefits is a violation of the law: https://usda.attorney/snap-violation/ https://usda.attorney/snap-violation/ and a discount that is explicitly for EBT users is almost certainly a violation of that. Realistically the fact that there is an entire process for getting a waiver for "incentives" for SNAP recipients (https://www.fns.usda.gov/form/snap-incentives https://www.fns.usda.gov/form/snap-incentives), and that particular site has been up since before Trump took office and this one from 2023 for a government program that specifically says you must apply for a waiver: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/healthy-incentives https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/healthy-incentives suggests that this is another one of these cases in this administration where the brokenness of the system that has always been there is only finally coming to light for a lot of people. Conservatives were not wrong when they said (paraphrasing) that a government powerful enough to give you everything is a government powerful enough to take away everything too. It's just in this weird timeline we find ourselves in, it's the "conservative" party that's being the monster they feared for decades.

anthem2025 11mo ago
[dead]