It’s time America SNAPped to its senses over SNAP. Seriously. You want me to believe part of the shut down was about feeding the hungry?

How many shelters are in your town? How many food banks? How many “soup kitchens?” How many stories do you read in local newspapers every year about hunger? How many surveys does your school district have to put out declaring kids are hungry? How many breakfast, lunch and dinner programs does your government need to provide? How about all those politicians declaring food deserts after local governments and crime drive every grocery store out of the city limits?

In other words, just how much charity is needed or tax dollars strewn haphazardly is it going to take for you to realize hunger is a serious issue and that government is the last entity on the planet that can solve it?

If you realized anything from the government “shutdown” it’s this: We have over 40 MILLION people on the SNAP welfare program alone in this country, and it’s a serious problem.

The other thing you should have realized is that the SNAP program isn’t about getting food to people. It’s about their iPhones, their cars, big screen TVs and whatever else the recipients desire, because that’s the only reason the program fills debit cards better than it fills kitchen cabinets. Because it relies on the people at the other end of the money transfer to fill the cabinets.

That’s not to say there aren’t people deserving of a hand up when they hit rough times. They are and always will be. But with SNAP, it’s become a lifestyle. How else can you have people on the programs not just for a month or two, or maybe a year, but DECADES?

Worse, we’re finding many who are receiving double. If you believe someone receiving double the benefits or on the program for decades is buying all organic at your local grocer, you must also believe every parent uses child support just for the kids clothes and school supplies and not pedicures or watching the game at their favorite bar.

Folks, this is the true reality of SNAP. More folks on the public dime. Payola from the largest corporation on the planet, the United States government, an entity so large and inefficient it spends a couple of TRILLION more dollars than it confiscates every year. And it does it because of programs like SNAP, which results in more folks on SNAP every year. SNAP is just another cottage industry under the conglomerate of the federal government’s largesse and wasting of dollars for votes.

If you need a local example, just look at the relationship between our previous city council and HomewardBound of the Grand Valley, which accomplished what, exactly? That’s right, the doubling of our homeless population over the past few years, making it a problem only who could solve? Correct, the City of Grand Junction and HomewardBound.

Therefore, that’s where all the money needed to go. At least HomewardBound was feeding folks, but not for the desired result of ending homelessness; it was more its business plan, which relied on government for all its funding.

Back to SNAP. All one needs to do is look at how our good, local charities fight hunger. It’s really novel in today’s era of big government. Here it is: They feed people. What a concept. That’s what the local Backpack program does. That’s what Food Bank of the Rockies does. That’s what Catholic Outreach and the Joseph Center do. That’s what my church does. And that’s what I do when the trailers are parked in front of City Market on my Friday “date” nights (yes, I shop for fuel points) or when I’m jonesing for something unhealthy for watching weekend sports.

Yup, we all actually use food and feeding those in need as the solution. We also hope and try to help them to improve their situations, so they can be free from dependence on others and become self-sufficient.

And right there you have the problem of government and how it handles hunger. Government only knows one solution when it comes to the problems of the people. Create a program for it and throw money at it, declare it solved while making it worse and people dependent on it for life.

Because, folks, that’s where the votes are, along with all the worship involved in the “look how much I care” and “let me tell you what the problems are caused by the other party and only I can fix them” partisan politics.

And the saddest part is this: It’s all about the money.

Yes, there are over 7 TRILLION reasons why all too many are hooked on welfare, and that’s just at the federal level. In our state there’s over 50 BILLION reasons. Locally, over half a billion. Now, not all the money and all the people in office are in on the scam. But way too much and many of both are.

Seems to me if government really wanted to feed the hungry, they’d have warehouses to distribute food from. They’d have properly run shelters and kitchens. They’d have actual folks in contact with actual people actually helping them in their time of need.

But why do that when you can just do an ACH transfer and declare the problem solved?

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com