Page 1 of 15 12345678911 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 351
  1. #1
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406

    Food Stamps: the latest entitlement

    The data really reinforces my belief that the United States is in fiscal and cultural decline.

    Look at these statistics:

    Food Stamp Fiasco
    The Senate refuses to cut $20 billion out of $770 billion.
    June 20, 2012


    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?

    Editorial board member Steve Moore on why the Senate rejected modest reforms to the food stamp program.

    When the food stamp program began in the 1970s, it was designed to help about 1 of 50 Americans who were in severe financial distress. But thanks to eligibility changes first by President George W. Bush as part of the 2002 farm bill and then by President Obama in the 2008 stimulus, food stamps are becoming the latest middle-class entitlement.

    A record 44.7 million people received food stamps in fiscal 2011, up from 28.2 million as recently as 2008. The cost has more than doubled in that same period, to $78 billion, and is on track to account for 78% of farm bill spending over the next decade. One in seven Americans now qualifies.

    Once there was a stigma to going on the dole, and it was seen as a last resort. But now the Agriculture Department runs radio and TV ads prodding people to get the free food, as in a recent campaign that says food stamps will help you lose weight. A federal website boasts about strategies that have "increased program participation" with special emphasis on Hispanics because "our data show that many low-income Latinos simply don't apply for [food stamps] even though they're eligible."

    In the 1990s Bill Clinton boasted that welfare reform took Americans off the dole. The Obama Administration boasts about how many it has added.

    Enter Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, who proposed reforms to limit the worst excesses. One proposal would have established a federal asset test to ensure that food stamps aren't going to families that may not have an income but have tens of thousands of dollars in savings or may even live in a million-dollar home. Some 39 states have no real asset test for food stamps, which means wealthy families without anyone in the job market are eligible, and 27 have gross-income limits that are above 130% of the federal poverty guidelines.

    That amendment lost 56-43, with every Democrat except Missouri's Claire McCaskill opposing it. New England Republicans Scott Brown, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Nevada's Dean Heller joined the antireformers.

    Mr. Sessions also tried to end the preposterous federal policy of paying some $500 million in bonuses to states that sign up more people for food stamps. This is the way government becomes a permanent feedback loop promoting even bigger government. That amendment lost 58-41, with every self-described Democratic "deficit hawk" opposed.

    Still to come is an amendment on another egregious practice that lets some 15 states automatically enroll families for food stamps if they get federal home-heating subsidies. Some states mail heating subsidy checks of as little as $1 a month so families can qualify for federal food stamp benefits of as much as $130 a month. That amendment too is expected to fail.

    It's true that the recession and feeble recovery have expanded the number of people who need food assistance, but Mr. Sessions's reforms would have harmed no one who really needs help. His amendments would have saved at most some $20 billion over 10 years, which would still leave some three-quarters of a trillion dollars in outlays.

    Earlier this year, House Republicans passed their own food stamp reform that will save some $34 billion over a decade. That bill will now go to a House-Senate farm bill conference, and perhaps some savings can be salvaged. But the news in the Senate vote is that the political class still isn't remotely serious about reforming government. The voters are going to have to clean out a lot more spenders in November if they want real change.

    A version of this
    Link: Review & Outlook: Food Stamp Fiasco - WSJ.com

  2. #2
    I am in Jail
    Mr Earl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Last Online
    23-08-2021 @ 06:47 PM
    Location
    In the Jungle of Love
    Posts
    14,771
    Can you buy Ben and Jerry's with food stamps?

  3. #3
    Philippine Expat
    Davis Knowlton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Philippines
    Posts
    18,204
    ^Don't know. But you can sell them to get money for crack and booze and cigarettes.

  4. #4
    I am in Jail
    Mr Earl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Last Online
    23-08-2021 @ 06:47 PM
    Location
    In the Jungle of Love
    Posts
    14,771
    ^That's great I just might move back to the USA for some of the free stuff, I'll go to California when its time to collect SS, I'll bet medicare will take care of the medical pot supply too, and smuggle Ben and Jerry's and med-pot back to Thailand. Good business plan I reckon!
    What a fabulous racket the US government is.

  5. #5
    5 4 Knoll
    david44's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    At Large
    Posts
    21,088
    I am not an American but vist often and despite the guff in the media the noral flks you meet are kind generus and petty tolerant considering it is a truly multi racial society.Something has gone badly askew with entitlements and subsidies with folks who dont need it getting it and the fact stamos can be sold.Give the hungry food esp the old and sick and devloping children and allow healthy adults do something like here.
    Quote Originally Posted by Latindancer View Post
    I just want the chance to use a bigger porridge bowl.

  6. #6
    ding ding ding
    Spin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    12,606
    44 million and a very large percentage of these folks can be seen arriving at walmart just before midnight so they can start spending at 00:01.
    Fukking sad.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Last Online
    04-11-2019 @ 05:15 AM
    Posts
    3,857
    Yea. Just line 'em up and shoot 'em eh. Cheaper, and the Great Capitalist Dream can continue. 'Creating Wealth'.

    Idiots.

  8. #8
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406
    Quote Originally Posted by FlyFree View Post
    Yea. Just line 'em up and shoot 'em eh. Cheaper, and the Great Capitalist Dream can continue. 'Creating Wealth'.

    Idiots.
    I know you're joking, but tell me the bent.

    You mean, the entitlements of this program or all programs is out of control? Not just a little, but a lot?

    All of these expenditures adding up is not just 'conversation' anymore. It's reality. And the clock is ticking.

    Some reeeaaal hard shit times are coming, IMO.
    ............

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Today @ 01:18 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,223
    People being kept just alive by low wages, part time work + government handouts ensures every employer has a large pool of unemployed workers to increase his profits.

    Capitalist dream 101 and failed state life, get used to it. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Today @ 01:18 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,223
    Quote Originally Posted by barbaro
    You mean, the entitlements of this program or all programs is out of control?
    Planned many years ago and being rolled out, successfully, worldwide.

  11. #11
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Last Online
    05-11-2012 @ 01:38 PM
    Posts
    566
    Obama is desperately trying to trade benefits for votes.
    He will still lose.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Earl View Post
    Can you buy Ben and Jerry's with food stamps?
    No- but you can trade them for drugs, an acquaintance of mine from Detroit reliably informs me. For a discount of course- apparently it is a thriving and profitable trade. It is most certainly true that you can eat cheaply in the USA.

    There is however something fundamentally wrong with the core model of an advanced nation if people in full time employment still need to receive food stamp entitlements to get by. Minimum wages there are ridiculously low, more reminiscent of the developing world than the first world. Employers paying these ridiculously low wages are effectively being subsidised by the government to employ people- the modern version of Socialism.

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Today @ 01:18 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,223
    ^trouble is the taxes collected aren't enough to pay for these "entitlements". The only way is a general tax increase, which of course will never happen.

  14. #14
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406
    Quote Originally Posted by Panty Hamster View Post
    Obama is desperately trying to trade benefits for votes.
    He will still lose.
    Indeed his is.

    This is a big problem in America and with American politics and policy.

    Elections are held every 2 years in Congress as well know, and every 4 years the Presidential elections are held.

    Trading benefits for votes goes way back.

    Recent examples:

    Nixon passing social security annual colas before the 1972 election. These annual colas are still with us today. This is one of the reasons the US govt lies about actual inflation and pushes the numbers down.

    With tens and tens of millions on SS, the annual cola adds to the pay out.

    In 2003, less than one year before the 2004 Presidential election, George W. Bush signed the Medicare-D act. Pretty conventient, ay?

    9 Republicans in Congress voted against it. 9 out of over 220 GOP members. Senators passed it through the Senate.

    To pay for Medicare-D, the US goverment needed $7 Trillion dollars - then - to invest at Treasury rates to cover the costs of this program.

    How much did the government have? $0.

  15. #15
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Last Online
    05-11-2012 @ 01:38 PM
    Posts
    566
    What about hope and change?
    Thought it was all going to be different.
    Obama has presided over the largest increase in welfare-dependency in the history of the world. And rather than be embarrassed by that fact, he wears it as a badge of honor.
    He'll be creamed in November. Everyone, excepting the most crusted-over, vacuous liberal hacks, realize electing him was the biggest mistake America has made since ... well, ever.

    Last edited by Panty Hamster; 25-06-2012 at 04:05 PM.

  16. #16
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406
    Quote Originally Posted by Panty Hamster View Post
    He'll be creamed in November.
    I want Obama out.

    But look at the polling numbers. Creamed? No. Lose? I hope so.

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat
    aging one's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    22,637
    I remember being delighted when my college room mates and I figured out we qualified for food stamps back around 72. Was a grand old time in the house for a year. We ate like kings. But then when our parents filed taxes it came back their kids were on the dole. 4 different sets of very unhappy parents. By by food stamps as well. Been going on a long long while.

  18. #18
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Last Online
    05-11-2012 @ 01:38 PM
    Posts
    566

    Pissing away $80B in food stamps is now a "trade secret?"

    This is the new transparency president?

    Washington Times
    June 24, 2012

    "Americans spend $80 billion each year financing food stamps for the poor, but the country has no idea where or how the money is spent.

    Food stamps can be spent on goods ranging from candy to steak and are accepted at retailers from gas stations that primarily sell potato chips to fried-chicken restaurants. And as the amount spent on food stamps has more than doubled in recent years, the amount of food stamps laundered into cash has increased dramatically, government statistics show.

    But the government won’t say which stores are doing the most business in food stamps, and even it doesn’t know what kinds of food those taxpayer dollars buy.

    Coinciding with lobbying by convenience stores, the US Department of Agriculture, which administers the program in conjunction with states, contends that disclosing how much each store authorized to accept benefits, known as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), receives in taxpayer funds would amount to revealing trade secrets.

    As a result, fraud is hard to track and the efficacy of the massive program is impossible to evaluate.

    Top secret: $80B a year for food stamps, but feds won't reveal what's purchased - Washington Times

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat
    can123's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Last Online
    24-04-2023 @ 02:34 PM
    Posts
    5,547
    The Americans elected George Bush. They are capable of doing the most stupid things yet they feel they can tell the rest of us what to do. The world would be better off if Americans stayed in America.

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    USDA Ad Saying Food Stamps Will Help You Look and Feel Good - YouTube

    The Obama Administration wants more people on food stamps.
    A new ad campaign urges people to sign up, telling them, “They make you look good.”


    I guess one out of seven Americans on food stamps is not enough?


    More than one in seven Americans are on food stamps, but the federal government wants even more people to sign up for the safety net program.
    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been running radio ads for the past four months encouraging those eligible to enroll. The campaign is targeted at the elderly, working poor, the unemployed and Hispanics.
    The department is spending between $2.5 million and $3 million on paid spots, and free public service announcements are also airing. The campaign can be heard in California, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, and the New York metro area.
    “Research has shown that many people — particularly underserved seniors, working poor, and legal immigrants — do not understand the requirements of the program,” said Kevin Concannon, a USDA under secretary.
    The radio ads, which run through June 30, come amid a bitter partisan fight over the safety net program. Republican lawmakers want to reduce funding for the benefit or turn it into a block grant program, which would also minimize the cost. Democrats, however, are not willing to make major cuts.


    Government runs ads to get more people on food stamps - Jun. 25, 2012


    Un-foking real...
    A Deplorable Bitter Clinger

  21. #21
    Thailand Expat
    robuzo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Last Online
    19-12-2015 @ 05:51 PM
    Location
    Paese dei Balocchi
    Posts
    7,847
    Pretty amazing the things that piss some people off, and pretty damned revealing, too. Money spent on food stamps goes right back into the economy, unlike money used to bailout too-big-to-fail banks and the trillions wasted- used in the most counterproductive way possible- on grand adventures like the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, not to mention that spent propping up America's military-industrial complex and overseas bases in places like Germany and Japan. Then there are the gifts to Big Pharma like Bush II's half-trillion Prescription Drug coverage (MMA) and the billions in corporate welfare handed to banks, big agro, petroleum and others (for the taxpayer gift to JP Morgan, see the wild-eyed leftists, aka the editors, at Bloomberg: Dear Mr. Dimon, Is Your Bank Getting Corporate Welfare? - Bloomberg "To be precise, JPMorgan receives a government subsidy worth about $14 billion a year").

    By all means, keep getting pissed off at the poor and powerless. It defines you as "conservatives."
    “You can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think.” Dorothy Parker

  22. #22
    I am in Jail
    leemo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    07-10-2015 @ 02:27 PM
    Location
    pty
    Posts
    2,607
    Quote Originally Posted by barbaro View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Panty Hamster View Post
    He'll be creamed in November.
    I want Obama out.

    But look at the polling numbers. Creamed? No. Lose? I hope so.
    I wouldn't underestimate the number of 'organised' votes being cast by illegals and people that do not exist; and naturally for the Gilded One.

  23. #23
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406
    Quote Originally Posted by leemo View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by barbaro View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Panty Hamster View Post
    He'll be creamed in November.
    I want Obama out.

    But look at the polling numbers. Creamed? No. Lose? I hope so.
    I wouldn't underestimate the number of 'organised' votes being cast by illegals and people that do not exist; and naturally for the Gilded One.
    Yes, there have been voting "irrelgularities" by both sides. Very dodgy things with the electronic voting machines with no paper trail, dead people voting, and illegals votings.

    Not doubt about it.

  24. #24
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406
    Can this be true? Sound ridiculous? It's true, and yes it's ridiculous.


    USDA suggests food stamp parties, games to increase participation

    Published: 06/27/2012
    Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010

    While spending on the food stamp program has increased 100 percent under President Barack Obama, the government continues to push more Americans to enroll in the welfare program.

    The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has embraced entire promotional campaigns designed to encourage eligible Americans to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.

    A pamphlet currently posted at the USDA website encourages local SNAP offices to throw parties as one way to get potentially eligible seniors to enroll in the program.

    “Throw a Great Party. Host social events where people mix and mingle,” the agency advises. “Make it fun by having activities, games, food, and entertainment, and provide information about SNAP. Putting SNAP information in a game format like BINGO, crossword puzzles, or even a ‘true/false’ quiz is fun and helps get your message across in a memorable way.”


    The agency’s most recent outreach effort targets California, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and the New York metro area with radio ads.

    The ads have been running since March and are scheduled to continue through the end of June — at a cost of $2.5 million — $3 million, CNN Money reported Monday.
    Entire: USDA suggests food stamp parties to increase participation | The Daily Caller

  25. #25
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Last Online
    05-11-2012 @ 01:38 PM
    Posts
    566
    Welfare scum are known by another name -- Democrats. Sugar Daddy Obama's got their backs. Pathetic. America's becoming a huge ghetto.

Page 1 of 15 12345678911 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •