40 million Americans on food stamps

[EL PRESIDENTE]

yeah. lots of medical insurance fraud in mexican and vietnamese hoods.

 

[Paxil]

When I lived in Klamath Falls the feds started a free breakfast program in the public schools. It was marketed and all kids were encouraged to come and get a hot breakfast before school. So most kids showed up and had the food. Come to find out the feds were considering every kid who showed up to be below the poverty line with parents too poor to feed them and they officially went on the rolls of families too poor to afford food. But the program was never presented that way to the people. We all found out about it later. So although 70% of the kids showed up for chow, only about 5% came from families too poor to feed them (as later determined by a local analysis). Those figures were used to promulgate social programs and spending by a certain political party...

Infinite supply creates infinite demand... or something like that. You have to be careful with handouts because some people won't try to improve their situation until they stop.

 

[bodyman5001]

Once again, our economy should be skyrocketing with all the govt money being spent on food.

 

[Shooter]

Oh I have. Many of them. My sister was a "welfare mama" for years. Any possible was to cheat and fraud the system, she used.

Ditto. My sister has also found every possible angle in the world to get money from the government and avoid working. And she is only one of millions. I personally know several people who are claiming to be "disabled" right now just so they can live off government charity. It's a huge problem in this country, and it's why we're probably going to have a taxpayer revolution one of these days. The Tea Party is just the beginning.

 

[Eastoff]

I was a cashier at a grocery store and I've seen stuff like that, a lot. I would love people paying for a cart full of stuff with food stamps, then I'd watch them pack them away in their Lexus. Or the people who would come through with lobsters and filet mignon and buy it with food stamps. Or the people who would have me ring up half their order on one food stamp card, then start another order on another food stamp card.

I remember a friend in college telling me about how we could get on food stamps and we could do exactly this, buy fat cuts of steak. I told him I didn't want to, but he didn't seem to mind the idea.

 

[Eastoff]

Ditto. My sister has also found every possible angle in the world to get money from the government and avoid working. And she is only one of millions. I personally know several people who are claiming to be "disabled" right now just so they can live off government charity. It's a huge problem in this country, and it's why we're probably going to have a taxpayer revolution one of these days. The Tea Party is just the beginning.

I'm just curious, the people you know who are disabled right now, do they all vote democratic?

 

[Shooter]

I'm just curious, the people you know who are disabled right now, do they all vote democratic?

None of them are actually disabled, for starters. I know my sister votes Democrat, but I don't know about the others.

 

[Eastoff]

None of them are actually disabled, for starters. I know my sister votes Democrat, but I don't know about the others.

yeah I meant to put the word in quotes.

 

[BrianFromWA]

for those that say go after the businesses, I agree...but what does that do for the illegally-here worker? "Sure", you say, "it'd be horrible to ship them back to a country where they have no family". But you don't have a problem with letting them stay in a country where they have no family, no legal status and anyone that wants to employ them is going to be hammered by the government? How does that solve anything?

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Infinite supply creates infinite demand... or something like that. You have to be careful with handouts because some people won't try to improve their situation until they stop.

That's a very good point. As someone who's been in insurance claims a lot I see people get addicted to free insurance money.

 

[chris_in_pdx]

for those that say go after the businesses, I agree...but what does that do for the illegally-here worker? "Sure", you say, "it'd be horrible to ship them back to a country where they have no family". But you don't have a problem with letting them stay in a country where they have no family, no legal status and anyone that wants to employ them is going to be hammered by the government? How does that solve anything?

You couple that approach with amnesty and a fast-track to green card/citizenship for all existing illegal aliens. Yes, you'll have the camp that screams "YOU ARE JUST REWARDING THEM FOR BREAKING THE LAW!!!!", but it's the right thing to do.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I'm just curious, the people you know who are disabled right now, do they all vote democratic?

My daughter is disabled. She votes republican. My boss's wife is disabled with Parkinson. She votes republican (or so he tells me). One of my wifes friends is disabled with horrendous arthritis. I know she votes republican (if dopey bumper stickers mean anything).

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

You couple that approach with amnesty and a fast-track to green card/citizenship for all existing illegal aliens. Yes, you'll have the camp that screams "YOU ARE JUST REWARDING THEM FOR BREAKING THE LAW!!!!", but it's the right thing to do.

I go back & forth on this issue. On the one hand, who am I to begrudge someone for wanting to come here and make a better life for themselves or their family? On the other hand, we simply can't open the floodgates. There needs to be some sort of controls and efficiency to properly regulate the flow. Amnesty simply rewards lawless deeds.

 

[bluefrog]

How did we get on the topic of illegal immigration?!?!?!

I've never seen people in luxury sedans or Hummers use food stamps but then I live in rural North Carolina. There's a lot of poverty here. The textile industry was huge but that all went to China long ago. The furniture and tobacco industry are dead too.

I would say most people would rather work than live off of food stamps and welfare. Maybe abusing these programs is a west coast problem

 

[Paxil]

I go back & forth on this issue. On the one hand, who am I to begrudge someone for wanting to come here and make a better life for themselves or their family? On the other hand, we simply can't open the floodgates. There needs to be some sort of controls and efficiency to properly regulate the flow. Amnesty simply rewards lawless deeds.

You have to admit though that some people were caught off guard by the change in standards. There was basically no enforcement at all for quite a long time... everyone knew about it... companies hired people they knew were not legal, there was a flow back and forth for decades and decades.... and then all of the sudden after 911 we get really paranoid about the borders and how we want to enforce changes drastically. Now people who may have been in the country for years and years are in trouble. How did they know standards would change?

There are so many laws that are not enforced... supposedly there is a law in Oregon still on the books that says you must let your dishes drip dry. Anyone with a dishwasher and a drying cycle... BUSTED. Anyone drying with a hand towel... CRIMINALS! If say all the sudden we had an unimaginable energy shortage and we just didn't have the energy to use heat to dry dishes and they started to enforce that law... do you think they'd hunt down everyone with a dishwasher, or just stop selling new ones with drying? Amnesty would make sense wouldn't it?

I know that is an outrageous example... but 20 years ago it was pretty inconceivable that we would eventually be so persnickety about our borders.

 

[Shooter]

That's because there are segments of the American economy and industries that would be DESTROYED if you just picked 20 million working people off the streets of America and bussed them across the border.

Ha! If I know anything, it's that liberals couldn't care less about the impact on the economy of illegals leaving. That's just one of the arguments they like to use to oppose deportation. Nice try, though.

If you REALLY, REALLY want to make a dent in illegal immigration, make it illegal and HARSHLY PUNISHABLE for companies to employ them. Corporations and other medium to large businesses are the real devil in the illegal immigration issue.

On this we agree. However, again, most liberals would fight you tooth and nail on this issue, as well.

 

[Shooter]

for those that say go after the businesses, I agree...but what does that do for the illegally-here worker? "Sure", you say, "it'd be horrible to ship them back to a country where they have no family". But you don't have a problem with letting them stay in a country where they have no family, no legal status and anyone that wants to employ them is going to be hammered by the government? How does that solve anything?

Not to mention the fact that many Mexican illegals have left Arizona and moved to other states just prior to the planned implementation of the new immigration law. If they can "uproot" their families to move to California or New Mexico or some other state, they can just as easily move back home to Mexico.

I find it very interesting that the first state law to actually have an effect on illegal immigration is being fought bitterly by the Obama administration. Makes you wonder which country Obama thinks he is president of . . .

 

[The_Lillard_King]

So bad people on wallstreet can steal billions of dollars from hard working americans to become multi millionaires and the focus of the gov't should be on the people illegally obtaining food?

I'm guessing it would cost more to enforce and punish these terrible people taking advantage of food stamps than the amount they are stealing from the gov't.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

It would also be more cost effective to cut the program.

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

As another person who has worked as a cashier during college, It was disgusting seeing at least half (I'm not exaggerating, some people would use their food stamps wisely, but it was only around half) of the people on food stamps come through my line. Not only did they get to eat a million times better than I (since I was in college and only working a part time job), they would bitch about how they werent getting enough money while having pot roast, prime rib, fish, and organic stuff come through the line. Give me a fucking break.

 

[maxiep]

So bad people on wallstreet can steal billions of dollars from hard working americans to become multi millionaires and the focus of the gov't should be on the people illegally obtaining food?

I'm guessing it would cost more to enforce and punish these terrible people taking advantage of food stamps than the amount they are stealing from the gov't.

Who are these "bad people on Wall Street"? There are incompetent people. There are some scoundrels, but most simply did a poor job of risk analysis. For the record, it's really easy to make the kind of money you talk about on Wall Street without having to steal anything.

 

[blazerboy30]

So bad people on wallstreet can steal billions of dollars from hard working americans to become multi millionaires and the focus of the gov't should be on the people illegally obtaining food?

Who is stealing billions of dollars from hard working americans? Are you talking about those Americans that don't / can't read their loan documents or other agreements they sign into? Why don't we just make people responsible for taking care of themselves, and both problems are fixed.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Its almost crazy to me that 12% of Americans get food stamps.

 

[blazerboy30]

Its almost crazy to me that 12% of Americans get food stamps.

I was thinking the same thing. 1 in 9 people get food stamps. Crazy.

 

[MARIS61]

Every statistic I quoted is 100% true. YOUR post is the one that should be laughed at and eventually deleted.

The statistics are what they have been for about 3-4 years now.

You are knowingly placing the blame on the wrong President.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

You are knowingly placing the blame on the wrong President.

We can always count on our communist brethren here to blame Bush every single time.

Thanks, Maris. I was wondering when you'd come along and blame Bush.

 

[MARIS61]

Who are these "bad people on Wall Street"? There are incompetent people. There are some scoundrels, but most simply did a poor job of risk analysis. For the record, it's really easy to make the kind of money you talk about on Wall Street without having to steal anything.

In an industry based entirely on making "Money for nothing", the better question might be "can you name any good people on Wall Street?".

 

[Shooter]

The statistics are what they have been for about 3-4 years now.

You are knowingly placing the blame on the wrong President.

Wrong. Food stamp use is at an all-time high, as the article states, and unemployment is also higher than it's been in many years. We're also much more in debt than we ever were under Bush, or any other president. Under Obama, the federal deficit has gotten obscenely high. Instead of focusing on job creation, Obama has foolishly put most of his energy into the health care bill, which most people are opposed to.

Obama doesn't have a clue.

 

[maxiep]

In an industry based entirely on making "Money for nothing", the better question might be "can you name any good people on Wall Street?".

Yep. Thank you for confirming that you have no idea what the financial sector does. Meanwhile, your career consists of having hardworking taxpayers pay you for just showing up at your government job and then as an externality in the process of people who buy homes. Pretty much you've been a lifelong economic parasite.

 

[gatorpops]

Ahhh, Shooter is so cute, he's trying to make a point again. Isn't it adorable?

YES!