Altimont owns Carmenās Corner Store in Hagerstown, Maryland, a community where around 20 percent of people rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy their groceries. But a federal agency decided that Altimont can never accept SNAP as a form of payment at Carmenās.
That decision isnāt because Altimont has done anything wrong as a business owner, but rather because of unrelated crimes from 2004, for which heās already served his time.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) permanently bans anyone with drug, alcohol, tobacco, or firearms convictions from participating in the SNAP programāa harsher punishment than the agency dishes out to those who have actually defrauded the program. Thatās not just irrational, itās also unconstitutional, which is why Altimont teamed up with our organization, the Institute for Justice (IJ), to file a federal lawsuit against the agency on Tuesday.
Tell us more about how you donāt know the first fucking thing about what itās like to be poor.
He said in another comment that he was poor, and then he went to collegeā¦ dude doesnāt have a clue.
Im poor and went to college. Most of the people in college seem to be poor. I know very poor kids who got full scholarships. I know people deeply in debt from college.
Iām just saying one does not preclude the other.
Thereās a vast difference between living on a budget and being so poor that loans arenāt enough, you didnāt finish high school because the family had to eat, and scholarships are laughable for most people.
Eating ramen to afford your on campus housing is not being poor.
Right. These people donāt know about loans. Or grants, or paying as you go. I was poor the while way thru college. One night I ate uncooked stuffing for dinner. Lol. It sucked. I lived off of the dollar store and 1 dollar bag of egg noodles, 1 dollar can of spaghetti sauce and butter and salt. Or ghetto pizza (saltines, 1 dab of spaghetti sauce per, sprinkle cheese onto, microwave)