Thread: USA becomes Food Stamp Nation but is it sustainable?

gourmet coffee for the Kurig ? $6.99 I can purchase a 15 oz bag of ground Community Coffee which will last me all month for the same price.
Goya Beans $2.19 - purchase a store brand here for 89 cents....

"The number of Americans receiving subsidized food assistance from the federal government has risen to 101 million, representing roughly a third of the U.S. population.

That means the number of Americans receiving food assistance has surpassed the number of full-time private sector workers in the U.S."

The number of Americans receiving food assistance has surpassed the number of private sector workers in the U.S. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/101m....okwH1zVY.dpuf

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Can you think of a reason for not sharing this?

Neither could I.

Illinois awarded $4.1 million federal bonus for ‘only’ misspending $52 million on food stamps
By Doug Powers • July 21, 2013 03:49 PM

What sequester?

From an Illinois Department of Human Services press release: http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx...viousnews=true

Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) Secretary Michelle R.B. Saddler today announced that the state was awarded a $4.1 million bonus for its effective administration of the Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program (SNAP). Illinois was recognized for its accuracy rate of 98.3 percent, which ranked sixth in the nation in fiscal year 2012.

What amount of money did taxpayers lose due to ineffective administration? http://watchdog.org/96500/illinois-r...n-food-stamps/

Just more than 2 million people in the state, or 16 percent of the population, are enrolled in the federally managed SNAP. Washington D.C., sent Illinois $3 billion for SNAP last year.

The numbers: 1.74 percent of $3 billion is $52 million. That’s a lot of taxpayer waste.
[...]
Dabrowksi said Illinois saw its food stamp population jump 11.5 percent last year.

In 2011, the Obama administration gave Oregon a $5 million bonus for its efficient and speedy expansion of the food stamp roles. http://michellemalkin.com/2011/09/29/oregon-food-stamp/

The national food stamp roles continue to skyrocket as well : http://michellemalkinblog.files.word...stampchart.jpg




That’s terrific economic stimulus, according to the Secretary of Agriculture. http://michellemalkin.com/2011/08/16/ag-secretary/


**Written by Doug Powers http://michellemalkin.com/2013/07/21...n-food-stamps/

Quite an eye opener...

THE NEW WELFARE MAP

Make sure you read to the bottom...



These 11 States now have More People on Welfare than they do Employed!

Last month, the Senate Budget Committee reports that in fiscal year 2012, between food stamps, housing support, child care, Medicaid and other benefits, the average U.S. Household below the poverty line received $168.00 a day in government support. What's the problem with that much support? Well, the median household income in America is just over $50,000,which averages out to $137.13 a day.

To put it another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30.00 an hour for a 40-hour week,
while the average job pays $20.00 an hour.

There are actually two messages here. The first is very interesting, but the second is absolutely astounding - and explains a lot.

A recent "Investor's Business Daily" article provided very interesting statistics from a survey by the United Nations International
Health Organization.

Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:
U.S. 65%
England 46%
Canada 42%

Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months:
U.S. 93%
England 15%
Canada 43%

Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:
U.S. 90%
England 15%
Canada 43%

Percentage referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:
U.S. 77%
England 40%
Canada 43%

Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:
U.S. 71
England 14
Canada 18

Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in "excellent health":
U.S. 12%
England 2%
Canada 6%

And now for the last statistic: National Health Insurance?
U.S. NO
England YES
Canada YES

Check this last set of statistics!!

The percentage of each past president's cabinet who had worked in the private business sector prior to their appointment to the cabinet.
You know what the private business sector is; a real-life business, not a government job. Here are the percentages.
T. Roosevelt.................... 38%
Taft................................ 40%
Wilson ........................... 52%
Harding........................... 49%
Coolidge......................... 48%
Hoover............................ 42%
F. Roosevelt..................... 50%
Truman........................... 50%
Eisenhower................ .... 57%
Kennedy......................... 30%
Johnson.......................... 47%
Nixon.............................. 53%
Ford................................ 42%
Carter............................. 32%
Reagan............................ 56%
GH Bush.......................... 51%
Clinton .......................... 39%
GW Bush........................ 55%
Obama............................. 8%

This helps to explain the incompetence of this administration: only 8% of them have ever worked in private business!

That's right! Only eight percent---the least, by far, of the last 19 presidents! And these people are trying to tell our big corporations how to run their business? How can the president of a major nation and society, the one with the most successful economic system in world history, stand and talk about business when he's never worked for one? Or about jobs when he has never really had one? And when it's the same for 92% of his senior staff and closest advisers? They've spent most of their time in academia, government and/or non-profit jobs or as "community organizers." They should have been in an employment line.

Pass this on because we'll NEVER see these facts in the main stream media

Bono: “Capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid”
By David J. Theroux • Monday August 12, 2013 12:43 PM PDT



Our Research Fellow George Ayittey met the Irish rock star Bono in July 2007 during a TED conference. Professor Ayittey was speaking and in knowing that Bono would be in the audience, he explains that “I made a special effort to rip into the foreign aid establishment.... Later, Bono said he liked my speech but did not agree with me that foreign aid is not effective in ending poverty. So I gave him a copy of my book, Africa Unchained: The Blueprint for Development.”

Bono (nee Paul David Hewson) is the lead singer in the rock group U2, one of the most successful rock groups in history. Bono also became a major proponent of greatly expanded U.S. foreign aid and other government programs (including debt cancellation) to alleviate the dire plight in the world of HIV/AIDS, malaria, abject poverty, and other issues.

Bono has further been Co-Founder and Managing Director with the venture capital firm, Elevation Partners, and he may well be the world’s wealthiest musician after his investment in the Facebook IPO, which made over $1.5 billion for the firm.

Bono is also a Christian (see here, here, and here). He is an admirer of the work of C.S. Lewis and used Lewis’s book The Screwtape Letters in a music video for the song “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,” the theme song for the film, Batman Forever. More recently, he has indicated in an interview with Jim Daly at Focus on the Family that Lewis might inspire the next U2 album:

Bono: It’s very annoying following this Person of Christ around [chuckling], because He’s very demanding of your life.

Daly: It’s very hard.

Bono: And it’s hopeless ... trying to keep up with it.

Daly: In fact, Bono, C. S. Lewis has a great quote which I love: “When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that’s left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less.” That is powerful, isn’t it?

Bono: Yeah, it might ... that could turn up on the next U2 album, but I won’t give him or you any credit.

Just recently drawing upon his Christian faith (and possibly the economics influence of Professor Ayittey?), in a speech at Georgetown University, Bono altered his economic and political views and declared that only capitalism can end poverty.

“Aid is just a stopgap,” he said. “Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid. We need Africa to become an economic powerhouse.”

Bono encouraged students to think of what they can do to support those in Africa and other developing nations that are in need of justice and comfort.

He compared the effort to how St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, made his commitment to serve others.

“That’s what I’m hoping happens here at Georgetown with you,” he said. “Because when you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God’s eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed, you see something that you can’t un-see.”

C.S. Lewis well understood the fallacy and indeed evil of statism in addressing the pains and suffering of our world, and we welcome Bono’s new insights into the matter. And Professor Ayittey’s incisive work can also be found in the Independent Institute book, Making Poor Nations Rich: Entrepreneurship and the Process of Economic Development, edited by Benjamin Powell.



http://blog.independent.org/2013/08/...erty-than-aid/

Facepalm of the Day: Millions of Americans Eligible for Food Stamps Don’t Sign Up;
One Who Did Got Overdraft Fees After Buying Friend Subway
Posted by Jay on August 15, 2013

In today’s Facepalm, we examine the recent Huffington Post article detailing the fact that millions of Americans who are poor enough to be eligible for food stamps don’t sign up. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s enrollment has skyrocketed from 26 million in 2005 to 47 million presently, and HuffPo examines these facts with a skeptical eye towards Republican claims of widespread fraud in food stamp applications: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3731770.html

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s enrollment has risen from 26 million in 2005 to 47 million today, pushing its annual cost to nearly $80 billion — but costs would be much higher if everyone eligible for benefits actually received them. In fact, contrary to the idea that America’s poor people are collectively gorging themselves on food stamps, they’re actually leaving food on the table.

Roughly a quarter of Americans eligible for federal nutrition assistance don’t sign up for it, according to the most recent data. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, says that in fiscal 2010 nearly 51 million Americans were poor enough to qualify but only 38 million received benefits.

Here’s the basic response of the Huffington Post to Republican claims of welfare fraud: we’re not going to address the merits of your claim; instead, we’re going to put forth the irrelevant fact that 13 million Americans who were eligible for SNAP didn’t receive it in 2010, so even if there is fraud, those people are just taking up the benefits of the 13 million Americans who left food on the table. It’s all good, Republicans!

The reason HuffPo got all worked up was Rep. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) anecdotal recounting of fraud, where he spoke of witnessing fit looking individuals in the checkout line at the grocery store using EBT cards: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3731770.html

“But then I’m looking over, and there’s a couple beside me,” Mullin continued. “This guy was built like a brick house. I mean he had muscles all over him. He was in a little tank top and pair of shorts and really nice Nike shoes. And she was standing there, and she was all in shape and she looked like she had just come from a fitness program. She was in the spandex, and you know, they were both physically fit. And they go up in front of me and they pay with that card.”

Mullin knew what he’d witnessed. “Fraud,” he said. “Absolute 100 percent, all of it is fraud. There’s fraud all through that.”

Now, rather than making a reasonable counter-argument to Rep. Mullin’s supposition, HuffPo went all in with its even nuttier response. Perhaps the two fit looking individuals in the checkout line had gone to a public park, or lifted dumbbells at home because they were unemployed. Hey, it happens in Obama’s America, where for every job generated there are two food stamp beneficiaries created. That would have been a reasonable, logical counter to Mullin’s allegation of fraud based on personal musculature, but we all know that liberals are by and large incapable of making a logical argument. HuffPo could have even pointed out the rich hypocrisy of a guy who makes $174,000 a year for working 120 to 180 days out of the year critiquing welfare recipients who average $16 a month in SNAP assistance in Virginia. They didn’t.

In fact, to make matters worse, HuffPo concluded its article with the story of Adam Roach, a 52 year old who suffers from chronic fatigue (don’t we all?) and mental disabilities, including bipolar, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. He’s on Social Security disability, and receives a rent subsidy for his one bedroom efficiency in Falls Church. Roach applied for and received SNAP benefits a few years back, but refused to re-apply every six months for his $32 a month in benefits. The application was 18 pages long and asked questions Roach felt were too “morbid,” such as whether or not he owned a burial plot:

“I thought it was very unpleasant,” he said. “A very morbid question.”

Roach closed his sad story with a tale of his recent overdraft fees, which had left him $44 down in his bank account:

“If Republicans do get their way, which is unlikely, it wouldn’t matter to the millions of other people who are eligible for food stamps but don’t receive them. Not that these people have an easy time living without the benefits. Roach, for instance, said he’s always out of money by the end of the month. His checking account is currently $44 in the negative after he bought a ham & cheese sub for a friend, triggering an overdraft charge.

“I had treated a friend to lunch at Subway,” he said. “Something I rarely get to do is treat someone else to a meal.”"

You don’t say. You’re living on $843 a month in disability benefits and a rent subsidy for your apartment, you don’t have a job, and you don’t get to treat other people to a meal. Keep in mind that HuffPo was citing Roach’s story as a rebuttal to the heartless, compassion-less Republican efforts to cut SNAP by 5%, and give states incentives to eliminate SSDI for childless, working-age adults with disabilities like Roach.

Here’s a tip, HuffPo: when your opponent gives you an opening by making a specious argument for welfare fraud based on the musculature of the person in front of him in a checkout line, don’t make his argument for him by putting forth the likes of Adam Roach. Don’t present that example as your shining reason to keep SSDI for childless, working age disabled adults. Don’t make the argument that the 13 million Americans leaving food stamps on the table justifies the systemic fraud committed by millions of other Americans on food stamps. When the cost of food stamp fraud has more than doubled under Obama to $750 million a year, there’s a reason to condemn fraud.

This has been your facepalm of the day, folks. Come back to Grassroot Journal tomorrow for another, because liberals making arguments will provide us with infinite ammunition.



http://grassrootjournal.com/facepalm...friend-subway/

More Americans selling their food stamps for cash

Aug 18, 2013 2:20 PM EDT

(page 2 of 2) View Entire Story


However, the numbers were later adjusted to reflect activity within the entire program.

While the trafficking doesn't directly increase costs for the federal government, it diverts taxpayer money intended to help low-income families get access to a nutritious diet.

About 10.5 percent of all authorized SNAP stores engaged in trafficking, the study found, compared 8.2 percent in the 2006-2008 study.

The study also found the likelihood of trafficking varied by store characteristics and settings.

Small grocery or convenience stores, for example, accounted for about 15 percent of all redemptions, but accounted for 85 percent of all trafficking redemptions.

In addition, trafficking was more likely to occur in privately-owned stores, compared to publicly-owned shops and was more likely among retailers in neighborhoods with higher poverty rates.

http://politics.foxnews.mobi/quickPa...1078&pageNum=2

According to a newly-released study, a New York mother of two is eligible for in excess of $38,000 in annual welfare benefits – more than the starting salary of a New York entry-level school teacher.

Think that’s bad? In Hawaii, that same mother would receive $60,590 per year

New York Welfare Recipients Paid More Than Teachers
August 20, 2013 at 8:59 pm


According to a newly-released study, a New York mother of two is eligible for in excess of $38,000 in annual welfare benefits – more than the starting salary of a New York entry-level school teacher.

Think that’s bad? In Hawaii, that same mother would receive $60,590 per year.

The study, conducted by the CATO Institute, found that in addition to New York and Hawaii, welfare pays better than work in many states. While Hawaii tops the list at $60,590, Idaho brings up the rear at $11,150, as reported by Breitbart. [I assume the beaches aren't as nice in Idaho.]

Indeed, the CATO study claims:

In 11 states, welfare pays more than the average pre-tax first-year salary for a teacher. In 39 states, it pays more than the starting wage for a secretary. And, in the 3 most generous states, a person on welfare can take home more money than an entry-level computer programmer.

The study found that 33 states and the District of Columbia offer welfare benefits that pay recipients more than they would earn from an $8-an-hour job. Twelve states and the District of Columbia offer welfare packages that pay better than does a $15-an-hour job.

Add in Obama’s suspension of welfare-to-work requirements, and life on welfare can be a pretty good gig these days, as evidenced by the now somewhat infamous Cali surf bum.

There is no evidence that people on welfare are lazy,” writes CATO senior fellow Michael Tanner. “But they’re also not stupid. If you pay them more not to work than they can earn by working, many will choose not to work.”

http://politichicks.tv/2013/08/new-y...than-teachers/

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/08/7390...than-teachers/

Seven Dangers to Human Virtue

"The 9 states with no personal income tax gained $113.17 billion...the 9 states with the highest personal income tax rates lost $90.05 billion over the same period."



Voting with your feet/dollar: The only ballot that counts. When there are low migration/trade barriers and decentralized government, liberty prevails. When there are cages around states and an imperial government, tyranny prevails. (Teal)