A Grim Record: One In Seven Americans Is On Food Stamps

NPR ^ | 12/8/10 | Jacob Goldstein

[PGR88]

Eliminating food stamps would reduce the amount of obesity in the USA by at least 10% and reduce proportionally the amount of diabetes, strokes, heart-attacks, etc...

It would save money all around.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The idea is to get as many people on the suckling on the government teat as possible and then when they are good and fat and thinking that they will have it forever, to snatch it out of their mouths and put them in the streets to riot. The people will beg the government to restore the peace and then the totalitarians move in.

[newzjunkey]

Shame isn't going to get folks employed if there are no jobs available.

The majority among the increases are going to be people who would naturally be ashamed to be taking public assistance and want jobs.

The debit card thing was a scandal beyond the pale. There will always be a certain number of fraud cases and those who will scam.

I'm not surprised to see the rise in this Obama economy of no recovery. During the Bush years there were gov't ads on talk radio about the food stamp program with the theme "eating right when money's tight." I recall the campaign was sparked by a gov't study during W's term which indicated too few people were taking advantage of the food stamp benefit.

[rmlew]

The obvious solution is an amnesty to bring in more4 welfare cases, instead of enforcing immigration laws, which will reduce the size of the low-end labor pool.

[2harddrive]

Thank you, Barak Hussein Osama.

[Owen]

Good data, thanks.

I know some people who have to use it. One young lady is a single mother and an Army reservist. Weekend drills won’t pay mortgage and food for the kids. She works as a bank teller, too. Husband became a drunken druggie and she saw the light and dumped him. Now she simply has to have help until she somehow can sell an underwater house.

[winodog]

Thats great. I dunno if you are sarcastic or not, however the D of C is giving away money to bankers, corporations, foreign countries, (friendly and unfriendly).

Tax dollars are spent on abortions and enemies of the Constitution. They have turned the world upside down and I for one think citizens should grab all they can, just like your post states.

[Lancey Howard]

I was dead serious.

[Lancey Howard]

The parasitic Democrat party “base” certainly knows where to sign up for welfare (next door to any Democrat campaign office), food stamps, Section 8 housing, grants, and subsidies and handouts of every kind, so my recommendation that normal, taxpaying, traditional American familes grab whatever they can before the parasitic Democrat party “base” eats it all up was as serious as as a heart attack.

It’s going to run out, and the rats will then be shaking us down for more more more...
Count on it.

FRegards,
LH

[aruanan]

A Grim Record: One In Seven Americans Is On Food Stamps

The grimness is not because there are more Americans who are so poor that they must rely on the government to get enough to eat. The grimness lies in the fact that there are more Americans who are seeing food stamps as their right and as a means of freeing up more of their income for other non-food activities. This is facilitated by the government making eligibility for food stamps at several times the official poverty level and actively trying to recruit users. The same is true of people who use food pantries and food banks. I know of one in the Chicago area that serves something like 800 families a month on a weekly basis, gives a LOT of food, and doesn't require any means testing at all. I think many of those people, since they drive to pick up the food, are not going there because it's their last hope but because it's free food and enables them to use what they would have spent for food on other things.

[madison10]

Food stamp recipients = thieves.

Not true of everyone. There are many who are hardworking people, but need a small boost to keep their families fed. That's a heartless brush with which you're painting.

[Niuhuru]

“The lower your income and the more babies you drop, the more you get.”

Sick Sick sick. Then they keep breeding like bunnies.

[Niuhuru]

At the moment I’m usin’t them and I like buying large chunks of roast and then barbcuing them and feasting on the meat for a week and then buying more. It’s excellent to mix with baked beans, don’t you think? Adds substance and gives me strength.

[steve86]

How many are illegals? I suspect probably over half.

In my state, at least, SNAP eligibility is one of the few places immigration status is actually checked, except for children. But switch to the lines at DOL, and yes, at least 50% will be illegals (they come from all over the country to get WA drivers licenses). And you think this was stopped with Washington's worse-than-California's budget problems that came to a head yesterday in a special session? No.

[steve86]

The grimness lies in the fact that there are more Americans who are seeing food stamps as their right and as a means of freeing up more of their income for other non-food activities.

Maybe, but DSHS in my state pushes food stamps like they're going out of style (I am a guardian, I've seen it). "LOOKS LIKE YOU, SIR, ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM". Can hardly get out of the building without being signed up.