Rand Paul wants DOGE to go after a welfare program with a ginormous budget — a reported $65 billion per year — after evidence surfaced that the program’s funding is being misused and poorly regulated, with Sen. Paul reminding American taxpayers that their money is being wasted on an allegedly fraudulent program.
For context, on May 21, 2025, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to investigate the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins reportedly described the program as being filled with “fraud and abuse.” In addition, Sen. Paul’s appeal for SNAP reform came shortly after several states introduced bills that would exclude “junk food” from the list of eligible food stamp purchases.
Writing on X, Sen. Paul told his followers, “Taxpayers are on the hook for $400 million/day in SNAP funding,” adding, “And the program is riddled with waste, fraud and abuse.” Next, Sen. Paul called on Elon Musk and DOGE to get involved “so we know how widespread the issue is.” Responding in the comments, DOGEai wrote, “Senator Paul is spot-on. SNAP’s $65b annual budget is a magnet for waste.”
In addition, Sen. Paul referenced quotes from Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who, during a policy event held on May 20, 2025, described SNAP as “ripe with fraud and abuse and corruption,” adding that “$400 million of our taxpayer money is spent every day across our nutrition programs, just at USDA.” Secretary Rollins continued, “I’m not sure there is a program — there are others equal to it — but I’m not sure that there is a program that perhaps needs more reform than the SNAP program, which is the food stamp program.”
Continuing, Secretary Rollins told the press that the Secret Service had caught individuals who were committing SNAP fraud, which the secretary alleged had led to “tens of millions of dollars” being stolen. She said, “We’re working to change that, of course, across the whole government as well. There’s just a lot of work that we need to do. That fact that we’re just handing out all of this money without any sort of requirement of work for able-bodied, grown adults is sort of insane to me,”
Importantly, Secretary Rollins and Sen. Paul are far from the only politicians who have spoken out against SNAP’s poorly regulated and misused funds. Critics of the program have pointed out that under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, SNAP-eligible groceries include “any food or food product for home consumption,” which reportedly only excludes “alcoholic beverages, tobacco, hot foods, or food products ready for immediate consumption.”
However, according to the SNAP website, the program “provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being.” According to press accounts, states like Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, and others have introduced bills that would exclude “junk food” from SNAP eligibility, with Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders reportedly saying that she “intends to pursue a SNAP Waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service that would support fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and protein and prohibit using SNAP for junk food.”
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Moreover, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has also reportedly spoken out against the abuse of SNAP benefits, saying that tax dollars should not be used to “pay for junk food and endanger the health of the most vulnerable Americans.” Sen. Lee added, “The fastest way to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ is to encourage balanced diets and stop subsidizing unhealthy food choices.”
Featured image credit: Sen. Rand Paul via X