The stark reality of the food stamp cut (even after it was raised)

[Horse with no Name]

The stark reality is...in 2008 Americans on Food Stamps hits a record 30 MILLION.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112502553.html

In August of 2009, there were 34 MILLION Americans on Food Stamps.
http://www.mybudget360.com/35-million-americans-on-food-stamps-12-percent-of-us-population-on-food-stamps-highest-since-records-kept-in-1969/



In June 2010, that number jumped to a RECORD 41.3 MILLION.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-02/food-stamps-went-to-record-41-3-million-in-june-usda-says.html


I cannot find data for what it has been in the last 3 months, but I imagine it is still setting records.


Now, the discussion that Obama raised the food stamps from 37b to 68b really isn't that significant when the demand is rising faster than the supply.

So, let's be realistic.
Taking $2.2 billion out of the $68 billion is going to leave people hungry.
And that SHOULD be the bottom line for Democrats.
There are other places he can take the money. He can start with bringing the troops home.

[katnapped]

1. How many need it

And still won't be eligible for whatever reason?

[bobbolink]

3. Or get such a paltry amount that they are still hungry?

[Donnachaidh]

15. when we had to get food stamps last winter we were stunned by the amount

For a family of *3*, we were given $182.00 for the MONTH. That works out to about 6 dollars and 6 cents per DAY for two adults and a teenager.

How many people can feed themselves on SIX DOLLARS A DAY? And we were expected to feed *3* people on that daily amount.

Even now, as heavily budgeted as we are, we spend over twice that a month just for BASICS. The food stamp program in my state of Georgia is terrible, and is going to get worse now that we have yet another crooked puke Governor coming in.

It offends me deeply that this admin is shuffling money around, in order to present *new* pr programs, on the backs of the working poor. It should offend every single American out there. Robbing peter to pay paul solely for a photo-op is the lowest of the low, imo.

[kelly1mm]

20. By using coupons and loss leasders I spend about $125 per month

for 2 people and that includes paper products, personal hygene items, and pet items for 2 cats. Probably about 90-100 per month on actual groceries. A great website that matches weekly specials with coupons (many things are free this way) is www.hotcouponworld.com .

[MineralMan]

21. I can do that easily. I have done that.

It's all a matter of careful shopping and preparing all meals from scratch. Little meat and lots of beans and rice. It's all very good, healthful, and pretty easy to prepare. You can't do it without some serious planning, though, which is the bugbear for most food stamp recipients, who aren't used to scratch cooking.

[EFerrari]

22. Why do you think poor people can't cook from scratch?

[MineralMan]

26. Because I worked on an educational program to help families

subsist on food stamps. That was the principle problem we had in designing a workable menu system that would nourish a family on a very limited budget. We had no problem creating an initial system, but we quickly discovered the inability to prepare the meals, despite their simplicity and our easy to follow recipes.

We had to retrench and come up with another approach, which included some alternative menus and a series of cooking classes.

Interestingly enough, the Spanish-speaking hispanic families in the program had the least difficulty, and added additional recipes to the program.

Please do not assume I don't know what I'm talking about. If I don't know, I don't say it. I worked for three years on this program, which finally worked out very well for the families in the group we were helping. This was in the mid 1970s. The recipes still work just fine.

[eridani]

33. Hotplates and no place to store extras?

Just sayin'. A big freezer, an oven, and doing way more than one meal at a time saves me a lot of money. Not to mention having the scratch to afford buying in bulk. Much harder if none of that applies.

[SoCalDem]

4. If you are a single unemployed male, your chances are pretty small

:(

[EFerrari]

23. Or female. I didn't qualify because I had no kids at home

no disability and was too young. I also had no job and no UI. Thank goodness I have a family that was willing to help me for a while. Very scary.

[bobbolink]

5. Fie on the bug that keeps telling me it didn't post!

[EFerrari]

10. When I needed it two years ago, I was ineligible in this state.

TG for my family because with no kids at home, no disability, not old enough, I was right in the ditch. No unemployment insurance, no food stamps, no health care, it was pretty wild.

[Hardrada]

2. He should bring the troops home but I am starting to suspect he

is not really in charge.

[sad sally]

24. Many Presidents back, we knew this position no longer really

was the person in charge - the World Bank is at the controls.

Yeah, I do wear a tin-foil hat and don't believe most of what my government tells me is true.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Legalize, Regulate, and tax marijuana. Stop spending $ to fight consenting adult "crimes".

That'll pay for a lot of food stamps.

[Horse with no Name]

7. That's a progressive ideal

one of these days when we get a progressive President, it might happen.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. People here seem to vehemently defend the right to pursue idealism

and denigrate realism, even when realism is a significant increase in food stamp funding.

So, there's my ideal.

[frazzled]

8. I'm not a great mathematician, but

The number of people receiving food stamps rose approx. one third because of the recession. And yet the new administration and Congress raised the funds by nearly double for food stamps (from $38B to $68B).

And you begrudge hungry school children this 2% of the total -- which doesn't even get cut for another three years, until November 2013?

That's not logic I can believe in.

[Horse with no Name]

9. I don't begrudge anyone anything

there is NO reason we can't do both without scavenging the carcass of the other.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Also

with the % rate that it is increasing--I'm not a mathematician either, but it seems that the number in need will be well above what it is in 3 years--unless you know something I don't, because where I am sitting and embarking on two years of a lame duck administration and republican obstruction--there won't be ANY business done.

[EFerrari]

12. You keep posting about begrudging hungry children when

that's clearly not the objection being raised.

[Still a Democrat]

13. Recipients up 1/3, amount paid doubles

The problem?

[Horse with no Name]

14. As the apologists are out there selling--it goes in effect in 3 years

Is it magical thinking to assume that the need is going to stabilize when it is skyrocketing?

Or is the realistic thinking that as of June, 1 in 8 Americans were on Food Stamps--in 3 years, it is very likely(with the rate it is going up) that 1 in 3 Americans will be on Food Stamps?

[Newest Reality]

17. Magical thinking follows magical words, ey?

One can agree that the long-range impact of a systemic crisis will tend to yield increasing numbers of people requiring assistance in order to eat in order to simply survive.

What a ridiculous scenario for a country with so much incredible wealth you couldn't get your head around it if you tried. So, by magical words and thoughts, the question of the survival of millions becomes a debatable topic when reason indicates clearly that no compromise or budget shifts need to be made at all.

There are people in various stages of life crises. There is plenty of food currently to feed them well. When the lives of so many individuals matter, and therefore are a priority, then the solution is clear and rhetoric, abstractions and opinions are no match for flesh and blood and human conditions.

Money, not scarcity, is what is keeping food from the mouths of men, women and children. Imagine being told you cannot drive because we are running out of miles; or that you cannot build because there is a shortage of inches and feet.

[Horse with no Name]

18. The wealth is in a stranglehold at the top 2%

the rest of the 98%'ers are waiting for a little of the piss to trickle down.
Your "reality" is staggering. You must be exhausted by those acrobats.:eyes:

[Newest Reality]

19. Refreshed, enlivened, empowered.

Yet another magic spell of words to contemplate and comment on. The presuppositions and beliefs are like hemlock and toad stools.

It is like gliding on a breeze with a flock of birds and drawing circles around the incantations ... it becomes effortless and automatic and enjoyable. What happens when you don't think about what is not a problem? Do you get a stretch or confusion? Both are fine.

Thanks!

[EFerrari]

16. You really like playing with numbers. The number of hungry families tripled since 2006.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err108/

And that government report is from 2009.

[madrchsod]

27. my wife and i are about 100 dollars over the cut off point.

if she works less than her 36 hrs per week for a month we`ll get food stamps. i`m retired on ss and she has a full time(36hr) union job at a special needs facility.

food stamps are an underground cash economy. the going rate around here is 50-60% on the dollar.

[EFerrari]

28. I didn't qualify because even with no income

I was too young, had no kids at home and am not disabled. I bet there are a bunch of people in the same spot.

[progressoid]

29. Plus the 11.9 billion previously "cut"

[whistler162]

30. Yup in 3 years, or is it 2, it could be a problem!

when the cuts go into affect.

[hamsterjill]

31. I don't care about the numbers. I don't care about the facts.

All I KNOW is that in a country like ours, there should be NO ONE who goes to bed hungry at night.

The politicians can give me their baloney speeches for as long as they want, but I refuse to lose sight of that simple principle. We have enough to make sure that everyone eats. Anything less is complete and utter bullshit.

[Horse with no Name]

32. I wholeheartedly agree--for example

We pay farmers not to grow crops while we have people starving in the street.
That is amoral, unchristian, and downright wrong.