Congress Mulls Cuts to Food Stamps Program Amid Record Number of Recipients

What has this administration done for JOBS and the economy!???!??! — Food stamps up 11% in one year… Housing prices down double-digits this year… unemployment back up above 9% (the official-pretend figure)!!! —- Kiss 2012 goodbye Dems!! — You can’t stand on your RECORD!!!

I wish that Obama would have been really “lazer-focused” on jobs… as he was spending 14 MONTHS doing NOTHING but making 100 speeches touting healthcare reform… that now 70% of Americans want repealed or amended from its current form!!!!

The Republicans will cut off food and health care but they won’t cut off tax breaks to their owners – big oil.

It is about time they cut food stamps.. I can’t count the number of times I’ve waited in line at the grocery store behind people who are on food stamps.. and what do they buy.. STEAKS, CHIPS, Ice cream and then they pull out their cash and buy cigs, beer and lotto tickets.. Then they go sit in the bar.. There really needs to be a system to check what these folks are doing with their money. Instead of them just taking a free ride on the tax payers..

And another thing.. do you realize that food stamps are part of the farm bill? And they cut the farm bill by billions.. So something has to go.. And I do not think you want the farms to go… Thank you politicians for cutting the farm bill by so much.. Maybe next time you should cut your own salary and benefits.. You know.. lead by example..

We are spending 553 BILLION (plus) this year on “defense” (much of it for Bush’s endless wars), but 71 billion for food stamps is too much and must be cut and/or funded out of “education and child nutrition”. Sweet. At a time when record numbers are relying on the program just to survive, many due to circumstances beyond their control, let’s go with the Republicans and slash it. Tough, if you can’t find a job or afford to feed yourself or your kids. Go to the food banks (whose shelves are increasingly empty as demand has skyrocketed). The “critics” who claim the program hasn’t “put a dent” in poverty or hunger obviously have enough money left after rent/mortgage, bills, insurance, and everything else to buy food….I can assure you that the SNAP program HAS put a significant dent in the hunger and poverty of millions. I personally know several individuals and families who rely on these benefits to SURVIVE currently, and none of them are lazy freeloaders. They all work or want to (an old friend just called me last night asking about how to go about selling or pawning her few DVDS so she could pay her rent…she’s a nurse whose hours have been cut down to 3 days a week, a single mom, VERY frugal, and already relies on food banks.) These Republicans need to be voted OUT; they continue to clearly reveal their utter disregard for the welfare of the people in this time of national crisis and their slavish devotion to those profiting from it (the richest few percent and big business). Any who fell for the lie that their priorities were job creation and fiscal responsibility should be ashamed and ANGRY right about now. You were duped. Don’t let it happen again next year.

Looks like O is creating jobs at golf ocurses.

If a family has children that gets 2 free meals a day at school, are their food stamps cut to reflect that, or are we given them food for 5 meals a day?
Obese Children? I can’t figure out why….

They wouldn’t have a problem about Food Stamps if Harry Reid did not take away $20 billion from Food Stamp program in 2010 to bailout Teachers Union. ABC has FAILED to mention it in their news report.

A lot of good those tax cuts for the wealthy have done. Where are those promised jobs Republicans? Overseas most likely!
POSTED BY: RICH | MAY 31, 2011 12:51:46 PM
Rich, why don’t you ask Obama’s little pet project, otherwise known as General Electric. Once you see the number of jobs they have sent overseas, then realize that Obama placed head honcho Immelt to reign as “Jobs Czar”, then we’ll have a conversation.

How can we afford this when we must further cut the taxes of the top two percent, oil companies and increase corporate welfare tax cuts? Haven’t you heard? We have a spending problem that’s the sole cause of our deficit problem. Why can’t we have the largest, bloated military-industrial complex and the lowest effective tax rates in the civilized world?
The people have no bread? Let them eat cake!

The GOP House won’t consider ending tax subsidies for mega-profitable oil companies, they won’t consider raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, they won’t consider taxing the bankster record compensation packages paid for by the taxpayer, but the same GOP House will consider cutting food stamps for the neediest Americans. 1 in 5 children live in povery and the GOP House feels that this segment of the population needs to cut back. Amazing.
The 2012 GOP campaign slogan is “What do we stand for? Feed the rich and starve the poor!”

Interesting discussion. You should post your viewpoints about this on http://www.whitehousevoice.com!

Loyal, enough with the LIES already. “What has this administration done for JOBS and the economy!???!??!” I REPEAT (and I know damn good and well you either KNOW this to be true or simply refuse to verify it, yet you persist in posting this slander as if IT is true…pathetic)….
Some FACTS (look it up):
From February 2001, Bush’s first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, the economy added just 1 million jobs. And most were government jobs due to his unprecedented expansion of the federal government post 911. By contrast, in 2010 alone, the economy added at least 1.1 million jobs, and more than half were PRIVATE SECTOR jobs, as opposed to government positions.
As the Wall Street Journal (that bastion of liberal-bias, lamestream media;) noted in the last month of Bush’s term, the former president had the “worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.”
Bottom line, more private sector jobs were created in 2010 ALONE under Obama than in 8 YEARS under Bush.
So ask AGAIN what Obama has done for “jobs and the economy”. Loser.

John (last poster as of this writing), although I see your point, it is very misleading and politically biased. You have some decent points to make, but you completely discredit yourself with your political rhetoric. When are people going to start analyzing the problem with issues and stop pointing fingers out of their ignorance. This is not about political parties, it is about fiscal responsibility. Are politicians to blame? Who knows. Democrats and Republicans will do anything to seize and retain power; they’re both equally guilty of that. Whereas I feel there are a lot of people who legitimatly need SNAP assistance (reason for program), there are a lot who abuse the system as well. Until there is proper oversight in place, this will never happen, and we will continue with society taking advantage of a non-for profit system (government). We hire gov’t workers to provide oversight, but at very low, entry level wages which doesn’t put much value in their employment and only perpetuates the problem. I’m not a supporter of big government due to these concerns, but I also feel there should be government assistance to those in need (elderly, handicapped, under privledged) based on their inability to help themselves. However, there is less and less oversight when these programs grow more and more, and consequentially, there will be more fraud. In the end, too many people on here just think DEM vs. REP, when it’s obvious that most have no clue what they’re talking about (which both parties are more than pleased with non-educated ignorance – it amplifies their power), when we should be focusing on the real issue – the problem and how to mitigate it. The problem is not SNAP, it is the level of fraud.

I have seen people pay for food with food stamps and have the sacker carry their groceries out to their Mercedes. Also a lot of you do not have a clue about what goes on. Big Oil. Please.

Yes, it has been documented, illegal aliens and new legal immmigrants are using welfare more than any long standing citizen.
Our elite politicians don’t care about the country or her citizens, as long as they find a way to grant amnesty and have a bunch of new voters….more on the gov. dole and no jobs in the horizon!

Progressive Strategy — Anything that promotes more dependence on government is good… ADVERTISE so foodstamps increase 11% in one year, try to push “single-payer” healthcare, get more on welfare, Fannie-Freddie gobbles up the mortgage rights on 90% of Americans, the EPA inhibits energy sources and looks to pile on more regulations (increased energy prices), Obama can cut off your internet, the FCC gets “net-neutrality”………… Thomas Payne said ““Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”

How should the President create jobs exactly? Forcing companies to hire? Tax breaks below 0%? The only way to create jobs is to build Green infrastructure. Millions of jobs right there, but I guess Republicans will be on top of that in 2012.

Give a man a fish and he has food for a day. Remove government intervention so that American manufacturing can return to the U.S., he can get a job and feed his family.

This is all George Bush and the Republican’s fault.
If unemployment had not been around 5% when Republicans ran the show and instead was around the 10% mark like it is with Democrats, no one would think this was anything but normal.

How many would be on Food Stamps if they actually had to USE FOOD STAMPS instead of politically correct non-esteem injuring DEBIT CARDS!!!???!!!

Liza
Your friend is the one that is deserving till she gets on her feet….we have MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS that scam every gov. program we have…and we are not seeing very much into this fraud to end it!

We are feeding 20 million illegals..housing and schooling them,free medical… its time to stop, period. All the money from the rich 1% or the oil companies will not cover the debt for one day…time to get realistic and know the facts..emotions will not fix these problems..blaming the rich for the worlds woa’s is not intelligent. We cannot live without oil, get over the blame game, we must drill at home. Our enemy is the government that keeps spending tax payer money…the Only government income, on entitlements.You cannot live off the government and expect government to pay your bills, if you do..your not an Ameican.

Let’s start by BANNING the purchase of junk food with food stamps!

I also know a few people on the SNAPS program whom wear the latest fashions and of course have their I phone and SUV. Nice job America allowing this kind of abuse to happen in every Gov program. Not for long though. This is just the beginning.

Once the republicans get rid of medicare, cut food stamps, and enact more tax cuts for the wealthy the trickle should start to flow. By the way, this recession was started under Bush, it’s not going to go away in a matter of months as most would like.

i wonder if the freaks will start cutting in puerto rico and american samoa
THE DEMOCRAT CONGRESS GAVE THEM 20 BILLION, THAT IS FREAKING BILLION WHEN THEY TOOK OVER CONTROL…..
SCREW AMERICANS WE ARE PAYING FOOD STAMPS FOR PUERTO RICO AND AMERICAN SAMOA………..AND BARRY JUST PROMISED MORE TO IRELAND AND PAKISTAN
freaks – that is our damn money………..YOU CUT OUR MONEY AND GIVE IT TO TERRORISTS WHO WANT TO MURDER US AT YOUR OWN PERIL……
WE WILL STAND IN THE STREET UNTIL YOU ALL LEAVE
WHY DOESN’T ANYONE ASK SAN FRAN NAN AND HARRY MORMAN REID WHY THEY GAVE BILLIONS TO THOSE COUNTRIES?????
PUERTO RICO HAS WON THE SOCIAL SECURITY LOTTO TOO – MORE DISABILITY CLAIMS THAN ANYWHERE IN OUR COUNTRY APPROVED IN PUERTO RICO….
ENOUGH POLITICIANS – IT AIN’T YOUR MONEY

Where’s the JOBS the Republicans talked about in the 2010 election? Yea, go ahead you maggots cut people off of Food Stamps,, But don’t forget to cut those FARM Sustidies to people like Michele Bachmann and a lot of the other “CON” artist that are receiving government payments for owning land…These are NOT working Farms and they should not be taking the monies. Yea, Government WELFARE looks like this!

Not hard to figure this out folks…remember the little old lady in Detroit who after The Puppet was elected proclaimed “Obama gonna take care of my mortgage and gas from his stash”…guess who has swelled the food stamp roles…those, including ILLEGAL immigrants, who expect the government to provide a free ride through life….at the expense of those of us who work and are productive.

I always find it interesting that the Democrats conveniently forget that the problems we face originated and were exacerbated by the House and Senate that have both been under Democrats control until recently. Now, all of a sudden, we have a Republican House which is working hard to create jobs and an economy conducive to prosper, with the Democrat Senate and President standing in the way. Please step aside (like after the Carter debacle) and let the Republicans clean up your mess.

Let’s talk about TAX PAYING Americans!
Consumer confidence falls ‘unexpectedly’ in May.
You think they poll welfare queens and pimp daddy kings on the above?
Yeah 2011 and this is still Bush’s fault after trillions blown by Obummer on his union voters?
Home-price index at lowest point since 2006 bust.
If it’s NOW a double dip, OK BLAME BUSH for the 1st one but Bush isn’t around anymore as we enter this 2nd one, FOOL!
Yeah you KNOW who I’m talk’n about, yeah YOU!

Let the food riots begin. This is a fast lane to Marshall law and the ultimate goal of the Statests in DC. control over everyone and everything.

How can you possibly expect the amature Kenyan to create jobs when he’s NEVER created a job in his entire life??? He has NO idea how to create a job so quit trying to defend this idiot.

Obama’s America!
You depend on him to feed you while you continue to vote for him and his ilk under the threat of losing your “benefits”!
Take a look at soft tyranny folks it is screaming in your face!
Unfortunately, most of the people that need this assistance are drowned out by those that feel they DESERVE IT!
Thank you free-loaders and sloths of which 97% of you voted for Obama!!

Hey how about the guy in Michigan that won 2 millon dallors and his food stamps wasnt cut ,they apporoved him to keep getting them ,lol

While Rome burns the Obummers say let Dem eat PIE (chart):-)
The Obama administration is about to ditch the food pyramid, that symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades. In its place officials are dishing up a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for the basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables.
We ain’ts got no Prez we got a baller:-)
Barack Obama’s decision to play golf on Memorial Day was disrespectful and hardly presidential

If you were a recipient of Public Education (that means went to public school) then you have received welfare. You received a basic necessity funded by taxation of others. So get of your high horse all of you education welfare recipients who somehow think you are better then those on food stamps. You took thousands of dollars every year when you received your education.

Liberals have very short memories or just don’t really understand economics 101. Where do they think the money is coming from? Trees in Michelle’s organic garden? Obama’s excessive spending since taking office went mostly to his backers on Wall Street. Sort of a payoff for backing him for president. It did not help the economy or create jobs in any way. In fact, our economy has gotten worse as had unemployment rates.
Bush did offer tax cuts to big business in exchange for hiring a set number of people, if they didn’t follow through, their taxes went up. During his first 6 yrs in office, we had lowest unemployment rate in decades and booming housing market and economy. Dems took over Congress in 2006 and everything went south. We live in an entitlement era. Everyone expects something for nothing. The U.S. cannot sustain this. We are spirally down at record rate and all anyone can think of is. “Where is mine?”

The Republicans kept shouting ” It’s all about the jobs” last year so they could get elected. Now that they are in office, not one single jobs bill has been passed.But 4 bills to limit funds for abortions and planned parenthood breezed through.I want the Republicans to tell where the jobs are, they were the ones promising them just 8 months ago.Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner?

To the last working person in America: Please turn out the lights when you leave. There is no one left to pay the electricity bill.

How about clawing back the handouts, i.e., welfare that’s been provided to the big banks courtesy of the US taxpayer. Social programs are a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money siphoned off by the big banks — especially the Fed (a private bank), which is about as federal as Federal Express. Why is massive WELFARE FOR BANKS never discussed. IT IS STILL GOING ON TODAY.

All of you so quick to talk about how horrible food stamps are just remember this: Some of YOUR NEIGHBORS are on food stamps, I guarantee it. I would even venture to say that some of you who are complaining the most are probably on food stamps. When the economy got bad, it hit a lot of people, folks you would never expect. You don’t always know because they still drive their SUVs, live in their middle class homes, attend PTA meetings, everything. Having an EBT card doesn’t put a scarlet letter on your chest for everyone to see and it shouldn’t. The guidelines for federal assistance don’t require you to be a minority, single mom, or dirt poor. These are all myths. These stereotypes are grossly overplayed in the media. So stop judging. Anytime it comes to government assistance, so many want to just start screaming about overhaul, illegal aliens and single moms with their nails done. Let me ask this: What about the thousands of teachers who are about to be out a job in states all across America? Are they worthy or receiving food stamps? Some of them will most certainly need it. What about all the elderly and retired who rely on food stamps, the ones who worked for many years but still didn’t have money? Are they worthy? Where do you draw the line? You say go out and get a job…the next time you see someone with an EBT card, why don’t you that person a job at your company. Better yet, offer them YOUR JOB. No? So then where does it all begin. Instead of griping and complaining, be part of the solution and not the problem. And if you are on the end that is screaming about minorities in the ghetto, you are MORE a part of the problem than those who are receiving food stamps. Have a good day.

That’s a miserable thing to do. All the money we still give to banks, other countries,and everyone how can they take food from children. They don’t get much in food stamps and there is no jobs. That’s just not right.

What blows me away is the amount of money they give you. I am not on food stamps and as a result I clip coupons, look for deals and between my room-mate and myself we live comfortably on about $250 a month for groceries. We are not eating steak but were not stuck with Raumen. My friend who is on food stamps gets almost $400 a month for herself and her 8 year old daughter… Seriously thats so much she give’s money away every month to her family.

If the more lax rules pass for foodstamps then the progressives will later use any cuts in this program as a way to lie to everyone and say that the Republicans and conservatives are trying to take away from them. Isn’t it really that we are trying not to just give to them?

Once Obama decided to increase the troops levels in Afghanistan… HE OWNS IT!! —– Once Obama decided to leave GITMO open… HE OWNS IT!! —– Once Obama decided to extend the Patriot Act provisions… HE OWNS IT!!… ect… ect… ect!!!!

For those of you hot under the collar because “Republicans” are cutting foodstamps. haha Think of this, Obama told Egypt they didn’t have to pay back $2 billion they owed us. We are sending billions to other countries, billions to Saudi Arabia for their oil (stupid because we have our own untapped resources here in the U.S. and the Saudi’s are selling their gas for 91 cents a gallon). We need a complete overhaul of government starting from the ground up and get rid of the big spenders.

People are using the “food stamps” (actually it’s a government funded credit card now) to pay their rent, mortgage, car payment, you name it… Don’t believe me? I’ve seen and know people who do it. Even if the cards are restricted to food only, the cash value is still easily traded with family, friends or on the street for cash.

Nutrition assistance now accounts for more than half — or about 67 percent — of the USDA’s budget, compared with 26 percent in 1980. That shift in focus, critics say, is ineffective because it hasn’t put a dent in poverty or hunger in the United States…..
It’s not designed to put a dent in poverty, it’s designed to put food on the table of families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to eat. When it comes to the poor and the less fortunate, Republicans are social sociopaths. Completely amoral. Yes, let’s cut food assistance to the poor, after all we need to pay for those multi-billion-dollar tax subsidies to big oil and big agri-business…….

Walter: “People are going to have to realize that the government is no longer going to provide for your children. The sad fact is that if you can’t afford to raise children on your own, you shouldn’t be having them.”
Even sadder, let’s slash or eliminate funding for poor people to have access to birth control and/or abortion.
Also, people need to catch up and stop spouting the same lines their parents or grandparents did…lots of people today who WERE able to support their kids when they HAD them, but find themselves struggling now.
As usual, the Republicans have the solution; eliminate the child labor laws and those who can’t support their kids due to high unemployment can send them off to the factory.
Am I the only one having flashes of Dickens era London? ;)

They can give billions in “aid” to countries that hate us. Waste countless $ on the military industrial complex, but god forbid they help their own people. They demonize poor Americans when our economy is collapsing because they saw it fit to print Monopoly money. I love how ABC doesn’t mention that the biggest distributor of food stamps is J.P. Morgan. Stop demonizing the poor. They’re not getting rich off this, J.P. Morgan on the other hand, is.

Foodstamp program was started to be a TEMPORARY help to families in need. What it’s done is become a crutch to most people who continuously stay on it, year after year and become dependent on it. Why work when the govt will pay for your housing, food, health care, etc…? We have become an entitlement state.

AND to all of you who think this is a partisan issue, WAKE UP. BOTH parties are completely corrupt. They screw Americans equally. We need to kick them off of welfare, not poor, struggling Americans. AND who is seeing people with Mercedes buying food with food stamps? I’ve heard this so many times, and I have NEVER in my life seen that happen. People can’t get jobs because our government has made sure that our jobs can be shipped overseas. Let’s cut the bloated military budget, as well as all the needless bureaucracies.

Too many people ABUSE the foodstamp system, and most get food stamps that do not need them. Foodstamp recipients need to get off their ass and work like everybody else does. Foodstamp recipients should be drug tested,and foodstamp programs should only last for two weeks. And, you can only apply for foodstamps ONE time, then get a JOB

Why do you say that all of these people are Americans? They aren’t! Take the illegals off the rolls and the number will drop dramatically! BTW, illegal immigration is not a racial issue. Hispanics are not a race.

In CALIFORNIA the state is handing out food stamps/aid to able bodied males that are 18-25. They tell welfare that their parents through them out of the house, get aid and then shack up with some buddies and they all eat off of the taxpayers dime. Reporting it doesn’t help as they are overworked in the office and the workers never verify the claims made by the applicants.

RUSS
Tell us all about your Green infrastructure?! It is amazing how stupid it is in believing in all of the eco crap. Remember when they do all of these things by taxing you and the utilities companies & etc you will be one of the ones screaming as to why you are having your electric bill shut off and are cold because you can’t pay it……WAH! Oh, that is right you will pay it with government funding . Global warming? What does that have to do with anything that the government should be invovlved with even if it was true? DUH! People will believe anything if it is said enough. A little secret…..There will still be four seasons after you are gone. We had the worst outbreak of global warming all winter in the US, not to mention Russia and the like. God is in control, oh but you people think that is OBUMMER.

Fix the actual problem (no jobs) and this issue will take care of itself. if the dem’s hadn’t spent their almost trillion dollar stimulus on things that did nothing to put people to work – we’d have that money to spend on food stamps. But stupid Americans will continue to adore obama all the while going hungry – and somehow blaming the republicans

You know if they would just require anyone wanting ANY government assistance to take a drug test and then have random drug tests through the year it would save a ton of money! Some people really need this kind of help. Professional beggars gaming the system is hurting everyone, even people that are not on any government assistance.
I have to take a drug test and randoms due to continuing my employment. Why should they not have to?

It would appear to me that the ignorant amongst us would continue to give away other people’s money. Frankly, it’s proven time and again, being a single mom is the way to poverty.
Sorry, but there will always be poor, and they will always leach off the hardworking self reliant folks.
One whiner here was lamenting about a single mom they know who is a nurse who had her hours cut. Well, tough! I didn’t knock her up, let the Dad pay for their stupidity.
As to Bush’s wars, sorry whiners, but the Constitution provides for the common defense, it doesn’t provide for stupid people with no morals.

RAVEN…they’re Obama’s wars. You can’t keep blaming Bush for your president’s failings.

It’s funny that everyone so CERTAIN that the so-called “rich” in this country don’t pay enough in taxes. Quite contrary to actual FACTUAL information from IRS data, the rich are paying for just about everyone who’s got their hands out for government goodies. Taxing the rich even more has not been shown to improve economic activity. In fact, nearly every credible source says that raising taxes during Obama’s non-economic recovery would be a huge mistake. So, why are you all so eager to risk it?

David and Raven – They’re actually America’s wars. You guys can just keep talking about what you heard on Fox News and MSNBC all day long. Until people actually start to think about how to solve problems and stop the political slandering (exactly what they want you to do since it keeps you ignorant and them in power), then nothing gets solved. I don’t know why the average citizen doesn’t self-educate. All people want to do is whine about the “other” side. When both sides will do anything to sieze and retain power. But, nobody cares about that. Just keep becoming more polorized to make things that much worse. What a goofy thing.

Food stamps should be for staples ONLY, and not more expensive items at that. People with little or no money have to learn to cook and make do with cheaper items. I’d advocate giving them a weekly allotment consisting of foods like whole chickens, cheaper cuts of other meats, ground turkey, along with a bag of potatoes or rice, flour, oatmeal, margarine, eggs, milk, cheaper (in season or canned/frozen) fruits and vegetables, etc. People who expect others to pay for them to eat should be grateful for good plain healthy food. And they should be taught to cook!

seems cruel,when there are so many people struggling, to deny them….food. Cutting the nutrional programs, I can understand. Cutting anything that is frivolous to food, but cutting food to the poor???? and then claiming you are christian? who do you think you’re fooling?

BTW _house prices on NON foreclosed homes is holding perfectly steady. The foreclosed homes are being sold, and those are of lower value, obviously, which is why housing prices are down. that number included foreclosed AND normal sales. Normal sales have shown no down turn in prices, but the foreclosed homes are now starting to move, which is actually not a bad thing, but they obviously go for cheaper. So, do try to report the fact accurately, huh?

After reading some of these comments I can only say this.
WOW!

I’m getting tired of people who make blanket statements about people on welfare. My husband and I are middle aged college graduates. We have four children that we love and have worked our butts off to support them. My husband’s last job payed 90,000/year. We have never lived beyond our means and have no debt except our mortgage. Unfortunately, our hard work has been “rewarded” by two job layoffs in the past 2 years. My husband is working in a warehouse making 8.50/hr and I make 10/hour subbing. We are eligible for food stamps and you can be damn sure we are taking advantage of them. We have been paying into this system for years, and we need them to keep our heads above water as we search for gainful employment. I thank God that these programs are available so that the fruits of all our hard work aren’t lost during this recession. Until you’ve walked in our shoes, be careful how you judge. It might be you who’s unemployed next!

The free ride has become a runaway freight train. Politicians will talk about it, but they can’t stop it. It will only stop when the fuel is gone. We’re getting there.

Are there people that need and deserve it? Sure. How ’bout this simple test — cross reference satellite tv billing statements with food stamp recipients. If you have a dish on your home, you don’t get, nor deserve the food stamps, or any other government assistance. PERIOD!! In addition, food stamps should only work for generic brands or government surplus food.

I didn’t here the democrats winning when just last year the Demoractic Senate and Peolsi:
U.S. Senate Democrats made that choice in two separate actions this week, voting to take back $14 billion from the federal food stamp program in late 2013 to help pay now for a financial bailout of schools, state health programs and a small bump-up – six cents apiece – in the subsidy for school lunches.

Interesting facts gleaned from government documents. “Anchor” children of illegal aliens qualify for food stamps. Low income parents or guardians of anchor children qualify for food stamps. The amount of the federal budget spent on food stamps has increased since the last amnesty program. More than 15 million illegal immigrants are estimated to be in the U.S. How many are on food stamps?

–Tighten qualifications and the qualifying process,
–make recipients re-qualify frequently,
–DIS-qualify non-citizens,
the program would shrink significantly.

Rich;
Everyone got a tax cut, not just the wealthy people. In fact, almost half the people in the country pay no federal income tax at all and it’s mostly middle-class folks exempting and deducting their way out of it.
Jobs are going overseas because Americans prefer to buy cheaper products. You can’t complain and then go shopping at Walmart.
Raven;
Obesity is more common among the poor in this country. Makes you wonder what they’re buying with those food stamps.

Since when did a 9 percent increase in spending for food stamps over 2011 become a cut? This type of liberal biased reporting is what one would expect from ABC who is in the tank for Obama.

Nutrition assistance? I shop at the supermarkets in a poor area of Philadelphia and each and every time I’m in line at the cashier there are people in front of me and behind using their “food stamp” card to pay for cases of soda, ice cream, junk food, Capt’n Krunch and Hi-C. It’s ridiculous. The nation’s producers are paying to make the moochers unhealthy so they can further tax the healthcare system and hospitals. The food stamps should apply to healthy foods only (generally, anything without a label) and encourage healthy cooking, and should require the recipients to do drug testing. A large number of recipients living in the ghetto are also heavy drug abusers. I often see $125 food stamp purchases of cartloads of junk food. The irony is that if the welfare is cut, the big food companies profits will drop like a rock, so it won’t happen.

People I know are wealthy and live in a lakefront house in a swanky neighborhood. 20 something single daughter became pregnant and along with her child lives with them in luxury yet applied for and got on food stamps while she goes to college. Screw Joe taxpayer. Just take take take.

this is great.the amount of abuse of these so called food cards is unbelieveable. here in FLA you can use your food card to gamble at internet cafes, all you hafta do is swipe your card and voila free money to gamble with. end this misuse of funds and we will start finding money for things we really need it for….good job obama..yeah right

Thanks, KSandra! That’s the other side of the “slap in the face” for the American taxpayer. I have taken a pay CUT over the past three years (frozen wages, higher benefit premium, NO COLA). Yet, food stamp folks get an annual cost of living increase! And, everyNovember, I get phone calls from some of my food stamp people asking if they can get “extra” food stamps for their family at Thanksgiving! THE AUDACITY of these people!!! I can BARELY AFFORD my own Thanksgiving dinner and I WORK for a living!

Does it include the cuts to Food Stamp money by the Dems for the 25 billion for the teacher bailouts last Sept of which 4% went directly to union and campaign funds for Dems?

LIIIAAARRRRSSSS!!!!!!
I cannot believe ANYONE would still blame Bush… sorry to inform you, but your king has let you down.

I am very, very fearful. I worry over what is happening in our great country at the hands of this Administration. The divisiveness being foisted on our citizens as O-man and his progressive, socialist cronies pit the hard working members of society against the welfare class is frightening. The things O-man and his “czars” are doing AWAY from Congressional scrutiny are far worse than what is before Congress. Regulation is O-man’s new tool to get what he wants in his socialist dream world. I fear the coming revolution when the backs of the producers are broken and they rise and yell, “ENOUGH!”

This is all the logical extension of the New Deal. Harry Hopkins (Google or Bing it) said that the Democrats’ policy was “Tax and tax; spend and spend; elect and elect.” By getting enough people on federal programs the party that always wants to expand those programs has an embedded base of voters who will consistently vote for it. Now, 80 years later, there are so many people now living at the taxpayers’ largess – and who, coincidentally, pay no federal income taxes (51%)- that the political forces that favor the situation are nearly unbeatable at the polls. The logical extension, as we and the Europeans have seen, is massive debt, high unemployment, slow growth, and poor attitudes towards being productive. Thanks a bunch, guys. Hope you’re happy.

Cut food stamps? Time to ELIMINATE the program and start over where the truly needy are temporarily assisted.
This generational hand-out program has become a sham and an insult to those pulling the wagon.
Get rid of it – tomorrow.

I struggle to live from paycheck from paycheck. To save on cost we eat the basics such as rice and beans. No frills in our diet. When I am in line at Walmart and see someone on food stamps by name brand pop tarts and all kinds of food that I can’t afford it makes me wonder if there are room for cuts.

Ready to read something you won’t believe??????????/ Google Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin, the current Mrs. Weiner Just do it!!!

First, please note I have changed my screen name, since there is a new “Raven” on the boards…Sheez.
TheLoyalOpposition: “Raven — gosh! What part of my post was false??? —- “
What part of MINE was? Answer, none. You conveniently ignore MY facts which completely repudiate YOUR claim.
“By the way, it is convenient to your “stance” that Bush left office right at the recession was hitting! —”
It hit a full year or more BEFORE we finally voted him out of office…It was caused by HIS policies, same as the Great Depression was caused by 12 years of Republican policies (supply-side economics, union busting, deregulation, speculation, tax cuts for the rich and big business, etc.. ) Then a Democrat won by a landslide and CLEANED UP THE MESS, setting the nation on the path to unprecedented prosperity. Learn some history.
I was working at Adidas N.A. Headquarters at the time (2007) and watching even that successful company lay off and transfer people across the country as a condition of keeping their jobs…People were walking around scared and afraid to take phone calls or see their supervisor approach their desk! I was a long-term temp (8 mths on the payroll) and when business slowed, none of my co-workers wanted to let me go, but there was simply not enough work to justify me being there…so I left voluntarily. See? We liberals DO have ethics; I couldn’t sit there twiddling my thumbs and playing on the internet while getting paid.
Then I spent 8 mths on unemployment (first time in my LIFE I have ever claimed it, despite having qualified a few times (I was always able to find another job right away). Not this time. I have a GREAT resume and a degree, but despite applying for hundreds of positions, many of them far BELOW what I am qualified for, nada. Even my temp agency stopped calling and when I called to check, nothing this week.
After Obama won, he extended UE benefits twice and approved an SS stimulus payment (which, together, kept my kids and I fed and housed and enabled me to buy a used car to replace the one which was on its last legs).
I am a widow. My husband of 23 yrs, father of our 2 kids, died in early 2008 from a genetic condition which prevented him from getting health insurance and, as a result, affording the care he needed to extend his life further. He‘d have just LOVED the election, but he didn‘t make it that long. Yeah, I feel pretty strongly about the health insurance/care reforms Obama accomplished. People ARE dying for lack of health care…even on full disability through SS for a year and our family income being poverty level, there was NOTHING available to him for health care…there is a 16 mth waiting period for coverage through SS; he was dead by then. Anyway, that’s why I get SS…and trust me, we only get what he paid IN over his decades of working. Not a penny more.
I finally opted to return to college to earn a second degree rather than sit home looking for jobs that weren’t there as my UE ran out. The increases to the Pell Grant program and federally subsidized student loans Obama pushed through enabled me to do that. I will graduate next year and re-enter the workforce (which is steadily improving, even here in Oregon).
My 19 yr old son is also in college on Pell Grants. He wants to be an English teacher. IMAGINE! The son of a poor widow, and he CAN go to school instead of going to work at McDonalds and going on to a life of poverty-level wages and unfulfilled potential!
We are an example of the success of Obama’s economic policies. W/o them (and the other “entitlement“ programs Democrats created), my kids and I would be literally on the street and starving rather than housed, fed, and educating ourselves to meet the demands of the future.

A lot of good those tax cuts for the wealthy have done. Where are those promised jobs Republicans? Overseas most likely!
POSTED BY: RICH | MAY 31, 2011 12:51:46 PM
Hey Rich, don’t you get it? “Rich” Republicans are MOSTLY people like me—small business owners, mom-and-pop shops, where the owners work 80 to 100 hours a week trying to stay afloat, and keeping their employees employed. I work those hours and DO have the money to hire a few people, but I won’t … until Obama is out of office. Tax cuts DO help, but if you have a guy in office who is so anti-American, so anti-business, so anti-capitalism, no one who has money will invest it. Those entrepreneurs, and I consider myself one of them, am holding ground, but doing no more. Obama IS the reason you see those with money not spending it.

These comments are so ignorant about what foodstamps are and what they do. Foodstamps are economic support to food producers more than they are aid to recipients. Reduction of foodstamps would mean less cereal sold, less workers in cereal factories etc. It would cause a spiraling effect in the economy not only locally but nationally and create more unemployment and more poverty and definitely more hunger.

I am a single mother with 4 children. I make a little over $50,000 a year at a prestigious company. I am on foodstamps. I pay taxes and so I am entitled to receive foodstamps. I have to honestly say, that on the salary I make, I still live paycheck to paycheck for the most part because the price of living is high, and I am talking basic necessities. Between rent, coned, car insurance, gas, toll, phone bill, daycare and health insurance the foodstamps do help. My family would feel the effects if foodstamps were cut.

We need to GUT and CUT. There should be NO reason illegals recieve benefits off the back of taxpaying citizens. There is no excuse for them getting money they did not earn to feed people who will not put anything into the taxbase of this country.
Not only that, but seeders and breeders that will not work, or whose work comprises solely out of bilking taxpayers out of benefits for having children out of wedlock, and ARE citizens should be sterlized.
Then we should put strict limits on anything that is bought by food stamps and they should only be non prepared foods for adults,baby food for children, and no sodas, no cigs, no alcohol, no twinkies, and a strict 30% quota of fruits and veggies per buy.
Those who receive benefits ought to have to pass a random drug test, a random nicotine test, a random alcohol test. Any failure is ground for losing benefits.
There is NO excuse for 50+ of the population being on food stamps…none whatsoever. This ought to be coulple with NOT comprehensive immigration reform but COMPLETE immigration reform and deportations of those who do not need to be here taking jobs of those need to get off the government rolls.

and what about our military families??? Dependents of enlisted individuals may qualify for food stamps, due to low household income and household size. Do we cut them off too??? How about the elderly and/or disabled??? let them starve?

I wonder how many recipients of food stamps are gaming the system. I’ll bet plenty and those that do ought to go to jail and get fed there.

You libs have the same Obama-funded talking points…
-Tax breaks for big oil
-Tax breaks for the rich
-Corporate welfare
Do you really think that the way to make our country prosperous is to pour sand into the engines of growth (businesses)?
Is the collective liberal IQ really that low?

I save enough each money each year to bring 2 more family members across the border! thank you mr. obama.

Obama is a FAILURE and a FRAUD…
Any liberal that cannot admit this is intellectually dishonest…

I had someone in front of me the other day buying $168 of lobster with food stamps. This goes on all the time, it is time to pull the plug.

Charity should be VOLUNTARY…not FORCED through the weapon of TAXES.
FU libs…
FU Obama…

When you have more people riding in the eocnomic wagon (lazy union members, welfare-addicts, clueless hippies…bascially Obama’s base) than pulling the economic wagon (business owners, entrepreurs, productive employees of large corporations, farmers) then you have a recipe for disaster.

There is nothing noble in feeding other people’s children while ours go hungry. Why are we feeding, educating, medicating, and paying to incarcerate illegal aliens?
Why are we, per Jimmy Carter, providing social security and social services to elderly extended family members of immigrants who have never worked a day of their lives in our country?
For those who resist redistribution of wealth programs – note that corrupt politicians have implemented these Socialist programs for over a century.
Purge this country of the 30+ million illegal aliens, close the border, and place a 5 year moratorium on all immigration and we will witness a quick recovery and a desperately needed restoration of law and order in this country.

@Raven….
seriously,
go off yourself. I can’t even respond to your kind of stupid.
wow, just…wow. You scare the $#%* out of me. You and yours are the reason/cause for the downfall of Western Civilization. You.Are.A.Moron.
IDIOT.

I thought the recession was over 2 years ago? Why are a LOT more people on food stamps than last year?
In most “economic recovery” conditions, the opposite would be happening. But I forgot, when the Dems are in majority control (repubs have only had Congress majority a few months), everything is still Bush’s fault even after 2-1/2 years and a recession being “over” since June 2009.

What will, without a doubt, transpire next will be the democrats will claim that the republicans are trying to kill poor people by starvation in thes trying economic times….but in the next breath, they will want us to re-elect obama and will use the ‘improving’ economy as a reason for keeping him in office…that’s the problem with a country run by lawyers.

These comments are unbelievable.
The government does NOT create jobs, people do!
The folks that continually crow about Big Oil are the most stupid of all. What suckers they are. Big Oil is NOT owned by a bunch of oil barons. Big Oil is owned by stock holders, the MAJORITY ordinary people. Big Oil FUNDS THE UNION PENSIONS!! So when you complain about Big Oil and want their profits you are taking money away from Cops, Firemen Teachers, nurses, etc.
It is Constitutionally mandated to have the military. The Constitution gave all of us the freedom to sink or swim. It has been the social programs that have been enacted by the Dems that are Unconstitutional.

The problem that Congress sees is that too many of the wrong type of people are getting food stamps due to the inept leadership of Barrack Hussein Obob Administration. He has killed jobs here and the jobs that do go overseas is due to the excessive tax placed on business here in the USA. These comments about “Big Oil” are really stupid. The “subsidies” the oil companies get are for solar, wind and other alternative energy. Kill those and let the energy companies provide energy and soon there would be solutions to energy needs. Get government off of the working class backs!!

Cutting food stamps at a time when the economy is slipping back into recession and riots are erupting. Brilliant!
I’m thinking there’s better places to cut the budget. Try Defense or Baby Boomer benefits (since they handed us this mess). But then again, what do I know? Those two are only 75% of the budget.

ALMOST EVERYONE I KNOW IS ON FOOD STAMPS AND MOST DONT NEED THEM THEY JUST APPLIED BECAUSE THEY ARE SO EASY TO GET AND WHY NOT HAVE A FEW HUNDRED EXTRA HERE AND THERE FOR A COUPLE LOBSTERS OR SOME PORTERHOUSE STEAKS…PLUS THEY GET A FREE CELL PHONE WITH 250 FREE MINUETS EVERY MONTH WHEN THEY SIGN UP, WHEN U SEE MOST PEOPLE IN THE MARKET PAYING WITH THE FOOD STAMP CREDIT CARD THE ONE WITH THE AMERICAN FLAG ON IT YOU JUST SAY HEY EVERYONE ELSE IS GETTING THEM WHY NOT ME.

food stamps are among the most abused of all programs. Recipients buy the most expensive foods, and still we feed their children in school on top of this giveaway. College kids are encouraged to apply for food stamps even if their parents are loaded. I say kill the program and solve two problems at once…fraud and obesity! How’s that for real change????

I often drive several of my neighbors to the grocery store. We live in a “food desert” (no viable grocer close by)…you might see them getting into my Chevrolet, it’s silver and has rusty doors. I don’t use the food stamps, but there might be two or three elderly ladies in my car who did. Please don’t hurt them or burn up my car. I’m just trying to help them out…and yes, I paid $$$ for my food!

Yeah WANTINGBALANCE, if they want them they will come. All we have to do is wish hard enough.

About time I heard about cuts to welfare leeches..I’d much rather give taxbreaks to private busineses than handouts to welfare losers.And I don’t want to hear about shifting to education and child nutrition thats BS !Just code for more wastefull spending on losers.I want to hear about an end to WIC,energy subsidies,section 8,free breakfast lunches for losers fat kids.

Food stamps are for those who NEED them. Stop giving to the people who don’t and who abuse them.

So…cut the handout back a little. I don’t think that people will starve to death. Maybe the will even find some supplemental income to help meet their gestational needs. An just maybe even get a job with health insurance and other benefits. What a concept!

An investigation of the whole food stamp program is what is called for, I see people that are shacking up where the male is employeed making good money but the female is drawing food stamps, SSI, Welfare and they both live the Good life while the rest of us, U.S., pay the bills. We need Term Limiations to rid us of the dead wood in congress that is bringing this about.

Stephanie:
“@Raven
There is a nursing shortage. They’re all taking on extra shifts. You can’t be right about a struggling nurse on food stamps. I am very familiar with the hospital industry. Nurses make too much money to qualify for that program.”
So we have YOUR anecdotal evidence against MINE, in which a friend I’ve known for years (her daughter and mine are good friends) called me at 9 p.m. last night reporting her situation and seeking advice.
She works for a large, for-profit hospital here, and has for several years. Her hours have been cut from 5 days a week to 3.
I don’t doubt her honesty. I have seen her get up at 5 a.m. and come home at 6 p.m. many times. I watched her daughter many times when she couldn’t.
Whatever….guess she had me fooled all these years. She is actually just a lazy loser, faking her job and situation all this time. Dammit!

Congress should start closing down US companies that send JOBS overseas and giving away our jobs. How are you going to Eat, Pay bills and have any type of decent life with a good paying job with health benifits. We need to pass laws that only let couple have two childen per couple. Look at some of the families and single mothers on Reality TV that have 8 to 25 children. Why should our taxes pay for that!!!!

Only ABC News could call a 9% increase a cut. Guess you have to be dumber then a box of rocks to work at ABC News.

Obama wants us all on food stamps and welfare. Cloward and Piven and Obama are fools who understand that long term welfare destroys people, but they don’t care. That is their goal after all…destruction of prosperity. Prosperity equals freedom and liberty. Can’t have that in O’s kingdom!!!

Remember when Speaker Pelosi called an emergency session of Congress to have members vote to cut Food Stamps so they could throw BILLIONs at teachers $ first-responders before the fall election?
I do.

CUT IT!! Why is the federal government giving people money for food ?!?!
Enough of the “nanny state”…It’s the main reason America is bankrupt!

They should stop giving food benefits to homeless people. These people get hundreds of dollars in EBT benefits with no cabinet to put the food, or refrigerator to store the food, so they end up selling their benefits for a discount on the dollar and then go buy crack rocks.

“California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state…” This is what some on State welfare do with their money rather than spend it on clothing and food for their family. The system is full of fraud. If people need help it should be temporary, for basic foods only and needs to be more closely scrutinized. I’m tired of working hard and having to support those that don’t want to work.

If you look over the list of agencies that the Feds have avalable to them to stash or put money in, it won’t take you long to realize how many are redundant and simply doing the same job twice. We can save millions by cutting the size of this government and paring down the agencies by combining and eliminating but government is not inclined to stop the demand for more tax flow and will lie every hard step of the way as we demand it improve and lean itself down so we can afford it.

@Kurt – you really want to compare so-called ‘big oil subsidies’ with food stamps? OK, the entire so-called subsidies Dems want to eliminate amount to aprox. $4BN, slightly more than the increase in Food Stamps from FY 2010 to FY 2011 ($68BN last year, over $71BN this year). Looked at another way, it’s less than 6% of the annual cost of Food Stamps.
Will we also cut the very same subsidies for other, more profitable businesses that benefit more from these very same so-called subsidies? These subsidies as the left likes to call them are things like depreciation of equipment costs and deducting research & development costs- just like every other business in America does.
I for one eagerly await the call to stop subsidizing Big Soda, Big Media, and other industries…

@Christine wrote:
“Yeah, this makes a whole lotta sense. Make birth control & abortion more difficult for low income women to access, then make it impossible for them to feed the extra mouths they bring into the world. Great job, Republicans!”
You may not be aware of this, but recently science has discovered how babies are made! A simple google search will turn up msny useful links… Or you can stop by your local Planned Parenthood (non-abortion) clinic, or any 3rd-12th grade health class and learn where babies come from…
@Christine, you left out the most important part of the Republican’s position on children – if you can’t afford them, don’t have them. With having babies comes responsibility for that child – if you can’t assume the responsibility, either keep you legs crossed OR practice birth control.
Next we can review how to determine if a $50K/yr family can afford a $40K house with a zero-down 1 year adjustable mortgage. (spoiler alert: they can’t!)

Both Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of that giant sucking sound (see Ross Perot and NAFTA ) during early 90′s. They went on to get us int other so called “free” trade agreements.
///
Before we ever get around to doing away with all the UnConstitutional as well as immoral domestic welfare programs (using thugs to steal from some to give to others is never right)
we need to first stop giving UnConstitutional as well as immoral Foreign aid.

What a dishonest title. A 9% increase over 2011 is a cut? Block granting the program which will reduce admin cost is a cut? Am I missing something? I must be. I am open to having this explained to me.

They’ll starve without that glue to lick on the back.

TroyG: “One whiner here was lamenting about a single mom they know who is a nurse who had her hours cut. Well, tough! I didn’t knock her up, let the Dad pay for their stupidity.”
That was me who posted that. And her husband, the father of her daughter, was killed in Iraq. Chew on THAT for a while.

So, I’m assuming that if the Republicans win in 2012 (as IF) the public hangings of poor people/debtors (and gays, liberals, unwed mothers/women who’ve had an abortion, unionized workers, illegal immigrants, Muslims, etc) will resume in the town square?
Almost as if we never STOPPED doing such barbaric things CENTURIES ago.
That’s the tone of most here…scary, crazy stupid. The only way they have a chance of winning next year is if the rest of us don’t VOTE. VOTE.

Get the illegals off of benefits that are intended for Americans that are down on their luck.
I’ll give you an example: In my area, a man was pulled over while driving on the interstate. Not only did he not have a valid license, the car was also uninsured and he was here illegally. When searched, the officers found 3 government foodstamp/cash cards plus $3,000.00 in his pocket.
It’s instances like this that are draining our system. This wasn’t an isolated incident either.
Go to any welfare office and you’ll see for yourself. They can’t and won’t even speak English either.
Close the borders and take out the trash!

My daughter went to a public middle school shortly last year that was about 80% economically challenged and also 82% non English speaking, which meant they had the right to receive free lunch and breakfast. There was a grocery store across from this school that I would go to after I dropped off my daughter. A lot of these kidsfrom that school were most of the time ditching school or loitering at the attached star bucks of the grocery store buying $6 venti frappuchinos. Yes they were wearing the mandatory uniforms because of the gangster problems at this school. They spoke no English except when they were ordering and would just hang around the parking lot when they should be at school. When paying they usually had a wad of big bills in their wallets which I thought was so strange because my daughter who was their age never has more than $5 on her. Before the summer my daughter’s backpack would be loaded with fliers on how the kids could still come to the school for free lunches and breakfasts all summer. These fliers were always bilingual. It really made me mad because my daughter couldn’t even get a math book to take home to help her study because the school had no funds for books to be taken home.

Get the illegals off of benefits that are intended for Americans that are down on their luck.
I’ll give you an example: In my area, a man was pulled over while driving on the interstate. Not only did he not have a valid license, the car was also uninsured and he was here illegally. When searched, the officers found 3 government foodstamp/cash cards plus $3,000.00 in his pocket.
It’s instances like this that are draining our system. This wasn’t an isolated incident either.
Go to any welfare office and you’ll see for yourself. They can’t and won’t even speak English either.
Close the borders and take out the trash!

A lot of good those tax cuts for the wealthy have done. Where are those promised jobs Republicans? Overseas most likely!
POSTED BY: RICH | MAY 31, 2011 12:51:46 PM
Rich, they didn’t cut anyone’s taxes, they just kept the rate the same. DUMMY!

The day America sends children to bed hungry and malnourished, so there can be 2 billion dollar tax breaks for oil companies, will be the day I no longer call myself an American.

A lot of good those tax cuts for the poor have done. Where are they spending their money? Crack House, Tattoo parlor, or hair and nail salon most likely!

Need birth control for parasites.

TheRealRaven – So, if the Republicans win in 2012 we’ll “resume” public hangings of poor people/debtors (and gays, liberals, unwed mothers/women who’ve had an abortion, unionized workers, illegal immigrants, Muslims, etc)…in the town square?” Is that part of the Republican Platform for 2012? What are you on? Let me try to bring you back to the issue at hand – food stamps. In the District of Columbia, where I am, fully 25% of public school students are given breakfast, lunch and dinner at school every day. They should thank you since it’s a $5 million federal program. That means that their parent or parents are getting the full boat of food stamps but are not even held responsible for feeding their young. And you don’t think there’s room for any cuts because, if we cut any money out of the food stamp program, why, that would be no different than hanging poor people and union workers in the town square. Do you understand how silly that is?

Ksandra:”where I am, fully 25% of public school students are given breakfast, lunch and dinner at school every day. They should thank you since it’s a $5 million federal program. That means that their parent or parents are getting the full boat of food stamps but are not even held responsible for feeding their young…”
Newsflash, my daughter qualifies for free meals at school. She usually eats lunch there (sometimes she brings it from home).
I feed her a decent breakfast every morning (eggs, or oatmeal, or Cheerios with banana, or whole-grain toast with all-fruit jam…SOMETHING, and it is a hell of a lot better than the crap they feed them at school, which is why I feed her AT HOME.)
She arrives home ravenous…consumes several pieces of fruit or whatever else is handy, then begins demanding dinner, which I provide.
The cost of food, which has been increasing dramatically lately, is, next to housing, our largest expense.
The free lunch she gets hardly puts a dent in it.
Wow, a “5 million dollar federal program”! That’s like, what? a ridiculously miniscule fraction of what we spend annually on defense? (553 BILLION).
Perhaps you meant to say BILLION; even so. I keep picturing Dr. Evil holding the world hostage for “10 MILLION dollars!…bwwaaahhhaaa!”

Hey,where i live it,s not stamps it’s a card which the person use’s to buy food and they procede to jump into their brand new Mercedes.Ask any person that works at a check out and they can tell you what’s going on.The Golden Goose ran out of eggs and wheres my free food

It’s important, people, to separate facts from fiction. Everybody is blaming our financial woes on Bush, yet the proof that he did everything in his power (sans TARP 1) is in the White House Archives and the Congressional Record. Congress didn’ want to work with him—and I vividly remember the media pointing fingers at him, saying that he hated poor people. What a joke! That couldn’t be farther from the truth. He knew where we were headed, but he had enough class NOT to point his finger at the prior administration under whose leadership the conditions were set up for our financial crisis. He simply kept trying, but Congress would not work with him.

In our town, it is a well-known “secret” that food stamp recipients go to the store early on the first morning to spend their new monthly funds. They purchase cart-loads of food, then take it into the parking lot to sell for cash. This cash is used to purchase drugs/cigarettes/alcohol. My husband has witnessed it, as have many others. It is infuriating. This is what people resent–the blatant misuse of our hard-earned money, taken forcefully from us to support the unworthy. We DO NOT resent helping those who are truly in need and incapable of helping themselves. The federal government is the wrong entity to decide who should receive these funds. We take food to people in need. Our church regularly supports the same. We support our local food bank. People DO care. We just don’t like being taken advantage of!!!

Agreed Dan, agreed. Government has never been a producer of wealth. Have you seen or read Atlas Shrugged? It is eerily prescient of where we are and where we appear to be heading.

I love it when I’m standing behind your typical welfare recepient at WalMart. They whip out the EBT card (from their Coach purse) and pay for their cart of TV dinners and crap that shouldn’t be part of dinner and then they move the pound of gold jewelry out of the way so they can swipe the card in the machine. After that exhausting procedure they trudge the stuff out to their car which is either a Lexus or a Mitsubishi Galant with tinted windows.

A recent study of 370 line items purchased by food stamps revealed mostly sugary beverages and junk food. This program is not providing much-needed nutrition. High fructose corn syrup, salt, cholesterol, fat, empty calories. That is what recipients choose, even when the veggies are only a few feet away. They have plenty of spending authority, ability, to buy the good stuff. They buy no tuna, oatmeal or rice. It’s largely Frappuccino and Pearson’s Salted Nut Rolls, KitKats, and Pepsi. They get fat, then taxpayers have to heal their heart disease and pay for heart transplants through Medicaid.

Hey folks! In Michigan a guy won $2million in the lottery and is STILL getting food stamps.
search Detriot News and or FreePress for story

My 58 year old brother has been on food stamps for 15 years. He has seldom worked although able. He smokes pot and watches TV most all day. He lives with my 87 year old mother and gives her the food stamps as his “rent”. He always has enough money for cigs. Heaven help him if he ever has to support himself. He’s now trying to get social security disability. Please keep his food stamps coming!!!

Visit a local food pantry or your regional food bank if you have any doubt about the need for this program.

I hear radio ads all the time saying, “Think you’re too rich to qualify for food stamps? You’re probably not! Call and apply.” Food stamps should be for the truly needy and should be a short-term temporary measure with the long-term goal being self-sufficiency.
Of course, to achieve that goal, we need jobs and reasonable food prices, neither of which are supported by the Democrats. Libs want govt dependency for all (so as to be better able to rob and control us) and ridiculous levels of regulation requiring time-consuming and expensive compliance, which drives the cost of everything through the roof.

It’s amazing to me that poor and hungry food stamp recipients are mostly obese people.
In another country if you’re poor and hungry you are skin and bones but here in America they are the fattest poor of them all.
Most of them buy and eat junk food the other half they sell for drugs.
I do recall standing in line at the grocery store counting my pennies to buy some food and in front I see people with baskets filled to the max with Steaks expensive lunch meat Crab legs Lobster tales stuff I cannot afford for myself on the good day. Ant to top it all off in the parking lot the very same poor and hungry get in their brand new Mercedes or Lexus and drive away.
What a country
Tax the working class feed the parasites.

Hay R and D parties, keep bickering, while your country collapses. Keep complaining about each other, while the average American fails. Keep up the good work being clueless little useful idiots. There is no hope for this formerly great, now feminized country, it’s over….

I am a conservative, ready to reduce the size of government and end deficit spending. But Republicans seem to want to accountants, not politicians.
At a time of economic meltdown, high unemployment, impoverishment of every class of society except the wealthy, the food stamd program should be expanded–not cut.
Cut subsidies to companies who are exporting jobs overseas and importing legal and illegal employes from overseas. Cut a few hundred billion administrative cost by defunding the Department of Education and changing the grants to block grants to states and local governments for educational purposes with few or no strings.
Perhaps most of all, begin to cut the hundreds of billions we spend each year bribing countries to be our friends in the fight against the Societ Union which ended in 1991, except for US government policies and expensies which are rooted in the cold war.
The Americna peole do not want to rule the world. That’s one reason they voted against Republians in 2006 and -08, for blindly following George Bush over the Rule The World cliff.
Didn’t they learn anything then? And disn’t they learn anything from Ryan’s foolhardy Medicare plan?
Apparently Republicans want to re-elect Obama in 2012, so they can elect Jeb Bush in 2016.

In the long term, it does no good to fight the cuts. Cuts are going to be made one way or another. We are rapidly becoming Greece. Deficit spending is crippling our economy. If we don’t cut spending soon, these socialist programs are going to turn the middle class into the working poor. We cannot tax our way out of this. The government is eroding the average middle class salary by printing money. The government already represents 44% of economy. It is getting worse every day we don’t deal with our new reality.

Blaming everything on tax cuts for the rich s pure stupidity. If raising taxes on the rich is such an obvious solution, why didn’t Obama and the Democrats do it in 2009? Obama doesn’t want to do it; he just wants to use it as an excuse. Look, most rich people don’t work for an hourly wage. They can do things to avoid taxable income. That is why when rates were 70%, government revenue was lower than now.

in 2008 the recession hit. In 2009, the crime rate went down. That was partly due to enforcement, but it was also due to not making people desperate to survive. If you change the food stamps and welfare system such that more people become desperate to survive, then the crime rate will go up rapidly.
Posted by: Greggw | May 31, 2011 1:27:14 PM
_______________________________________
and we’ll spend yet even more for enforcement and keeping people in jail..not to mention none of us will be safe in the parking lot at the mall. Thank you for being the voice of reason and common sense. That’s something we see little of on these blogs.

get the illegals and lifetimers off of it , migh save some money.

The ignorant ones here that are blaming the Republicans for the cut backs are lost…it is not the Republicans that are running up all the bills for every imaginable thing to take down America ..it is that trader and his crew in the Whitehouse….it is about time that we remember that we are THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, COME TO CENTER STAND TOGETHER AND TAKE BACK OUR NATION FOR ALL OF US AND GET OVER THESE IDIOTIC POLITICALLY CORRECT STUPIDITIES THAT ARE THROWN ALL OVER THE PLACE AND MEAN ABOLUTELY NOTHING TO ANY ONE THAT MATTERS! IT ONLY MATTERS TO THE ILLEGALS WHO ARE COSTING US BILLIONS AND HAVE FREE BENIFITS THAT WE PAY FOR BUT ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DO WITHOUT SO THEY CAN CONTINUE GETTING THEM,…IF THAT IS NOT JUST THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS NONSENSE I HAVE EVER HEARD!!…WHEN THE HECK IS THIS NATION GOING TO GET SOME BRAINS AND STOP TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE THAT HATE US AND ONLY WANT THEIR WAY IN OUR COUNTRY! WA MUST STOP SPENDING OUR MONEY FROM TAXES, ETC ON ANYTHING BUT TAKING CARE OF AMERICA AND WHEN ARE WE GOING TO FIND AND ELECT PATRIOTS THAT CARE ABOUT THE CONSTUTUTION, THE LIBERTY AND FREEDOM OF AMERICA, STANDING FOR WHO WE ARE AND ARE NOT COMMUNISTS???????????IF YOU ARE NOT ANGRY YOU ARE A TRADER TO THIS NATION!!!…GET OFF YOUR DUFFS, GET MAD AND TELL YOUR OFFICIALS THAT YOU ARE MAD AS HELL AND ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE AND THEN DUST OF YOUR MUSKET AND BE READY FOR THE REVOLUITION THAT IS COMING …WE MUST AGREE AND MAKE THIS THE GREATEST NATION IN THE WORLD AGAIN…. OR WE DIVIDE AND FIGHT EACH OTHER IN ANOTHER CIVIL WAR, WHILE THE MUSLIMS ORDER ANOTHER HORRIFIC ATTACK AND THE WASTES IN WA SIT THERE WITH THEIR HEADS IN THEIR HANDS NOT KNOWING WHAT TO DO…..WELL IT IS ABOUT TIME THAT WE, THE PEOPLE, GET READY AND TAKE OUR NATION BACK FROM THE IDIOTS IN WA AND OTHER PLACES BEFORE THERE IS NOT A COUNTRY TO TAKE BACK!! WHAT THE SAM HILL IS THE MATTER WITH THE LEFT AND THE ‘COULD CARE LESSES’ THAT THINK THEY ARE SO SPECIAL?? …WELL YOU MAY JUST FIND OUT WHEN THE DEMS AND WHOM EVER IS IN WA AHEA– TREAT YOU ALL JUST LIKE THEY ARE THE CONSERVATIVES AND PATRIOTS THAT HAVE THE BRAINS TO TAKE A STAND FOR OUR FREEDOMS AND LIBERTY OF THIS NATION… THE OTHERS OF YOU ON THE LEFT ARE TRADERS TO ALL WE STAND FOR AND DESERVE WHATEVER HAPPENS TO YOU IF YOU DO NOT STAND FOR THE CONSTUTUTION AND THE FAITH OF THIS NATION! EVERYONE, PUT ASIDE THE NONSENSE AND LET’S GET THIS NATION ON THE RIGHT TRACK AGAIN OR WE ARE GOING TO (all) BE IN THE SEWER TOGTHER WITH NO FREEDOMS AND NO RIGHTS…THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION FOR ONE, ILELGALS RUNNING ALL OVER BECAUSE ALL THE BORDERS ARE GONE AND THE DRUG CARTEL RUNNING THE WEST WHILE THE EAST KEEPS THE WASHINGTON GANSTERS…DO YOU NOT READ OR SEE THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL??? WWIII IS UPON US, A REVOLUTION OR CIVIL WAR IS UPON US, A NATION THAT WE THOUGHT WE WOULD NEVER SEE IS UPON US..NO TELLING WHAT IS BEING PLOTTED BY OUR OWN AND THE OTHERS THAT HATE US..WAKE UP!

I work at a liquor store and 90 to 95 percent of our customers have a food stamp card in their wallet. They have the money to buy 40dollar plus bottles of liquor . The system is flawed we just had a woman to quit work stating she could do better on welfare , govt housing and food stamps -and not work. We have become a country of freeloaders.

Conservatives are ignoring the fact that there are knock-on effects from hunger. People that have to stretch their dollars to buy good will tend to buy orange soda for their kids instead of milk… it’s rational behavior since orange soda is cheaper and the kids will drink it. But this also encourages diabetes which creates increased costs likely in Medicaid or other health programs.
Poor nutrition causes problems thinking and focusing at school. That leads to a lifetime of lower earnings, which means creating a cycle of dependency and lower tax revenues, bigger budget deficits.
Come on people… think with your heads. Most people believe in a basic social safety net. Well folks, food stamps is a part of that. It’s stupid to just block grant it… just shifts the problem to the states. You need to address the issue of poverty and hunger head on if you want to reduce the food stamp rolls.

While married to an adult student at a very high profile private university (one of those Ivy League ones), Food Stamps were being literally handed out like candy by the local government and many of the high-price-paying students were using the Food Stamp program with glee. We were all fed before Food Stamps by food we paid for ourselves, what we could afford and when. After Food Stamps, people started increasing “extras” that they used their money for, especially beer. So the Food Stamp program tends to encourage people to behave recklessly once their demands to provide basics for themselves is removed. So much fraud and ripoff dealings using Food Stamps occur…it’s just human nature, unfortunately, to abuse what we don’t work or pay for.

TheRealRaven – Wrongo, it is a five million dollar program. But that’s on top of the money their families are being paid to feed them in the form of food stamps. Apparently, you didn’t understand that what I was saying is that right there is a place you could cut food stamps. If the federal taxpayer is feeding their young three meals a day at school, they don’t need the full boat of food stamps they’re also getting. Cutting their food stamps is hardly the same as hanging people in the town square. All I can say is that when you get off of the “grants” and “programs” and get out of school and get a job and see over a third of your earnings taken – much of which is given over to other people in the form of “entitlements” – and then watch those people entitling themselves at the supermarket to food you can’t afford – I don’t think you’re gonna like it much. You know, the government that gives you all the “grants” and “programs” you value so highly doesn’t get the money for them off of a magic tree. They get it from taxpayers. And you don’t even send us a card.

This is just sad. Lemme see if i got this right. We are in 3 wars with no end in sight, we’ve got the tsa groping our children, no jobs, economy in toilet, golden parachutes for bankers, we’re gonna push grandma off a cliff and take away her food stamps, torture is ok, we are bringing back debtor prisons, haarp is causing earthquakes and foul weather around the globe, marijuana is still illegal, people are going to be forced to purchase private insurance, national id cards, fema camps, video surveillance, internet censorship, the patriot act is being expanded, and we now know that our government was behind 911!! Can anyone tell me why we haven’t begun to storm the castle gates?

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

Stop the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc.! Shift the money to feed and train the Americans !
Close the American markets ! Start creating the productive jobs in the US !

I finally see the Republican plan! Cut the jobs, stop abortion to create more low income mouths to feed, then STARVE them all. It’s ok, because their friends have people in Mexico, and India, who will work for peanuts, and everything will finally work the way it should.

Its about time and also
We should sterilize all families (mother, father (if he can be found else cut the benefits in 1/2), children) living off any type welfare (food, housing, homeless, living, …) for over 6 months. This would eventually lead to an end of poverty, crime and make the future better instead of perpetuating the problem as we’ve been doing since the 1960′s

Listen to you guys – Republican Oil – Democratic Big Labor Unions, yada yada yada. What’s this crap about 39% increase of Americans on SNAP???? Have you ever been to a Fiesta Grocery store when the STAR CARDS are handed out in Texas each month. It’s all Mexicans buying basket loads of groceries… Then they whip out rolls of $100.00 bills to buy the items that the STAR CARDS are not allowed to purchase…What’s wrong with our government – We need to get a grip or they will break this nations back – I always hear Democrat say the illegals are the backbone of America, let’s reform their status… Backbone my #&%. We either do something or sit by and watch them drain our country till it’s completely bankrupt

How about people who go out of their way to try and feed their kids healthy foods with food stamps and still can’t afford a month worth of food on that???I mean seriously my husband works and I’ll be working here shortly, but guess what???Money will still be tight because there aren’t jobs that pay enough and by the way yes my kids eat 5 times a day, but neither child is obese by far.Get over yourselves self rightous pigs.Food stamps do not pay for Tobbacco or Alcohol here they only pay for food for people, not even for animals.People that don’t abuse the system shouldn’t be screwed over just because the jobs that were promised haven’t been delivered.

I wonder if Congress is aware of the government funded groups that are out there signing up as many people as possible including themselves for food stamps? Do your homework at every election and don’t vote for anyone of any party that is “progressive.”

I am tired of these one-sided knee jerk reactions. We need to have a comprehensive and long term strategy to control deficits.
Lets start with our foreign policy which creates enemies for us with it’s support of Israel. If we cut off aid to that parasite nation, we could drastically cut our defense and homeland security spending. That would save more money than any other cut to government spending.
Lets also stop giving incentives for people on welfare to breed. If the hopelessly poor and useless have fewer children, we will have less hopelessly poor and useless adults in the future.

Raven, Bush’s little wars? Obama’s had three years to end them, right? Instead he added another one. You also think the problems in this country would be solved if Republicans were out of office. The Democrates had two years of doing anything they wanted. Anything changed? Not really. Just deeper in debt. You are a Democrat Hack. You believe what you want without checking out the facts. I’m no fan of the Republicans, but the Democrats are spendthrifts who don’t feel they should be accountable. Kinda like Bush was. We need jobs more than we need food stamps. But Washington doesn’t want to create an environment for jobs; they want an environment for dependence. After that, you’ll do anything they say to feed yourself or your kids. Are those the Democrats you really want, Raven? Because those Democrats could give a rats rear-end about the little guy. They’ve been telling you that for years. You just don’t want to listen.

This is bad.

Oh by the way all those jobs that illegals do that Americans wont do? My father is a general contractor and used to do construction jobs when the illegals came in the wages went down. An american constrution worker who does quality work and LIVES here CAN NOT work on less than $10 an hour and feed a family. Go to the Vallarta Market on the corner of Foothill Blvd and Sayre Street in Sylmar on a Friday evening and whatch the Western Union window. The line is out the door with all the illegals sending money down south. Like I said if you’re family has been in the U.S. a while your bi-lingual and you don’t seend most of your money back to Mexico. These people are just here to make money and retire back in Mexico. They don’t like Gringos in Gringolandia and don’t give a damn about making the U.S. a better place. Just get the money and run

Food stamp costs would not be a problem if only essential food items were allowed. If the objective of the program is to insure all citizens are afforded a healthy diet, and nothing more … the cost could be reduced by 40 – 50%. That would not include expensive cuts of meat and candy/treats; only the staple food items. That may sound unfair; however, my family does not the same as wealthy families. Again, the goal should should be to insure food stamp recipients are afforded a healthy diet.

Where are the jobs Obama??? This guy is a flaming idiot.

Cut it off. I know of a family who have one child and they are not married. He works ($35,000 on avg) but mom doesn’t so she gets over $600 in food stamps a month! They eat like kings. Also get the big tax credit (earned income) and go out and have $300 meals. Worked at a bread outlet last summer. People would come in with their food stamps and stock up on little debbie’s cakes,donuts and all kinds of crap. This is stupid. this country is nothing but entitlements. Doesn’t it make anyne else mad that the politicans are saying they will have to raise taxes when they are the Dumba**es that spent the money and not us?? We need someone to stop these nut jobs in office and Allen West is the one to do it. Obama could’nt keep up with this man. Go ALLEN WEST!

March 2011 was the end of the 99 weeks of unemployment for the millions laid off in March 2009. Since there are still NO jobs, they are no longer COUNTED in unemployment numbers but instead have had to get ON food stamps. Makes perfect sense, and gives a better estimate of the REAL unemployment number. Jobs! We need jobs!

This is just another type of freeloading.

Increase the taxes on the wealthy (put them in a 90% bracket). Eliminate the subsidies on “big oil” (why not medium size and little oil also?), then eliminate these same subsidies on the drug companies (Pfizer, Merck, etc) and what do you have – about two weeks worth of relief. Why? Because it’s almost all about spending.

If they quit giving the food stamps to the illegals and the people that really don’t need them then they can survive their cuts.

We have the World’s wealthiest “Poor” and the World’s fattest and most obese “Poor”. People in the remote regions of Northern Africa dream incessantly to some day be this “Poor”.

Newt was right. Obama IS the food stamp president. And for all you economic illiterates that want the tax breaks ended for oil companies, what do you think will happen to the price you pay at the pump? I’ll give you a hint since your brain is obviously too small to answer the question: the price will NOT go down.

In many cases,food stamps are sold for 50 cents on a dollar and some food stamps are are used for non basic food purchases.
Set up food banks instead of food stamps. For those that do not have transportation,supply bus passes good for once a week.
I would bet that 50% of those receiving food stamps would not show up.

I love it!
The Democrats AND Republicans have both empowered the corporations to take jobs away from Americans and send them overseas while relying on the failed economic policies of the Federal Reserve.
Now that they have destroyed this nation economically, while at the same time enriching themselves, they want to cut the legs out from under the people they have made dependent upon the system.
It’s no wonder that Homeland Security says it exists for the threat from the American people.
The Democrats & the Republicans have conspired to transform this once free nation into a Nazi Germany like police state.
A 31 March 1941 Time magazine article showed how both Hitler and Stalin used food as a weapon to control the population. And now that “weapon” is being used by the Democrats and Republicans against us.
They are the real enemies of the Constitution I was warned about in my military oath.

Food stamp usage is up 61% the last 4 years? Holy cow — we’ll never get that cat back in the bag.

I have three college degrees: an AA, a BA, and an MA, along with years of work experience and I’m currently on food stamps. I lost my full-time teaching job nearly two years ago and have only been able to find part-time work since. It almost killed me to apply for food stamps last year, as I had never been on public assistance in the 48 years I’d been alive. But without it, I don’t know what I would have done. When I applied, I was trying to live on $400 unemployment per month from the part-time job I worked and lost following losing my full-time job. All I know is that this country is in one hell of a mess and getting worse every day. God help us all.

How many of those getting food stamps are here ilegally?

Posted by: FYI | Jun 1, 2011 10:10:11 AM—-The parents that had them and cannot afford them are the ones letting them starve. Not me or society.

Posted by: Bill Gates | Jun 1, 2011 11:37:17 AM—We are heading that way anyway, unless something is done the checks will stop, and all those people will want food, and housing, and health care, and when they are hungry enough, cold enough, or sick enough they will try to take it from those that have it. They won’t steal from just the rich, they will take from anyone and everyone that has something. It will make the French Revolution look like a garden party, and there will be an American Reign of Terror, as the government collapses and we degenerate a 1000 years as a society.

What I’d really like to see is better means testing for welfare, unemployment, and food stamp/wic programs. The solution isn’t in giving more money or giving less money, its about making sure money is given to those that actually need it. Nobody wants to see a family starve that needs food stamps. But at the same time, its infuriating to watch a woman buy $100 of baby food with a Wic voucher, load it in a brand new Cadillac, and then drive home to a gated community. Provide better means testing, and we’d all be happy.

Posted by: Brent | Jun 1, 2011 12:09:44 PM—The government has no way to tell the needy from the lazy. Nor do they make much of an effort to do so. If they base it on income taxes, the Underground economy is stronger than ever, and not reported as income, so taxes aren’t paid, and they have no means to base it on consumption. The only real way to do it is to ration food out. Make people who want it stand in line for MRE’s.

Enough is enough. It is not the government’s job to feed people. It is not the government’s job to clothe people. It is not the government’s job to provide healthcare. It’s time people started taking care of themselves and stop looking to the government to provide their every need. Churches have food closets – go to them! That’s the churches job according to Scripture – to take care of the poor. I’m tired of my tax dollars going to take care of generations of families who have been on welfare since the 60′s and have never had a job in their lives. This is WRONG.

You cannot win the support of the people by taking food off of their table! While I agree that the food stamp program has gotten out of hand and needs to be seriously regulated, cutting off basic staples from those in need is not the answer.
Govt., can start by cutting all ag subsidies. Having worked on farms for many years, most farmers know how to manage a budget, unlike our current govt., and know what they can afford to plant and not to plant. Farmers now sell worldwide and know where the demand exist. They don’t need the govt., supplementing their business. If they do, they need to go out of business and find a new occupation.
Next, the govt., can crack down on illegals, send about forty million of them who are on foods stamps, back to their own countries. Then the govt., needs to control the borders. That alone will cut much of the increased funds for food stamps.
Finally, our govt., needs to bring our troops home from the needless wars they are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trillions of dollars have been wasted on those wars that could have balanced our budget over the last ten years. It is one thing to defend our country from scurrilous attacks, quite another to get involved in political descent in other countries.
There is no need to cut entitlements that seniors depend on for their existence nor to starve needy citizens of this country!

Posted by: NCJohn | Jun 1, 2011 12:23:23 PM—Most of the money isn’t spent on staples and that is well documented, most of the money is spent on prepackaged food, of negligible nutritional value. I agree with cutting the subsidies, but the old people choose to depend on SSI, they reached that magic age where the government will take care of you. Unfortunately the government has doomed you in the process, by devaluing the currency at a greater rate than the SSI investment itself.

Posted by: Linda | Jun 1, 2011 12:28:15 PM—Replace government employees with well fare recipients. No need to contract out Janitorial, or Call Center Work, No Need to contract out cooks at government building cafeterias.

We have got to stop this insanity. Food stamps should be cut, medicade should be cut and welfare should be cut. Everyone in this country needs to sacrifice. Personally I am tired pulling the wagon for these freeloaders.

Obama is asking for cuts to military pay, both active duty and retired. When are the Czars and Congress going to take a pay cut?
VOTE GREEN; RECYCLE CONGRESS.

Federal spending on programs like food stamps has kept LITERALLY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE FROM GOING HUNGRY. Do these “tools of the rich” Republican idiots ever stop to think that if people are denied minimal food assistance then crime like shoplifting from supermarkets would almost certainly soar and that we could very well experience destructive food riots?

One more note about the current epidemic of hunger in the United States: if the Federal Government had done its damn job and regulated the GREEDY RECKLESS PIGS ON WALL STREET WHO WRECKED OUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM then their wouldn’t be a need right now to expand bare-bones emergency safety net programs like food stamps!

Obama promised that under HIS plan, unemployment would not exceed 8%. Wrong, dead wrong
Obama promised that under his enegry plan, fuel prices would skyrocket. Give him credit for this and you can also vote for him again, and remember that as fuel prices go up, so does food prices.
Wish people would stop blaming big oil, for all their woes, and think OPEC, and if we drill here, we create jobs here, which are jobs that pay taxes to support the welfare state that so many liberals want.

@ Posted by: Robert | May 31, 2011 12:55:54 PM
I hear ya! Same thing happens to me all the time and it’s all I can do to not say something to miss jericurl, loaded down with gold jewelry and wearing designer jeans! Of course if I did, she’d probably smack the crap out of me, then I’d have to shoot her and it would be a big mess. lol
I don’t mind helping out people who really need the help, but I think that a person who is using food stamps, should not be buying steaks and lobsters, if they are, they have too much money to spend. There should be a list of allowed foods, the basics, no gourmet/luxury items. I don’t know how they buy lottery tickets with food stamps, you aren’t even supposed to buy a lottery ticket on a credit card or a check in Texas, pay cash.
I was glad to see that Florida just passed a law requiring welfare recipients to take drug tests, at their own expense, if you pass, you get to keep your benefits and your test money will be refunded, don’t pass, oh well.

Nearly 21 million households are reliant on food stamps. I wonder how many paid into the system?!? It would be far more efficient to subsidize Food Banks and Soup Kitchens, and kill Food Stamps.

Why are America’s “treasonously jobsoutsourcing corporations” currently sitting on AT LEAST two trillion doaars that they are not currently investing in creating jobs for America’s workers? Are they trying to get an ultra-conservative Republican elected in 2012 by withholding jobs creation under Democrat Obama? THINK ABOUT IT!

Why are America’s “treasonously jobs outsourcing” corporations currently sitting on AT LEAST 2 trillion dollars that they could be using right now to create jobs for America’s workers? Are they trying to get an ultra-conservative Republican elected in 2012 by withholding jobs creation under Democrat Obama? THINK ABOUT IT!

How about stopping SS & food stamps for ILLEGALS!
Maybe we can help our own citizens.

You people are ridiculous. Illegals do not get Social Security, but they do have to pay into it. Do you do basic fact checking before you type?

It’s a catch 22. If the entitlements are rescinded or reduced, there will be replication of rage as is happening in Europe and the ME. The usurper knows that and the entity is drooling in anticipation of that convenient event.
awl

TRY CUTTING OUT GIVING KIDS IN SCHOOL SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS FOR ATTENTION DEFICENT , HOW MANY PEOPLE KNOW THAT SCHOOL AGE KID ARE GETTING CHECKS EVERY MONTH FOR DISABILITY AND WILL GROW UP AND STILL COLLECT , THEY CAN OUT GROW OR DEAL WITH ATTENTION DEFICENT AND GET HIGH PAYING JOBS ,LOOK AT GLENN BECK HE HAS ATTENTION DEFICENT , HE MAKES MILLIONS , OUR GOV HAS TO STOP PAYING FOR KIDS WHO HAVE LEARNING DISABILITIES THAT CAN BE OVERCOMED ,I BET EVERYONE KNOW SOMONE WHO HAS A KID COLLECTING DISABILITY SOME HOMES COLLECT FOR MULTIPLE KIDS FOR ATTENTION DEFICENT

What has this administration done for JOBS and the economy!???!??! —
???????????????????????????????????????
Perhaps you should Google that and see for yourself. He has done a lot more than Republicans have. In fact, what have Republicans done since the midterm elections to create jobs? See, they were able to convince you gullible people that THEY, Republicans knew what to do. That if elected they would show President Obama up by creating jobs and fixing the economy. Most people expected that to happen right away considering they only gave President Obama 18 months and they were telling Americans just how incompetent the President was.But I digress….
What have Republicans done? Gone after Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, health care, women’s rights, everything BUT jobs. Oh, my bad. They did just released their plan which consist of more tax cuts for the rich and more corporate welfare. More jobs have been created under President Obama in two and a half years than under George Bush in eight.

Looks like O is creating jobs at golf ocurses.
Posted by: Jack | May 31, 2011 1:10:28 PM
Jack, dude! Get a grip!! You seem to be a person full of anger and hate. That will reduce your life span. President Obama has done EVERYTHING right. He IS the American dream. He grew up humble and under different circumstances.He excelled in his education, married a wonderful woman, had two children and pursued his dreams. He was very successful at it. He decided he had something to offer our country, ran an outstanding election and beat out 14 other candidates to become the 44th President of the United States of America. No matter how much you want to deny it, that is an extraordinary achievement. In two and a half years, he managed to oversee the capture and killing of Bin Laden the person our previous President started two wars over saying he would get him dead or alive, until he became bored. He kept our country from going into a depression. He save the auto industry, worked on getting affordable health care for ALL Americans, reformed Wall Street and pulled combat troops out of Iraq among other things. He did this in 2.5 years! And here all you can do is come on these boards and insult, demean, vilify him and complain about him playing golf. DUDE!!! What have you ever done in your life that can even get close to what President Barack Hussein Obama has accomplished in less than three years?

Don’t cut food stamps and other assistance programs. Just require recipients to pass legal residence and drug checks to be eligible. That should slash the costs of the programs in half.

I know plenty of families who need food stamps and aren’t getting enough. They don’t buy steaks, they can barely afford potted meat and bread with what they are given. All of these families are dealing with crippled parents or working multiple jobs, who have spent their life’s savings on just survival and have no where else to turn. You think YOU have felt the pinch of the economy and high gas prices? Try being poor and see how much the pinch hurts.
I’m not saying that the system hasn’t been abused but to say everyone is abusing it is false. You want to cut down on welfare abuse? CLOSE THE FRIGGIN BORDER! How many illegals are we feeding? Why is it easier to starve poor folks who are natural born citizens than it is to round up and remove illegals in this country?
I’m with the conservative idea that these kinds of welfare programs have to stop. People need to and the majority of them want to be independent. Trust me, nobody wants to go through the degradation of asking for government assistance. It needs to stop but not without a solution to make these poor families independent. Jobs have to come first. Inflation and the economy has to be fixed so those folks who want to work and save can.
And yeah, don’t take food out of these families mouths while we are giving trillions in foreign aid to dictators and fighting wars with no clear goal of winning them. Don’t starve the poor while banks, unions and corporations are living high on the hog from bailouts while folks are working three jobs just to pay rent. They pay taxes too and they need help.
Come on, America is better than that. You want to find the real culprit of overuse of food stamps and other welfare programs? Look at what he government has been doing against it’s own people for the last 20 plus years. To the middle class, a bad economy may be that you can’t go out to eat as often. To the poor, and yes the WORKING poor it means struggling to feed your kids noodles and water rather than hamburger helper.
To finish I just want to say all these folks who are all happy to cut welfare programs are the ones who aren’t looking at ever needing them. You better take a good hard look around, pal. Poverty is all around us and no matter how smart you are, you may find yourself standing in line for food stamps soon if inflation continues and the dollar crashes as everyone says it will. If things keep going the way they have been, and according to economists it will, there will be only the super-rich and the super-poor so unless you have a billion or so in the bank, you might want to take it easy on condemning the poor now because soon they may be your neighbors who tell you how to survive on noodles and water.

Let them eat cake.

I would never deny a hungry child something to eat. I would never deny the working poor a helping hand, but I believe the food stamp program is a farse. All the “wrong” people are getting food stamps and selling them for cash instead of feeding their children. The government is there to help when needed. The government gets the “help” money from the taxpayer. It is frustrating to be a taxpayer and watch all the corruption that goes on with social services. It has become a family legacy for some, feeling as if they can sit home and have one child after another because the government is going to pay for it. We reward bad behavior in this country. Instead of expecting people to go out and work to support their families, we tell them not to worry, we’ll pick up the tab. It’s a helping hand that has become a crutch and I am fed up with all the corruption. I say cut the doggone program!

I don’t believe we’ll have a fair and honest election, in this country again.

It’s about time this massive giveaway program gets cut.

i think they should start taking drug test and the ones that are dirty they need to completly take them off and the people that or disable with or without kids or elderly people they are the ones that really need it

NO, they do NOT need to cut the Food Stamps! There ARE some of us honest people that depend on our Food Stamps! The problem is the Governmentt giving Food Stamps to people that don’t deserve them! Cutting Food Stamps is about as assinine as our dumbass president trying to cut SS & SSI. I feel like I’m living in Russia & under a Solialist Government! “We’re just gonna take every cent of you income & there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it!” If……whoever has a single ounce of compassion, they will NOT cut Food Stamps. They’ll take it away from all those people that are abusing the program! That’ll save MILLIONS of dollar!

Don’t worry people-a family of four only gets 124 a month-that’s it and they are gonna cut it again and guess what-no jobs.Teenagers can’t even find jobs to help out.In other countries they value families because each child that is born is a future social security check when that child grows up and gets a job-they take social security out of their check.

Welfare as we know it has to STOP, it is insane. I have received foodstamps and know many who currently receive them and they GIVE way TOO MUCH. The amount of foodstamps given are FAR more than the average working person and family could ever consider to spend at the grocery. And these people who live on metro and government housing all there lives with multiple kids freeloading has got to STOP, it is sinful to say the very least. It should not be a way of life, only a very temporary help. STOP WELFARE as we know it. Make them ALL WORK or stop there benefits, and at the very least cut them totally in HALF.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Fiscal Year 2010 federal budget was 3.5 trillion dollars. The FY 2011 budget should come out to 3.8 trillion dollars. Early estimate for FY 2012 put the budget at about 3.7 trillion dollars.
The 2011 cost of Food Stamps was approximately 68 billion dollars. That’s 0.068 trillion dollars or less than one two percent of the federal budget.
Food Stamps provide food for 22 million children. SNAP also benefits for eight and a half million disabled persons and four million elderly persons.
Cutting SNAP won’t even put a dent in balancing the budget. It’s just another phantom evil the republicans are making up to distract the uneducated from the real problem; Republican politicians.

Why are people being called names like parasites. Saying things like they shouldn’t have kids if they can’t take care of them. What a wretched awful society we have become. During the great depression people were given ration books. If it weren’t for that your grandparents would not have survived and you wouldn’t be here.

The House Appropriations Committee today will review the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill for the Department of Agriculture that includes $71 billion for the agency’s “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” That’s $2 billion less than what President Obama requested but a 9 percent increase from 2011, which, critics say, is too large given the sizeable budget deficit.

ONLY in Washington is a 9% increase called a cut because Obama did not get all he asked for
When will liberals learn that those of us that actually do pay federal income taxes ,can no longer afford to pay for those that do not?

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