Free Republic

Sara Bareilles played softly through the surround-sound speakers of my husband’s 2003 Mercedes Kompressor as I sat idling at a light. I’d never been to this church before, but I could see it from where I was, across from an old park, abandoned in the chilly September air. The clouds hung low as I pulled the sleek, pewter machine into the lot. But I wasn’t going to pray or attend services. I was picking up food stamps. Even then, I couldn’t quite believe it. This wasn’t supposed to happen to people like me.

Rep. Barbara Lee is firing back at Bill O’Reilly, saying the Fox News host’s comments about race were “disgusting.” “Unfortunately we’ve come to expect language like ‘welfare queens,’ ‘food stamp president,’ and now ‘race hustlers’ from the right wing and Mr. O’Reilly,” the California Democrat said in a statement Wednesday. “It is disgusting and divisive and should never be accepted in our national discourse.” O’Reilly had Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on his program Tuesday night to discuss controversy over some comments Ryan had made about poverty and inner city culture that he later called “inarticulate.” Ryan’s remarks were seized...

That America created only 88,000 jobs in March, less than half the number anticipated, was jolting news, indicating the recovery that the White House has boasted about may not be at hand. But in that March jobs report, there was more disturbing news. While unemployment fell to 7.6 percent, the reason it fell is alarming. Half a million U.S. workers (495,000) disappeared from the labor force. They dropped out. They are no longer even looking for a job. Worse, this appears to be an inexorable trend. The participation rate of eligible workers in the United States has fallen to 63.3...

Benefit to fall $50 a month starting in January Ohio families receiving food stamps could get an unwelcome surprise come January: $50 less every month in assistance. For the 869,000 households enrolled in the program for the poorest Ohioans, that could amount to about $520 million annually out of the grocery budgets. Because of the way the federal government calculates utility expenses for people receiving the benefit, a mild winter nationwide last year, and a lower price for natural gas, many families could experience a significant cut in aid, those familiar with the program say. Recipients should get a letter...

Dr Wayne Dyer describes people as eagles and ducks. With a majority of Americans voting to give the undeserving Obama a second term, I felt like the odd-man-out voting against him. It occurred to me that I have a history of being odd-man-out, not in sync with the thinking of my family and friends. When I was in junior high school, my dad acknowledged my artistic talent and encouraged me to pursue a career in that field. Dad said, “You could be a great black artist someday.” While I appreciated Dad's support, I thought, “ Why can't I simply be...

New civility: Obama supporters threaten to riot if Romney wins; Update: Deleted tweets (Note: Below are some samples of the Tweets posted by Obama supporters, reported and re-posted on the Twitchy site. Link over to Twitchy to read the rest.) If Romney wins I'm Starting a Riot....Who's WIT ME??? — Facey!™ (@daboifacey) October 08, 2012 Is this what Obama meant when he called for a “more civil” tone in U.S. politics? I Hope The USA Is Well Aware That If In The Event This Character Romney Wins The Election, The People Will Start A Country Wide Riot! #Power— John Kramer...

...[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 —...

The bounce expected from Barack Obama's Democratic Convention speech collapsed the following day under the reality check that the current unemployment figure is 8.1%. And 40.7% of those people have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. Those numbers tell only a small part of Obama's failure to deliver on his promises. The real unemployment figure is closer to 19%. The official count doesn't include the 8 million unemployed who have given up and stopped looking for a job, the people who have had to settle for part-time work, those who had to take lower-paying jobs that are...

In 1996, Republicans forced through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bill, also known as welfare reform. It incentivized states to create welfare-to-work programs, trying to transition Americans from government dependency to financial solvency. But states quickly acted to poke holes in that legislation, calling the following activities “work” for purposes of the statute: bed rest, personal care activities, massage, exercise, journaling, motivational reading, smoking cessation, weight loss promotion, participation in parent-teacher meetings, or helping friends or family with household tasks and errands. [Snip] But this is Obama’s new definition of work: anything that allows you to receive government...

The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections. The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent....

Although former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was smeared as “racist” by many Democrats and members of the main stream media for declaring Barack Obama “the food stamp president,” it turns out that, according to the USDA, being a “food stamp president” is really hip. In fact, the nation’s agricultural agency says, in a recent video ad, that signing up for food stamps can make you look and feel your best. --snip-- Almost 48 million people received food stamps in 2011, an increase from the 28.2 million who received the welfare benefit in 2008. The cost to taxpayers...

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...

Obama has added approximately 14,000 people per day to food stamp dole out. This issue alone should be used by everyone running against him every day until the election!

Monday’s New York Times had another classic entry in the annals of Obamacare. It seems that nursing homes are asking HHS for waivers from Obamacare’s requirement that employers provide health coverage to their workers. Nursing homes, even though they are in the health-care business, often don’t provide insurance to their employees. They can’t afford to. And why is that? Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, the largest trade group for nursing homes, says the problem is that reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare, set by government agencies, do not pay them enough to offer their employees medical...