Why are 47 million people on food stamps?
The 130 percent of poverty cap dates back to the early 1980s and recipients making more than that get a smaller payout than people below it. But the share of SNAP households that make more than 130 percent of the poverty line went from 2.3 percent to 4.7 percent; half of all states actually allow recipients to make more than 140 percent of the poverty line and still qualify for food stamps.
So as with all sorts of growth in goverment outlays, the historic rise in food stamp usage is not a clear-cut case of economic necessity. There’s a huge amount of policy fudge factor too.
Indeed, consider this fact as well: Between 2000 and 2006, spending on food stamps doubled under George W. Bush. That’s an odd statistic given the way the economy performed and the tech-bubble recession gave way to unemployment rates in the 4 percent range. And for those who remember Newt Gingrich’s attempt to cast Obama as the “food stamp president,” it’s a reminder that as with most awful policies in place during this 21st century, it’s bipartisan disaster all the way down.
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Well, without the Santa Preezy, how can you pay for food and rent when you’re unemployed, but still make payments on your Cadillac Escalade?
Jeddite on November 23, 2012 at 11:04 AM
Gee, there’s that “47″ number again. You’d think someone like Douglas Adams was writing this.
apostic on November 23, 2012 at 11:06 AM
Obama will fire 20,000 Marines so he can give $6 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars to Muslims for ‘green’ energy
Let them eat food stamps.
Akzed on November 23, 2012 at 11:08 AM
It’s all part of obama’s master plan …
The coming EBT riots …
http://www.infowars.com/the-coming-ebt-riots-what-will-happen-when-government-entitlements-stop/
Pork-Chop on November 23, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Because it’s me birthday and I wants it!
hawkdriver on November 23, 2012 at 11:21 AM
That, my friend, is “compassionate” conservatism in a nutshell. I liked Bush as a person but despised many of his policy ideas as president, such as the TSA. Grrr…
Fallon on November 23, 2012 at 11:21 AM
It’s Step 1 of Get Out the Vote.
When you get to the first page of the online sign up in my county, you are directed to voter registration. Sign them up and them they will vote for you!
PattyJ on November 23, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Ask yourself how many languages tax forms come in.
(English and Spanish)
Ask yourself how many languages food stamp directions come in.
I know at least NINE.
You can get off the boat (in reality arrive at the airport) and be given instructions on how to apply for food stamps. (No longer will you be sent home for becomeing a “public charge”) Bring your ageing parents into the US, folks who never worked here a day in their lives, and sign them up for foodstamps, Medicare and Social Security.
And that’s the legal ones.
Wander on November 23, 2012 at 11:22 AM
It’s all part of the plan
vcferlita on November 23, 2012 at 11:41 AM
It is an odd statistic given that food stamp participation dropped by almost half from 1994 – 2000, which was an expansionary period that coincides with a GOP congress and welfare reform. In other words, even though it doubled under Bush, participation didn’t get much past 94′ levels until 2008. So why did food stamp usage go up during that period of economic expansion? Was it an immigration issue? A policy change I’m unaware of? What?
RadClown on November 23, 2012 at 11:42 AM
It’s back up in case GOTF doesn’t work.
roy_batty on November 23, 2012 at 11:50 AM
This is why.
Obama’s AmeriKa.
May the Mayan calendar be right.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 11:55 AM
They all voted for Obama.
Plus, the WalMart strikers had to be bussed in and their spokesspoof on Faux demands to be called Reverand Doctor.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 11:56 AM
Plus, the R traitors of the land demand higher taxes “because they signed an outdated pact 20 years ago”.
May they all be stricken by something very bad, from the left to the right.
The land is slipping into a state below the 3rd world, the ridicule of the world.
Look at their ‘leader’ – he is the perfect picture of Stupid. “We has overcome” for sure.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 11:59 AM
Nick, its the economy. Its sc***ed. Get a clue, dude. The underemployed are being overlooked. Oh yeah, do some people take advantage of the system? Ofcourse they do. On the other hand, there are genuine hard workers who have fallen into hard times, and they don’t have a choice. The pols ofcourse play the game. Pubs and dems support both extreme positions. Lol. And cherry picking data points is a no-no for an indie like me. I’ll find a dem doing the same thing for the other side. In the end, its the economy.
tommy71 on November 23, 2012 at 12:04 PM
Because it trickled up, instead of down.
lester on November 23, 2012 at 12:05 PM
Because GWB, then higher than ever Obama trickled it up, instead of down, on purpose.
Suffocate, all of you who brung them, and then again. May you and yours starve, in the dark/cold. You deserve NO less. May the wrath of all producers be upon you.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:07 PM
Psssst…the black helicopters are outside, get to the bunker!
Go peddle your conspiracy theory BS eslewhere.
Fezzik on November 23, 2012 at 12:10 PM
No, it’s not. Bt your premise it would have had to be the highest in the 30s then.
It’s an intentional destruction of the powerful middle class. Obama is dead set to make the majority dependent, bonded in the modern day plantations, for votes only. Never are leftists progressive and truly liberal. They lover their stupid to remain so. It’s easier to fool them into believing their Utopian crap, while the Looters, see Obamas, live like the French kings and their Pompadours.
Long live modern day plantations. May the fools are suffer, while their looters live it up.
Did you see the Obamas yesterday living the example of Mrs. Roosevelt? I don’t think so.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:10 PM
love
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:11 PM
May the fools
areall suffer.Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Time to rename the Dunning-Kruger effect to the lester effect.
tom daschle concerned on November 23, 2012 at 12:12 PM
There are more people on food stamps because more people are going hungry. More people are going hungry because more people are broke. More people are broke because America’s workforce is largely uneducated.
Sad thing is that a lot of those people are honest and hard-working, just uneducated and stuck in the rut of a bad-economy. It is steadily improving, true. But, it’s not getting better fast enough.
Mocks the guy suggesting that people go on the dole specifically to hurt the nation’s economy and stability.
You put your life on the line for America. For what, so that you could campaign against her in your crotchety-years? A lot of warriors have used this POTUS as an excuse to dredge up old personal issues. You sound as if you’ve got a few left to work out yourself.
You’ve devolved into something detestable. You stand against your country and CIC and called for others to do the same. You’re a disappointment, perhaps worse.
Capitalist Hog on November 23, 2012 at 12:13 PM
Also, I don’t think tommy71 fully grasps the meaning of “independent”.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:14 PM
Capitalist Hog on November 23, 2012 at 12:13 PM
You can go straight to Hades. You are not even worthy to spit on hawkdriver’s shoes. He is a free man, one who can mock the idiot in chief all he wants.
May all your kind and yours remain in the squaller you described. You and they remain there by choice of your King and his Pompadour. You are the disgusting ones, and you represent them well.
The truly needed are the ones who s/b helped.
These are NOT them.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:17 PM
S/b “the truly needy”.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:18 PM
What is considered “needy” in the US is risible.
Look to India, Africa, a good chunk of Central/South America and other parts for “truly needy”.
Most of the so-called ‘needy’ in the US are lazy azzes, the ones Obama has helped to ‘overcome’ into a luxurious American life-style, on the back of the producers, who’re being bilked royally.
Add to them the early retired azzholes, which often include cops, firemen and gov’t leeches, all politicians, etc.
Truly needy means to have no running water, an outhouse somewhere close/far, no heating, no food, no car, no bike even.
Wake up America or go to Hell as AmeriKa.
You deserve no less or no more. You decided on Nov. 6 – now suffer the consequences. May all the Looters/Moochers suffocate from the idiocy they fall for.
Money does not grow in banks and milk doesn’t come from the grocery store, fools.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:23 PM
47% on food stamps an other programs is nothing more than redistribution and ‘payment’, in disguise.
Read at leat the first 3 paragraphs in the article.
It’s not only the slavery repayment – which is sad, because such can never be repaid in dough – it’s the “I thank you for your vote of Me, your King”. Michelle thanks you for the Lobsters, fools.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:26 PM
Schadenfreude, a tribalist like you? Lol. Dude or dudette, you’ve not been on my side of the aisle. Its ironic that both the hardcore dems and pubs attack me. Cos no tribalist likes an indie. Lol.
tommy71 on November 23, 2012 at 12:28 PM
tommy71 on November 23, 2012 at 12:28 PM
You’ve never met a bigger indie in your entire life.
Nor have you ever met someone who was more poor, independent of all government, made it, gave a lot, but is done producing and giving, except to the truly needy. No gov’t deserves my efforts any longer.
True indies starve the Looters and in turn the Moochers.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:32 PM
America has no shame and no decency left.
She is now run by thugs, the ones who dole out the ones on the dole.
From the left to the right the politicians are all crooks.
Symbol number one of the diagnosis – over 1000 exemptions to Obama’care’, starting with the Obama and the congress families.
If it’s so good, live by it, first you, then the people.
There s/b no law in the US from which the politicians s/b excempt.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:36 PM
Education 101 – the ones who further this are tribalists.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 12:37 PM
Do you mean too few formal degrees or basic, balance-your-checkbook uneducated? I absolutely agree with the latter (evidenced by inability to read market/workforce trends, not understanding how/why to save for rainy day or retirement, etc.), but wholly disagree with the former.
Money isn’t the only thing affected by inflation. More degrees makes all degrees worth less. Instead we need high school to mean something again (balance checkbooks) and skills like welding to be encouraged.
rogerb on November 23, 2012 at 12:41 PM
Another good Christian wishing eternal-damnation on someone for disagreeing with them. Only difference between the evangelical-extremists and the Taliban is how far you’re willing to go to carry out your rhetoric.
GOP has turned into a swap-meet full of low-class, low-earning, loudmouths. Seriously, it’s as if we pulled over in a outfitted-Suburban and pulled away in a VW bus full of Koresh wannabees.
Capitalist Hog on November 23, 2012 at 12:44 PM
Schad, when you use the term ‘moochers’, you become a hard-core pub tribalist. And you’ve been an indie? Lol. Dumb as bricks, a typical rhetoric-following tribalist.
tommy71 on November 23, 2012 at 12:46 PM
And please dude, that stupidity is plain stupid. Education 101. Lol. Get real.
tommy71 on November 23, 2012 at 12:49 PM
A degree is not proof of intellect, determination or honesty. But it is a requirement when you walk in my door.
I can personally attest to the fact that I would have probably made more money earlier had I NOT gone to university. But, I’ve made much more over the long-term because of my degrees
education. Yes, specifically because of my degrees and pedigree, not knowledge.There are some cases where the title and certs are required to get in the door before you can prove what you know.
Capitalist Hog on November 23, 2012 at 12:52 PM
Why? Cause with the food stamps, ya get to buy the new iMacs, Jordans and other stuff and then Obama, he be givin’ ya’ the means for groce-rees.
Lourdes on November 23, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Free stuff is good. Very good.
I have seen people at the supermarket pay for stuff with a food stamp card and then take it outside and get in a new car.
Moesart on November 23, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Seen that same thing with the allegedly “poor immigrants who just want to put food on their table.” For being “poor” they’re all driving big trucks and their babes have new Macs and hair-do’s and big nails…same as the Food Stampers.
I worked my way through many years of college and it was gruesome on many a day and night and I know what it is to live on coffee and some pie-thing purchased at a 7-11 a day. I never accepted Food Stamps and never will.
Lourdes on November 23, 2012 at 1:04 PM
Capitalist Hog on November 23, 2012 at 12:44 PM
When you make ‘logical’ arguments based on the wrong premise, you are illogical.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 1:09 PM
Speak for yourself. Any information is good – we can decide on it’s truthfulness on our own.
kim roy on November 23, 2012 at 1:11 PM
Beyond having the food stamp program (SNAP and EBT cards), the less fortunate are subsidized via their children in school lunch (and sometimes breakfast and/or dinner) programs and WIC.
The combination of these programs is NOT a safety net; it is an invitation to the hammock. Didn’t Herman Cain use those very words?
onlineanalyst on November 23, 2012 at 1:32 PM
You have no basis for those claims. You sound like some retired professor.
What is your evidence to support this claim:
” A lot of warriors have used this POTUS as an excuse to dredge up old personal issues. You sound as if you’ve got a few left to work out yourself.”
This:
“You’ve devolved into something detestable. You stand against your country and CIC and called for others to do the same. You’re a disappointment, perhaps worse.”
This:
‘There are more people on food stamps because more people are going hungry. More people are going hungry because more people are broke. More people are broke because America’s workforce is largely uneducated.
Sad thing is that a lot of those people are honest and hard-working, just uneducated and stuck in the rut of a bad-economy. It is steadily improving, true. But, it’s not getting better fast enough.”
You’re a bigot, based on your apparent assumption that the people on food stamps are uneducated.
And you’re ignorant..you seem to be able to ignore whatever doesn’t fit your ideological catechism.
You ignore the obvious..it’s human nature to look for the easy way out..whether thats choosing to not follow an educational goal, or to take whatever handout is available to you.
Of those people on foodstamps, what would you guess is the percentage who are on them just because they can be?
You seem to one of those people who may be educated beyond their intelligence imo.
Mimzey on November 23, 2012 at 1:41 PM
“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” That was the acute observation of Dr. Johnson, to Boswell
Alas
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 1:46 PM
What an ignorant thing to say.
You are a retired professor, aren’t you?..or you fancy yourself as smarter than most of the people…how did you put it again?..”most of the American workforce (*most of the American people*)..are uneducated.”
Mimzey on November 23, 2012 at 1:47 PM
That makes no sense…unless I’m not understanding how you connect the dots.
Can you connect the dots for how using a word..in this case “moochers” proves one a “hard core pub tribalist”?
If using the word ‘moocher’ make one a “hard core__” what words make one an average, run of the mill ________?
Can you define the terms that you’re using?
Thanks.
Mimzey on November 23, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Workforce does not refer to all Americans. Do you know what percentage of Americans make up the labor-force? You don’t. You’re not equipped for this conversation. At least respect yourself by showing up with facts.
You can’t even honestly disagree if you don’t know what it is that you believe. That’s not an insult. It’s advice.
Capitalist Hog on November 23, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Capitalist Hog on November 23, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Says the least factual commenter, the one who uses false premises.
tommy71 on November 23, 2012 at 12:46 PM
As an indie, read The Fountainhead and then Atlas Shrugged. The terms Looters and Moochers from there are the only ones I ever use. It’s what it’s all about, except she thought she wrote fiction and 60 years later it’s reality, sadly.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 2:48 PM
tommy71 on November 23, 2012 at 12:46 PM
You proved yourself to be the dumb brick. It’s sad for an indie, very sad.
Schadenfreude on November 23, 2012 at 2:49 PM
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