States "gaming the system" to undo food stamp cuts

LINK /

New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania (all bastions of Tea Party Conservatism ) are trying to do an end run around the recent food stamp "cuts" (again ; all the Congress did was cut the increase) as follows: by devoting more $ to families for home heating assistance, the families qualify for more food stamps.

Although the new law raised the threshold for eligibility, the states just spend more on home heating, and the vicious cycle continues.

Question for the OT: I wonder how many other programs have these types of mechanisms that can be gamed?