Free Republic

The White House is threatening to veto the House version of a massive, five-year farm bill, saying food stamp cuts included in the legislation could leave some Americans hungry. The House is preparing to consider the bill this week. The legislation would cut $2 billion annually, or around 3 percent, from food stamps and make it harder for some people to qualify for the program. Food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cost almost $80 billion last year, twice the amount it cost five years ago. The Senate passed its version of the farm bill last...

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), over two million Illinoisans—or 15.7 percent of the state’s population—are currently enrolled in food stamps. The USDA’s latest data shows 2,023,635 Illinoisans were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in February 2013. In February of 2012, 1,831,898 people took part in the program. That’s an increase of 10.5 percent in just one year. Illinois was the only state to see a double-digit increase of the number of residents enrolled in the SNAP program from the same time period last year. …

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Republican bid to turn the federal food stamp program over to the states. The current program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is administered by the Agriculture Department and federal dollars are unlimited as long as recipients qualify. The program cost $78 billion last year, more than double the price in 2008. A proposal by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to a wide-ranging farm bill would have converted the program into grants to states, which could decide how to use the money, with certain restrictions. The Senate rejected the amendment 60-36. …

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending $4 million to increase the use of food stamps at farmers markets, claiming it is beneficial to the economy. As a record one-out-of-five households are on the benefit, the USDA says allowing food stamp use at farmers markets is a “win-win-win situation.” … The $4-million outreach is part of a two-year project that expires Sept. 20, 2013. With the funds, farmers markets can purchase equipment to accept EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards and wireless access in order to operate the equipment. Already, there are 2,091 farmers markets that accept food stamps, as...

Documents Reveal that Mexican Government Encourages Maximum Participation in U.S.-Funded Program (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released documents detailing how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working with the Mexican government to promote participation by illegal aliens in the U.S. food stamp program. The promotion of the food stamp program, now known as “SNAP” (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), includes a Spanish-language flyer provided to the Mexican Embassy by the USDA with a statement advising Mexicans in the U.S. that they do not need to declare their immigration status in order to receive financial assistance. Emphasized in bold and...

Welfare: Not content with having more Americans on food stamps than people in Spain, the Obama administration is ringing the dinner bell for illegal aliens. We'll feed you and not check your status. As we wrote last July, just as food stamp use has skyrocketed here under President Obama, so have marketing efforts to Hispanics under a partnership with Mexico. We dubbed the program "Fat and Furious" after the administration's gun-running program that also seemingly had worthy goals but had unclear motives and pernicious effects. "USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible...

Welfare: As if being "food stamp president" weren't enough, Barack Obama's administration is partnering with the Mexican government to make sure Mexican nationals living in the U.S. don't miss out. Ay caramba! On Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who's been pushing for reform of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for details of our partnership agreement with Mexico to promote food stamp use, including whether we are looking the other way in cases of illegal aliens. The partnership agreement goes back to 2004, so Obama administration...

Conservative legal group obtained Agriculture Department flyerYou need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children'Program in all 50 Mexican consulates in the U.S. helps push food stamps A Spanish-language leaflet that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided to the Mexican Embassy in Washington advises border-crossing Mexicans that they can collect taxpayer-funded food stamp benefits for their children without admitting that they're illegal immigrants. Underlined and in boldface type, the document tells immigrants who are unlawfully in the United States that, 'You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking...

Justice Department officials released the indictment of 13 current and former IRS employees charged with “stealing from American taxpayers” by falsely claiming to be unemployed in order to receive food stamps, unemployment insurance, welfare, and housing insurance. “According to the allegations in the indictments, while these IRS employees were supposed to be serving the public, they were instead brazenly stealing from law-abiding American taxpayers,” U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III said in a statement Wednesday. “These charges demonstrate our unwavering resolve to work with our law enforcement partners and hold accountable anyone who fraudulently obtains government benefits and violates the...

According to the study, the current food stamp Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card industry is dominated by three main players: J.P. Morgan Electronic Financial Services, Affiliated Computer Services, and eFunds. Together they collect money from 49 states and three territories. In fact, since 2004, 18 of 24 states that contract with J.P. Morgan have paid more than $560 million to the financial monolith.

With yesterday’s job report, many are trying to pretend that this is a sign that America is on its way up and out of the recession. Liberals are trying to explain that jobs were added, they somehow forget to include that thousands of people left the job market too. And we are now seeing another sign that perhaps, this Obama economy really isn’t helping the American people all that much. 15% of Americans are now on food stamps! This doesn’t seem like a recovery to me! The number of Americans on food stamps this January was 1.8% higher than January...

Rhode Island has the highest unemployment rate in the country, it’s crushed by unsustainable public sector salaries and pensions which are protected by union control of the legislature and politicians at every level, it is one of only two states losing population and may lose one of its two congressional seats in the 2020 census if trends continue. Yet Rhode Islanders continually vote Democratic, even reelecting to Congress the disgraced David Cicilline in 2012 when even the liberal Providence Journal turned on him. The Democrat-union grip on the state never has been tighter, and Rhode Island never has suffered more,...

<p>WOONSOCKET, R.I. – The economy of Woonsocket was about to stir to life. Delivery trucks were moving down river roads, and stores were extending their hours. The bus company was warning riders to anticipate “heavy traffic.” A community bank, soon to experience a surge in deposits, was rolling a message across its electronic marquee on the night of Feb. 28: “Happy shopping! Enjoy the 1st.”</p>

It would be difficult to expand the food stamp program (officially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) much further. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of able-bodied people getting food stamps doubled, after the Obama administration lifted work requirements. One in seven Americans is on food stamps, which cost the federal government some $84.6 billion in 2011. One way to help SNAP recipients without spending more would be to teach them to stretch their dollars. That’s where Stephanie Nelson, The Coupon Mom, comes in. She started her business years ago as a way to help others save money...

One of the most important measures for housing is employment. And while payrolls are SLOWLY improving, but food stamps are growing at a much faster rate. This is from Bloomberg Briefs: “An ongoing concern is that growth in jobs continues to be dwarfed by the surge in food stamps. During the first 10 months of 2012 there were 1.01 million new additions to the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a 2.2 percent increase. During the same period, the number of nonfarm payroll jobs increased by 1.5 million, a 1.1 percent gain. The results from the end of the recession...

More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from the nonprofit government watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation. The Food Stamp Challenge, which challenges higher-income families to live as if they are on food stamps, estimates that a person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of an average cup of coffee. Usage of food stamps among low and no-income families has spiked since...

In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore — equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird — Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric.... “I have $80 bucks left!” Magida said. “I’m so happy!” “I have $12,” Mak said with a frown. The two friends weren’t tabulating the cash in their wallets but what remained of the monthly allotment on their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit cards, the official new term for...food stamps. Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate, had been installing museum exhibits for a living...

The University of Michigan Survey of Consumer Sentiment rose to its highest point since the beginning of Q4 2007. But bear in mind that Q4 2007 is where the housing market fell off a cliff. So, I wouldn’t place too much confidence in this index. After all, US recession probability (blue line) is up. Still, declining mortgage rates, declining gas prices, 171,000 jobs created and a stabilizing housing market led to rising consumer confidence. And the government’s food stamp program (SNAP) rose to 47,102,780 persons as of the end of August, an all-time high! And the increase from July to...

It just occured to me, all those dead voters need to eat too, I mean if you are dead and you just spent a long election season voting several times for your favorite democrat president, the food stamp president and you get bupkiss for your your vote, well nuts to that, why not sign your corpse-y self up for some government cheese? I mean if dead people gotta vote, dead people gotta eat too? If Obama is gonna double down in his second term, why not double down on his food stamp numbers by making sure that his favorite voting...

With the latest jobs report, it is now the case that "Under Obama, Food Stamp Growth [Is] 75 Times Greater Than Job Creation," according to statistics compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee. "For Every Person Added to Jobs Rolls Since January 2009, 75 People Added To Food Stamp Rolls." Here's a chart detailing the growth: Since January 2009, as the chart shows, a net of 194,000 new jobs have been created. During that same time, 14.7 million have been added to the food stamp rolls. "Simply put, the President’s policies have not produced jobs. During his...

America has over 46 million people on Food Stamps. The food stamps program's real name is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The Food Stamp program is "hidden" from view through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Cards that work just as credit cards. This article visualizes the size of the program and the vast amounts of people participating.

On the same day that Senate Budget Committee Republicans revealed that spending on federal welfare programs constituted the single largest expenditure in the 2011 budget, the Department of Agriculture failed to meet a key deadline to further explain its food stamp partnership with the Mexican government....(SNAP), or food stamps, which recently reached an all-time high enrollment of nearly 47 million participants. Non-citizen participation in SNAP has quadrupled since 2001 and doubled since 2008.

Have you heard the rumor that the number of food stamp recipients has increased during President Obama’s term from 28.2 million to 46.6 million? Have you heard that in only three years, the annual cost of the program, which was already astronomical at $35 billion, has soared to $76 billion? It certainly has been the talk of the town (if not the campaign), but does anyone really know how we got to this state of affairs? That is what I set out to discover. Even the most basic details about the program seem surreal. Why in the world is this...

At 46,681,833 million the persons hooked on SNAP, the July number crossed the previous record posted a short month before, as the foodstamp curve continues 'plumbing' newer and greater heights each month. More disturbing is that in the same month, the number of US households reliant on foodstamps rose by a whopping 99,493 to 22,541,744. Assuming a modest 2 persons per household, the increase means that more people went on Foodstamps in the month of July than found jobs (181,000 according to the latest revised NFP data). Furthermore, it appears that buying votes has become a tad more expensive in...

...[T]here was one other, far more important data point released by the government's Department of Agriculture, sufficiently late after the market close to impact no risk assets. That data point of course was foodstamps (or the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP), and we are confident that no readers will be surprised to learn that foodstamp usage for both persons and households, has jumped to a new all time record. At 46,681,833 million the persons hooked on SNAP, the July number crossed the previous record posted a short month before, as the foodstamp curve continues 'plumbing' newer and greater...

Department of Agriculture personnel in the Obama administration have met with Mexican Government officials dozens of times since the president took office to promote nutrition assistance programs — notably food stamps — among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America. Writing in response to Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions’ July request for information about the USDA’s little known partnership with the Mexican government to educate citizen and noncitizen immigrants from Mexico about the availability of food stamps and other nutrition assistance programs, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the partnership as a way to curb hunger in America —...

READ EVERY WORD OF THIS AT LEAST TWICE. Matt Bracken has written a piece over at Western Rifle Shooters that matches exactly how I have envisaged the coming collapse and civil war. His belief that it will all begin with the rejection of EBT Foodstamps cards is, I think, spot-on. Next comes the urban riots. Then comes the rioters spilling into the suburbs. Then comes full-blown chaos when the rioters realize that the cops alone can't contain them. Then come the beatings, rapes and murders. In the open. In broad daylight. At heavily trafficked intersections. Then comes the militia, which...

In response to recent articles in mainstream military journals discussing the use of the U.S. Army to quell insurrections on American soil, I offer an alternate vision of the future. Instead of a small town in the South as the flash point, picture instead a score of U.S. cities in the thrall of riots greater than those experienced in Los Angeles in 1965 (Watts), multiple cities in 1968 (MLK assassination), and Los Angeles again in 1992 (Rodney King). New Yorkers can imagine the 1977 blackout looting or the 1991 Crown Heights disturbance. In fact, the proximate spark of the next...

FLINT, Mich. (AP) - A federal jury has reached a guilty verdict against a Flint store owner accused of participating in a $612,000 food stamp fraud scheme. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade says 55-year-old Noha Fofana was convicted of conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud. Fofana owns Mandingo African market. McQuade says he redeemed $750,000 in food stamp benefits from February 2009 to July 2011, and $612,000 came from "food stamps-for-cash" exchanges.

A Walpole baker — appalled that welfare abuse now seems almost as American as apple pie — is putting her whoopie pies where her mouth is in a dispute with the Braintree Farmers Market, refusing to take EBT cards for her baked treats." I don’t think American taxpayers should be footing the bill for people’s pie purchases,” said Andrea Taber, proprietor of the Ever So Humble Pie Co. in Walpole, who peddles her wares at the Braintree market on Fridays and now finds herself in the middle of the state’s raging fight over welfare benefits.

Remember Julia, the fictional woman created by the Obama campaign to illustrate the benefits of big government? Now there is hard evidence that Julia should probably stay home and pick up her government check rather than getting a good job. A new chart put together by Gary Alexander, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State, shows that Julia, as a single mom with two kids in daycare, would be better off remaining in her $29,000 per year job than she would be in a $69,000 per year job because of the benefits she would obtain from the government. In the lower paying job,...

The U.S. welfare system sure creates some crazy disincentives to working your way up the ladder. Benefits stacked upon benefits can mean it is financially better, at least in the short term, to stay at a lower-paying jobs rather than taking a higher paying job and losing those benefits. This is called the “welfare cliff.” Let’s take the example of a single mom with two kids, 1 and 4. She has a $29,000 a year job, putting the kids in daycare during the day while she works. As the above chart – via Gary Alexander, Pennsylvania’s secretary of Public Welfare...

At the corner of Milby and Navigation in Houston's East End, business at Randy's Fine Foods is booming. Never heard of them? Then you're not a Lone Star Card user, the food stamp-enabled debit card that has soared in use over the past two years, with a million more Texans added since 2008. As of July, more than 3.6 million had Lone Star Cards. For about 20 years, Randy's mobile food trucks have traveled under the radar of the privileged, circulating in neighborhoods and delivering food here and across the state. Randy's and a handful of companies like it -...

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report Monday that says the ability of states to expand eligibility for federal food stamps made about 473,000 more people eligible for food stamps, and added about $460 million in extra costs in 2010. The GAO also said this increased expansion has increased the chances of fraud and abuse of the food stamp program. The report was requested by Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and leaders of the House Agriculture Committee, in light of dramatically rising costs to administer the $70 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as...

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life. Chinese Proverb. ————————————————————-You know what irony is? Irony is the first “black” president enslaving massive numbers of Americans by increasing their reliance on earmarks, subsidies and entitlement programs. More Americans are reliant on the federal government for their sustenance than ever before. Do you think this is a coincidence? Guess again!!!!

The Mexican government has been working with the United States Department of Agriculture to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. USDA has an agreement with Mexico to promote American food assistance programs, including food stamps, among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/19/usda-partnering-with-mexico-to-boost-food-stamp-participation/#ixzz216eEQ2WL

Star Parker reveals high rate of growth in program feds claim isn't 'welfare' The House Agriculture Committee has reported out its version of a new farm bill that will cut $16.5 billion over 10 years from funding of SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – the program once known as food stamps. The cuts in the House bill exceed those in the Senate bill by $12 billion. Sixteen and a half billion dollars amounts to a whopping 2 percent cut in SNAP program expenditures. At a time when we are running trillion-dollar annual federal budget deficits, it’s hard to see...

I’m glad that Mr. Lockhart sees a step-up in output and employment growth by the end of the year. But how will driving interest rates lower help when they haven’t helped yet? The Fed’s balance sheet hovers around $3 trillion and the Fed Funds Target Rate is at a pitiful 0.25%. Yet, no ignition so far. M2 Money Velocity has declined below any point since the end of World War II. And mortgage lending (with the exception of Wells Fargo) has not really rebounded since it peaked in 2008. Employment still stinks as more and more people go on the...

The government has been targeting Spanish speakers with radio “novelas” promoting food stamp usage as part of a stated mission to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. Each novela, comprising a 10-part series called “PARQUE ALEGRIA,” or “HAPPINESS PARK,” presents a semi-dramatic scenario involving characters convincing others to get on food stamps, or explaining how much healthier it is to be on food stamps. The majority of the episodes end with the announcer encouraging the listener to tune in again to see if the skeptic applies for benefits or learns to understand the importance...

One in seven Americans are on food stamps, but the government is pushing to enroll more — in many instances working to overcome Americans’ “pride,” self-reliance or failure to see a need. “Our common goal is to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” the United States Department of Agriculture explains on its “Outreach Toolkits” page. “Our purpose is to ensure that those going through difficult times can feed their families healthy, nutritious food. By working as a team, we can accomplish these goals.” The USDA has adopted a range of strategies and programs designed to bring more people...

A convenience store clerk who was fired recently for refusing to sell cigarettes to a customer trying to pay for them with state welfare benefits has been fired, but her story has gained traction in local and national media. According to press reports, Jackie Whiton was working at a C.N. Brown Big Apple convenience store recently when a man in his 20s attempted to purchase cigarettes using an electronic benefit transfer card, which is issued to families in New Hampshire and Maine who are on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF program. Whiton, a six-year employee of the...

The Senate on Thursday completed a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that cuts farm subsidies and land conservation spending by about $2 billion a year but largely protects sugar growers and some 46 million food stamp beneficiaries. The 64-35 vote for passage defied political odds. Many inside and outside of Congress had predicted that legislation so expensive and so complicated would have little chance of advancing in an election year. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called it "one of the finest moments in the Senate in recent times in terms of how you pass a bill."

The next time someone moans about Washington "austerity," tell them about the Senate's food stamp votes on Tuesday. Democrats and a few Republicans united to block even modest reform in a welfare program that has exploded in the last decade and is set to spend $770 billion in the next 10 years. Yes, $770 billion on a single program. And you wonder why the U.S. had its credit-rating downgraded?

A state arbitrator has reinstated 40 of the 103 state employees who resigned, retired or were fired after being implicated in the improper receipt of disaster relief after Tropical Storm Irene. The reinstated employees must make restitution and serve suspensions ranging from 15 to 60 days, according to an announcement Wednesday by AFSCME Council 4. The employees obtained aid under the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or D-SNAP. "While some state employees may have engaged in fraud regarding the D-SNAP program and have been dismissed or resigned from state service, these employees were found to have made errors that the...

And you thought Octomom had her hands full—a Tennessee man who has fathered 30 children is asking the courts for a break on child support. Desmond Hatchett, 33, of Knoxville has children with 11 different women, reports WREG-TV. The state already takes half his paycheck and divides it up, which doesn't amount to much when Hatchett is making only minimum wage. Some of the moms receive as little as $1.49 a month. The oldest child is 14 years old. Hatchett explains how he reached such a critical mass: He had four kids in the same year. Twice.

When Jody Rodiger of Manchester volunteered to help Connecticut's needy buy food, she never thought she would one day also depend on food stamps. "I advocated for it for years, I knew the program inside and out. But I never thought it would be for me," Rodiger, 50, said. Like many who've recently swelled the ranks of the SNAP, as the food stamp program is now known, Rodiger is a middle-class professional. She and millions of other American victims of the recession suddenly found they could not afford food. "It was a lifesaver," Rodiger said of the food stamp program....

WASHINGTON - A study by the Agriculture Department has found that food stamps, one of the country's largest social safety net programs, reduced the poverty rate substantially during the recession. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, reduced the poverty rate nearly 8 percent in 2009, the most recent year included in the study, a significant impact for a social program whose effects often go unnoticed by policymakers. "SNAP plays a crucial, but often underappreciated, role in alleviating poverty," said Stacy Dean, an expert on the program with the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based research group that...

The 2012 Farm Bill comes amid an increasingly fierce public debate over food and farming. The industrial model of agriculture and food production is continuing a decades-long drive toward fewer farmers, more factory-style meat production and more processed food—largely to benefit a handful of powerful agribusiness and food companies. At the same time, support is growing for a fair and sustainable food and farm system based on a different set of values: paying and treating farmers and food workers fairly, providing enough healthy food for all, integrating environmental sustainability, and more closely connecting farmers with consumers and communities.In the U.S.,...

This is an appalling and nauseating example of why Obama is accurately being referred to as the "Food Stamp President" (I believe Newt Gingrich coined that term). Video below shows, then discusses, an advertising campaign the Obama regime is running that actually pushes people, who otherwise may not want or need to, onto the nation's food stamp program. The TV ad even pushes the benefits of "better nutrition" and insinuates that you'll look better and be more active, as reasons to get on food stamps; not need, loss of employment, etc...

While the capital markets may be cheering that in the past month 120,000 people supposedly found jobs, even if these were largely temporary or part-time just in time for the year end shopping sprees, we wonder how they will react when learning that according to the latest update from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), some 423,000 Americans found their way to minimum way subsistence, courtesy of Food Stamp handouts from Uncle Sam. Since the start of the Second Great Depression, food stamp participation has increased by 18.7 million, and is now at an all time higher 46.3 million. All...