Peter Schweizer: The challenge is, is if you look at throughout the period of the last, say, 40 years, since the 1960s it [food stamp participation levels] has pretty much remained constant … So the point is you have this underclass of America that, in a sense, has become dependent. But I think the larger issue is that these programs that were designed to sort of help them are not really designed to help them.
Sean Hannity: Is that the way the politicians want it?
Schweizer: I think that’s absolutely the way it is. If you look right now at how these programs are crafted, you certainly have Congress that’s making its rules and laws. You have the same thing with the State legislators on the State level. Certainly the President, the Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is involved. But you also have lobbyists, which are looking out for the interests of their companies and that’s the way this business works.
Hannity: How is big business making money off all of this? In other words, the products that they’re selling that people are buying, not just soda but meat and dairy.
Schweizer: This is the reality. The food stamp program basically injects $75 billion out into the economy. And if I’m a business man, and I don’t blame businesses for doing this, they’re looking at this and saying you know what–
Hannity: That’s a big customer.
Schweizer: That’s exactly right, that’s a big customer. Why can’t they spend some of that on the stuff that I’m producing? I don’t fault the businesses in that. But the problem, Sean, under this system nobody is representing the taxpayers.
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