Thread: Food Stamps: the latest entitlement

I think the issue is multi dimensional in that the wage thing is germane mostly in the large Cities while in smaller towns and Cities like Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio and others in the mid west, you can get by reasonably on $12.00 per hour.

Hell, we live in Thailand. I think the America I remember as a kid was a lot like this from the perspective that welfare was almost non-existent and was referred to as 'relief". President Johnson, determined to stamp out poverty (and much of Vietnam) instituted the "Great Society" programs that have fundamentally changed how Americans view poverty. Now, a color TV (widescreen), two serviceable cars and other consumer goods are considered a right of citizenship. Work does not enter into the equation often.

Yes a little dose of Thai work ethic might just do us good.

Remember one important fact, Mexico teaches to this day, California, New Mexico, Arizona were stolen from Mexico. Additionally, la Raza, a pro Mexican activist organization to which the mayor of LA is a charter member, has within its constitution, that these territories should be reclaimed via "reconquista".

This and a 4 to 1 birth differential for Mexicans vs. Europeans in these areas spells victory for the Hombres south of the border.

Originally Posted by MacP

Yes a little dose of Thai work ethic might just do us good.

Indeed.

That and perhaps considering moving to where the jobs are? Now N. Dakota doesn't sound like the garden spot of N. America but there's loads a high-paying jobs up there along with the gas-fracking employment boom in Texas.

Originally Posted by misskit

^ Is that just a rumor about people using SNAP cards in a casino? Have you a source for your info?

I was living in Pasadena at the time this issue erupted and I would start with the LA Times archive if I were you. I suspect this was about the time just after the then "new" administration, changed how the Food Stamp program was administered.

^ You're a right joker. YOU claim SNAP cards can be used in a casino, not I. YOU need to back up that claim.

Food Stamps are for food but they can also breed this kind of mentality:

Liberal Chick: "The State is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want (Psalm 666)." - YouTube

ttp://clashdaily.com/ Hippie chick recites the Left's mantra ... "The State is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want (Ps.666)." the column is here ... http://clashdaily.com/2012/11/progressives-the-state-is-my-shepherd-i-shall-n...

^^ Quite a funny website! Crazy arrests.

How about the woman who was arrested for running over her husband in a car because he didn't vote and Obama got elected.

Originally Posted by misskit

Last year, a friend of mine had a heart attack and became unable to work. He is rather young, a legal immigrant working in the US for 12 years who does not qualify for social security disability. It is a struggle for him to care for his son who is in his last year of high school. I told him to apply for SNAP. It was not easy for him to get it. Took a couple of months for him to do so due to the amount of documentation he had to provide. He found the whole process very humiliating and nearly gave up. Finally he was approved.

And this person, is the type of person that needs the assistance and SHOULD get it - and get it hassle free!

Wages are depressed. People making $12 an hour with families can't make it without government help.

I completely agree.

Originally Posted by barbaro

Originally Posted by misskit

Last year, a friend of mine had a heart attack and became unable to work. He is rather young, a legal immigrant working in the US for 12 years who does not qualify for social security disability. It is a struggle for him to care for his son who is in his last year of high school. I told him to apply for SNAP. It was not easy for him to get it. Took a couple of months for him to do so due to the amount of documentation he had to provide. He found the whole process very humiliating and nearly gave up. Finally he was approved.

And this person, is the type of person that needs the assistance and SHOULD get it - and get it hassle free!

Wages are depressed. People making $12 an hour with families can't make it without government help.

I completely agree.

Wages are more than "depressed", which is a surfaced political term.
The reality of the USA is that general working wages have not truly changed in a decade or two, while the fantasy cost of living [across the board] has multplied 200 fold.

Federal Food Stamp Program Spent Record $80.4B in FY 2012

- During fiscal year 2012, the U.S. government spent a record $80.4 billion on food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a $2.7 billion increase from FY 2011. (Fiscal year 2012 ran from Oct. 1, 2011 through Sept. 30, 2012.)
According to the Monthly Treasury Statement that summarizes the receipts and outlays of the federal government, $80,401,000,000 went towards SNAP during FY 2012, which was a $2.7 billion increase from $77,637,000,000 in FY 2011.

The SNAP program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which also runs other food assistance programs under the auspices of the Food and Nutrition Service Agency.
In total, nearly $106 billion was spent on food assistance in 2012, with $18.3 billion that went to “Child Nutrition Programs.”
Total federal spending on SNAP has increased each year during President Obama’s first term in office. In FY 2009 -- when SNAP was still known as the “Food Stamp” program -- the government spent approximately $55.6 billion.

By FY 2010, SNAP spending increased to nearly $70.5 billion. Between FY 2009 and FY 2012, SNAP’s budget jumped by approximately $24.8 billion.
According to an April 2012 report from the Congressional Budget Office, SNAP outlays increased by $42 billion between 2007 and 2011, and the number of SNAP participants increased by 70 percent.
During FY 2012, the U.S. government ran a $1.089 trillion dollar deficit, down from nearly $1.3 trillion in FY 2011.

Socialism is a great form of government until you run out of other people's money. More Food Stamps for All Americans!

More Food Stamps For All Americans

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

During FY 2012, the U.S. government ran a $1.089 trillion dollar deficit, down from nearly $1.3 trillion in FY 2011.

So you are saying that Obama is reducing the deficit?

Anyway:

What Republicans don’t want to acknowledge is the role they played in expanding the food stamps program before President Obama ever took office. The 2002 farm bill—passed by a Republican-controlled House and signed by Republican President George W. Bush—expanded the food stamps program. As the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page correctly noted yesterday, “The food-stamp boom began with the George W. Bush Republicans, who expanded benefits in the appalling 2002 farm bill.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ab91_blog.html

Here is an update on Food Stamps. St. Louis, January 22, 2013:

Food Stamp Nation: As President Congratulates Himself on His Successes, 47 Million Eat Only Due to Government Welfare

Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat forever.

Give a man food stamps, and you've got a motivated Democratic voter.

Well, he did say he was out to fundamentally transform America...

Give the big corporations a choice. Pay their fricking tax or double their staff pay. About the same I should imagine.

The tip of the iceberg...

Grocer gets 2.5-year sentence for $844,000 food stamp fraud

By Amanda Bonafiglia, NBCChicago.com

An Illinois grocer was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in federal prison Monday for defrauding government and nutrition programs.

Khaled Saleh, 48, the owner of Sunset Food Market in Waukegan was charged with illegally exchanging cash with customers using food stamp cards and nutrition coupons during an undercover investigation.

Saleh was sentenced to 30 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle.
Saleh, along with his wife, Fatima Saleh, 37, acquired more than $844,000 by paying customers approximately half the value in cash for goods purchased at other stores using their benefits.

Grocer gets 2.5-year sentence for $844,000 food stamp fraud - U.S. News

How interesting! This is the stuff you find on the fifth page in a small snow-bound Canadian community.

^Without food stamps, Walmart and other mass consumption enablers wouldn't be able to keep prices so low. . .or maybe they could but would have to pay their employees a living wage (like Costco does) and pay a bit less to management and shareholders.

^
How about AutoZone?

Your ride will fly with a new set of chrome-plated spinner hubcaps, and best of all they’re free — just whip out your EBT:



When is this madness going to stop?

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Which State Has the Highest Food Stamp Usage of All


Some horror stories:

• Using food stamps to buy luxury coffee at Starbucks.
• Buying steaks and lobster with food stamps.
• The Obama Administration rewarding states that sign up more food stamp recipients.

The Moocher Index

Sooner or later the whole thing is going to collapse...

^Who says? Where did the Moocher Index info come from? Looks like just a graph someone made up on a blog with info they pulled from the air.

It is just junk someone posted in the rightwing blogosphere.

I've been talking with people that actually work in this..."undustry." As TANF has a 5 year limit, there is a new scam: disability.

I know a guy getting $900+ USD per month with a cola who teacher 30 hours per week.

Disability - the new scam:

Has disability become a 'de facto welfare program'?

Thu Mar 28, 2013

By Barbara Raab, Senior Producer, NBC News

When President Clinton signed "welfare reform" into law in 1996, he promised to end welfare as we know it. Now, some new reporting suggests we've created a new kind of welfare -- only most Americans aren't aware of it.

The number of people who depend on checks from Social Security's disability programs has soared in recent years, according to NPR's series "Unfit for Work: the Startling Rise of Disability in America." The reports, which began over the weekend and continue this week, raise the question: How disabled are the recipients, really? As you might imagine, they have touched a nerve.

A quick primer: the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provides monthly cash assistance to people who are poor and disabled, including families with disabled children. The basic monthly SSI cash benefit is a set amount -- currently $710 for an individual and $1,066 for a couple. The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program also provides monthly cash assistance, to disabled people who have worked in jobs covered by Social Security. People who leave the workforce and go on disability also qualify for Medicare.

After six months of investigation, NPR reporter Chana Joffee-Walt concluded that Social Security's disability programs have become "a de facto welfare program for people without a lot of education or job skills." In the past three decades, she reports, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed:

Entire: Has disability become a 'de facto welfare program'? - In Plain Sight