We have a president who does not understand much of basic civics and the Constitution--why would we expect him to understand aid programs such as food stamps? Maybe, as a start, read this short commentary: http://www.salon.com/2014/09/01/the_rights_food_stamp_embarrassment_a_hi... .
I understand that the food stamp program came from the same era as Social Security and Medicare. No wonder is angers the House "Freedom" Caucus supporters so much. Here is a short comment from the conclusion of the essay linked above:
"How ironic that in today’s concentrated grocery-retail market, the chains most ideologically opposed to welfare spending benefit the most from this welfare program. Even more ironic is the fact that the idea behind SNAP originated with grocery men in the 1930s who saw a way to route welfare spending through their businesses."
Here are a few more details about a minimum wage that has been, in terms of purchasing power and inflation, flat for 50 years: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-about-the-minimu... . At least it appears that many states and smaller locales have more humane attitudes than many of our congressional representatives--particularly those in the House.
I understand that the food stamp program came from the same era as Social Security and Medicare. No wonder is angers the House "Freedom" Caucus supporters so much. Here is a short comment from the conclusion of the essay linked above:
"How ironic that in today’s concentrated grocery-retail market, the chains most ideologically opposed to welfare spending benefit the most from this welfare program. Even more ironic is the fact that the idea behind SNAP originated with grocery men in the 1930s who saw a way to route welfare spending through their businesses."
Here are a few more details about a minimum wage that has been, in terms of purchasing power and inflation, flat for 50 years: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-about-the-minimu... . At least it appears that many states and smaller locales have more humane attitudes than many of our congressional representatives--particularly those in the House.
31
On any given day, there is a relatively fixed amount of liquid wealth in the country. The more it is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the less of it there is available to consume products and maintain the economy. No economy can survive on a diet of high-end consumption when the high-end consumers comprise less than 5% of the population. Taxing the rich and putting those taxes into public works circulates money that is otherwise tied up in stock certificates and bank vaults.
82
It would be interesting to see the NY Times do a study on how many of these families receiving Food Stamps supplement their incomes by working off the books. Whenever I read articles in the times on the poor I often see apartments fully furnished, often with the latest electronics. If these families are so "poor" how are they surviving? It's quite simple if they have second jobs making cash, laughing all the way to the bank as their Government handouts arrive.
50
"...That so many working households are eligible for food stamps reflects the prevalence of low wage jobs...
...So the problem is not the number of people on food stamps; it’s that companies pay wages so low that their employees qualify for them. It is a problem that Congress and the White House can rectify, not by cutting spending, but by raising the minimum wage, updating the overtime-pay rules and instituting paid sick leave — for starters..."
___
Um, did you NOT get yesterday's DealB%k email which includes tomorrow's Sunday Review: "The Question Isn’t Why Wage Growth Is So Low. It’s Why It’s So High."
"...Over the last 24 months through March, inflation has come in at 1.4 percent a year, and productivity growth at 0.6 percent. Those are very low numbers. And in our supersimple model, you may expect average worker wages to have risen only 2 percent.
In fact, the average hourly earnings for nonmanagerial private sector workers rose 2.4 percent a year in that period. You may not feel like cheering about that, but it’s more than we might have expected, with inflation and productivity so weak. The real mystery, then, isn’t why wages are rising so slowly, but why they’re rising so fast..."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/upshot/the-question-isnt-why-wage-gro...
...So the problem is not the number of people on food stamps; it’s that companies pay wages so low that their employees qualify for them. It is a problem that Congress and the White House can rectify, not by cutting spending, but by raising the minimum wage, updating the overtime-pay rules and instituting paid sick leave — for starters..."
___
Um, did you NOT get yesterday's DealB%k email which includes tomorrow's Sunday Review: "The Question Isn’t Why Wage Growth Is So Low. It’s Why It’s So High."
"...Over the last 24 months through March, inflation has come in at 1.4 percent a year, and productivity growth at 0.6 percent. Those are very low numbers. And in our supersimple model, you may expect average worker wages to have risen only 2 percent.
In fact, the average hourly earnings for nonmanagerial private sector workers rose 2.4 percent a year in that period. You may not feel like cheering about that, but it’s more than we might have expected, with inflation and productivity so weak. The real mystery, then, isn’t why wages are rising so slowly, but why they’re rising so fast..."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/upshot/the-question-isnt-why-wage-gro...
9
What you say is correct about "most adult recipients either work or are unable due to age or disability." Five years after Mitt Romney's infamous '47% don't pay income taxes,' I'm still pointing out that most actually do pay taxes, they pay payroll taxes because they have jobs, but at the end of the year they've made so pathetically little that they are exempt from federal income tax. Over half fall into the category of not making enough money, the rest are elderly, disabled, and also students.
But Republicans in general and Trump voters in particular want to believe these folks are moochers expecting a hand out. It's very sad. If anyone wants to review the clarification of who those "47%" were in 2012, here's the link:
http://www.cbpp.org/research/misconceptions-and-realities-about-who-pays...
In 2012, we were still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis. With higher employment now, these figures may have changed, but how much better can things be when the minimum wage is so low? Yet, many still throw out the '50% pay no taxes' like some sort of anti-moocher mantra. Why don't you spend a little time finding out who these people are? Many are the working poor. Count your blessings and stop calling them all moochers.
But Republicans in general and Trump voters in particular want to believe these folks are moochers expecting a hand out. It's very sad. If anyone wants to review the clarification of who those "47%" were in 2012, here's the link:
http://www.cbpp.org/research/misconceptions-and-realities-about-who-pays...
In 2012, we were still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis. With higher employment now, these figures may have changed, but how much better can things be when the minimum wage is so low? Yet, many still throw out the '50% pay no taxes' like some sort of anti-moocher mantra. Why don't you spend a little time finding out who these people are? Many are the working poor. Count your blessings and stop calling them all moochers.
50
Are there no workhouses?
The problem isn't food stamps or poverty. The problem is inhumane priorities.
America annually spends more on it's military than the next eight nations combined including 9x Russia and 3x China. One Ford Class Aircraft Carrier costs $13 billion. Yet Donnie Trump has asked for a $58 billion increase in our 'hollowed' out military. With a mere 0.75% of Americans volunteering to wear the military uniform of any American armed force since 9/11/01 America is clearly not Sparta.
It is time for America to practice humble humane empathy for the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the despairing, the homeless, the sick, the stranger and the imprisoned aka the beloved of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. See Matthew 25:31-46; 'Dog-Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class' Ian Haney Lopez
America annually spends more on it's military than the next eight nations combined including 9x Russia and 3x China. One Ford Class Aircraft Carrier costs $13 billion. Yet Donnie Trump has asked for a $58 billion increase in our 'hollowed' out military. With a mere 0.75% of Americans volunteering to wear the military uniform of any American armed force since 9/11/01 America is clearly not Sparta.
It is time for America to practice humble humane empathy for the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the despairing, the homeless, the sick, the stranger and the imprisoned aka the beloved of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. See Matthew 25:31-46; 'Dog-Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class' Ian Haney Lopez
2
Trump's desire to eliminate food stamps is a good illustration of this regime's political links with the defunct Third Reich which also practised benign neglect before adopting more violent policies towards segments of the population deemed as 'subhuman' or 'dangerous'.
Just look at the comments here or in other news media on the part of selfish, narrow-minded and entitled Americans who are terribly complacent about the stability in their lives. I sense the unfolding of a nascent war on the poor.
Consider how the employees in IT in Seattle describe the homeless problem there with disgust, with one self-righteous millenial telling a journalist he was ashamed to invite his parents to the city due to the presence of the homeless sleeping rough in the streets. The war on the poor has been declared in the United States of America! all part of the MAGA dogma....
Just look at the comments here or in other news media on the part of selfish, narrow-minded and entitled Americans who are terribly complacent about the stability in their lives. I sense the unfolding of a nascent war on the poor.
Consider how the employees in IT in Seattle describe the homeless problem there with disgust, with one self-righteous millenial telling a journalist he was ashamed to invite his parents to the city due to the presence of the homeless sleeping rough in the streets. The war on the poor has been declared in the United States of America! all part of the MAGA dogma....
31
It's a sick classism and racism that has completely taken a hold of a large part of the electorate, thanks to propagandists like Roger Ailes, Frank Luntz, Lee Atwater, Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge (ALL white men of privilege).
We must fight it aggressively, in our everyday beliefs, thoughts, words and actions. Talk about it, discuss it.
We must fight it aggressively, in our everyday beliefs, thoughts, words and actions. Talk about it, discuss it.
35
The problem is neither "food stamps" or "poverty". It is capatalisme coorporatism lobbyism Wall street. Nothong will change until you shut down Wall Street and serverly regulate and tax big corporations while promoting family owned small buisnesses.
14
Finally. The New York Times aught to temper its intellectually dishonest articles crowing about economic growth. Economic growth for whom? The top 1-percent? The educated elite?
The obliteration of well paying working and middle-class jobs is calculated and obvious. And the kind of low-wage, poverty-level employment epitomized by Walmart isn't job creation. It's indentured servantcy, or worse.
The obliteration of well paying working and middle-class jobs is calculated and obvious. And the kind of low-wage, poverty-level employment epitomized by Walmart isn't job creation. It's indentured servantcy, or worse.
28
The Republicans are always promoting the same old agenda- punish the poor by cuting funds then wait for them to " boot strap" themselves out of poverty - while at the same time padding their own pockets with all the money they " saved".
When are voters going to learn that this is insidious argument is just another cruel self - serving attack on the most desperate members of society --not a way to "help" them help themselves.
Why Trump and his henchmen are hell-bent on destroying the desperate, ignorant, trusting base - that voted for him is beyond logic. Why they continue to support him as even more crazy/bizarre.
When are voters going to learn that this is insidious argument is just another cruel self - serving attack on the most desperate members of society --not a way to "help" them help themselves.
Why Trump and his henchmen are hell-bent on destroying the desperate, ignorant, trusting base - that voted for him is beyond logic. Why they continue to support him as even more crazy/bizarre.
40
For Republicans the one sure cure for poverty is to pull yourself up by the bootstraps. Looks like dumpster diving has a bright future.
15
If Kushner was not born with that silver spoon in his mouth he would likely be on food stamps too...
22
• The Times collected some interesting data a year or so back that shows America’s position in terms of the percentage of children living as poverty levels (Percentage of children living in poor households (households earning half the median income or less). Selected countries.
• Brazil 29.7 %
• United States 20.1%
• Greece 17.3
• Russia 15.8 %
• Australia 14.4 %
• Canada 14.4 %
• Poland 14.0 %
• France 11.4 %
• Ireland 10.4 %
• Taiwan 8.7 %
• Netherlands 6.3 %
• Finland 4.4 %
• Revealing and Disconcerting, Yes?
• Brazil 29.7 %
• United States 20.1%
• Greece 17.3
• Russia 15.8 %
• Australia 14.4 %
• Canada 14.4 %
• Poland 14.0 %
• France 11.4 %
• Ireland 10.4 %
• Taiwan 8.7 %
• Netherlands 6.3 %
• Finland 4.4 %
• Revealing and Disconcerting, Yes?
46
Oh, but according to the esteemed Dr. Ben Carson poverty is a state of mind. Those who sleep in cardboard boxes and wear filthy rags should dance and sing, quote Proust, write Broadway plays. Food Stamps coddle the poor. If the poor go hungry let them eat rocks and grass (cake being too good for them).
Meanwhile, Budget Director Mulvaney defends a $52-billion tax cut to the Walton family, of the Walmart empire, a company that pays its "associates" so little that many must get Food Stamps so their children can eat; with a straight face.
The Trump Administration isn't just waging war on the poor to go with the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the War on Crime, the War on ISIS/Taliban and whatever other wars they're fighting at the moment. Here's another war, a billionaires' war, against their American slaves, their dirty social inferiors. A social-Darwinist holocaust; with Trump's blessing.
Meanwhile, Budget Director Mulvaney defends a $52-billion tax cut to the Walton family, of the Walmart empire, a company that pays its "associates" so little that many must get Food Stamps so their children can eat; with a straight face.
The Trump Administration isn't just waging war on the poor to go with the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the War on Crime, the War on ISIS/Taliban and whatever other wars they're fighting at the moment. Here's another war, a billionaires' war, against their American slaves, their dirty social inferiors. A social-Darwinist holocaust; with Trump's blessing.
33
"Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime."
-- Aristotle
-- Aristotle
Beyond simply cutting these programs, the reason it always seems like an uphill battle to create effective government interventions that might address inequality is that the rightists have done a brutally handsome job of convincing a huge majority of Americans, even my some of my most liberal friends, that "the Government" is so inept and corrupt and inefficient to do anything right. People often speak of different systems to cover for government's inequities, like nonsensical patchworks of private charities providing the needs of social interventions. We are so damned convinced that private runs better than public, that we don't realize that the engine of inequality is the outlandishly large piece of the pie that we allow our private sector to claim for itself. I mean, it is objectively bizarre and somewhat frightening that we have for-profit corporations running the majority of health care, to name one example. There have been some studies showing what government runs at least as efficiently as private companies, but Americans still seem unwilling to accept this evidence.
42
The message from Trump is simple: if you're not rich, crawl under some bridge and die. Only the 1% and the multinational corporations have any recognised status under the new fascist order. With the dawn of robotics and automation, there's nothing for the unskilled hands to do. So let them starve and die.
21
given a president and GOP Congress that can't be bothered to read their own nasty legislation
there's little in this piece that would change their miserable angry rich white men minds Unfortunately
it's time to throw the whole bunch of angry white men overboard no life preservers No worries for them they'll just call out the government tax funded Coast Guard to bail them out
there's little in this piece that would change their miserable angry rich white men minds Unfortunately
it's time to throw the whole bunch of angry white men overboard no life preservers No worries for them they'll just call out the government tax funded Coast Guard to bail them out
Whaaat? Rampant poverty after eight years of Barack Obama working hard for us every day? If he couldn't solve the problem then it's unfixable.
13
"He will reply 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"
-Matthew, 25:45
It's doubtful the ultra-religious Catholic Paul Ryan, pious evangelical Mike Pence and devout Jared Kushner (a slumlord) have ever read that one. God help them.
36
A very large, poor family with a dozen kids and two parents would receive SNAP benefits for the two parents and 4 of the kids.
NOTHING for the other 8 kids. The law does not provide a "safe harbor" for the parents to slaughter the 8 additional children feed the rest.
Why not? Republicans want parents to have the rights to raise their kids as they wish. Slaughtering a fat kid to feed several of the other kids should be okay by them. After all, unborn children have a right to leave the womb alive, but after that, "You're on your own".
NOTHING for the other 8 kids. The law does not provide a "safe harbor" for the parents to slaughter the 8 additional children feed the rest.
Why not? Republicans want parents to have the rights to raise their kids as they wish. Slaughtering a fat kid to feed several of the other kids should be okay by them. After all, unborn children have a right to leave the womb alive, but after that, "You're on your own".
22
Yes, like so many illnesses, taking prescription medication might bring some relief; but, it surely doesn't cure the ailment. If someone is the last hired, and the first fired, how are they going to get a leg-up? And working two minimum-wage jobs, doesn't allow the time for proper nurturing the children!
And Betsy DeVos, don't tell me about School Choice, which just institutionalizes more racism! Charter schools enable you to place your pre-schooled white children in decent environments, while underfunding my local public school. And, all that I need for vouchers to work for me is for someone to give me the extra $15-$20,000 per year--that's the difference between the voucher amount and what the private school charges. Oh, and that's per child!
But there's so, much, much more: non-existent bus service; soon-to-be-lost health care, a lack of supermarkets, drug gangs, prostitution, and a lack of decent-paying jobs...where I live. Now, tell me about YOURSELF?
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
And Betsy DeVos, don't tell me about School Choice, which just institutionalizes more racism! Charter schools enable you to place your pre-schooled white children in decent environments, while underfunding my local public school. And, all that I need for vouchers to work for me is for someone to give me the extra $15-$20,000 per year--that's the difference between the voucher amount and what the private school charges. Oh, and that's per child!
But there's so, much, much more: non-existent bus service; soon-to-be-lost health care, a lack of supermarkets, drug gangs, prostitution, and a lack of decent-paying jobs...where I live. Now, tell me about YOURSELF?
https://thetruthoncommonsense.com
4
Taking food from the mouths of Children. LITERALLY. They must be part of the Swamp, Right????
17
I am one of those lazy, good for nothing free-loaders stealing from the rich by being eligible for food stamps, not once, but twice! Helped get me through graduate school in the 1970's and later through the first Reagan depression. End result? Landed a gig in the Ivy Leagues, ultimately in 6-figures, allowing me to return my ill-gotten food stamp gain probably a 1000-fold via my income taxes. I doubt my story is unique. Vitality of the food stamp program is a measure of who we are as a nation, either caring, compassionate people who lend a hand or greedy self-centered candidates for the lower pits of Dante's hell. Together we stand, divided we fall, c'mon now people let's get on the ball.
169
Yes, some people turn down work because they might loose benefits. As a social worker, it is my experience people are most concerned about losing Medicaid coverage for themselves and their children. Often the coverage is needed to pay for care that would otherwise lead to disability. Most people want to work but the job has be available to them and balance other needs - near home or accessible by public transportation. Here in Phoenix a bus trip from an affordable apartment to a job center can take two hours. A day bus pass is $4, which isn't easy to keep in your pocket when you studio apartment cost 60% or more of you income.
30
Can we also get an article on how this tax bill affects Ag? Some of the subsidies paid to farmers help provide food aid to families. I haven't seen much information on this part of the tax cut bill. These cuts will certainly affect the corn belt. Many of these farmers are in red states that supported Trump.
My Congressman is one of the people who benefits from subsidies. He has been paid over five million dollars in subsidies since the 1990s. I wonder how many Congressmen are subsidized. I wonder if they realize how cutting food to needy families will cut payments to greedy politicians.
My Congressman is one of the people who benefits from subsidies. He has been paid over five million dollars in subsidies since the 1990s. I wonder how many Congressmen are subsidized. I wonder if they realize how cutting food to needy families will cut payments to greedy politicians.
13
Did you know that Wal-Mart these days are cutting work hours from its store staff?
So after the big brouhaha about raising hourly rates and providing more affordable health insurance plans, they are taking back any benefits from that.
They cannot successfully run stores with the diminished teams. It is apparent that the store managers are not reporting this to the executive teams (or maybe the executives don't care).
So after the big brouhaha about raising hourly rates and providing more affordable health insurance plans, they are taking back any benefits from that.
They cannot successfully run stores with the diminished teams. It is apparent that the store managers are not reporting this to the executive teams (or maybe the executives don't care).
10
The ultimate financial beneficiaries of food stamps are grocery stores (e.g. Walmart). They benefit from food stamp expenditures and the government support for their employees enable them to continue to pay poverty level wages.
17
We need a safety net. We need nourished and healthy people. Our competitive corporate society is top heavy and never has and never will create life sustaining jobs for all. Currently many are left out, unable to adequately feed themselves and their families. That is a cold hard fact that we have to face and admit. We can't simply cut programs like SNAP and WIC because they give the lie to our belief in an economic system that has never existed and never will. We need to stop lying to ourselves. We need to sustain and improve the safety net many rely on.
15
Foodstamps promote complacency and a measure of entitlement so one is not motivated to go out and earn a living. More "free" stuff from the government and more free time to protest in the streets. Welfare does NOT work.
The productivity of labor has more than trebled since the end of WWII. And we still have poverty over 50 years after LBJ's pledge to end it within a generation. What's up America?
9
One day, some enterprising law form will file a class action on behalf of all the poor people in our third-world South. States that fail to provide basic public services, adequate public schools, health care, jobs, and a standard of living that compares favorably with other states deny due process and equal protection to their citizens.
Why should people born in Mississippi or Alabama have a much lower standard of living than people born in Utah or Connecticut?
This rich nation cannot afford a federalism that permits states to impose Dickensian living conditions on its people.
Why should people born in Mississippi or Alabama have a much lower standard of living than people born in Utah or Connecticut?
This rich nation cannot afford a federalism that permits states to impose Dickensian living conditions on its people.
13
Republicans should be wary. Denying food to the poor may have unintended consequences. Many a revolution has been started over the uneven and unfair distribution of food.
11
Thank you for this piece. I found myself without a job after retina surgery in my early sixties. I received food stamps and provisions from food banks until I found employment and no longer needed assistance. Reversal of fortune can happen to anyone.
29
The problem is evil greedy Republicans, who now have had a taste of fascism, and love it. The Republicans, going forward, will use any means necessary to keep power. This is the end of our democracy, and ultimately our country.
11
We have people without the education and skills to work in high-tech.
At the same time, we import kids on H-1B visas from India and China.
There are Republicans who would rather pay for prison than preschool.
If they don't want to fix poverty because it is morally the right thing to do, then fix it because it is in their own long-term self-interest.
Get people educated and working and paying taxes instead of paying for welfare and prison.
At the same time, we import kids on H-1B visas from India and China.
There are Republicans who would rather pay for prison than preschool.
If they don't want to fix poverty because it is morally the right thing to do, then fix it because it is in their own long-term self-interest.
Get people educated and working and paying taxes instead of paying for welfare and prison.
Cutting SNAP so poor people can't buy food?? Shame on Trump, shame on the GOP and shame on America.
20
Why has no one pointed out that the US wouldn't be in this high poverty rate situation in the first place if entire industries hadn't been offshored, while at the same time the immigration rate has soared and automation has increased? Why don't people connect the very obvious dots?
15
This is what happens when those running the country consider themselves Masters of the Universe and superior human beings. Empathy and compassion are nonexistent. But the rich who donate to their campaigns are only interested in profitable returns, and choose candidates accordingly. It's like buying a stock to them; forget about the impact of society when the gangsters are put in office.
13
Lessee, Melania Trump just was on the runway wearing a $51,000 jacket and her husband recommends a budget to cut off food stamps to the hungry? I don't understand why the streets are not filled daily with demonstrations over the greed/profit at any cost policies that seems to continue to get worse each minute.
25
Haven't we had enough of fighting the ' war for rich people ' over the last thirty-five years?
After all a rich person can never get enough.
After all a rich person can never get enough.
10
But, gosh, Ben Carson says poverty is "only a state of mind."
Liberals have been trying this same misleading argument since LBJ signed the Food Stamp Act as part of his Great Society programs in 1964. But Johnson said such benefits were intended to be a "hand up not a hand out". Instead, for over 40 million people, it's simply a way of life. And a lot of Americans are simply getting tired of this.
The NYT wants to minimize the program as "$1.40 per person per meal" ... but a single mother earning min wage qualifies for $5,000 per year in benefits - over 1/3 of her income. And if she gets married or increases her income, she loses all of it. Do you really think this has no impact on people's decision making ?
The article mentions that Trump would tighten the regulations. But it fails to mention that Obama significantly loosened requirements - resulting in a 10 million increase to the rolls. And why does the article suggest that states "could not afford to make the payment" when states and the federal government obtain revenue from the same source - the tax payer. The 10th amendment to the Constitution says that these should be state decisions.
Bottom line - people certainly have no choice as to whether they are born poor. But when 95% of the poor are unmarried and 23.5 million Americans didn't even finish high school, can you really say that poverty is not the result of bad decisions ? To help them, shouldn't we encourage better choices ?
The NYT wants to minimize the program as "$1.40 per person per meal" ... but a single mother earning min wage qualifies for $5,000 per year in benefits - over 1/3 of her income. And if she gets married or increases her income, she loses all of it. Do you really think this has no impact on people's decision making ?
The article mentions that Trump would tighten the regulations. But it fails to mention that Obama significantly loosened requirements - resulting in a 10 million increase to the rolls. And why does the article suggest that states "could not afford to make the payment" when states and the federal government obtain revenue from the same source - the tax payer. The 10th amendment to the Constitution says that these should be state decisions.
Bottom line - people certainly have no choice as to whether they are born poor. But when 95% of the poor are unmarried and 23.5 million Americans didn't even finish high school, can you really say that poverty is not the result of bad decisions ? To help them, shouldn't we encourage better choices ?
20
Eating is not a luxury!
86
For a group of "hungry" people, the American poor sure are fat.
9
Forget the alt right, they're kooks who are distracting us from the far more dangerous elements in the useful idiot's cabinet and staff and in Congress. The real thugs, Ryan, Mulvaney, Price, et al, function under the dystopic, Randian vision of zero sum society (laissez-faire) where everyone will have "access" (Price) to healthcare and the "deserving" (Mulvaney's non-moochers) won't be purged from the foodstamp rolls. "Coffee is for closers".
6
The ugliness, meanness, and gleeful spite of this administration is vile.
8
How can America continue to support such an inane and cruel administration? More to the point, how can they continue to tolerate a fascist GOP hellbent on driving us into an autocracy?
7
We all know how the party of Cruelty, Brutality, and Bigotry actually feel about all those folks on food stamps. It is their fault. Somehow. Be they the 47% or just plain moochers. Ask any of them
Never mind that the policys of the Grand Old Pirates are directly responsible for the cheapening of America and the 1%;s lust for more and more wealth at the expense of everyone else.
Greed is their creed. Selfishness the goal. It is long past time to give the suckers the old Heave Ho.
Never mind that the policys of the Grand Old Pirates are directly responsible for the cheapening of America and the 1%;s lust for more and more wealth at the expense of everyone else.
Greed is their creed. Selfishness the goal. It is long past time to give the suckers the old Heave Ho.
8
same every where. In good ole bc welfare not increased in TEN YEARS. 10% of our housing is vacant held as investment by illegal Chinese money...they are only supposed to take 50 thousand us out of china per year. We have record homeless..insane politicians in bed with developers and foreign money. We have a new govt.after election but not stable.
minority govt. Very scarey. Even if you own a house one cannot.sell because there is nowhere to buy. They market new condos overseas to the chinese..just like the kushers!
minority govt. Very scarey. Even if you own a house one cannot.sell because there is nowhere to buy. They market new condos overseas to the chinese..just like the kushers!
9
The thought of this proposal ruined my evening. It made me cry. Never in my many decades have I witnessed an administration and a Congress willing to stoop to this new low -- to deprive citizens of a meager food allowance. Add to that their endeavors to take Medicaid and medical insurance premium subsidies away from millions.
Our elected officials are nothing more than pigs at the trough hell bent on trading lower taxes for campaign contributions. Paul Ryan, et al, are no better than the war lords in destitute countries that intercept humanitarian aid and keep it for themselves. These politicians at both the federal and state level are evil people.
Our elected officials are nothing more than pigs at the trough hell bent on trading lower taxes for campaign contributions. Paul Ryan, et al, are no better than the war lords in destitute countries that intercept humanitarian aid and keep it for themselves. These politicians at both the federal and state level are evil people.
15
The Republican conservative work "ethic" that deems only employed workers should have healthcare or food is the most deplorable reasoning they have embraced. Many, too many, black men or Mexicans are thought to be an inferior species by white bigots. Thus if they are hired at all it is for a starving wage at menial tasks for stupid people. But these groups and immigrants too are not stupid despite the fact that they are forced to attend inferior schools.
All human beings come from the same Homo Sapien
stock. So if you won't hire people because of their skin color or language then it is your moral obligation to Feed them and give them a leg up. Poverty in this country is appalling and is the result not of lazy workers, but of discrimination. Every real follower of Christianity should know that. If they don't then they are "fake" Christians!
All human beings come from the same Homo Sapien
stock. So if you won't hire people because of their skin color or language then it is your moral obligation to Feed them and give them a leg up. Poverty in this country is appalling and is the result not of lazy workers, but of discrimination. Every real follower of Christianity should know that. If they don't then they are "fake" Christians!
5
The Editorial Board has made it clear that it is not satisfied with only 12 million illiterate, illegal alien manual laborers in our country, and they would like to see that number double or triple. The dullest Economics student will tell you that uncontrolled entry of labor to any sector will lower wages -- a fact that always seems to escape the editors. I suppose it is yet another example of ignoring inconvenient facts that challenge your Weltanschauung.
Food stamps are not the problem. Our problem is that we demonized the poor. We caricatured the food stamp recipient into a lazy, undeserving, sexually irresponsible Black person meanwhile everyone knows White people in Red states receive the majority of food stamps.
124
My problem with liberals is this: they tend to think more funding is always the solution. Put aside where the money should come from (and I know well what liberals will say), I found they are quite intellectually unsophisticated. Based on many reports by NYT, this country wastes so much food everyday. Hello, less wealthy families need more food and the society as a whole throw away food. Did you not see the obvious solution?! Of course liability is a huge issue but it really raises a serious issue about the society. Senseless lawsuits and regulations do creat job but they make productivity much less and they generate wastes. This is not sustainable!!!!
Please read more NYT. There are many more solutions than the simplistic more funding solution. In fact, it is quite exciting to read, think and speak/share. If nothing else, it is a good intellectual excersize.
Please read more NYT. There are many more solutions than the simplistic more funding solution. In fact, it is quite exciting to read, think and speak/share. If nothing else, it is a good intellectual excersize.
9
The problen is unskilled, barely employable people pumping out kids by the millions each year. For the rest of us to support.
On an overpopulated planet with not enough jobs, food and clean water for all, the time is past when procreation is a "right" and a "personal choice."
On an overpopulated planet with not enough jobs, food and clean water for all, the time is past when procreation is a "right" and a "personal choice."
Mulvaney wants us to consider the tax payer instead of the takers. Well, I don't buy it!!! This is just another scheme to put more money in the pockets of the wealthy. Cutting SNAP won't do ANYTHING for the average tax payer under this plan.
Besides, if they really want to "consider: the tax payer, they wouldn't let companies like Walmart and the other welfare businesses to burden tax payers by not paying their workers a living wage! I don't know how these people -Trump & his staff of wealthy elites - can look at themselves in the mirror! These are swamp people to be sure.
Besides, if they really want to "consider: the tax payer, they wouldn't let companies like Walmart and the other welfare businesses to burden tax payers by not paying their workers a living wage! I don't know how these people -Trump & his staff of wealthy elites - can look at themselves in the mirror! These are swamp people to be sure.
13
12% of the population would go hungry without food stamps. About 2 million of the 43 million scam the program. So let's "stamp out fraud and abuse" by depriving the 41 million of the food they need to go to work everyday.
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables becomes less and less fictional every day in the good ole US of A. We are fast becoming a Dickensian dystopia that Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim and Jean Valjean would immediately recognize as a modern day equivalent of their own miserable poverty and dejection.
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables becomes less and less fictional every day in the good ole US of A. We are fast becoming a Dickensian dystopia that Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim and Jean Valjean would immediately recognize as a modern day equivalent of their own miserable poverty and dejection.
17
This isn't about saving money. It's about feeling superior because you have more. Think that's crazy? How many scoops of ice-cream did you get?
16
Just in case anyone in the Rust Belt still thought the Repubs were on your side...they're not.
17
It is a false statement that ineligible recipients are rare or that incorrect payments are few. Only someone completely ignorant of reality would make that assertion.
14
If they cannot afford bread ,"let them eat cake"!
6
The problem isn't poverty. The problem is mushy-minded Liberals who think they can design a world where the normal extremes of human existence, extremes which are reflected in every aspect of humans, can be eliminated.
Superb editorial. Now, as a confirmed atheist (but not a hostile one) I wish to address Trump's ardent supporters in the fundamentalist Christian fundamentalist communities with this same issue, after all, you are fellow citizens so your input matters. Consider the scripture that you quote endlessly from Matthew 25:37:
"Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
That last thing I or the NY Times wants around here is a theological argument, and I will not go there. But the above scripture seems to me at profound ethical. As an atheist, I easily buy into this as a working philosophy for a secular public policy.
So, my question to you Christian fundamentalists is this: if I can subscribe to this philosophy, why can't you?
"Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
That last thing I or the NY Times wants around here is a theological argument, and I will not go there. But the above scripture seems to me at profound ethical. As an atheist, I easily buy into this as a working philosophy for a secular public policy.
So, my question to you Christian fundamentalists is this: if I can subscribe to this philosophy, why can't you?
CCC CAMPS to teach skills and provide money to be sent home .... just like in the old days. Plumbing, electrical and carpentry are great skills to learn ...
8
5
A Trump supporter told me once that 40% of people were on food stamps. While I thought that was likely a Hannity or Fox moment, but I had to look it up. It is around 40 million, which is 11%. Maybe math wiz Mulvaney got his numbers wrong!
7
Another NYT original, repeated over and over again. The problem is the greedy, old white men running businesses making greedy profits and scr3wing everyone over. More simplistic reasoning from simpletons.
But it is interesting that they gave Obama a hall pass on this earnings thing but blamed everyone else. Now they are blaming Trump for something he has no control over, just like any other President. Guess they are racists since Trump is white and Obama was not.
The reality is the vast majority of new jobs in the last couple of decades have been in service or retail. Two industries with notably low profit margins and, therefore, low wages. Profit margins are in the single digits, often under 5%. Grocery stores is a whopping 1%. Food service is maybe 3%. So raising wages will directly raise prices. Which defeats the purpose since those who had their wages raised will now pay higher prices.
But it is interesting that they gave Obama a hall pass on this earnings thing but blamed everyone else. Now they are blaming Trump for something he has no control over, just like any other President. Guess they are racists since Trump is white and Obama was not.
The reality is the vast majority of new jobs in the last couple of decades have been in service or retail. Two industries with notably low profit margins and, therefore, low wages. Profit margins are in the single digits, often under 5%. Grocery stores is a whopping 1%. Food service is maybe 3%. So raising wages will directly raise prices. Which defeats the purpose since those who had their wages raised will now pay higher prices.
I think Trump's policy is onto something...it'd work better if the food stamp money for single- parent households and the elderly were kept in place, added to their welfare or social security income...single adults shouldn't get any of it, unless they re certifiably disabled--and I don't mean dope addicts, disabled because of their craving for a fix. Those people should get nothing. Othrwise, cut down on some of that gourmet fine dining money extended to the elected officials--they should buy their own food...I've got to eat, too....
5
Are there no prisons?
Are there no workhouses?
Are there no workhouses?
The problem isn't even poverty---it's greed. Greed founded this country and is responsible for Native American genocide and slavery. Nothing has changed. Greed is just now more discreet.
7
You are right. Food Stamps are a symptom, not a disease.
You never cure an underlying disease by masking a symptom, in fact, doing so may make everyone feel so much better that the real cause of the symptom is ignored, real treatment is not sought, until the disease has gone too far to be cured.
Sometimes the pain must be felt, and reported on a scale of 1 to 10, for the disease to be accurately diagnosed and treated, and the success or failure of various treatments assessed.
Many conditions cannot be cured with money, but poverty can. If the country had enough money - and it does, but priorities lie elsewhere. We could hand everyone enough money so that we could wipe out poverty overnight. Stupid, huh.
But the give a man a fish, teach him to fish axiom holds true. The problem is it takes money to teach him to fish and this society seems hell bent on not spending the money needed to teach those millions in poverty how to fish in this technological society, and still keeps complaining about the cost of handing out fish. And they pollute the water where the fish live, to boot.
What's a poor, potential fisherman to do?
You never cure an underlying disease by masking a symptom, in fact, doing so may make everyone feel so much better that the real cause of the symptom is ignored, real treatment is not sought, until the disease has gone too far to be cured.
Sometimes the pain must be felt, and reported on a scale of 1 to 10, for the disease to be accurately diagnosed and treated, and the success or failure of various treatments assessed.
Many conditions cannot be cured with money, but poverty can. If the country had enough money - and it does, but priorities lie elsewhere. We could hand everyone enough money so that we could wipe out poverty overnight. Stupid, huh.
But the give a man a fish, teach him to fish axiom holds true. The problem is it takes money to teach him to fish and this society seems hell bent on not spending the money needed to teach those millions in poverty how to fish in this technological society, and still keeps complaining about the cost of handing out fish. And they pollute the water where the fish live, to boot.
What's a poor, potential fisherman to do?
3
Why did the editors spend the majority of this article whining about cuts to food stamps? Do they not believe their own headline? This economy is a game of musical chairs. With each passing year, more is automated and there are fewer jobs, especially jobs at a living wage. Is it the fault of existing people that fewer people can get jobs when there just are fewer jobs? The paradigm is shifting, and no one is watching where we are going to land. Self driving trucks == food riots, folks, and they are coming, make no mistake.
11
Princess Ivanka says it's OK to let them eat cake.
7
A few questions....
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters use food stamps to feed their families?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters obtain healthcare through the ACA?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters utilize SS disability payments as their income?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters obtain health care through Medicare?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters work more than 1 job at minimum wages?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters vote against their best interests, over and over again?
What will it take to educate these millions of Trump / GOP voters to these FACTS?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters use food stamps to feed their families?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters obtain healthcare through the ACA?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters utilize SS disability payments as their income?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters obtain health care through Medicare?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters work more than 1 job at minimum wages?
How many millions of Trump / GOP voters vote against their best interests, over and over again?
What will it take to educate these millions of Trump / GOP voters to these FACTS?
8
At the Democratic Convention in 2016, "Gold Star" father Khizr Khan asked Donald Trump how well he knew the U.S. Constitution and offered to lend him his well-worn copy. I only wish the Pope had asked billionaire Donald Trump how well he knew "the Beatitudes" and offered to give him a copy.
8
until recently Germany had no minimum wage. that country is doing better than the US. one reason is that unlike the US their educational system and employment system is geared towards creating skilled workers.
16
It's a simple question, really....
Does this nation have a soul?
Does this nation have a soul?
83
I have heard professional politicians at all levels complain about food stamps for decades. They always - and I mean always - refer to food assistance as some kind of cudgel used to beat poor people up, a term never used with the understanding that they allow people to eat. No. The term "food stamps" is always used by politicians with scorn and ridicule.
I was on food assistance for two years. I was employed full-time at a salary that did not provide enough for my family of three. I would love to see a politician who has a vote on saving, increasing, or eliminating food stamps live on them for two years.
Then vote.
I was on food assistance for two years. I was employed full-time at a salary that did not provide enough for my family of three. I would love to see a politician who has a vote on saving, increasing, or eliminating food stamps live on them for two years.
Then vote.
13
Sometimes the responses to a NYT editorial and/or op-ed are better than the original. I don’t think it’s common knowledge that Wal-Mart employees are given information on how to apply for food stamps as reported by Ms. McM or that resource disparity is a basis for food stamp needs as reported by Prof. Sharma.
I live in what sociologists call a “food desert,” meaning the absence of stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. I have access to such through FedEx ad UPS—like a Berlin airlift.
I was walking through the neighborhood one morning and saw a fresh potato in the grass near the sidewalk. It was still there later in the afternoon. The next morning on my walk, it was gone.
I accompanied my niece to a suburban Whole Foods Store and I actually took a picture of what seemed like acres of fresh fruits and vegetables. There weren’t enough people in the store to buy all of that food. I asked one of the check-out people “where does the excess food go.” He said that they donate it to the food kitchens serving inner-city poor.
I went to a Catholic church that provides bags of food for the poor but there was nothing like even a wilted version of the fresh produce I saw at Whole Foods.
I think someone who wanted to believe in the goodness of the store’s owners lied to me and that the extra food was destroyed.
Somewhere between the three of us, Ms.McM and Prof Sharma lies the truth about America.
I live in what sociologists call a “food desert,” meaning the absence of stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. I have access to such through FedEx ad UPS—like a Berlin airlift.
I was walking through the neighborhood one morning and saw a fresh potato in the grass near the sidewalk. It was still there later in the afternoon. The next morning on my walk, it was gone.
I accompanied my niece to a suburban Whole Foods Store and I actually took a picture of what seemed like acres of fresh fruits and vegetables. There weren’t enough people in the store to buy all of that food. I asked one of the check-out people “where does the excess food go.” He said that they donate it to the food kitchens serving inner-city poor.
I went to a Catholic church that provides bags of food for the poor but there was nothing like even a wilted version of the fresh produce I saw at Whole Foods.
I think someone who wanted to believe in the goodness of the store’s owners lied to me and that the extra food was destroyed.
Somewhere between the three of us, Ms.McM and Prof Sharma lies the truth about America.
4
It's time to publish the names of the companies whose employees must rely on food stamps. And, maybe publish the salaries of the respective CEOs.
12
America, the promised, the land of milk and honey, yet the following is true -
"As of January 2016, 94 million Americans weren’t participating in the labor force. “But the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been hovering around 46 million participants since 2011. The current figure, as of February 2016, stands at 45.8 million Americans receiving food stamps,”
"According to Bloomberg Business, the last time the unemployment rate was under five percent, which was in 2008, 28 million Americans were on food stamps. That means roughly 19 million more people are using food stamps since 2008."
Why, please tell me why I don't see these stats in this report, or is that a question one is not supposed to ask, lest it weaken the "all is rosy" in Paradise narrative.
Let's get real in this lost nation whose rulers have chartered a course to economic slavery and penury for the poor and the middle-class, gathering with ever-increasing speed the wealth of our nation into their secure storehouses, never to be shared with the serfs they stole it from.
All of you authoritarians, corporatists, and enablers, who have brought us to our knees, should know that the day of reckoning is coming, and when it arrives, secure compounds will be the least secure places on the planet.
In fact, when the pitchforks and torches appear in the night, the reflection of the torchlight, off the newly sharpened tines will be the indicator of the rage about to be meted out.
"As of January 2016, 94 million Americans weren’t participating in the labor force. “But the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been hovering around 46 million participants since 2011. The current figure, as of February 2016, stands at 45.8 million Americans receiving food stamps,”
"According to Bloomberg Business, the last time the unemployment rate was under five percent, which was in 2008, 28 million Americans were on food stamps. That means roughly 19 million more people are using food stamps since 2008."
Why, please tell me why I don't see these stats in this report, or is that a question one is not supposed to ask, lest it weaken the "all is rosy" in Paradise narrative.
Let's get real in this lost nation whose rulers have chartered a course to economic slavery and penury for the poor and the middle-class, gathering with ever-increasing speed the wealth of our nation into their secure storehouses, never to be shared with the serfs they stole it from.
All of you authoritarians, corporatists, and enablers, who have brought us to our knees, should know that the day of reckoning is coming, and when it arrives, secure compounds will be the least secure places on the planet.
In fact, when the pitchforks and torches appear in the night, the reflection of the torchlight, off the newly sharpened tines will be the indicator of the rage about to be meted out.
12
Raising the minimum wage is the only economic solution "progressives" have, and it just wouldn't work to even reduce poverty. Centralized economic and political power also doesn't work, one need only look to Venezuela to verify that fact.
Trump and the republicans have solutions that would work, remove the draconian regulations meant to exert central control from Washington. Reduce taxes and let that money flow into the economy instead of the wasteful black hole of Washington. Allow the $trillions held overseas to be repatriated without penalty.
Trump and the republicans have solutions that would work, remove the draconian regulations meant to exert central control from Washington. Reduce taxes and let that money flow into the economy instead of the wasteful black hole of Washington. Allow the $trillions held overseas to be repatriated without penalty.
5
The contempt of the wealthy for others not of their class is bottomless. The arrogance is astronomical. It is not just party, although one party has clearly been captured the anarchist wing of the ALEC/Cato/Heritage patrons. It is wealth itself. It confers power and privilege that make the owners of wealth above the law. They are. We deny it, but that doesn't change the truth. Now, they are not only personally above the law, they make the laws.
Okay, the wannabes, the mere millionaires, are going to scream. They think they are the wealthy, the same way most of us think the GOP is talking about us when they say "taxpayers". I have a tiny test for all of you. Would your lifestyle change in any way if you suddenly lost your job? If you depend on employment of any kind and to any extent to maintain your lifestyle, you are a member of the proletariat. Your survival is linked to our survival as a whole.
Time to get the big picture, folks. We can have billionaires or democracy. Which do you choose?
Okay, the wannabes, the mere millionaires, are going to scream. They think they are the wealthy, the same way most of us think the GOP is talking about us when they say "taxpayers". I have a tiny test for all of you. Would your lifestyle change in any way if you suddenly lost your job? If you depend on employment of any kind and to any extent to maintain your lifestyle, you are a member of the proletariat. Your survival is linked to our survival as a whole.
Time to get the big picture, folks. We can have billionaires or democracy. Which do you choose?
Yes the most pervasive problem in this world is poverty.
Not Global Warming, yet that too we must fix? Or how about radical terrorism? The images are hard to look at.
Instead we should enable our own, but it's a good thing right? That money we borrow is spent immediately, on what?
Fast food? Corn syrup, it's everywhere. How about cigarettes, or lottery tickets?
Not Global Warming, yet that too we must fix? Or how about radical terrorism? The images are hard to look at.
Instead we should enable our own, but it's a good thing right? That money we borrow is spent immediately, on what?
Fast food? Corn syrup, it's everywhere. How about cigarettes, or lottery tickets?
1
Raise the minimum wage. That should help a little.
1
"The Problem Isn’t Food Stamps, It’s Poverty"
Sorry NYT but the problem is lack of jobs and inaccessibility to education. The problem is trade policy that de-industrialized America and the destruction of the livelihoods that allowed people to move into the middle class. The problems are drug abuse, gangs, and a sieve like border that allowed more than 11 million illegal immigrants to walk into the U.S. making demands for rights and jobs that should come only to legal immigrants and citizens.
The problems are globalization at the expense of workers and the dismantling of unions. The problem is a Democratic party that sought only to keep itself in power at the expense of working Americans.
So, yes, the problem isn't food stamps. The problem is the impoverishment of American citizens and the tone deaf Democratic party that still doesn't get it. Why did it take Bernie Sanders to point out the truth about disastrous Democratic free trade policies are stripping jobs and industry from America for the last 30 years? Why did Democrats when in power never talk about free college education so that everyone could have access to a chance for a better job and a better life? Why did Democrats fail to stop the flood of jobs that rushed overseas as our own workers and our own middle class was literally dissolved?
The problem isn't food stamps its blind, tone-deaf and arrogant Democrats who have impoverished Americans. Create "fair trade" and more jobs and watch poverty and hunger diminish.
Sorry NYT but the problem is lack of jobs and inaccessibility to education. The problem is trade policy that de-industrialized America and the destruction of the livelihoods that allowed people to move into the middle class. The problems are drug abuse, gangs, and a sieve like border that allowed more than 11 million illegal immigrants to walk into the U.S. making demands for rights and jobs that should come only to legal immigrants and citizens.
The problems are globalization at the expense of workers and the dismantling of unions. The problem is a Democratic party that sought only to keep itself in power at the expense of working Americans.
So, yes, the problem isn't food stamps. The problem is the impoverishment of American citizens and the tone deaf Democratic party that still doesn't get it. Why did it take Bernie Sanders to point out the truth about disastrous Democratic free trade policies are stripping jobs and industry from America for the last 30 years? Why did Democrats when in power never talk about free college education so that everyone could have access to a chance for a better job and a better life? Why did Democrats fail to stop the flood of jobs that rushed overseas as our own workers and our own middle class was literally dissolved?
The problem isn't food stamps its blind, tone-deaf and arrogant Democrats who have impoverished Americans. Create "fair trade" and more jobs and watch poverty and hunger diminish.
7
"So the problem is not the number of people on food stamps; it’s that companies pay wages so low that their employees qualify for them."
If you accept this premise then you've also got to clearly address this Right Wing argument heard on Talk Radio from coast to coast:
Reducing the supply of low-skilled labor is the only effective way to increase its wages.
Subsidies, e.g., food-stamps) to the poor perversely hurts the poor as they indirectly subsidize their employers (see Walmart).
Changing laws to make the US less attractive to immigrants who don't have skills/education, punishing those already here illegally, and punishing the purchasers of "illegal" labor (e.g., the liberal readers of The New York Times who hire housekeepers) will increase wages.
If you accept this premise then you've also got to clearly address this Right Wing argument heard on Talk Radio from coast to coast:
Reducing the supply of low-skilled labor is the only effective way to increase its wages.
Subsidies, e.g., food-stamps) to the poor perversely hurts the poor as they indirectly subsidize their employers (see Walmart).
Changing laws to make the US less attractive to immigrants who don't have skills/education, punishing those already here illegally, and punishing the purchasers of "illegal" labor (e.g., the liberal readers of The New York Times who hire housekeepers) will increase wages.
9
Amen. Low wage employers are shifting costs to taxpaye.
6
It is breathtaking that the same budget that would cap SNAP at 6 household members would cut family planning services. Whaduh?
11
Unfortunately, our country is so taken up by the Russia nonsense that we can't even begin to have discussions about alleviating poverty. If you ask Paul Ryan, he'll tell you these people bring it on themselves.
2
One way to lessen poverty could start with Walmart changing their business model to raise wages and create 40 hour work weeks so their employees didn't have to work AND utilize the food stamp program in order to survive. Make America Great Again should start with billionaires giving back to society or at least paying their fair tax share; then perhaps there would be far fewer folks on food stamps.
I blame all corporations and specifically Walmart as the largest employer in the USA who refuse to offer a $15 minimum wage and a 40 hour work week to their employees. I cannot believe that S. Robson, Jim and Alice Walton with their aggregate wealth of 102 billion dollars, according to Forbes 2017 list, need all that money. Offer some of it back to your employees rather than supporting a president that wants to drastically cut back a large portion of food stamp program because of some foolish notion that it discourages work. That’s just plain horse pucky.
I blame all corporations and specifically Walmart as the largest employer in the USA who refuse to offer a $15 minimum wage and a 40 hour work week to their employees. I cannot believe that S. Robson, Jim and Alice Walton with their aggregate wealth of 102 billion dollars, according to Forbes 2017 list, need all that money. Offer some of it back to your employees rather than supporting a president that wants to drastically cut back a large portion of food stamp program because of some foolish notion that it discourages work. That’s just plain horse pucky.
6
Way to go, Trump. America, once a first-world nation, now practically a second-world nation, soon to be a third-world nation for many of America's citizens.
6
Now that Obama is not president it is apparently okay to admit job growth was abysmal under his leadership. If 40% of people cannot feed themselves and our leader is claiming he has done a good job and needs to do no more to increase employment, but needs instead to give away more money, we have a failure. Keep voting based on transgender and gay issues and this is what you'll get. Time to bring sanity back to the Democratic Party.
All the millions unnecessarily spent on security for Trump's well-fed family would go a long way toward helping to feed hungry families in poverty. So how about instead of cutting food stamps, the POTUS stays in DC most weekends, sweetly persuades the FLOTUS to live with him there, and ethically delegates people other than his sons to travel the world conducting Trump business?
7
Melania wore a $51,000 jacket to meet with the Pope and her husband wants to take food out of the mouths of exploited, underpaid workers. I wish there was a word bigger than disgusted, because that's how I feel.
Allowing Americans to starve, especially children and the elderly, is unpatriotic and completely against what our founding fathers had intended.
Allowing Americans to starve, especially children and the elderly, is unpatriotic and completely against what our founding fathers had intended.
10
People need to understand this simple concept, Republicans really, really hate the poor. They have no soul, they are a hard, cold, unfeeling group of people.
Too many potential workers equals low wage prospects. Why does the NYT grasp this simple economic fact?
The true rate of inflation is hidden in a deceptive formula to prevent cost of living raises, and measures none of the required basics like car insurance and rent. That's the other fact
The true rate of inflation is hidden in a deceptive formula to prevent cost of living raises, and measures none of the required basics like car insurance and rent. That's the other fact
7
Most of the people who benefit from food stamps are children. So we take food from them to build unnecessary aircraft carriers. I can't even believe this is happening in America.
7
Basically this means that companies whose employees rely on food stamps are themselves being subsidized by government. These companies are corporate welfare bums.
I am not sure that I want Americans to starve for being poor, or scrounge dumpsters, or die of premature aging, ie outliving your money.
I offer, that under the Obama years, the number/ eligibility of such enrollees increased very much, creating, and intentionally, a dependent/ beneficiary political class, to perpetuate the remainder of the Dem agenda, by tax-paid purchase of votes. Nothing too new about that, buying votes with taxpayer money, to be sure.
=
NYT might provide some numbers, of increased enrollees, and also the eligibility for such benefits, changed over eight Obama years, and how we did/ did not have mass starvation pre Obama.
I dis-prefer case study horror stories, we have as many horror shows of profiteering/ monetizing these benefits, as we have of the horrors of their absence.
=
I am somewhat also opposed to normalization, preferring visible usage; and the optics at super market check out time, of 'them,' eating better than 'us' -
goes a long way, and our expense.
And yes I am not eligible for such supports. very; maybe when the wheel turns my views will turn.
I offer, that under the Obama years, the number/ eligibility of such enrollees increased very much, creating, and intentionally, a dependent/ beneficiary political class, to perpetuate the remainder of the Dem agenda, by tax-paid purchase of votes. Nothing too new about that, buying votes with taxpayer money, to be sure.
=
NYT might provide some numbers, of increased enrollees, and also the eligibility for such benefits, changed over eight Obama years, and how we did/ did not have mass starvation pre Obama.
I dis-prefer case study horror stories, we have as many horror shows of profiteering/ monetizing these benefits, as we have of the horrors of their absence.
=
I am somewhat also opposed to normalization, preferring visible usage; and the optics at super market check out time, of 'them,' eating better than 'us' -
goes a long way, and our expense.
And yes I am not eligible for such supports. very; maybe when the wheel turns my views will turn.
3
If people can't eat, will they turn to crime?
3
NOTHING TRUMP PROPOSES
will happen, so calm down.
will happen, so calm down.
1
I guess the Republicans must believe that all of these people on Food Stamps "Aspires to Poverty"
2
According to the Trump administration (Mulvaney) logic, taking food stamps away will force these lazy people to get up and go out and get jobs. GOP legislators (Ryan) claim that giving people jobs rather than food stamps is their very noble goal. The sad truth is this -- they are completely out of touch with the working poor. (See today's NYT photo of Sen Paul Ryan strolling across the White House lawn with his golf clubs for proof.) News flash, many people on food stamps have jobs, but jobs that do not pay enough to feed themselves and their children. Get a grip, open your eyes. If the GOP passed a living wage requirement ($15/hr.) many, many people would come off food stamps, Section 8, Medicaid, etc.
A living wage must come first, not just empty promises of jobs, jobs, jobs coupled with cruel cuts that will leave children and the poorest among us going hungry.
A living wage must come first, not just empty promises of jobs, jobs, jobs coupled with cruel cuts that will leave children and the poorest among us going hungry.
5
The "War on Poverty" must continue to be fought to ensure the long term viability of our US democracy. Engaged and educated citizens are required in a functional democracy.
It's difficult to be engaged and educated when you are hungry. The SNAP program is one program that addresses one need of our fellow Americans. The challenges facing the poor and lower middle income earners are complex and multidimensional. And, they're growing.
The rising Gini coefficient, the most commonly used measure for income inequality, suggests more stresses and strains on households in the future. New technologies along with increased global competition have pressured low skilled wages, and put a premium on high skilled jobs which require at a minimum, a 4 year college degree. Watch Stanford's class on poverty (it's free) to gain an understanding of socioeconomic and societal trends in the US :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaHjl1KUjyI&list=PLZapTuSHtu-CeejcJG...
In the face of these challenging trends, Americans need to ask ourselves:
- Do we want future generations to have more opportunities or less?
- Do we want to have our children's future destiny determined by their origin?
- Do we want the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer?
- Do we want to support programs like SNAP and Pell Grants and Medicare/Medicaid and others that can help people improve their lives?
- Do we want the US to be a land of opportunity for all or for a few?
It's difficult to be engaged and educated when you are hungry. The SNAP program is one program that addresses one need of our fellow Americans. The challenges facing the poor and lower middle income earners are complex and multidimensional. And, they're growing.
The rising Gini coefficient, the most commonly used measure for income inequality, suggests more stresses and strains on households in the future. New technologies along with increased global competition have pressured low skilled wages, and put a premium on high skilled jobs which require at a minimum, a 4 year college degree. Watch Stanford's class on poverty (it's free) to gain an understanding of socioeconomic and societal trends in the US :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaHjl1KUjyI&list=PLZapTuSHtu-CeejcJG...
In the face of these challenging trends, Americans need to ask ourselves:
- Do we want future generations to have more opportunities or less?
- Do we want to have our children's future destiny determined by their origin?
- Do we want the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer?
- Do we want to support programs like SNAP and Pell Grants and Medicare/Medicaid and others that can help people improve their lives?
- Do we want the US to be a land of opportunity for all or for a few?
6
The Republicans are not interested in helping the poor or solving the causes of poverty. The Republicans represent business and corporate interests. Those interests make more money when they pay people less. Connect those dots and we can clearly see why Republicans favor a low-wage, high unemployment, no health insurance society. That's why they oppose raising the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, government health care, and civil servants (too much competition with corporate employers).
I implore my fellow citizens: vote your pocket book. If you are not a millionaire or better, the Republican Party will NEVER represent you. Don't get suckered by the wedge issues. The Second Amendment will protect your right to own a gun (no one will confiscate your guns). The Freedom of Religion allows you to worship, or not, as you please. And if you think Republicans will outlaw abortion, you're fooling yourself: they would the zealots of their base. It's the wedge issue that they need the most. So don't get fooled. The Republicans use these wedge issues to get votes because their economic policies hurt middle class (what's left of it) and poor Americans.
I implore my fellow citizens: vote your pocket book. If you are not a millionaire or better, the Republican Party will NEVER represent you. Don't get suckered by the wedge issues. The Second Amendment will protect your right to own a gun (no one will confiscate your guns). The Freedom of Religion allows you to worship, or not, as you please. And if you think Republicans will outlaw abortion, you're fooling yourself: they would the zealots of their base. It's the wedge issue that they need the most. So don't get fooled. The Republicans use these wedge issues to get votes because their economic policies hurt middle class (what's left of it) and poor Americans.
14
100% agree. It's hard to change this dialogue however if people still believe (which they do in great numbers) that poverty is a mindset or the fault of the poor for their bad choices in life and a 'lifestyle' of choice. It's pretty hypocritical to want to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and yet support federal subsidies to farmers that artificially lowers food prices. Somehow one is perceived as a 'handout' while the other is not.
5
America's biggest unexploited resource is it's poor who are deprived to an extent that they are never able to develop and contribute to the US economy to their full potential. The smartest investment the US government could make to benefit the common good would be money spent to directly benefit these people, with food stamps, health care, education, whatever it takes to raise their living standard and opportunities to a level that will allow them to move forward. The notion that reducing taxes on the wealthy is a way to realize this potential is a disingenuous lie.
8
"A Democratic appeal could be made to not destroy the system, but to weed out these gamers, so that food stamps are serving the truly needy. "
Gaming the system is now an American Past Time.
how else do peoples survive in high tax states like NY or NJ? working off the books and collecting benefits is not as unusual as you think.
Gaming the system is now an American Past Time.
how else do peoples survive in high tax states like NY or NJ? working off the books and collecting benefits is not as unusual as you think.
9
Food Stamps
I am advocating to remove the programs because the programs work and they work well, but I once was laid off from my job and quickly was able to get another one with pretty much the same income but no benefits, my family of 3 was left with one huge problem no Health Insurance.
I went to the office several times to get help specially for my 1 year old son who I was paying all medical bills out pocket, in a nutshell it tools me almost 2 years to understand the system and get health insurance for my son but right after I sent my first application they quickly approved me for food stamps when I didn't even ask for it i even gave it back to see if it will speed the process up for health care for my son.
There might be people who don't need it (I know I didn't) but there are lots of other who do.
I am advocating to remove the programs because the programs work and they work well, but I once was laid off from my job and quickly was able to get another one with pretty much the same income but no benefits, my family of 3 was left with one huge problem no Health Insurance.
I went to the office several times to get help specially for my 1 year old son who I was paying all medical bills out pocket, in a nutshell it tools me almost 2 years to understand the system and get health insurance for my son but right after I sent my first application they quickly approved me for food stamps when I didn't even ask for it i even gave it back to see if it will speed the process up for health care for my son.
There might be people who don't need it (I know I didn't) but there are lots of other who do.
3
One of the most pernicious -- and closely held -- notions in our culture is that people who need assistance are lazy freeloaders. As a volunteer worker in a soup kitchen and food pantry, it is clear to me that nothing could be farther from the truth. A humane society does not let its people go hungry, and the belief that these folks do not really need help adds shame to the burdens and suffering they already face.
9
In the seventies I argued with my father, a republican, (as was I) about the school lunch program. He was afraid people who didn't really need it, would take advantage of it. Reagan followed up with his "truly needy" and "ketchup is a vegetable" ideas. I said I'd rather we give a free lunch (and breakfast) to every school child in America rather than have any children go hungry. The same week, a story aired on the nightly news noting that it cost more to support one military band than we paid for the entire school lunch program. My dad looked at me and said, "I guess I see your point." I'm no longer a republican and haven't been for years. Republicans think the worst of everyone. In their eyes, every person who needs help is scamming the system. People tend to project their own motives on others. We saw it throughout the election with Donald Trump accusing Hillary Clinton of everything he himself was guilty of. At least my dad was capable of saying "I was wrong." Today's Republican Party is incapable of self-reflection, empathy or remorse.
12
I work in community mental health, providing psychotherapy for people w/ mental health and/or substance abuse issues. From first hand experience, I can assure all the Republicans out there who are worried about people taking advantage of the food stamp program that it's mostly a myth. I'm sure there are folks who collect this benefit undeservedly, but by and large these folks are poor and the meager benefit of food stamps is often helpful.
6
"raise the minimum wage! This would be a no-brainer "
this is not a no-brainer.
you cannot force small business which are the main producers of new jobs in the US to hire people who are not worth the higher wages. e.g. already a few restaurants are experimenting with robots because of higher minimum wage in Liberal states. restaurants are closing in NYC as a result of mandated higher minimum wages.
this is not a no-brainer.
you cannot force small business which are the main producers of new jobs in the US to hire people who are not worth the higher wages. e.g. already a few restaurants are experimenting with robots because of higher minimum wage in Liberal states. restaurants are closing in NYC as a result of mandated higher minimum wages.
7
I was on food stamps for a couple years. I've been working steadily for over 35 years--full time since I am 18. Public Assistance saved my life during that time.
15
Although I have never been on food stamps, I recently acquainted a young family of 6 that needs it. It is absolutely necessary for this family and the NYT Editorial Board, which has lost much of its credibility over the years because of its knee-jerk social liberal agenda (at the cost of rationalism and the fundamental principle of human dignity, liberty, and responsibility), and its degradation toward blind succumbing to SJW causes, is definitely right on this issue.
That said, I anecdotally observe that this family of six, with over $950 of food stamps is doing quite well with that amount that exceeds what they need. Per capita, it is approximately the same as my family food budget and we are not in poverty. Of course, there is a big statistical distribution spread among the population, and that same amount may not be sufficient for another family. But I have actually observed how well and how healthy this family eat - thanks to their common sense and culture (high-veggies and inexpensive, healthy protein diet), and roughly calculated based on 2,000-kcal daily diet, that the food stamp allowance is indeed on the generous side.
Of course, any cutting will cause some pain and I would oppose it. But if $950 becomes, say $900, I don't think this family would even feel the effect. Again, cutting is definitely not good, but it isn't the end of the world for many, and over melo-dramatization of the effect would not serve well the social liberal/socialism agenda either.
That said, I anecdotally observe that this family of six, with over $950 of food stamps is doing quite well with that amount that exceeds what they need. Per capita, it is approximately the same as my family food budget and we are not in poverty. Of course, there is a big statistical distribution spread among the population, and that same amount may not be sufficient for another family. But I have actually observed how well and how healthy this family eat - thanks to their common sense and culture (high-veggies and inexpensive, healthy protein diet), and roughly calculated based on 2,000-kcal daily diet, that the food stamp allowance is indeed on the generous side.
Of course, any cutting will cause some pain and I would oppose it. But if $950 becomes, say $900, I don't think this family would even feel the effect. Again, cutting is definitely not good, but it isn't the end of the world for many, and over melo-dramatization of the effect would not serve well the social liberal/socialism agenda either.
7
Why do republicans hate their constituents so much?
After all red states are the greatest recipients of federal welfare which includes farm subsides, SSDI, SS, MEDICARE, MEDICAID, HIGHWAY SUBSIDIZES, INTERNET SUBSIDIES, PHONE SUBSIDIES, ELECTRICITY SUBSIDIES and the list goes on and on.
The fact is we are a market based economy and there are just not enough paying customers per square mile to pay for their needs without the federal government which means blue states helping them out.
After all red states are the greatest recipients of federal welfare which includes farm subsides, SSDI, SS, MEDICARE, MEDICAID, HIGHWAY SUBSIDIZES, INTERNET SUBSIDIES, PHONE SUBSIDIES, ELECTRICITY SUBSIDIES and the list goes on and on.
The fact is we are a market based economy and there are just not enough paying customers per square mile to pay for their needs without the federal government which means blue states helping them out.
6
Or perhaps the cost of living is too high. There are more dry cleaning workers and custodial staff than Beverly Hills reality show stars.
1
There is zilch to be done here except to feed the hungry. Driving the American countryside and seeing these massive churches with big signs about God and perfectly manicured lawns, one might think that feeding the hungry would be covered by Christian goodness. However, my guess is that American Christianity could care less about feeding the hungry evidence the people they elect.
So, if you're poor and hungry and without healthcare -- you're gonna die sooner than most others. Then with the weakest among us "out-of-the-way", American Greatness is inevitable.
So, if you're poor and hungry and without healthcare -- you're gonna die sooner than most others. Then with the weakest among us "out-of-the-way", American Greatness is inevitable.
5
Years ago, I temporarily received food stamps while unable to work because of a serious illness. What SNAP supplied was FOOD. ONLY food. And, the amount allowed per person is not enough to survive upon. I had to go to food banks as well. Procuring food becomes a job to the impoverished.
Even while receiving SNAP, I went without toilet paper for a year, because I could not afford it. SNAP does not provide for ANYthing but food--no toilet paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, razor blades and, of course, no alcoholic beverages nor cigarettes. How is it possible to deny FOOD?
Homeless charities and food banks are in for a jolt.
Even while receiving SNAP, I went without toilet paper for a year, because I could not afford it. SNAP does not provide for ANYthing but food--no toilet paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, razor blades and, of course, no alcoholic beverages nor cigarettes. How is it possible to deny FOOD?
Homeless charities and food banks are in for a jolt.
That the richest Country on Earth that spends more than the 10 highest military spending Countries combined on Defense (not including Homeland Security and other Security/Defence related areas), feels that it should reduce the Food Stamp program for the poor by 25% over 10 years is utterly shameful!
By such a cut, the already morally unconscionable benefit average of $1.40 per meal is reduced to $1.05 a meal and over the 10 year period inflation would reduce the benefit to under $1 per meal.
Millions of children who depend on that paltry amount to sustain them and ensure they obtain the nutritional requirements for good health, growth and development, is a fallacy and indictment of just how little regard America has for it's most vulnerable and innocent citizens as well as active contempt for the 43 Million people, many of them working in jobs that pay such low median wages that they only match the poverty level for a family of 3.
The minimum wage is even worse and so low , that even if that family of 3 were each earning the minimum wage, it would not match the poverty level and children do not earn anything of course.
When you consider how much attention is devoted to killing foreign peoples, whether Terrorists or the many civilian women and children victims of American "actions", you can be certain the money spent to kill them is far more per person than what America spends on feeding it's poor and disadvantaged.
You have to ask yourself why?
By such a cut, the already morally unconscionable benefit average of $1.40 per meal is reduced to $1.05 a meal and over the 10 year period inflation would reduce the benefit to under $1 per meal.
Millions of children who depend on that paltry amount to sustain them and ensure they obtain the nutritional requirements for good health, growth and development, is a fallacy and indictment of just how little regard America has for it's most vulnerable and innocent citizens as well as active contempt for the 43 Million people, many of them working in jobs that pay such low median wages that they only match the poverty level for a family of 3.
The minimum wage is even worse and so low , that even if that family of 3 were each earning the minimum wage, it would not match the poverty level and children do not earn anything of course.
When you consider how much attention is devoted to killing foreign peoples, whether Terrorists or the many civilian women and children victims of American "actions", you can be certain the money spent to kill them is far more per person than what America spends on feeding it's poor and disadvantaged.
You have to ask yourself why?
2
The problem is that the media keeps looking at "welfare" as a poverty issue, when they very well know that most "welfare" goes to the very wealthy in this country in the form of tax avoidance loopholes, tax credits, etc. Every time the media reports on "welfare," say, food stamps, the report should include a couple of paragraphs on comparing the cost of that program to say the "welfare" accorded the Military Industrial Complex, oil, gas, Wall Street.
Remember when the media was surprised that many Americans had no idea that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were the very same thing. If the New York Times would use more context, clarity and fair comparisons in reporting on welfare, other media would pick pick up the habit, and more Americans would say, hey, what about that more expensive welfare for all the rich people? How does that make sense?
Remember when the media was surprised that many Americans had no idea that Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were the very same thing. If the New York Times would use more context, clarity and fair comparisons in reporting on welfare, other media would pick pick up the habit, and more Americans would say, hey, what about that more expensive welfare for all the rich people? How does that make sense?
4
There are two obvious contributors to wage decline in the US working class - massive offshoring and mass immigration. Most Americans know this, but liberals refuse to admit it. They refuse to admit that the law of supply and demand still holds, and it DOES apply to the amount of available labor. They refuse to admit globalism DOES create victims and many of those victims are their own fellow citizens. How can you fix a problem when you deny that it exists?
7
I love this headline, it sums up the Republican viewpoint so well. I live in a Christian-dominated Red State where social programs are constantly under attack by our Republican-majority legislators. Things like school lunch programs and nutrition programs for the poor (who have to submit to drug tests before being deemed eligible), and no of COURSE we didn't expand Medicaid for our sickest, that would have been wrong! Bootstraps, people! It really sometimes feels like they believe if you get rid of the food stamps, the poor will just magically go away. That or "charity" and "churches" will magically find the resources to take care of the needy. How they look themselves in the mirror in the morning I have no clue.
5
Let's not kid ourselves the problem is food stamps. Generations have been raised on the welfare roles and continue to do so. The concept isn't bad but the execution sure is. For the liberals to think that they're doing the right thing by merely giving the poor food and shelter and then walking away with the feeling of satisfaction that they've done their share, is dim. By putting a band-aid on the problem they lay claim to the moral high ground. It's time we revamp our social service and entitlement programs in order to move people through the welfare system, not to stagnate in it. Some people have to be taught how to be responsible for themselves and their actions and not allowed to wallow in the mire. Throwing money at the problem and walking away is not the answer liberals think it to be.
10
Some of my family are among the working poor. They have low paying jobs but have held them for many years. It is a terrible mistake to abolish the food stamp program. A lot of people would like to believe that many are living on the "dole" but, in fact, they are just surviving from one pay check to the next. Bless these people who truly keep our country running.
7
Hungry children can't learn so we feed many children at school. But the same children, for the most apart, come from families that qualify for food stamps. But we have learned many older children are ashamed of having to be subsidized so the Mayor has proposed giving free meals to all children. The low quality of meals at school, free or paid, is an outrage. Republicans have been successful in thwarting Michelle Obama's efforts for improvement. BTW, what happened to bringing sandwiches from home?
2
With all of this effort to return the social welfare programs to the states (and perhaps return to the Articles of Confederation as well) returns us to the day when the accident of your birth determines your future. The day when one state's social welfare program returns to a one-way bus ticket to another state is coming back.
Recently I've seen phrases like "He's got the Midas Touch" accompanied by a big smile as if the Midas Touch is a good thing.
The Midas Touch is a curse and King Midas realized this when he could no longer eat, drink or hug his daughter lest his food and his loved ones turned inedible and lifeless, killing his own life in the process.
This is what modern day greed has done to so many places and people all over the world. Greed kills. The way to stop this everyone knows but not everyone is willing to do it; diligent self reflection to cultivate love and ban hate in your mind.
The Midas Touch is a curse and King Midas realized this when he could no longer eat, drink or hug his daughter lest his food and his loved ones turned inedible and lifeless, killing his own life in the process.
This is what modern day greed has done to so many places and people all over the world. Greed kills. The way to stop this everyone knows but not everyone is willing to do it; diligent self reflection to cultivate love and ban hate in your mind.
2
I wonder what percentage of the folks who criticize the food stamp program and oppose a meaningful minimum wage consider themselves true "Christians"? If they do, I suggest they revisit the teachings of their prophet. Jesus would be embarrassed by their current attitudes and behavior. It really is that simple.
2
Monday, as the Times has noted, is the one hundredth birthday of President Kennedy. Sensitized by campaigning in West Virginia, (his speech about Welch, West Viriginai is something every politician should read) his first action as President was to expand the number and amount of commodities that were distributed. He also authorized the initial food stamp pilot program. Since Nixon, at least, the Republican party has rejected the construct of poverty itself. It would be s tragedy, said Nixon in response to a speech by Kennedy, "if there were 17 1/2 million poor people. But they're aren't." If you reject the whole construct it is easy to kill the program.
1
The benefits per family would be capped at six members of a family total? So...the new head of Family Planning is not only opposed to abortion. She is strongly opposed to contraception and believes that contraception is between God, a man, and his wife.
It would seem that such a strong stance against family planning and contraception would allow for any number of children that a couple may have. We have a head of HUD who believes that poverty is a state of mind, and a head of the budget who believes that patients with diabetes who do not exercise regularly and who do not follow a low-fat and low-sugar diet do not deserve health care. So why should we be surprised on the administration's approach to food stamps.
It would seem that such a strong stance against family planning and contraception would allow for any number of children that a couple may have. We have a head of HUD who believes that poverty is a state of mind, and a head of the budget who believes that patients with diabetes who do not exercise regularly and who do not follow a low-fat and low-sugar diet do not deserve health care. So why should we be surprised on the administration's approach to food stamps.
2
Like the health care "controversy" (read GOP pretenses), the problem is poorly characterized programs that try to provide a minimum life supporting standard of help by enabling unfortunate people to survive. Too bad the congressional majority only chooses life when coercing individual fertile women to reproduce no matter what her personal situation or resources. They think feeding starving people is a misuse of taxpayer dollars.
1
What the Republicans have been doing for quite some time now is deliberately perverting the public discourse on essentially every topic. One trick is called "anchoring" and it is based on the brain's bias towards the information it receives first. All other information received is seen in relation to the initial point. By starting the discussion with an outrageous assertion on the right, the Republicans gain acceptance of a "reasonable compromise" because the balance of the discussion is artificially weighted so far to the right from the beginning. The right is controlling the political discussion in the U.S. at least partly thanks to this simple but effective tactic. Knowing how are brains work and a little critical thinking are perhaps the best antidotes to this poisonous component of our national discourse. (Link for wikipedia definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring).
What's so incredibly profound to me is how openly brazen and mindfully cruel the president and republicans in general, have shown their people, and the world, exactly what they are made of.
We have some colorful descriptive names for people like these.
We have some colorful descriptive names for people like these.
2
The damage that persistent hunger does, is often permanent, especially for kids. In the elderly, malnourishment can kill. Doing this would incur heavy karma. It would be utterly unethical.
4
We subsidize Walmart Employees, even Uber Drivers and Amazon distribution employees through our taxes. But they need us, at least until they get a fair wage.
I was a single childless person who was a drug addict. I quit opiates, got two jobs, and spent 10 months going to.AA and working 14 hours a day for below $15/hr.
I lived in a single room studio, and food stamps allowed me to have good meals...there was. one issue though. The grocery store was too far to bike or walk. I got a few rides, but mostly used my food stamps on sausage sandwhiches and corn dogs at SuperAmerica (a gas station).
Food wad food though, and I am thankful for the 4 months of food stamps $180/month I got when I needed it.
Today Im about to go to bed in my condo I rented for the weekend. I finished college, and own my own house with my wife. Im a consultant. I charge $175/hr.
Food stamps gave me help when I was in need. Today I pay taxes, and I will always subsidize food stamps and housing vouchers. We Americans are greesy narcissists.
I was a single childless person who was a drug addict. I quit opiates, got two jobs, and spent 10 months going to.AA and working 14 hours a day for below $15/hr.
I lived in a single room studio, and food stamps allowed me to have good meals...there was. one issue though. The grocery store was too far to bike or walk. I got a few rides, but mostly used my food stamps on sausage sandwhiches and corn dogs at SuperAmerica (a gas station).
Food wad food though, and I am thankful for the 4 months of food stamps $180/month I got when I needed it.
Today Im about to go to bed in my condo I rented for the weekend. I finished college, and own my own house with my wife. Im a consultant. I charge $175/hr.
Food stamps gave me help when I was in need. Today I pay taxes, and I will always subsidize food stamps and housing vouchers. We Americans are greesy narcissists.
9
A simple change in SNAP rules would allow a cut in food stamp costs and result in improved nutrition: allow no beverages except milk to be purchased with food stamps.
5
Why doesn't anyone ever say: the problem is that people who can not afford to have children, to raise them and educate them to survive and thrive in this richest of any country ever, are having children.
Why aren't we instituting policies to discourage people who can't afford children not to have children, and to make it possible for those who can raise, feed and educate children to have them?
Why aren't we instituting policies to discourage people who can't afford children not to have children, and to make it possible for those who can raise, feed and educate children to have them?
8
It's High Noon that the United States take on the problem of poverty. As we know from history poverty is a fact that easily destroys a country be it by decay or by revolution.
Already the Romans were battling poverty. The famous phrase 'panem et circenses' has its background. So don't fall into a deadly sleep by arguing 'it doesn't matter'.
Already the Romans were battling poverty. The famous phrase 'panem et circenses' has its background. So don't fall into a deadly sleep by arguing 'it doesn't matter'.
No one should have to go hungry and the food stamp program helps to prevent hunger. And several analyses have demonstrated that the food stamp program is good for our economy so at least on two levels such cuts are classically counterproductive, not to mention mean-spirited. BTW it is also rather un-christian. I am my brothers keeper, the concept that poor people are lazy and not deserving of assistence is another right-wing lie.
1
Well, 1 Thesselonians 5 says "if a man does not work, he shall not eat".
This is in the same Bible that says "Do not refuse from the one who asks of you. If someone asks for your coat, give them your shirt too".
There is a nuance to this. Some people are in a bind, they're working as hard as they ever have, but at the moment it's not enough. They need help. Others, are completely lazy, and truly don't deserve assistance. They need to let their stomach motivate them to get to work! But you can't determine which category a person falls into as a government beaurocrat. Annual income, size of family, etc give no indication as to the true attitude of a person.
If we were to return to truly helping one's neighbor - as in, you, personally, finding someone to support, instead of sloughing off the responsibility to the government - we would be a lot better off.
The limits of textual communication may make me seem more harsh than I am. I have done what I've just suggested, and spent 2-3 of my college years assisting the unfortunate every night. I'm not speaking from theory here, but from experience. Jesus is a very hard teacher to actually follow! But worth it.
This is in the same Bible that says "Do not refuse from the one who asks of you. If someone asks for your coat, give them your shirt too".
There is a nuance to this. Some people are in a bind, they're working as hard as they ever have, but at the moment it's not enough. They need help. Others, are completely lazy, and truly don't deserve assistance. They need to let their stomach motivate them to get to work! But you can't determine which category a person falls into as a government beaurocrat. Annual income, size of family, etc give no indication as to the true attitude of a person.
If we were to return to truly helping one's neighbor - as in, you, personally, finding someone to support, instead of sloughing off the responsibility to the government - we would be a lot better off.
The limits of textual communication may make me seem more harsh than I am. I have done what I've just suggested, and spent 2-3 of my college years assisting the unfortunate every night. I'm not speaking from theory here, but from experience. Jesus is a very hard teacher to actually follow! But worth it.
1
the idea or philosophy of food stamps would work, but it currently doesnot work because recipients can buy anything tbey want. candy, chips snacks, soda, almost any garbage you can find. we have the technology with bar-codeing to only allow the basic food groups meat fish vegetables cheese etc. i own a food store. almost anything can be bought. down the street a fresh fish shop sells lobsters with a big sign, WE ACCEPT EBT.. this is abuse. easily fixed. also all recipients should be fingerprinted and drug tested.
6
[[It is a problem that Congress and the White House can rectify, not by cutting spending, but by raising the minimum wage, updating the overtime-pay rules and instituting paid sick leave — for starters.]]
Consumers have as much power as congress.
Stop eating at McDonalds until they give workers a 40 hour week and benefits. Stop shopping at Target and WalMart.
Consumers have as much power as congress.
Stop eating at McDonalds until they give workers a 40 hour week and benefits. Stop shopping at Target and WalMart.
"And no matter how large a family is, the benefit calculation would be capped at six people."
I'd pick a better example of why this set of proposed changes is wrong-headed or mean-spirited. Responsible people who limit the size of their families quickly reach compassion-fatigue when those on the dole burden the earth with even more mouths to feed.
I'd pick a better example of why this set of proposed changes is wrong-headed or mean-spirited. Responsible people who limit the size of their families quickly reach compassion-fatigue when those on the dole burden the earth with even more mouths to feed.
11
The problem is finding a living wage in the USA......and if there is a concentration
on what is needed by the US Government: it is jobs building an infrastructure;
so...during the Depression of the 1930s....many found jobs in re building roads
and bridges etcetera....so the US Government should use this template...and
pay workers for such projects a living wage.
why not.....and High School graduates should apply for such jobs in order to
qualify for student loans for a university education or a vocational education.
why not ???......The government should not dole out money for no reason..
so the reasonable idea is to re build our infrastructure and clean water systems ....as was done in the 1930s.....
We do not want to give more tax breaks to corporations like Walton.
on what is needed by the US Government: it is jobs building an infrastructure;
so...during the Depression of the 1930s....many found jobs in re building roads
and bridges etcetera....so the US Government should use this template...and
pay workers for such projects a living wage.
why not.....and High School graduates should apply for such jobs in order to
qualify for student loans for a university education or a vocational education.
why not ???......The government should not dole out money for no reason..
so the reasonable idea is to re build our infrastructure and clean water systems ....as was done in the 1930s.....
We do not want to give more tax breaks to corporations like Walton.
2
Yes, It would be nice to have every American earning enough to have a home, support two children and have a car and a 40 hr /week job and take a 2 week vacation every year. Not to Europe, but to the Shore or the Cape or National Park, health insurance to pay for that broken arm from the fall in Yosemite and a little savings for a rainy day and JRs' College fund. Just how you get more Americans to this American dream by cutting off subsistence monies for food is asinine. Do we really need economists to tell us that? Apparently, some of our countrymen would be quite OK with stepping over the bodies of the wretched to attend the masked Gala at the Tower.
1
The problem is most politicians lives come with a free lunch. a free lunch paid for by the poor. Most politicians are clueless at best. The others choose cluelessness as a lifestyle and clearly don't understand what real need is. They really seem to embody the worst traits of humanity and be proud of it.
You have an article titled "As C.E.O. Pay Packages Grow, Top Executives Have the President’s Ear" and that is the problem with America. And those packages will grow with the help of the Republicans while the needy are pushed aside. The solution is a political one and Republicans are not the ones who will at least try to fix it. Poverty is hidden to the view of so many, hidden because of eyes wide shut! Poverty in the Hampton’s, South Beach, etc.? Too many people do not care, too many believe their wallet is more important. Vote Republicans out of office and give majorities to a party that will do something about it.
1
The Republican party will never drop these played out, dog-whistle strategies to governing. I don't see how anyone can become dependent upon something which hardly amounts to chump change a playground bully might steal from a child's wallet- $140 bucks is hardly enough to buy groceries (and I mean real groceries, not bodega junk) for a week let alone have that last you a month. Most people I know on food stamps have to supplement their nutrition by time the 15th day of the month comes around: by begging better off family members to "loan" them a few bucks or going to their local food pantry to see what's available. It is morally crushing for people to have to keep their battered pride alive so the likes of Mick Mulvaney can stuff it if he thinks these 43 million Americans are moochers.
3
If you want a solution to the problem then just examine any progressive left city like Baltimore, Detroit, San Francisco and then do just the opposite. That is unless you like your much higher than average poverty/homeless population. But, don't worry, with A.I. and robotics we'll be moving 30% of the working population over to the permanently unemployed in roughly ten years. Think about that.
6
First of all, let us turn off the airconditioning and heating in the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court. We can't afford their huge bills, nor should we. Then lets do away with ALL the other perks, so that our representatives live like most of those in the rural areas, scraping by week after week, month after month with no end in sight.
Then lets tell Mr. T. that if he wants to go to Florida every weekend, he will be presented with the bill for his expense to the taxpayer. I could go on.....
Then lets tell Mr. T. that if he wants to go to Florida every weekend, he will be presented with the bill for his expense to the taxpayer. I could go on.....
2
If the SNAP program continues, what is The Worst thing that could happen? Human beings will eat. This is not problematic in any way -- no illegal addictions will be formed or supported; no crimes will be committed; and no-one will have to give up his or her meal in order for someone else to have a meal. Eating is natural. Let's just keep the program going. Let's remember the basics.
3
I propose a law that requires a minimum budget that includes necessities for the United States. Programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Food Stamps as well as a foundational budget for infrastructure, health, education, and the military are not negotiable. If you can't meet the foundational budget, taxes automatically go up, progressively (the rich pay more, not less like in Trumpland, where only the poor pay the most). People's lives and the basic safety of the nation should not be jeopardized by political grandstanding. Yes, Trump's budget is unreal and dead on arrival, but he and the UnChristian Republicans have already done so much damage by bringing the business practice of conmen and shady lawyers as in the "art of the deal" where your ask is so big, we, the peasants, are supposed to be grateful to walk away, empty-of-pocket, with our wobbly heads still somewhat attached to our necks. Getting to pitchfork time for pigs at the trough, Trump's swamp of crocodiles. No negotiation. Impeachment! They get nothing but the chaos and churn they've created. Remember the Republicans in 2018. Vote Democrat or vote for your own impoverishment and the death of others.
3
What and whichever rationalization, explanation, excuse or obvious pile of malarkey the administration uses to paint cuts to the social safety nets...they are, simply, ad hoc euphemisms for "offsetting the cost of huge tax cuts for the rich."
The politicalization of Christian charity, welfare for the poor and disadvantaged, into Republican avarice, entitlements for the rich and advantaged, is to be lamented...
The politicalization of Christian charity, welfare for the poor and disadvantaged, into Republican avarice, entitlements for the rich and advantaged, is to be lamented...
3
Thanks to the New York Times for getting to the heart of the matter. The Republican war to indulge the rich at the expense of all other Americans is pure evil. It is exhausting to combat because they cloak their actions in fear mongering and platitudes about traditional family values and--to get even closer to the heart of the matter--because the wealthy and their corporations now dictate policy to officials they elect. Their resources for the pursuit of their advantages are bottomless.
To cut even closer to the heart of the matter, we must face the fact that
To cut even closer to the heart of the matter, we must face the fact that
2
Few people realize as they walk into a Walmart Supercenter that the low prices are due to low wages made possible by subsidies from the taxpayers in the form of Medicaid, sCHIP, SNAP, WIC, etc. to the tune of $1 million per store on average.
Another impediment to finding workers is the drug free workplace. About 15 years ago a Sam's Clun opened near here. The manager told me that of 2400 applicants for 220 associates positions, more than half failed the drug screen. The manager of a Bridgestone Tire plant told me that he has a chronic need for 60 workers, but too many applicants don't meet criteria: read at the 6th grade level and have a clean urine.
Another impediment to finding workers is the drug free workplace. About 15 years ago a Sam's Clun opened near here. The manager told me that of 2400 applicants for 220 associates positions, more than half failed the drug screen. The manager of a Bridgestone Tire plant told me that he has a chronic need for 60 workers, but too many applicants don't meet criteria: read at the 6th grade level and have a clean urine.
8
Starvation in the USA? People walking around with distended bellies shoplifting food at the Wal-Mart? Just so we can slash burdensome taxes from wildly rich individuals and cash hoarding corporations?. Even some animals hunt in packs so the herd can eat. Thank God the Party in power can't get it together to pass as much of this horror as they would like.
5
Solving the roots of poverty are hard, it is much easier to cast aside those who need help.
55
Trump isn't a 'share the wealth" person evidenced by his proposed elimination and/or r reduction of assistance programs for the needy, especially those for the working poor, sick and the elderly while denying himself and family anything. Consider the extra exuberant government expenses doled out for Trump and his family to maintain their exclusive and expensive lifestyle. Taxpayers have to pick cup the expenses not only for Trump and his wife for the foreign trip but his whole family and entourage
Remember the criticism obama got for any trip..and most times it was only he and his wife..... TRUMP AND HIS FAMILY SHOULD STOP "MILKING THE PUBLIC DOLE/WELFARE". HAVE THEY NO SHAME OR COMPASSION FOR "THE LEAST OF THEM"?
Remember the criticism obama got for any trip..and most times it was only he and his wife..... TRUMP AND HIS FAMILY SHOULD STOP "MILKING THE PUBLIC DOLE/WELFARE". HAVE THEY NO SHAME OR COMPASSION FOR "THE LEAST OF THEM"?
1
Social Darwinism.
Prosperity Gospel.
Call it what you will, the GOP trying to starve the beast. In their eyes, the beast is America.
Wallace (cofounder of Darwinian theory) criticized Darwin's presentation of his own theory as misleading. Dog and pigeon breeding are certainly examples of evolution, but not by natural selection. Breeding is human selection. And the fittest are not those selected by the natural environment, but rather, they are the ones selected to fit the whims of the breeder. The GOP alters the social environment and directly select for the richest. They think that they are selecting for the fittest, but who really believes that a pug would last even a week without human support.
[That was a metaphor. I'm comparing the rich to pugs. There is nothing natural about their fitness.]
Prosperity Gospel.
Call it what you will, the GOP trying to starve the beast. In their eyes, the beast is America.
Wallace (cofounder of Darwinian theory) criticized Darwin's presentation of his own theory as misleading. Dog and pigeon breeding are certainly examples of evolution, but not by natural selection. Breeding is human selection. And the fittest are not those selected by the natural environment, but rather, they are the ones selected to fit the whims of the breeder. The GOP alters the social environment and directly select for the richest. They think that they are selecting for the fittest, but who really believes that a pug would last even a week without human support.
[That was a metaphor. I'm comparing the rich to pugs. There is nothing natural about their fitness.]
1
Dr. Carson and his minions are the ones whose minds are impoverished at least as far as history.
I respectfully sugest Dr. Carson and the Republican leadership and its supporters do some reading and learn what a 16th century writer who grew up in and died in poverty has to say about poverty and its effects on the mind :
"Poverty obstructs the progress of the most gifted minds"
(from the title page of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus)
I respectfully sugest Dr. Carson and the Republican leadership and its supporters do some reading and learn what a 16th century writer who grew up in and died in poverty has to say about poverty and its effects on the mind :
"Poverty obstructs the progress of the most gifted minds"
(from the title page of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus)
I guarantee there are not 46 million Americans who cannot feed themselves. Food stamps are not the problem...the extension of food stamps to able-bodied people who don't need them is the problem. I can't wait until the Dems gain back power and enhance the program even more so that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will qualify.
6
I don't get this. At an average of $1.40 per meal, a day's sustenance for a food stamp recipient is less than the average office worker spends on coffee. People that have to get by on this are so far down that only the truly perverted would want to beat them up further.
"...members of Congress from both parties need to do more than simply declare the Trump budget dead on arrival. They need to make specific objections and draw clear lines in the sand."
and, by all means timesfolk, include yourselves in, as the saying goes...the exhortation, above, will do the republic far more good than all the months of mindless invective directed at the president, (elected while your lot was amusing itself with its "he's a clown" giggle and "she's the one" slam dunkery).
in an old j-school text, discovered in a fourth estate dumpster, it says that specificity and clarity are cardinal in the craft of who, what, where, when and, why..."why" being the heaviest lift, but so often passed up for the more convenient "likely" (as in "the damage would likely be permanent" absent foundation, whereas it is just as "likely" that strict oversight will make the same money go farther, as it would in other areas - e.g. medicare/ciad fraud perpetrated not by the poor but by special- interest profiteers).
so, buckle up paper of record, parse the budget and every issue, program, line item, etc., each in itself and in its more than "likely " consequences (aka connecting the dots).
the food stamp issue, btw, goes deeper than minimum wage, (easy to fix)...many on assistance have no jobs and live in places that have endured decades of neglect (not so easy to fix, and shame on us for looking on).
#
and, by all means timesfolk, include yourselves in, as the saying goes...the exhortation, above, will do the republic far more good than all the months of mindless invective directed at the president, (elected while your lot was amusing itself with its "he's a clown" giggle and "she's the one" slam dunkery).
in an old j-school text, discovered in a fourth estate dumpster, it says that specificity and clarity are cardinal in the craft of who, what, where, when and, why..."why" being the heaviest lift, but so often passed up for the more convenient "likely" (as in "the damage would likely be permanent" absent foundation, whereas it is just as "likely" that strict oversight will make the same money go farther, as it would in other areas - e.g. medicare/ciad fraud perpetrated not by the poor but by special- interest profiteers).
so, buckle up paper of record, parse the budget and every issue, program, line item, etc., each in itself and in its more than "likely " consequences (aka connecting the dots).
the food stamp issue, btw, goes deeper than minimum wage, (easy to fix)...many on assistance have no jobs and live in places that have endured decades of neglect (not so easy to fix, and shame on us for looking on).
#
1
When did we become a society that glorifies, excuses and rewards "arrest records, low skills, and addictions"? Small wonder food stamp disbursements have multiplied dramatically. It's harder for anyone to be a responsible student, employee, and tax payer, than it is to blow off school, sleep in every morning, and let the government take care of you. But, if we want more of the former, shouldn't government provide a trampoline and not a hammock, like what's-his-name says?
Florida seems to see poverty as an opportunity (lots of cheap labor) rather than a problem. The state has long had lousy safety net provisions, partly because it's deliberately a tax haven, partly because it doesn't want to attract the wrong kinds of migrants (wealthy retirees are wanted). It's a great place to see "The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy" by Peter Temin (MIT Press) at work. To some extent, Florida never had a strong middle class. Its agricultural and service economy worked against that. One of the differences between Disney-California and Disney-Orlando was that unions failed in the Orlando hospitality/entertainment industry.
Florida is of course not unique. The politically and economically interesting question is how the US can persist with some states committed to social safety nets and others not. Of course that was historically the case, with the segregated South taking massive poverty, both black and white, for granted. It could be that the region's great burst of economic development was not fated to be permanent.
Florida is of course not unique. The politically and economically interesting question is how the US can persist with some states committed to social safety nets and others not. Of course that was historically the case, with the segregated South taking massive poverty, both black and white, for granted. It could be that the region's great burst of economic development was not fated to be permanent.
2
The NYT proposes to increase the minimum wage, update overtime-pay rules and institute paid sick leave as means to restore middle-class wages in America. Far more necessary is to restore the bargaining power of workers by effectively restoring their right to self-organization and collective bargaining. Without any bargaining leverage, workers will continue to have only the inadequate means the NYT suggests: minimum wage rates. Try raising a family on $20K-$30K per year. It's a wonder the poor have not yet taken to marching with pitchforks in the streets.
18
The headlines of today's Editorial "The Problem Isn't Food Stamps, It's Poverty" fits well to the crux of the problem. The problem we are seeing here, and is clear is that our POTUS believes there should not be Poverty in this country. To support this thinking, together with Food Stamps, there are several other subsidies, including Medicaid that are being proposed to be slashed in the new Budget proposal.
Our POTUS thinks he is operating a business, where the objective is to make money and be profitable. Often, we see employee payroll and benefits being the target, when businesses prepare their annual budgets. As a businessman, Mr. Trump continues to have this mindset. He is all for a Capitalist economy. But, going to the very extreme. Growing up with a silver spoon, we tend to believe, he has little or no idea how people live in this country. The ignorance does not help in any way.
As this Editorial points out, it is important to improve wages and living conditions of people. This is an area, Mr. Trump should give serious consideration. Will he be prepared to have the country's private sector address this subject? Being a billionaire himself, we see Mr. Trump's support in some form or the other to the wealthy. We see this in the proposed tax reductions. This is done at the expense of people who depend on government subsidies.
We see a serious problem in our system. The rich get richer, and the poor poorer. Our leaders continue to ignore this situation.
Our POTUS thinks he is operating a business, where the objective is to make money and be profitable. Often, we see employee payroll and benefits being the target, when businesses prepare their annual budgets. As a businessman, Mr. Trump continues to have this mindset. He is all for a Capitalist economy. But, going to the very extreme. Growing up with a silver spoon, we tend to believe, he has little or no idea how people live in this country. The ignorance does not help in any way.
As this Editorial points out, it is important to improve wages and living conditions of people. This is an area, Mr. Trump should give serious consideration. Will he be prepared to have the country's private sector address this subject? Being a billionaire himself, we see Mr. Trump's support in some form or the other to the wealthy. We see this in the proposed tax reductions. This is done at the expense of people who depend on government subsidies.
We see a serious problem in our system. The rich get richer, and the poor poorer. Our leaders continue to ignore this situation.
3
In my opinion, America is not going to get kinder and gentler until the masses stop eating up the "facts" politicians keep reiterating over and over. Americans need to educate themselves. They need to READ. A good place to start if you are basing your beliefs on "facts" presented to you by politicians: A People's History of the United Stated by Howard Zinn, Evicted by Matthew Desmond, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. Poverty is built into the system. The minimum wage is outrageously low. Social Security is outrageously low for those with less. This is not 1971 when you could rent a two bedroom apartment in Denver, CO for $90 a month (I know-I was living with my sister in that apartment-this is a fact). The suits in Washington are consciously maintaining an underclass. (Divide and conquer) The suits running this country are to blame. Not the poor, disabled, and elderly. Our politicians are so corrupt and cold-hearted it boggles the mind.
5
I agree that people need to read and think.
But I talk to a lot of regular people and, from what I see, that is not going to happen anytime soon.
I don't know how to get people to stop drinking the right-wing media Kool-Aid.
But I talk to a lot of regular people and, from what I see, that is not going to happen anytime soon.
I don't know how to get people to stop drinking the right-wing media Kool-Aid.
Of course, the real problem here is the concentration of wealth at the top, and the fact that the middle class has all but disappeared.
A scenario like this makes poverty just about an assurance for millions of hard-working Americans, let alone those who are disabled, elderly, or under-employed.
That a nation as wealthy as this, is now being run by multi-millionares who are willing to see those less fortunate starve because they haven't enough miney for food, is beyond contemptible -- and it's only a bitter irony that those who voted them into place will also be the first to go under.
If we keep going at this rate, it won't be long before we find ourselves in Dickensian times, where the workhouse and debter's prisons beckon and become part of the everyday landscape.
You call this "winning"?
A scenario like this makes poverty just about an assurance for millions of hard-working Americans, let alone those who are disabled, elderly, or under-employed.
That a nation as wealthy as this, is now being run by multi-millionares who are willing to see those less fortunate starve because they haven't enough miney for food, is beyond contemptible -- and it's only a bitter irony that those who voted them into place will also be the first to go under.
If we keep going at this rate, it won't be long before we find ourselves in Dickensian times, where the workhouse and debter's prisons beckon and become part of the everyday landscape.
You call this "winning"?
5
A lot of jobs have disappeared to automation. A lot more will in the future. Good jobs for everyone might not be feasible. What is possible is making sure no one is starving or lacking in medical care.
6
It is possible -- but not in the USA, richest nation the world has ever known. Americans hate the poor who can't suffer enough.
"Food stamps, officially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, keep millions of people from falling into poverty each year..."
I would argue that IF you need food stamps, you have crossed the threshold into the poverty realm. Which I think is where the discussion needs to be steered. In our definition (from a legal and humanitarian POV) of what is living in poverty today! Not last week, a few years or several decades ago, but what is it now!
The metrics have to be adjusted for context. In that a single person could be working, making a decent wage, but so overwhelmed by expenses (debt, caring for an elderly parent with no savings, etc) they ARE living in poverty and are one minor event away from being destitute. A family, with working parents, kids in school (which presents a whole set of ignored costs) an elderly sickened grandparent, or a handicapped child (more contextual costs that don't get attention) and they are living not just paycheck to paycheck - but have already spent the next three+. Hoping they can make it to paychecks 4, 5 and 6 - maybe buy some new clothes, new tires, etc.
Doing it all in secret, out of pride and the fear of being marginalized and cursed by society and a President as being losers!
Poverty in the US right now is not confined to the other side of the tracks, or "traditionally" poor neighborhoods. Poverty is now in the middle and sometimes upper-class suburbs. In places we refuse to acknowledge. But its time we do so.
I would argue that IF you need food stamps, you have crossed the threshold into the poverty realm. Which I think is where the discussion needs to be steered. In our definition (from a legal and humanitarian POV) of what is living in poverty today! Not last week, a few years or several decades ago, but what is it now!
The metrics have to be adjusted for context. In that a single person could be working, making a decent wage, but so overwhelmed by expenses (debt, caring for an elderly parent with no savings, etc) they ARE living in poverty and are one minor event away from being destitute. A family, with working parents, kids in school (which presents a whole set of ignored costs) an elderly sickened grandparent, or a handicapped child (more contextual costs that don't get attention) and they are living not just paycheck to paycheck - but have already spent the next three+. Hoping they can make it to paychecks 4, 5 and 6 - maybe buy some new clothes, new tires, etc.
Doing it all in secret, out of pride and the fear of being marginalized and cursed by society and a President as being losers!
Poverty in the US right now is not confined to the other side of the tracks, or "traditionally" poor neighborhoods. Poverty is now in the middle and sometimes upper-class suburbs. In places we refuse to acknowledge. But its time we do so.
5
For for all of their alleged business acumen, Republicans seem to be unable to differentiate between a "cost" and an "investment." Nor do they seem to appreciate the fact that investments in human capital offer the best ROIs available. What could possibly yield a higher return than an investing in people's nutrition?
"Extreme proposals are a way to make less extreme proposals seem acceptable."
Key point because what comes next is phase 2 of the "art of the deal."
Beware.
Key point because what comes next is phase 2 of the "art of the deal."
Beware.
7
1) The only way to get a lot of people off food stamps is to get them into (good paying) jobs. 2) This jobs need to be located where these people live. 3) Those people have to have the right skill sets for the available jobs. 4) There has to be public transit available to get people to those jobs. The current budget proposal cuts funding for job training and mass transit. So how do they propose to get people off Food Stamps without dire results?
3
Yes, raising the minimum wage, instituting strict overtime pay rules and paid leave would help. However, you forgot to mention unions. A higher minimum wage and strong unions help everyone by reducing income inequality. The country would be a different place if Walmart were unionized.
158
Low income wouldn't be a problem if housing were not so expensive relative to income. Members of the working class spend a huge portion of their meager income on housing and they will never see that money again. Worse, they will not be able to leverage their non-existent wealth to facilitate opportunities for their children, perpetuating the cycle.
It is nearly impossible to move up socioeconomically under such circumstances. Try saving for a child's higher education, a commute car or a down-payment on a small house on the kinds of jobs available to those who have not had access to high quality education or technical training.
Moving to a different part of the country to take a better-paying job also is more difficult for the impoverished because breaking a lease and physically relocating incurs high up-front costs. For many it's a hamster wheel... work like crazy (defined by hours worked) and go nowhere.
It increasingly seems like we are returning to an 18th century (or earlier) system in which the wealthy elite own the property (and continue to acquire more, driving up the costs for everyone else) and the rest of us pay their bills. Frustrating stuff.
It is nearly impossible to move up socioeconomically under such circumstances. Try saving for a child's higher education, a commute car or a down-payment on a small house on the kinds of jobs available to those who have not had access to high quality education or technical training.
Moving to a different part of the country to take a better-paying job also is more difficult for the impoverished because breaking a lease and physically relocating incurs high up-front costs. For many it's a hamster wheel... work like crazy (defined by hours worked) and go nowhere.
It increasingly seems like we are returning to an 18th century (or earlier) system in which the wealthy elite own the property (and continue to acquire more, driving up the costs for everyone else) and the rest of us pay their bills. Frustrating stuff.
4
Perhaps the president should speak to the military before he cuts Food Stamps. A 2016 Marketwatch report stated that in 2014, more than $84 million-worth of food stamp benefits were spent at military commissaries. That's right - some active military families need food stamps. The USDA reported in 2012 that 1.5 MILLION veterans used food stamps. The Republicans applaud our military when they put their lives on the line for our country, - but apparently don't feel the need to see that they and their families are fed. I also know families where at least two people in the family work two minimum wage jobs and qualify for food stamps. Once again, the GOP shows its desire to wage war on those not in the 1%.
3
Our country produces so much food, it expires before it is sold retail. The waste is phenomenal. I wish we could cut out the middleman and just give food directly to the poor. It would save the administrative expense of SNAP. I know grocers have to make a living, but I think the poor can be much better served via a giant food bank. The food is definitely there, we just have to channel it differently.
It might be just simple to get rid of these " bet use" by dates. What kind of science has gone into the "expiration dates" of is this just an industry ploy?
2
Republicans fabricate the Fed budget based on shifting basic food and medical care for low income people to the states. But the Federal government scoops up by far the most tax revenue, leaving the states no room to tax more to cover these enormous expenses. It's an ongoing game of 3 card Monte.
If you want the short list of states where people will suffer the most from this type of cost shifting, it will be the states with the lowest (or no) state taxes.
If you want the short list of states where people will suffer the most from this type of cost shifting, it will be the states with the lowest (or no) state taxes.
2
There are perfectly rational reasons why the US has the worst social safety net of any developed country:
Low- and middle-class white voters willing to cut the social safety out from under themselves to prevent minorities from receiving assistance + Congress in the hands of corporations = Present situation.
Bernie Sanders is correct : campaign finance reform is the root of all political troubles.
Low- and middle-class white voters willing to cut the social safety out from under themselves to prevent minorities from receiving assistance + Congress in the hands of corporations = Present situation.
Bernie Sanders is correct : campaign finance reform is the root of all political troubles.
3
We should call the Trump administration's budget proposal to cut-back the SNAP program for what it is: institutionalized mean-spiritedness, greed, arrogance and gratuitous cruelty. It's as simple as that.
As a country we are voting for this, believing that the indecency assaults "those other" people, when in fact we ourselves are the targets. Thus we embellish our meanness with our own short-sighted obtuseness.
Some of us are getting what we deserve. The problem is that so many others hardy deserve it at all.
As a country we are voting for this, believing that the indecency assaults "those other" people, when in fact we ourselves are the targets. Thus we embellish our meanness with our own short-sighted obtuseness.
Some of us are getting what we deserve. The problem is that so many others hardy deserve it at all.
5
The intrinsic problem here is the same essential problem of republican dogma, they seek to lay blame and "responsibility" for poverty on its victims. They refuse to accept that the poor are victims of their circumstances or to accept that those circumstances make them into the sorts of people that seem to some to be causing their own problems.
You can't argue them back to reason on this because if they allow that they can also see that many of their other dogmatic choices which are against reason can also be reasoned back to truth.
They chose under reagan to assert whatever it was they chose to assert then to back it up regardless of the facts. Wasn't there a famous case of one of reagans judges making a ruling that was obviously counter to the facts who then justified it by saying he knew better than the facts what was true? That may not be an exact paraphrase but it is the general outline of the case. It was the first and only case of the national press pointing out these irrational changes in how reagan appointees and acolytes hired since he was elected were doing the people's work.
You can't argue them back to reason on this because if they allow that they can also see that many of their other dogmatic choices which are against reason can also be reasoned back to truth.
They chose under reagan to assert whatever it was they chose to assert then to back it up regardless of the facts. Wasn't there a famous case of one of reagans judges making a ruling that was obviously counter to the facts who then justified it by saying he knew better than the facts what was true? That may not be an exact paraphrase but it is the general outline of the case. It was the first and only case of the national press pointing out these irrational changes in how reagan appointees and acolytes hired since he was elected were doing the people's work.
1
I just wish that the food stamp program would only allow the purchase of REAL food. As a checker at a major food store, food stamps are more often than not purchasing loads of soda, ice cream and maybe a couple of pizzas. And that will be pretty much all that's in the cart. I've written to our state reps about the program and what they consider to be food, but I'm sure they're being paid by Coke and other processed food companies to keep silent.
5
You can't buy pizza with food stamps.
Good healthy food generally cost more and or takes more time to prepare. Think about you work a couple of low paying jobs and have to run for the kids, then add the stress, depression of living paycheck to maybe a paycheck etc -think of it as a cheaper form of self medicating. Yes, it really is so much easier not to be poor.
2
All of us tax-payers are subsidizing the low-pay of workers through these government benefits while the profits from these same workers are going into the pockets of private companies.
3
Sixty percent of families with medically complex children cannot maintain full-time or even part-time employment. This is because of the extensive care requirements of their child. Cutting foods stamps is yet one more cruel cut in support of the thousands of families that need public help.
It never ceases to amaze me how our government leaders can focus on "outcomes" that are completely out of alignment with the needs of our nation's children.
It never ceases to amaze me how our government leaders can focus on "outcomes" that are completely out of alignment with the needs of our nation's children.
2
I worked in social services for 45 years and this article is spot on especially the last paragraph. I would correct one thing though, these benefits don't keep people out of poverty but prevent them from dropping so deeply they will never survive. While it is easy to pick in these recipients and portray them as lazy and cheaters, this is seldom the case. The real truth is that many of these folks aren't capable of work, no high school education, many are illiterate, they have chronic medical, physical, mental and social integration problems. They gave lived lives of chronic stress, trauma and disregard.
Cutting programs life SNAP and medicaid is just plain heartless and cruel.
Cutting programs life SNAP and medicaid is just plain heartless and cruel.
177
OF COURSE 'it's poverty'---but exactly how will j-o-bs see an increase in wages when so many areas have none to begin with?? I'm speaking of rural settings, what you can correctly call Country Ghettos. There is no plan to try and create long range economic development and growth in many parts of non-urban America. And such areas would NOT be capable of supporting a $15 an hour wage raise. Here in Missouri, 52 weeks w/o vacation at the minimum wage(if you can get the job that pays it (in say our state's 'Boothill' region) comes to less than $16,000.00 a year take-home. That's a prescription for living in your parent's double-wide at the age of 30. If the food stamp program was greatly reduced, the misery shadow will only grow in small towns and rural areas.
1
The extreme and growing inequality in the distribution of wealth and income is gross. It has no moral justification nor ideologically in the rewards to genius and productivity doctrine of ideological capitalists. Rare is the individual who can claim that his or her wealth or income reflects the latter. Instead, it reflects inherited wealth, preferential treatment, success at outright fraud.The people of great wealth then use their money to gear the political system to their advantage. that's right - rig it. Even infrastructure is planned to their advantage and billed to taxpayers. Graduated income taxes and minimum wage laws are pathetic attempts at remedy. Our entire political and social structure need fundamental change. I wish there were automatic mechanisms like competitive markets, wise consumer choice as well as properly deigned and enforce consumer protection, environmental protection and truth in advertising laws, properly enforced, but they require action by a governing class which is quite satisfied with the way things are.
9
The editors have it wrong. The government should do minimum on wages and maximum on investments.
Yes, raising the minimum wage is long over due. It certainly should be at the $10/hr level and probably somewhat higher. Just pick your baseline year and apply an annual 3% inflation factor. I'm not as sure about the overtime pay rules, but again, apply the same formula and you'd have where it ought to be.
Other than that, there is very little that government can or should do to wage structures. Businesses set wage levels per a pretty straightforward method. The higher wages are paid to the scarcer workers with the most sought after skills that the owner or management cannot do him/herself. That's it. Clearly the availability of the global labor market depresses some wages for some high skills, IT comes to mind, but that's capitalism. The same rules apply to foreign capital competing with American capital for labor pools; see the emergence of foreign car manufacturers in the US.
The best means to alleviate poverty are through education and infrastructure jobs programs. These are the gold mines of investment that need to be made in this country. Of course, people have to be willing to be educated to acquire the necessary skills and that has been the subject of many debates on these pages. But there's no doubt that re-building the transportation, power, energy and communications infrastructures would create millions of jobs and billions of financial opportunities.
Yes, raising the minimum wage is long over due. It certainly should be at the $10/hr level and probably somewhat higher. Just pick your baseline year and apply an annual 3% inflation factor. I'm not as sure about the overtime pay rules, but again, apply the same formula and you'd have where it ought to be.
Other than that, there is very little that government can or should do to wage structures. Businesses set wage levels per a pretty straightforward method. The higher wages are paid to the scarcer workers with the most sought after skills that the owner or management cannot do him/herself. That's it. Clearly the availability of the global labor market depresses some wages for some high skills, IT comes to mind, but that's capitalism. The same rules apply to foreign capital competing with American capital for labor pools; see the emergence of foreign car manufacturers in the US.
The best means to alleviate poverty are through education and infrastructure jobs programs. These are the gold mines of investment that need to be made in this country. Of course, people have to be willing to be educated to acquire the necessary skills and that has been the subject of many debates on these pages. But there's no doubt that re-building the transportation, power, energy and communications infrastructures would create millions of jobs and billions of financial opportunities.
1
People need food stamps. Where does the blame lie for all the poverty in this country? Have Democrats been living somewhere else? Our Government, both Democrats and Republicans, are squarely to blame for the plight of the poor. Empty promises of better days for the poor often propels them to victory at the polls. The poor need a good education, good jobs, and a decent wage to lift themselves up. BOTH parties have failed in this regard. We just had 8 years of Obama and the Democrats running the government, and the poor are no better off now than they were 8 years ago. Republicans are also to blame for doing nothing during the years they were in power. The real problem is that BOTH political parties use the plight of the poor to garner votes. It's not going to change anytime soon. It's as simple as that.
1
What company pays one employee less than $1,287 per month? That's the gross income, in New York State, which would make a worker eligible to receive SNAP assistance.
I'm not arguing that employers pay anywhere near fair wages; but I would like to know how many pay their workers so little that they'd qualify for this help.
I'm not arguing that employers pay anywhere near fair wages; but I would like to know how many pay their workers so little that they'd qualify for this help.
1
"Extreme proposals are a way to make less extreme proposals seem acceptable."
This democracy is moving to a dichotomy of the "haves" and the "have-not's" in terms of income inequality and access to quality health care.
Democracy will not last under these diverging quality-of-life conditions.
"So the problem is not the number of people on food stamps; it’s that companies pay wages so low that their employees qualify for them. It is a problem that Congress and the White House can rectify, not by cutting spending, but by raising the minimum wage, updating the overtime-pay rules and instituting paid sick leave — for starters."
The Donald Trump Republican mentality must go the way of the dinosaurs.
This democracy is moving to a dichotomy of the "haves" and the "have-not's" in terms of income inequality and access to quality health care.
Democracy will not last under these diverging quality-of-life conditions.
"So the problem is not the number of people on food stamps; it’s that companies pay wages so low that their employees qualify for them. It is a problem that Congress and the White House can rectify, not by cutting spending, but by raising the minimum wage, updating the overtime-pay rules and instituting paid sick leave — for starters."
The Donald Trump Republican mentality must go the way of the dinosaurs.
3
Luckily for republicans dinosaurs can vote
We've heard the same arguments and made up negative stereotypes of low income and poor people forever. Whenever it's budget time in Washington, program's to help the poor are easy to cut because those people don't have a strong voice and few advocates. At an average of $1.40 per meal, I find it hard to be outraged if a few people should somehow get $2.80 sometimes. It's not worth throwing out the whole program, or severely cutting benefits and punishing the majority who need the assistance. With the food waste that goes on in this country, with people throwing away much of what they buy, I find it shameful that this country can't find smarter and more efficient ways to feed our needy people. To sit in judgement of anyone who can't afford adequate nutrition is just wrong. Are the lawmakers all "worthy" of their salaries and benefits? I truly doubt it.
3
Adjusting minimum wage upward will probably make it so that small businesses are able to higher fewer people, and or go out of business.
Public assistance in reference to food, shelter, and health care (physical, social, mental, emotional), has to be more than a "one size fits all;" innovative thoughtful attention based on categorical needs (an alternative to individual need) has to be put into place.
I am of the impression that in attending to public education more comprehensively we will be better positioned to resolve and hold off some of the symptoms of poverty.
Public assistance in reference to food, shelter, and health care (physical, social, mental, emotional), has to be more than a "one size fits all;" innovative thoughtful attention based on categorical needs (an alternative to individual need) has to be put into place.
I am of the impression that in attending to public education more comprehensively we will be better positioned to resolve and hold off some of the symptoms of poverty.
The entirety of the GOP and far too many Democrats in Congress are lobbyists for the rich while they are supposed to represent their constituents. They will tell the people any lie to justify granting the desires of their sponsors without regard for the suffering those desires, if granted, will cause to the people. Where is all the trickle down from prior tax cuts? We have greater debt, more poverty, stagnating wages and skyrocketing corporate profits. In fact, tax cuts on the rich encourage hoarding, not trickle down. High progressive tax rates encourage trickle down and always have. If you have to pay confiscatory taxes over a certain amount, you might as well pay better wages and benefits or lower your prices rather than pay it in taxes to the government. But even if they decide they would rather pay high taxes they are helping to support they people whose labor they exploit without paying a living wage. That they have the nerve to complain about the poor needing food stamps to survive on starvation wages is another issue altogether.
2
So the real free-loaders are the companies who use labor so cheap that the government has to supplement the income.
Perhaps we need an additional business tax on profit that exceeds the salary costs of the lower 80% of the employees: then companies could only make what they pay (and cap the top 20% salaries to the same).
Perhaps we need an additional business tax on profit that exceeds the salary costs of the lower 80% of the employees: then companies could only make what they pay (and cap the top 20% salaries to the same).
2
A retiree whose only income comes from Social Security can expect SNAP benefits that amount to about $3.33 per day. Even at that rate, it is a welcome relief from the burden of finding enough money to live on each month. It would be unconscionable to reduce this meager benefit even further than it already has been over the past few years. And the fact that 46 million people currently get SNAP benefits should be considered a national embarrassment by those who are seeking reduce that number simply by making it harder to qualify, without addressing the underlying problems that give rise to poverty.
4
To call the notion that food stamps (and other income support programs) discourage work "nonsense" is a step too far. For many, yes it is nonsense, because disability, age, or other factors have put work out of reach.
But it's okay, useful even, that progressives acknowledge that sometimes it isn't nonsense. The number of disabled, working-age Americans has skyrocketed in recent years. Some of that is is doing a better job of bringing aid to those who need it, and some surely is people taking undue advantage of disability guidelines to avoid work.
What is more, the over-reaching "nonsense" label disregards another cohort: those who have actual disabilities, but brought on by their own poor choices, leading to diabetes, obesity, and other preventable conditions.
Refusing to acknowledge that criticisms of these programs are sometimes not "nonsense" puts the programs themselves at risk. We are seeing that right now, in the Trump budget. And by dismissing those criticisms so blithely, the Editorial Board gives Trump and his base cover they do not deserve.
But it's okay, useful even, that progressives acknowledge that sometimes it isn't nonsense. The number of disabled, working-age Americans has skyrocketed in recent years. Some of that is is doing a better job of bringing aid to those who need it, and some surely is people taking undue advantage of disability guidelines to avoid work.
What is more, the over-reaching "nonsense" label disregards another cohort: those who have actual disabilities, but brought on by their own poor choices, leading to diabetes, obesity, and other preventable conditions.
Refusing to acknowledge that criticisms of these programs are sometimes not "nonsense" puts the programs themselves at risk. We are seeing that right now, in the Trump budget. And by dismissing those criticisms so blithely, the Editorial Board gives Trump and his base cover they do not deserve.
2
Re "And no matter how large a family is, the benefit calculation would be capped at six people." This seems like a tacit endorsement of family planning. If the family cap were to go into effect, access to birth control should be part of the equation and should be widely expanded.
2
Food stamps - and Medicaid - also help those of us who have family members who are poor. Many of us have relatives who want to work, but are unable to because of physical or mental disabilities. We need this safety net, too - it's an incredible hardship to support your own family and also contribute to support for an adult disabled relative. And approval for SSD is not easy - we are still waiting and hoping.
This is a problem that will only get worse.
Trying to pass minimum wage laws in a Republican-controlled Congress in the current U.S. political climate simply will not happen. The opposition to these laws from the people who would benefit most from their passage because they "don't want government interfering in their lives" is beyond comprehension. Worse, the poor remain contemptuous of their fellow poor, as Barbara Ehrenreich ("Nickel and Dimed", 2001) and David K. Shipler ("The Working Poor - Invisible in America", 2004) documented in groundbreaking books nearly two decades ago.
The other side of the poverty coin is that the U.S. population has grown too large while, simultaneously, the number of decent paying jobs that can sustain a family above the poverty level have declined precipitously. Automation and technology are job-killers whose overarching goal is to do more (increase productivity) with less (fewer people). The U.S. can no longer provide a sufficient number of jobs and workplace opportunities to maintain a viable lifestyle for a family without requiring some form of assistance.
Sadly, no end in sight to this problem, one that increasingly defines the U.S. as a Third World country for an increasing number of its citizens.
Trying to pass minimum wage laws in a Republican-controlled Congress in the current U.S. political climate simply will not happen. The opposition to these laws from the people who would benefit most from their passage because they "don't want government interfering in their lives" is beyond comprehension. Worse, the poor remain contemptuous of their fellow poor, as Barbara Ehrenreich ("Nickel and Dimed", 2001) and David K. Shipler ("The Working Poor - Invisible in America", 2004) documented in groundbreaking books nearly two decades ago.
The other side of the poverty coin is that the U.S. population has grown too large while, simultaneously, the number of decent paying jobs that can sustain a family above the poverty level have declined precipitously. Automation and technology are job-killers whose overarching goal is to do more (increase productivity) with less (fewer people). The U.S. can no longer provide a sufficient number of jobs and workplace opportunities to maintain a viable lifestyle for a family without requiring some form of assistance.
Sadly, no end in sight to this problem, one that increasingly defines the U.S. as a Third World country for an increasing number of its citizens.
1
Food stamps, supplemental nutrition assistance, whatever you want to call programs permanently relegating people to living off the government, are not healthy. People should become self sufficient and programs that don't help them achieve that goal should be phased out. Bill Clinton's welfare to workfare is an example of a positive program. Doubling the number of people on welfare during the recession with no change after the economy picked up is a perfect example of a bad initiative. Many people "manage" their hours to maximize net support. Government creates these handcuffs as they guarantee votes. Incentives should promote advancement not status quo. There will always be people who are unable to advance....government should protect them. Not every one needs a cell phone, certainly not one paid for by taxpayers. Our infrastructure is failing because we have shifted payments from repairs and improvements to expanded, permanent social programs. This limits taxpayers' abilities to efficiently get to their jobs and pay for the people not contributing.
2
in New York unmarried stamp food recipients receive more in a month than I spend on food. there is no sympathy in my corner for them.
3
If helping the poor were viewed as a moral issue, perhaps religious institutions would raise their voices against political action that disadvantages them further, and do so with the same fervor they reserve for public stands against abortion, contraception and what they view as sexual deviance. To advocate on those issues while remaining all but silent on political action that hurts the poor is not only unjust, it is immoral. Religious institutions are seeking more freedom to influence the political process, and are getting encouraging results from the present administration. We can only hope they will use their growing political influence for the good of all citizens, and not just for those with conservative views on the right side of the political spectrum.
2
Food stamp, disability, and Social Security dollars are even more important for Red Counties and 60 rural counties lowest in concentrations with Native Reservations and high proportions of African American or Hispanic populations. Together these are essentially the 2621 lowest physician concentration counties that have lowest levels of health care workforce, facilities, health care dollars spent locally. This 40% of the US population consumes about 42% of Food Stamp, Disability, and Social Security dollars. Government spending and jobs, local health care, and local education are the key economic contributors since other economics are lacking in these counties. Cuts in Food Stamps and disability, cuts in housing and utility assistance, cutbacks of government jobs, and cuts in Medicaid/CHIP will most adversely impact these lowest concentration counties.
Growing deficits of affordable and available housing in higher concentration settings, made worse by eminent domain and greed and poorly built public housing, will shift even more elderly, lower income, fixed income, Veteran, disabled, and less healthy populations to lower concentration counties.
This 40% of the nation in 2010 should be 50% by 2040 given past growth patterns plus more driven to such counties. Health, education, and government spending designs insure worse to come with more people, fewer dollars, greater demand for care, and the opposite of responsive government.
Growing deficits of affordable and available housing in higher concentration settings, made worse by eminent domain and greed and poorly built public housing, will shift even more elderly, lower income, fixed income, Veteran, disabled, and less healthy populations to lower concentration counties.
This 40% of the nation in 2010 should be 50% by 2040 given past growth patterns plus more driven to such counties. Health, education, and government spending designs insure worse to come with more people, fewer dollars, greater demand for care, and the opposite of responsive government.
1
Two possible solutions - raise the minimum wage to the "living wage" and/or "universal income."
Universal income - a basic payment to each person, is the way of the future. Conservatives should like it because it eliminates "targeted" programs and because it makes the minimum wage obsolete. Progressives should like it because it puts more money in the hands of those who need it. Libertarians should like it because the government is not telling people what to do. And the recipients should like it because they will be getting money (which, as the Yogi Berra AFLAC commercial said, is almost like cash) and they do not have the issue of earning just enough to fall of the benefit program (sometimes a little more in earnings results in a net negative income). And even the President should like it, because putting all that money in people's hands should allow the economy to grow substantially.
Yes, we would all have to pay more in taxes. But, like government provided single payer healthcare, we would all get a lot back.
Universal income - a basic payment to each person, is the way of the future. Conservatives should like it because it eliminates "targeted" programs and because it makes the minimum wage obsolete. Progressives should like it because it puts more money in the hands of those who need it. Libertarians should like it because the government is not telling people what to do. And the recipients should like it because they will be getting money (which, as the Yogi Berra AFLAC commercial said, is almost like cash) and they do not have the issue of earning just enough to fall of the benefit program (sometimes a little more in earnings results in a net negative income). And even the President should like it, because putting all that money in people's hands should allow the economy to grow substantially.
Yes, we would all have to pay more in taxes. But, like government provided single payer healthcare, we would all get a lot back.
1
Excellent article. I know two people on food stamps. The first is a college educated professional but was financially devastated after a stroke in his early 50s , which left him permanently disabled. The second is a young college student with no dependents who working two minimum wage jobs. Exactly how will cutting food aid from persons such as these be helpful?
4
Lets not forget that Food Stamps are also part of our farm subsidy system, allowing lower income people to spend more on American grown food,
1
In the Orthodox Republican Catechism ALL of the poor are undeserving. If you're poor, it's because God doesn't love YOU. if you are rich, it's because of your own hard work and diligence -- particularly so if you were able to work hard at picking the right parents.
I have never been poor. I have been dead broke a few times. But I have never experienced the crushing, soul killing mind-numbing millstone of poverty. Unlike the current crop of sanctimonious Republican politicians, I have great empathy for those less fortunate than myself who still rise every day and struggle against their economic condition. When people need help, as a nation we should offer help. Some people will require that assistance their entire lives -- others, like Ben Carson, will work their way out of that situation with some help, diligence and a hearty measure of luck. That Dr. Carson should be so clueless is disheartening.
I refuse to be cowed by today's self-styled conservatives who, managed to turn the label "liberal" into an epithet. Well, guys, I am a LIBERAL. I would much prefer my tax dollars going to feed poor children and adult that being spent on more aircraft carrier groups or even old-fashioned, simple bullets.
I have never been poor. I have been dead broke a few times. But I have never experienced the crushing, soul killing mind-numbing millstone of poverty. Unlike the current crop of sanctimonious Republican politicians, I have great empathy for those less fortunate than myself who still rise every day and struggle against their economic condition. When people need help, as a nation we should offer help. Some people will require that assistance their entire lives -- others, like Ben Carson, will work their way out of that situation with some help, diligence and a hearty measure of luck. That Dr. Carson should be so clueless is disheartening.
I refuse to be cowed by today's self-styled conservatives who, managed to turn the label "liberal" into an epithet. Well, guys, I am a LIBERAL. I would much prefer my tax dollars going to feed poor children and adult that being spent on more aircraft carrier groups or even old-fashioned, simple bullets.
1
Policies that perpetuate and expand poverty is the only thing that the GOP is reliable on anymore. This current budget is just twisting the knife that they stabbed into the back of the working poor a generation ago.
Do you honestly expect either the White House or Congress to rectify anything? Serving the whole or total constituency has been cast aside. Money and re-election funding is the big draw.
2
That budget is a crime against humanity. The fact that people could even think like that is terrifying. The value system reflected in the Trump/Ryan/Mulvaney budget is beyond immoral, it is brutal.
Human beings - all creatures - are deserving of respect. Life is a precious thing, even the lives of poor people.
Power in the hands of cruel, greedy, ignorant men can never do good; it can only destroy.
Where is the hope in that budget? There is none. There is only destruction. There is money for weapons, for prisons, for walls.
I watched Hillary Clinton's speech at Wellesley this morning. Why she isn't President is beyond me. This was more than a contest between a Republican and a Democrat, it was a war between darkness and light and the darkness won.
Human beings - all creatures - are deserving of respect. Life is a precious thing, even the lives of poor people.
Power in the hands of cruel, greedy, ignorant men can never do good; it can only destroy.
Where is the hope in that budget? There is none. There is only destruction. There is money for weapons, for prisons, for walls.
I watched Hillary Clinton's speech at Wellesley this morning. Why she isn't President is beyond me. This was more than a contest between a Republican and a Democrat, it was a war between darkness and light and the darkness won.
2
Our society gives far too much to the undeserving Rich and far too little to the deserving Poor.
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance who have much, it is whether we provide enough to those who have little."
FDR's 2nd Inaugural Address
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance who have much, it is whether we provide enough to those who have little."
FDR's 2nd Inaugural Address
2
Thank you. SNAP is corporate welfare for employers who pay below a living wage. It doesn't discourage work; quite the contrary. It enables people to take jobs that don't pay enough to live.
1
I grew up on welfare because my father was a disabled veteran from WWII. There were no food stamps in the 1950's, but we received government food rations. The government bought up surplus farm production and gave it to the poor. We received stuff like 20 lbs. of beans, 20 lbs, of rice, 20 lbs of powdered potatoes, powered eggs, powered milk, a tub of lard. Nothing the required refrigeration so no meat, chicken, or fish. The switch to food stamps was primarily to help the food industry sell their poison products.
I will be forever grateful for the generosity of the American people in feeding my family. I earned a Ph.D. and have done well. I have paid 1,000 time more in taxes than my family ever received in welfare. The idea that poor people are poor because they are genetically inferior, stupid, or lazy, is not the America I grew up in.
I will be forever grateful for the generosity of the American people in feeding my family. I earned a Ph.D. and have done well. I have paid 1,000 time more in taxes than my family ever received in welfare. The idea that poor people are poor because they are genetically inferior, stupid, or lazy, is not the America I grew up in.
321
Our state and federal governments have spent a couple of generations passing laws and regulations that allow business to harass workers who join, or attempt to create labor unions. Wages and benefits are low? Connect the dots!
I have a co-worker who voted for Trump and it seems there is no discussion with him on these issues. He has has fact free FOX shows and it is end of discussion. He is very good in his IT role so I am sure it is all in what and who he listens to. The problem is not food stamp but a fact free right wing media that allows people to listen to nothing else.
3
I live in a resort community where the two biggest industries are the hospitality industry and retail - both notoriously low-paying industries. Our county has the lowest average wage in the state and, from November to April, the highest unemployment rate. So now it's the beginning of the high season and we're at full employment here but working people are still sleeping under buildings and in 'camps' because they can't afford housing and food. Significant cuts in the food stamp program would be a disaster for this area.
14
Exactly right, Editorial Board. Poverty is the enemy and the tool to fix that is education. Giant corporations who can pay minimum wage and shuffle worker's schedules so adeptly that they must remain in the part time bracket are taking advantage of the worker, and the tax payer simultaneously. If tax dollars are used for SNAP benefits and these workers can qualify, then what we have is a scheme of corporate welfare. Billions in profit year after year while the workers are ground down.
11
Can you get beyond your rhetoric?
A "billion in profit" sounds like a lot, and perhaps immoral to some. But please remember the size of the US labor force. We about 150 million workers, redistributing each billion dollars of profit would add $6.67 to everyone's pay--for the year.
A "billion in profit" sounds like a lot, and perhaps immoral to some. But please remember the size of the US labor force. We about 150 million workers, redistributing each billion dollars of profit would add $6.67 to everyone's pay--for the year.
1
This is a bigger problem than just wages. We have two distinct economies rapidly moving apart. One has been created for people with instant access to capital, resources, and politically connected networks. The other is for the "servant" working class.
The "servants" are the people who fix things, work doing everyday chores, work in small business agriculture, and public servants. These people are not looking to hold stock in Google. They just want to pay their every day bills and enjoy their kids. Growth in technology helps only in an incremental way in this economy. Often these are people who use technology mostly for enhanced communication rather than like a "shovel" to do heavy-lifting work. Basically, a phone and email. They don't need Uber.
We've assigned this "secondary" servant economy the label of poverty because people don't have the resources, nor are they ever likely to have the resources, to live life in the primary growth economy. Yes, this is because the "primary" economy takes these services for granted and pays less for a growing labor pool to do them. Thus "secondary" people are shut out of incremental things like owning their own home. Giving their kids a great education and they lack decent health care or access to it.
The label "Poverty" is a pejorative. Those in the "primary" economy, refuse to acknowledge the hard work it is to simply survive and actively seem to humiliate those who do not strive for "primary" lives.
The "servants" are the people who fix things, work doing everyday chores, work in small business agriculture, and public servants. These people are not looking to hold stock in Google. They just want to pay their every day bills and enjoy their kids. Growth in technology helps only in an incremental way in this economy. Often these are people who use technology mostly for enhanced communication rather than like a "shovel" to do heavy-lifting work. Basically, a phone and email. They don't need Uber.
We've assigned this "secondary" servant economy the label of poverty because people don't have the resources, nor are they ever likely to have the resources, to live life in the primary growth economy. Yes, this is because the "primary" economy takes these services for granted and pays less for a growing labor pool to do them. Thus "secondary" people are shut out of incremental things like owning their own home. Giving their kids a great education and they lack decent health care or access to it.
The label "Poverty" is a pejorative. Those in the "primary" economy, refuse to acknowledge the hard work it is to simply survive and actively seem to humiliate those who do not strive for "primary" lives.
15
CEO pay and compensation packages are a form of welfare but the GOP is not interested in railing against that. It's welfare because there is hardly a person in that elite power hungry group whose compensation truly matches their individual contributions. This welfare is subsidized by artificially low wages for those who contribute daily to the profits.
Tax shelters for the wealthy are also forms of welfare for the elite. It's all obscene.
I would challenge any of the GOP to try to live off of the minimum wage and support a family without any assistance. In order to pull oneself up by the bootstraps one first needs a pair of boots.
Tax shelters for the wealthy are also forms of welfare for the elite. It's all obscene.
I would challenge any of the GOP to try to live off of the minimum wage and support a family without any assistance. In order to pull oneself up by the bootstraps one first needs a pair of boots.
18
If you want a 2 for 1 against poverty, require SNAP funds only be used at retailers that pay a living wage- not the minimum wage. That would preclude their use at Wal-Mart and others that underpay workers.
7
In my neighborhood, schoolchildren and elderly volunteers glean whatever is left in the field at the invitation of local farmers, for the Food Bank. Volunteers put together a "backpack" of weekend meals for the families of children on federally subsidized lunch because people need to eat on the weekends too. Because Food Stamps don't cover diapers, we have diaper drives, and a center to distribute them to mothers in need. Supermarkets freeze meat and fish on the sell-by dates, again for the Food Bank. Volunteers collect and sort and distribute. Other volunteers cook and deliver meals to shut-ins. The need is immense. Why is it that our current government has no will to make much of this unnecessary by assuring a livable wage? Why is helping the old and sick not a priority at the federal level? While I'm glad that service to the community is a strong local value, I wish it were also a federal value.
16
This editorial fails to address a number of important facts:
1. The greatest nutrition problem among poor Americans today is obesity, not malnutrition.
2. The Obama administration engineered a massive increase in the food stamp program which has endured far beyond the exigencies of the Great Recession. The Trump budget would simply partially roll back that expansion to pre-recession levels.
3. Democrats have used and abused welfare programs for 50 years as a way to buy votes. Unfortunately, too many Democrat politicians know that a person trapped in welfare and government dependency is a locked in Democratic voter. This is why they favor welfare programs over actions that produce broad prosperity.
4. Much of the function of the Welfare State, such as food stamps could be assumed by private charitable organizations, as they were prior to the 1960s. The War on Poverty has spent tens of trillions of dollars “fighting” poverty, yet poverty continues to grow. It is a fundamentally failed approach.
5. The reason why states “cannot afford” to take over more of the SNAP program is that states must balance their budgets and raise taxes to finance increased spending, while the federal government can borrow virtually without limit until our credit runs out. Democrats want to continue the bipartisan Washington fantasy that “deficits don’t matter”.
The Trump budget cuts are called “cruel” but they are simply facing the cruel reality of the fiscal disaster that the fed govt is in.
1. The greatest nutrition problem among poor Americans today is obesity, not malnutrition.
2. The Obama administration engineered a massive increase in the food stamp program which has endured far beyond the exigencies of the Great Recession. The Trump budget would simply partially roll back that expansion to pre-recession levels.
3. Democrats have used and abused welfare programs for 50 years as a way to buy votes. Unfortunately, too many Democrat politicians know that a person trapped in welfare and government dependency is a locked in Democratic voter. This is why they favor welfare programs over actions that produce broad prosperity.
4. Much of the function of the Welfare State, such as food stamps could be assumed by private charitable organizations, as they were prior to the 1960s. The War on Poverty has spent tens of trillions of dollars “fighting” poverty, yet poverty continues to grow. It is a fundamentally failed approach.
5. The reason why states “cannot afford” to take over more of the SNAP program is that states must balance their budgets and raise taxes to finance increased spending, while the federal government can borrow virtually without limit until our credit runs out. Democrats want to continue the bipartisan Washington fantasy that “deficits don’t matter”.
The Trump budget cuts are called “cruel” but they are simply facing the cruel reality of the fiscal disaster that the fed govt is in.
5
Well this pile of fact free drivel deserves more repudiation than one has time for, but at least get attribution of a quote correct - it was Cheney, a republican, who said "deficits don't matter.
How one can completely ignore the far greater deficits run up by republican presidents compared to democrats is beyond belief, but when facts don't matter, beliefs stewed in ignorance result in comments like this.
How one can completely ignore the far greater deficits run up by republican presidents compared to democrats is beyond belief, but when facts don't matter, beliefs stewed in ignorance result in comments like this.
These are the same arguments conservatives have drawn out for decades. I've seen them so many times they start to sound like everyone reads/writes from the same script. ALEC does this to a "t."
1. The cheapest foods are junk - high carbs/fat. Many poor/elderly people live in "food deserts" where they have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
2. Nonsense about voting. Democrats don't assume anything, especially after this election. You think most of those hard core Trump voters are rich? How many do you think are on public assistance? You know. You just hide from it.
3. The population keeps growing. More people are working low wage jobs in the service sector because our economy has shifted to predominantly service jobs. We have farmed most manufacturing to China or Mexico. The minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and a person working a full-time minimum wage job is still living in poverty. This is unconscionable.
4. Charitable organizations? You keep squeezing the middle class into the lower ranks and you're not going to HAVE charitable organizations! Why? We will have NO MONEY TO GIVE THEM. They don't run on nothing. You must not have experienced the Depression.
5. Deficits and long-term public debt increase exponentially under Republican administrations. Why? Military spending. Power over people.
1. The cheapest foods are junk - high carbs/fat. Many poor/elderly people live in "food deserts" where they have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
2. Nonsense about voting. Democrats don't assume anything, especially after this election. You think most of those hard core Trump voters are rich? How many do you think are on public assistance? You know. You just hide from it.
3. The population keeps growing. More people are working low wage jobs in the service sector because our economy has shifted to predominantly service jobs. We have farmed most manufacturing to China or Mexico. The minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and a person working a full-time minimum wage job is still living in poverty. This is unconscionable.
4. Charitable organizations? You keep squeezing the middle class into the lower ranks and you're not going to HAVE charitable organizations! Why? We will have NO MONEY TO GIVE THEM. They don't run on nothing. You must not have experienced the Depression.
5. Deficits and long-term public debt increase exponentially under Republican administrations. Why? Military spending. Power over people.
You are demonstrably empirically incorrect on each and every point.
1
Here is a pretty obvious point to consider. If I pay my employees so little that they qualify for food aid, what does that mean? It means I am transferring the responsibility of paying a living wage to whom? I'm transferring it to you. So, who is the moocher? It's not the employee on food aid. The moocher is me.
As others have suggested, if the Walmart Waltons wanted to, they could pay every single one of their employees a living wage, and relieve you and me of the burden of maintaining their addiction to wealth. They might have to get by on only $25 billion instead of $50 billion. Anybody who runs a business with employees on food aid is a moocher. It's that simple.
As others have suggested, if the Walmart Waltons wanted to, they could pay every single one of their employees a living wage, and relieve you and me of the burden of maintaining their addiction to wealth. They might have to get by on only $25 billion instead of $50 billion. Anybody who runs a business with employees on food aid is a moocher. It's that simple.
461
Brilliant.
1
I'll see your Walmart and raise you a couple of airlines.
For many years regional airline pilots -- hardly a low-skill occupation -- were subject to wages low enough that they qualified for food stamps.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/pilots-on-food-stamps_b_3199...
Of course if the pilots were underpaid, so were the flight attendants. Seems the airlines didn't like this info to be made public, and threatened to terminate workers who vocalized their predicaments.
http://avstop.com/news_august_2010/flight_attendant_gets_fired_for_sayin...
So yeah, it's time do demand that if a company hires someone, it needs to compensate him adequately. Otherwise, this is just corporate welfare masquerading as individual welfare.
For many years regional airline pilots -- hardly a low-skill occupation -- were subject to wages low enough that they qualified for food stamps.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/pilots-on-food-stamps_b_3199...
Of course if the pilots were underpaid, so were the flight attendants. Seems the airlines didn't like this info to be made public, and threatened to terminate workers who vocalized their predicaments.
http://avstop.com/news_august_2010/flight_attendant_gets_fired_for_sayin...
So yeah, it's time do demand that if a company hires someone, it needs to compensate him adequately. Otherwise, this is just corporate welfare masquerading as individual welfare.
2
One facet of public assistance, argued against here, troubles me greatly--the eligibility cap on family size for food stamps. Why is it inhumane to restrict benefits to only the number of family members currently in existence when the assistance is granted? Far from a Republican, I still DO believe that a program that guarantees benefits to families that have additional children while in said program is an abuse of the taxpayer's goodwill. Even "low-skilled" people must make adult choices.
3
I worked in a grocery store in a rust belt area of NY ain't the late 1970's. Even though Bethlem And Republic Steel were still go go then. Here are the food stamp issues for States, Farms don't produce cash crops year round unless they are dairy. Even then sometimes the price of milk isn't enough to break even and feed your family. You need to feed the heard first.
Then in most the the construction you can not work construction unless it is above 40 degrees. You can not pour concrete ( unless you put in all sorts of expensive additives, tent have heaters. You can't paint outside unless it is above 40 degrees and dry. You can not pave the roads unless it above 40 degrees. So basically you loose working in Dec, Jan, Feb in 2/3 of the country in a large portion of the construction industry. I went on and got a Masters degree in Construction Engineering and Management. 1/6 jobs are construction related. Let's just say 1/12 of them have at least a three month impact by weather. I have built a hospital and lab in anchorage. You have less than 5 months to build there.
Construction workers go on unemployment and food stamps during these time periods when the weather does not allow them to work. They used to have Union funds they kept them off Food Stamps. But the Republicans and owners of the Construction Companies have broken most of the unions. Rumor is Donald Trump wants to get rid of Davis-Bacon Wage Rate of Federal Projects.
Then in most the the construction you can not work construction unless it is above 40 degrees. You can not pour concrete ( unless you put in all sorts of expensive additives, tent have heaters. You can't paint outside unless it is above 40 degrees and dry. You can not pave the roads unless it above 40 degrees. So basically you loose working in Dec, Jan, Feb in 2/3 of the country in a large portion of the construction industry. I went on and got a Masters degree in Construction Engineering and Management. 1/6 jobs are construction related. Let's just say 1/12 of them have at least a three month impact by weather. I have built a hospital and lab in anchorage. You have less than 5 months to build there.
Construction workers go on unemployment and food stamps during these time periods when the weather does not allow them to work. They used to have Union funds they kept them off Food Stamps. But the Republicans and owners of the Construction Companies have broken most of the unions. Rumor is Donald Trump wants to get rid of Davis-Bacon Wage Rate of Federal Projects.
6
It should be a requirement of all elected officials that serve in our nation's capitol that they spend a week living the life of the poor in America. They have no idea what it is like; the challenges, obstacles and barriers that need to be met and surmounted each and every day.
I wonder how long it would take for them to get a bit of humanity back?
I wonder how long it would take for them to get a bit of humanity back?
170
This has been done by a number of leaders and they still don't get it. There are just many cruel people who choose to make decisions for us in public "leadership" positions. Maybe it is an empathy issue?
It would be better they lived that way with no escape hatch for at least 3 months.
1
on a different vein force Mayor De Blasio and Governor Cuomo to ride the subway. or how about requiring public school teachers to send their own children to public school. see how fast the service and education improves.
2
The central idea to take away from this that extreme ideas make terrible but less extreme ideas palatable.
Recommend eliminating food stamps makes cutting them 40% look better. And recommending that eliminating rules that insurers need to cover sick people makes rules that increase the already unaffordable cost by 3X, 4X or 5X look like a compromise.
What we need to realize is that we do need people to eat, and we do need people to have access to healthcare, and we do need education to compete with the other 7 billion people on the planet who also need work.
We don't need a wall. We don't need a military to police the world. We don;t need to accrue all the national riches into the pockets of just a few families.
Revolutions and uprisings, mobs and violence come from social unrest. If we think healthcare is expensive to the taxpayer, just wait until we find out how much social unrest will cost. Penny wise and dollar stupid.
Recommend eliminating food stamps makes cutting them 40% look better. And recommending that eliminating rules that insurers need to cover sick people makes rules that increase the already unaffordable cost by 3X, 4X or 5X look like a compromise.
What we need to realize is that we do need people to eat, and we do need people to have access to healthcare, and we do need education to compete with the other 7 billion people on the planet who also need work.
We don't need a wall. We don't need a military to police the world. We don;t need to accrue all the national riches into the pockets of just a few families.
Revolutions and uprisings, mobs and violence come from social unrest. If we think healthcare is expensive to the taxpayer, just wait until we find out how much social unrest will cost. Penny wise and dollar stupid.
7
Yea but that is the point in isolating the poor and minorities in separate communities - the social unrest hits their communities while the lucky few only have to tsk tsk while watching it on television.
Warren Beatty's character said it best in Bulworth - white need to understand they have a lot more in common with black people than they do with rich people.
Warren Beatty's character said it best in Bulworth - white need to understand they have a lot more in common with black people than they do with rich people.
Conservative ideologues like to spout the theory that government aid fosters dependence, which is rubbish -- somebody ought to make them produce some evidence. But what stuns me is the prevalence of active, naked hostility towards the poor, usually in sotto voce comments implying fraud. "See that girl with a SNAP card? How'd she get a new iPhone?" And so on. Few Americans understand the extent of poverty in this country, and many still see poverty as a character flaw. Those beliefs are a major obstacle for all who hope to preserve compassionate social programs.
7
In the 70's I needed food stamps to get me through a tough period. I now work as a teacher assistant and see students from homes that wouldn't have enough food if it wasn't for food stamps.. Try being a student athlete when you are hungry or malnourished. I see elderly people who live in modest homes with minimum quality of life, but can stock their kitchen with food to stay healthy and happy because of food stamps. They worked entry level jobs, paid taxes and raised successful children. Isn't that our duty as Americans? In return, we must care for each other.
222
We do not have a hunger problem in the USA. Our poor people have overall rates of obesity higher than richer people.
I am a Registered Dietitian with a Master's Degree in Public Health and former Peace Corps volunteer.
Save for those with wasting diseases (AIDS, cancer) and the elderly, we should not be paying people to eat more food, particularly unhealthful food. It makes no sense that food stamps can be used to buy soda, for example. Water is free, and that's what I drink.
It is a myth that the poor have protein deficiencies or any other deficiencies at greater rates than the non poor.
If you think our poor people here are "hungry" than what do you think about the people in Venezuela or some African countries facing famine?
The way you measure hunger or starvation (stunting or wasting) is via height (long term hunger) or Mid-upper-arm circumference (acute starvation). Our poor people are doing fine in these respects.
At the very least, there should be certain foods that are allowed with food stamps (fruits, vegetables, beans, some proteins products like chicken, beef, canned tuna, etc.) Food stamps are supposed to be "supplemental" not used to purchase foods promoting obesity and poor health.
Maine tried to eliminate soda purchases with food stamps, but the Obama administration refused to allow that.
That is insanity, and most prominent Nutritionists agree with me.
Perhaps this administration will do better.
I am a Registered Dietitian with a Master's Degree in Public Health and former Peace Corps volunteer.
Save for those with wasting diseases (AIDS, cancer) and the elderly, we should not be paying people to eat more food, particularly unhealthful food. It makes no sense that food stamps can be used to buy soda, for example. Water is free, and that's what I drink.
It is a myth that the poor have protein deficiencies or any other deficiencies at greater rates than the non poor.
If you think our poor people here are "hungry" than what do you think about the people in Venezuela or some African countries facing famine?
The way you measure hunger or starvation (stunting or wasting) is via height (long term hunger) or Mid-upper-arm circumference (acute starvation). Our poor people are doing fine in these respects.
At the very least, there should be certain foods that are allowed with food stamps (fruits, vegetables, beans, some proteins products like chicken, beef, canned tuna, etc.) Food stamps are supposed to be "supplemental" not used to purchase foods promoting obesity and poor health.
Maine tried to eliminate soda purchases with food stamps, but the Obama administration refused to allow that.
That is insanity, and most prominent Nutritionists agree with me.
Perhaps this administration will do better.
11
I agree! I think the government should be responsible to providing Feed My Starving Children type meals at 22 cents each to those in need. That should be enough to provide the basic nutritional needs for people. If they want anything beyond that, they can pay for it themselves. Or if others feel that people deserve more choices, then they can donate their own money.
Poor people don't have access to affordable, fresh healthy food. They also don't have access to good healthcare or good education. Large agribusinesses make more money stocking inner city and rural grocery stores with boxed junk laden with sweeteners and salt than delivering wholesome food. We in the suburbs have the choice to buy organic grass fed beef that is not available in Spanish Harlem or wherever.
Your bravery in declaring yourself a supposedly well educated peace corps alum and then proceeding to spout such blatantly fact free ignorance is to be commended- few others would be so courageous.
Your bravery in declaring yourself a supposedly well educated peace corps alum and then proceeding to spout such blatantly fact free ignorance is to be commended- few others would be so courageous.
Wow, did you stop to think that the obesity may be due to a lack of healthy food? For you to compare a poor American with a third world country to fit your definition of "starving " is absurd. So by your logic, an African with a bloated stomach cannot be starving because his stomach looks full is bad logic.
1
When Wal-Mart and McDonald's counsel their full time workers on how to get food stamps, we have a problem. We taxpayers are subsidizing the people at the top of these corporations as well as the workers at the bottom. End corporate welfare and raise the minimum wage! This would be a no-brainer but for Citizens United's effect on the electoral process plus lobbying by corporations.
14
While I find the proposal to curb the food stamp program to be extremely cruel, also believe its safeguards must be strengthened. And while I know my next statement will elicit a great amount of criticism from my fellow readers I will make it nonetheless: if a family needs to rely on food stamps then why in God's name do they have so many children? Yes, I know that GOP policies also curtail family planning services and therefore these things must be addressed in tandem, but sometimes the truth hurts and the truth is that while we must be compassionate and help people in need taxpayers should not be required to continue helping people some of whom refuse to help themselves.
62
I disagree. This is more victim blaming.
1
I would guess that one would have so many children because they have no access to birth control or abortion. Health care is very costly in the States and if you cannot afford food, how can you afford health care? The safety net is thin and raveling daily.
1
And what about those who can't help themselves? In your world that will be just tough luck.
And yes, fact free blatherings get flamed for the stupidity they represent
And yes, fact free blatherings get flamed for the stupidity they represent
1
I live in a resort area and many of the workers in the service industry hide there cash tips. Then when the season is over they work for cash in the construction industry .At the same time they file for unemployment and probably qualify for food stamps. Unfortunately there are a lot of people gaming the system which ruins it for those who truly need assistance.
6
Where's the data? I'm curious as to the education level of most food stamps recipients. Also, here in New York - if you receive unemployment benefits you are unable to qualify for food stamps because they say you make to much money (a little over $400 per week). In New York City that's poverty level.
2
How about a tax on companies whose full-time employees need food stamps to live. I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing the Waltons profits.
497
The Waltons have social workers on staff in the stores to assist others in getting on public benefits due to the lack of salary, for which we are compensating as taxpayers!
1
As someone who years ago couldn't continue delivering Meals on Wheels because it was so emotionally draining. The war on the poor and unlucky never ends.
32
I think we're a mean, materialistic society. At age 58, I'm looking back and trying to figure out if we've always been like this or if it's a relatively new phenomenon.
What I find particularly disturbing are the wives of many affluent friends, who grew up in hardscrabble circumstances and now spend their days at the spa or shopping for handbags and jewelry. They have ZERO empathy for those less fortunate. As a society, how did we get this way?
What I find particularly disturbing are the wives of many affluent friends, who grew up in hardscrabble circumstances and now spend their days at the spa or shopping for handbags and jewelry. They have ZERO empathy for those less fortunate. As a society, how did we get this way?
39
"As a society, how did we get this way?"
Republican Party, Fox News and the effective rhetoric and destructive policies of greed is good Ronald Reagan.
Republican Party, Fox News and the effective rhetoric and destructive policies of greed is good Ronald Reagan.
25
I agree entirely with "Lynn's" comments. No, we were not always like this. In the mid-to-late 1960's there was an air of optimism and a collective understanding that part the responsibility of being an adult in a wealthy country was contributing via taxes to putting a floor under the less fortunate. That European-style philosophy ended in the 1970's with the election of Ronald Reagan and the philosophy that the central government was our enemy. This philosophy has gradually taken hold and spun out of control with the prominence of Grover Dumbquist and his "shrink government so that you can drown it in a bathtub" mantra and the ascendancy of the nihilist Tea Party.
128
We have a lot to improve upon, for sure. But I'll tell you that for every one of those women who is shopping for handbags, there are two who are volunteering at food banks and domestic violence shelters and the Humane Society.
The good is there. It just isn't as loud.
The good is there. It just isn't as loud.
4
On the one hand you can give the Uber rich even more money than they'll ever need through government redistribution.
On the other you could give it to the poor and make the rich earn their lot in life.
On the other you could give it to the poor and make the rich earn their lot in life.
16
If food stamps are cut to cover the cost of lowering taxes and the tax reduction stimulates investment and personal spending in America and the stimulus increases employment and raises wages, all American workers, including those who lost their food stamps will have a chance to benefit. The loss of the food stamps is a certainty however, the increased benefit is just a possibility; not all those who lose their stamps will earn more; the loss of the stamps will be immediate, the realization of the opportunity will take time and may not happen.
The food stamps themselves are a form of stimulus, the elimination of the stamps may have a negative effect on the economy which is not offset by the tax reduction resulting in lower economic activity and a loss of opportunities for workers.
If one's goal was simply to maximize the common good rather than to benefit any particular income level, what would one do? Well,create a safety net which provides modest benefits sufficient to sustain a subsistence level existence and tax to pay for it. Then tax to pay for the services that only a government can provide: infrastructure, military, justice system, regulation, etc. Then tax to pay for any other services deemed best provided by government, such as health care, education, etc, recognizing that the line between private and public sector activities may be moved to benefit the common good. All spending is stimulative, whether public or private.
The food stamps themselves are a form of stimulus, the elimination of the stamps may have a negative effect on the economy which is not offset by the tax reduction resulting in lower economic activity and a loss of opportunities for workers.
If one's goal was simply to maximize the common good rather than to benefit any particular income level, what would one do? Well,create a safety net which provides modest benefits sufficient to sustain a subsistence level existence and tax to pay for it. Then tax to pay for the services that only a government can provide: infrastructure, military, justice system, regulation, etc. Then tax to pay for any other services deemed best provided by government, such as health care, education, etc, recognizing that the line between private and public sector activities may be moved to benefit the common good. All spending is stimulative, whether public or private.
2
I am reminded of a great Jill Lepore New Yorker article from 2012: "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, for modernity, and for prosperity. The wealthy pay more because they have benefitted more. Taxes, well laid and well spent, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare. Taxes protect property and the environment; taxes make business possible. Taxes pay for roads and schools and bridges and police and teachers. Taxes pay for doctors and nursing homes and medicine. During an emergency, like an earthquake or a hurricane, taxes pay for rescue workers, shelters, and services. For people whose lives are devastated by other kinds of disaster, like the disaster of poverty, taxes pay, even, for food.
What’s surprising, given how much money and passion have been spent to defeat a broad-based, progressive income tax over the past century, and how poorly it has been defended, is that it has endured—testimony, perhaps, to Americans’ abiding sense of fairness. Taxes are a pact. That pact needs renewing."
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/11/26/tax-time
What’s surprising, given how much money and passion have been spent to defeat a broad-based, progressive income tax over the past century, and how poorly it has been defended, is that it has endured—testimony, perhaps, to Americans’ abiding sense of fairness. Taxes are a pact. That pact needs renewing."
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/11/26/tax-time
1
I know it dates me, but I can remember when Robin Hood was considered a hero for robbing the rich to help the poor. Now we seem to be in a period when the outlaw robs the poor to enrich the rich. What sort of name should we give him? Oh, Donald Trump and His Merry Band of Thieves.
26
Thank you for reminding us of the Robin Hood story and appropriately branding Trump and his band of Thieves, great analogy. And it made us laugh for a minute while reading another depressing story.
Does providing assistance help the targeted to become self-sufficient, or, the assistance creates more dependency? Perhaps the question cannot be answered. But it seems one thing is clear, and that is, there will always be a segment of the population "qualifying" for assistance.
If those currently on food stamps are miraculously weaned, we would celebrate for a time. For a short time because soon, activists will create another problem in need of a solution. The new problem for some of those recently off food stamps could focus on the food thy are eating. One issue could be it is not fair for people to be eating only chicken as their meat, while the rich can enjoy steak or lobster. The disparity in meat type would be viewed just as intolerable as no food!
If those currently on food stamps are miraculously weaned, we would celebrate for a time. For a short time because soon, activists will create another problem in need of a solution. The new problem for some of those recently off food stamps could focus on the food thy are eating. One issue could be it is not fair for people to be eating only chicken as their meat, while the rich can enjoy steak or lobster. The disparity in meat type would be viewed just as intolerable as no food!
29
Did you even read the article?
People who work full time need food stamps because their wages are low.
Republicans block attempts to raise minimum wages ( many Republicand would like to get rid of the minimum wage altogether) , Republicans reversed the Obama administration overtime rule ( so you can call someone a" manager" and make them work overtime without compensation).
People who work full time need food stamps because their wages are low.
Republicans block attempts to raise minimum wages ( many Republicand would like to get rid of the minimum wage altogether) , Republicans reversed the Obama administration overtime rule ( so you can call someone a" manager" and make them work overtime without compensation).
12
I get so tired of hearing from people on the right fretting over a culture of dependency. And, of course, it's always the poor who are the targets. Never can they question the vast sums of taxpayer dollars used to prop up a bloated military establishment dependent on taxpayers, or the perpetual fear machine that convinces people all this spending is necessary; never do they question the huge amount of taxpayer money used to prop up the prison industrial complex and the useless war on drugs; never do they question the current political system that is set-up to allow the well connected and wealthy to shape legislation to enable them to pay as little as possible to the treasury; never do they question the power of corporations to extract what they want from the earth and leave the taxpayers to pay the tab of the environmental consequences. No, to do that would mean questioning power, which they see to worship, and having compassion for those without, whom they largely have contempt for.
2
Thank you Lynn! It is a known fact that actIve military families and active Walmart employees are food stamp recipients because their income is so low.
2
Adam Smith didn't write about what makes people poor. His book was titled, "An a Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations." The reason was that we all already know what causes poverty... Sloth, laziness, stupidity, illegality, etc. Foodstamps are a double edged sword and do as much to promote poverty as help those who are poor.
9
Don't go quoting Adam Smith on us. Irrelevant. One could easily say that we all already know that what causes poverty is the unbridled greed of the privileged class. It would be just as inaccurate in toto, but would contain just as much truth as your statement. You have a Reaganesque way of oversimplification that marks you as a true conservative, and clueless as to how to actually solve problems. The editorial has it right. The government is in the welfare business all right, but it is corporate welfare in that it picks up the slack for businesses that would rather not pay their employees.
10
That's not what Adam Smith said but it is a good defense of libertarianism.
5
@Bruce
Doubt you have read the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith was not as you seem to be laying down the doctrine of Neo-Liberalism but a variant of Liberalism. He was surrounded by people trying to adjust to the restructuring of society as merchants were developing in what had been a Peasant and Lord society as a way to prosper or starve depending on ones luck and abilities.
The poor are trash comes along in the 1970's and caught the imagination of Reagan and such after the ideology being advanced by Milton Friedman and a few others. If interested read Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Blyth, Mark a Brown Univ. economist who critiques what Friedman hatched very effectively.
Doubt you have read the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith was not as you seem to be laying down the doctrine of Neo-Liberalism but a variant of Liberalism. He was surrounded by people trying to adjust to the restructuring of society as merchants were developing in what had been a Peasant and Lord society as a way to prosper or starve depending on ones luck and abilities.
The poor are trash comes along in the 1970's and caught the imagination of Reagan and such after the ideology being advanced by Milton Friedman and a few others. If interested read Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Blyth, Mark a Brown Univ. economist who critiques what Friedman hatched very effectively.
10
The availability of food through the food stamps program is only one side of the coin. The other is the quality of the food that the program's beneficiaries are receiving.
6
quality has nothing to do with availability. if recipients make poor choices when purchasing food should the rest of us feel guilty?
1
I would guess the quality of the food depends on the stores where the beneficiaries shop.
1
SNAP benfefits only provide you with a means to obtain food. It does not dictate the food you obtain with them.
1
In the 1950s - 1970s the republicans were right. The great strides by FDR were abused and America was turned into a welfare state.
While you can always have abuse of welfare, the great abuse was cleaned up after 1980.
The growth of food stamps now is for legit reasons. Our standard or living has been going down since the 1970s, except for the super rich.
While you can always have abuse of welfare, the great abuse was cleaned up after 1980.
The growth of food stamps now is for legit reasons. Our standard or living has been going down since the 1970s, except for the super rich.
10
Those who wrote this editorial seem to be aware of most of the facts, although outrageously cherry-picked and over- and under-exaggerated some of the facts with the core objective in their mind. How on earth 43 million--almost 15% of the US population, qualify for food stamp, when unemployment rate is record low? Companies are paying less--that's the argument of NYT. If so many people are looking for minimum wage jobs--why would anybody pay more? Minimum wage is $15 in several parts of this country--because not many minimum-wage workers are available in those areas. Everybody wants to live in big cities, that is what driving down minimum wages. If you encourage minimum wage jobs, free health and education, you are trying to keep these people in poverty for generations. Yes, NYT, you are a good liberal friend to the poor, because you want to keep them tied to their gilded spot forever. That's what friends are for.
11
@CFD-Dr.
You need to know how the Unemployment Statistics are structured, a dull topic, but available. Those who have not been able to fine work for a number of weeks (4?) are not longer counted and if you find temp job and dropped you are not counted for a period etc, etc,. Details can be found in Bernie Sanders recent book and many places, with the conclusion that the effective rate is around 18% and for young workers higher yet. Designed and redesigned for bureaucratic reasons apparently.
You need to know how the Unemployment Statistics are structured, a dull topic, but available. Those who have not been able to fine work for a number of weeks (4?) are not longer counted and if you find temp job and dropped you are not counted for a period etc, etc,. Details can be found in Bernie Sanders recent book and many places, with the conclusion that the effective rate is around 18% and for young workers higher yet. Designed and redesigned for bureaucratic reasons apparently.
I don't really think minimum wage has improved much over the last three years, and here is a link to a map of the U.S. minimum wage rates, still looking for 15 dollars an hour.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uo4seS5xpsc/UtfffiddwUI/AAAAAAAACNs/Kn7ZiM67RG...
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uo4seS5xpsc/UtfffiddwUI/AAAAAAAACNs/Kn7ZiM67RG...
Oligarchs are plutocrats, they and their families get their position through their wealth. To justify the income inequality they spew propaganda pretending that the poor are worthless, and the rich are worth every penny.
Food stamps feed the poor, they employ farmers and others and are a basic right of all Americans.
Now, if you would let me near the tax breaks that jugheads like Trump use to steal from the treasury, we would really be somewhere. Why do the poor of America subsidize his huge losses, by letting him not pay taxes? Why do the rich with second homes get to deduct their mortgage interest?
Steal from the poor, give to the rich, mock the poor Ben Carson style by blaming them for their poverty and by extension lauding the rich for their plutocratic wealthy...the new Republican Party.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
Food stamps feed the poor, they employ farmers and others and are a basic right of all Americans.
Now, if you would let me near the tax breaks that jugheads like Trump use to steal from the treasury, we would really be somewhere. Why do the poor of America subsidize his huge losses, by letting him not pay taxes? Why do the rich with second homes get to deduct their mortgage interest?
Steal from the poor, give to the rich, mock the poor Ben Carson style by blaming them for their poverty and by extension lauding the rich for their plutocratic wealthy...the new Republican Party.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
32
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Anatole France, 1894: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." When a political party makes taking away food from those that cannot afford it a key policy goal, they have lost their soul.
16
Democrats need to examine and refute the talking points on social media that largely go ignored. In this instance, many conservatives believe that 25% of the people are working to support the other 75%, and that illegal immigrants are eligible for more benefits than Americans. Memes to this effect are passed around until they become 'fact'. It's further confirmed by my conservative friends who are surrounded by friends and family that are (believed to be) gaming the system.
A Democratic appeal could be made to not destroy the system, but to weed out these gamers, so that food stamps are serving the truly needy.
Unless Dems understand what's going around on social media, any appeals to empathy for the poor will fall on deaf ears.
A Democratic appeal could be made to not destroy the system, but to weed out these gamers, so that food stamps are serving the truly needy.
Unless Dems understand what's going around on social media, any appeals to empathy for the poor will fall on deaf ears.
7
What needs to be understood is that policies are in place, like in Texas, where those who are illegally in the State get medical treatment, regardless but legal residents and US citizens can only get treatment if they can pay or find a place that will treat them for free. Michigan, illegals get housing assistance but legal residents and citizens get put on a waiting list that can be 6 yrs long. Drug addicts get ore assistance than families who are clean and sober. Every state has their own favored groups that get when others deemed to be hard workers do not get help.
The people drafting these dumb rules about food stamp eligibility and other programs designed to assist those in poverty need to spend some time in poverty themselves - up close and personal. Without having experienced the the insecurity and anxiety that poverty brings its meaningless for them to draft regulations that they can't gauge the impact of, and from the sound of the ones in this article, are more likely to harm than help.
While one can't realistically expect the above of our politicians we can expect that they make themselves aware of respected studies of people in poverty that do detail all the ills that poverty in the US brings to children, adults and the elderly. Maybe, like Trump, they are ignorant and unaware and think they are playing Monopoly and at the end of the game the worst that can happen is some egos are bruised.
It sounds like their objective is not help for the poor but to squeeze one side of the budget (help for the poor) to grow another side of the budget to aid people who don't need help (those not on food stamps) and make good money. Nonsensical on the face of it unless greed enters the equation.
While one can't realistically expect the above of our politicians we can expect that they make themselves aware of respected studies of people in poverty that do detail all the ills that poverty in the US brings to children, adults and the elderly. Maybe, like Trump, they are ignorant and unaware and think they are playing Monopoly and at the end of the game the worst that can happen is some egos are bruised.
It sounds like their objective is not help for the poor but to squeeze one side of the budget (help for the poor) to grow another side of the budget to aid people who don't need help (those not on food stamps) and make good money. Nonsensical on the face of it unless greed enters the equation.
7
The New York Times is wrong: Congress can not increase the minimum wage as long as it is owned by big business, which profits greatly from keeping wages low, keeping or extending laws favorable to big business and leaving people's bill-paying problems for others to solve. If Congress wants to become an instrument of the people, and not big business, it needs to pass laws that decrease the influence of big business. I'm sure big business will assure that such legislation never sees the light of day.
9
I'd bet my last chunk of processed cheese food product that Big Business was behind the damage Congress did to wages in 1968. Changing the living-wage algorithm to assume two wage earners per household shot *all* wage earners in the foot.
2
Let's remember that food stamps are an indirect subsidy to the employers of low, never rising wages. Why pay a living wage in the knowledge that the government will step in with food and health insurance help? Meanwhile the White House and its Congress keep singing "Welfare Cadillac".
24
True, which is why the government NEEDS to raise the minimum wage to $15 bucks an hour (for starters). Why would the likes of any company, like Walmart, push for a living wage when their greedy CEOs know the government coffers will supply the balance? It is cyclical.
Thank you New York Times for keen, authentic reporting. The poverty & hunger is one small subset of the universal starvation issue. Between the coasts are masses of the poor. In urban areas the street people are omnipresent. The Catholic Church has done so much with their charity work. Imaginative, innovative ideas to express this harsh reality & offer genuine solutions is necessary. Theater arts can be redemptive & prophetic. The Dramatic Workshop at The New School intermingled "Bowery Bums" with privileged college students. Run by Erwin & Dr Maria Piscator, the vibrant group helped morale with compassion. The arts can be healing. Dr. Larry Myers & rwm playwrights lab is doing such work. Myers' new play is "Tent City Psychometry" addressing the fact that real theater is not just elitist. Trump's cuts to the Arts is nightmarish along with the obvious abuse of theose without resources.
4
In a country as wealthy as ours, no should go hungry unwittingly. No one. Period.
12
It is difficult to believe that US offers foreign aid, yet will cut down on food stamps and health care to many poor the old and the disabled of its citizens. It is none other than a travesty of justice of this present administration.
8
Foreign aid is strategic not humanitarian.
While reading the article and subsequent comments a couple things caught my attention. 1) Yes the budget is proposing a decrease in food stamps, but how close to the pre-recession level is it bringing us back to? Criteria for qualifying was reduced during the recession and is this proposal just bringing us closer to 10 years ago? 2) The author states that the benefits are "only" $1.40 per person per meal. I find that to be an interesting statement since I have multiple degrees, work 50 hours per week, and have a fairly good salary, yet my budget only allows for approximately $2 per meal.
If this budget goes through, what is stopping all those commenters that feel $1.40 is not enough money per person per meal from donating some of their food budget to make up for the deficit? I am not the one that has extra to give, but yet you speak as if I am evil for not wanting to give up more of my extra 60 cents per meal.
If this budget goes through, what is stopping all those commenters that feel $1.40 is not enough money per person per meal from donating some of their food budget to make up for the deficit? I am not the one that has extra to give, but yet you speak as if I am evil for not wanting to give up more of my extra 60 cents per meal.
5
The problem is a lack of a living wage and a culture that finds it acceptable for people with full-time jobs to not earn enough to live. My 27 year old, college-educated son is in his second career-track job. He works 50 hour weeks, yet receives no benefits (because he's supposedly a part-time employee). I pay for his health insurance and he receives food stamps. His employer, a major research university, instructs him to misrepresent his time sheet - a violation of the FLSA, but he's scared not to comply. He's in a highly competitive and incestuous field and doesn't want to be known as a troublemaker while building his career.
17
Paying career dues in one's 20s is neither new nor negative. Most people have to lead a spartan existence while getting established. What did he expect, $100k a year by age 26??
2
" He's in a highly competitive and incestuous field and doesn't want to be known as a troublemaker while building his career."
your son needs increased backbone.
get a good lawyer and a fat settlement.
your son needs increased backbone.
get a good lawyer and a fat settlement.
1
"Extreme proposals are a way to make less extreme proposals seem acceptable."
This, in a nutshell, is DT's bargaining strategy. Indeed, it is a universally facilitated technique: aim high & settle for something short of your initial position. The farther out of line your initial position, the more you can expect to gain. If a seller is asking $25 million for a piece of property you don't offer $20 million and expect to settle at $22 million - no, you offer $10 million. Even if you have to give up most of your ground and wind up at $21 million, you still have gained overall.
When every negotiation is viewed as a way to get the most for least, and when the goal is always the same: more for me, less for you - we can begin to understand why this budget looks like it does. Obviously DT had no expectation of achieving anything close to what is in this budget. His goal, however, is clear: take food out of the mouths of hungry Americans and put money into the pockets of billionaires.
This, in a nutshell, is DT's bargaining strategy. Indeed, it is a universally facilitated technique: aim high & settle for something short of your initial position. The farther out of line your initial position, the more you can expect to gain. If a seller is asking $25 million for a piece of property you don't offer $20 million and expect to settle at $22 million - no, you offer $10 million. Even if you have to give up most of your ground and wind up at $21 million, you still have gained overall.
When every negotiation is viewed as a way to get the most for least, and when the goal is always the same: more for me, less for you - we can begin to understand why this budget looks like it does. Obviously DT had no expectation of achieving anything close to what is in this budget. His goal, however, is clear: take food out of the mouths of hungry Americans and put money into the pockets of billionaires.
5
You know, we could solve a lot of these problems by taxing all that idle wealth that is secreted in offshore accounts. Why not raise income taxes to 1970 levels. Why not tax capital gains and dividends at higher rates than income resulting in working for it? (That would hurt me personally as my retirement income comes primarily from such sources, but I favor it nevertheless.)
Companies pay low wages because they can and because they would rather give money to CEO's and stock holders than the people who actually help them earn the money in the first place. I hope a lesson after this election will be - never elect a president who has not lived in poverty for even a little while. People like Trump have no idea what it is like to be poor and so have no compassion for the poor. Both Clinton and Obama grew up poor, but made themselves successful and never forgot what it was like to need help and their policies showed it.
16
Obama was raised by his wealthy white grandparents
4
Neither Clinton nor Obama grew up in poverty, not even close. While not rich their circumstances were far from poverty
2
"So the problem is not the number of people on food stamps; it’s that companies pay [low] wages ... [The solution is] raising the minimum wage, updating the overtime-pay rules and instituting paid sick leave — for starters."
That should do the trick!
I'd add, though: "... and prohibit employers in other countries from paying lower wages, thus bankrupting their US competitors and leaving them no choice but to fire all of their workers."
We DO have the poser to make foreign employers obey our minimum wage, overtime and sick-leave laws, don't we? Don't we?
That should do the trick!
I'd add, though: "... and prohibit employers in other countries from paying lower wages, thus bankrupting their US competitors and leaving them no choice but to fire all of their workers."
We DO have the poser to make foreign employers obey our minimum wage, overtime and sick-leave laws, don't we? Don't we?
2
Walmart, McDonalds, etc. will still be open and prosper. We are not talking about manufacturing jobs. It's mostly retail and restaurant jobs in areas that have been decimated by automation, lack of training in new industries, and virtually the bottom of the education barrel, and now, opioids. What do you propose we do with these huge swaths of people?
1
When did it become acceptable for CEOs to make such obscene salaries and benefits while workers need food stamps? How did America come to resemble a third world country with essentially no middle class? That is the vision of this administration. I weep for the country I was born into.
10
The answer to low wages is and always has been collective bargaining. Democrats should get behind the idea of getting all of labor organized. I would rather see all employers providing agreed upon wages, benefits, work hours and work rules than to see the Federal government try to fit all workers and employers into a one size for all number that only changes once every ten or fifteen years.
5
We don't live in collective bargaining age anymore. The problem is overpopulation. As long as you have people who are willing to do the job for less, the companies will "bargain" any way they want. I think it is time for some people to realize that having 6 kids isn't something the world can afford! And if they choose to have them, they better do the math first!
3
Trump would keep the food stamp program if recipients had to redeem them at a participating Trump hotel or resort worldwide.
9
I have a friend that recently volunteered at a Manna House that provides one cooked meal a day 365 days a year. He has changed is outlook on poor people just by being around some as now he recognizes that most of them do work if they can or they can no longer work and are living on Social Security.
At this Manna House attendance goes up during the month as people on Social Security gradually run out of money.
Before people come to the conclusion that a cutback in food stamps is a good thing they should first volunteer at a place like Manna House or just find somehow to be around poor people for awhile. If one challenges their assumptions just a little it would be a real eye opener for all.
At this Manna House attendance goes up during the month as people on Social Security gradually run out of money.
Before people come to the conclusion that a cutback in food stamps is a good thing they should first volunteer at a place like Manna House or just find somehow to be around poor people for awhile. If one challenges their assumptions just a little it would be a real eye opener for all.
9
What is it about the wealthy looking to corral as much wealth as possible before they die, leaving others without health care, housing and food. Is this what this country is about? Let them eat scraps?
Just think of all of those free steak and lobster dinners at "excluding" restaurants that CEO's later expense to their companies and then deduct from taxes - all while paying their employees that create the wealth a pittance that still requires them to go hungry. Not sad, ... Sick!
For 22 years I worked under a CEO I know for a fact never paid for a meal or a coffee - it was expensed to the company.
Increasing Hunger and starvation related illnesses - part of the GOP health plan.
Just think of all of those free steak and lobster dinners at "excluding" restaurants that CEO's later expense to their companies and then deduct from taxes - all while paying their employees that create the wealth a pittance that still requires them to go hungry. Not sad, ... Sick!
For 22 years I worked under a CEO I know for a fact never paid for a meal or a coffee - it was expensed to the company.
Increasing Hunger and starvation related illnesses - part of the GOP health plan.
8
Pay workers a living wage, and have them buy their own food and healthcare, and pay some Fed Income Tax. This cuts our annual budget deficit by reducing food stamps and Medicaid, and widens the tax base.
Businesses that cannot pay their workers a living wage are inefficient and drains on our society that must subsidize that business. Such subsidies are not part of capitalism, and the owners should step aside and let someone more efficient have their turn.
The USA used to have a method to help insure this economic balance. That was one of the roles of unions, but Conservatives convinced many these were not necessary, convinced many Americans to vote to transfer wealth from the middle class to the super rich. Now, it is the role of government, through the minimum wage, to help Americans reduce income inequality.
Small government only means giving power to corporations and the powerful.
Businesses that cannot pay their workers a living wage are inefficient and drains on our society that must subsidize that business. Such subsidies are not part of capitalism, and the owners should step aside and let someone more efficient have their turn.
The USA used to have a method to help insure this economic balance. That was one of the roles of unions, but Conservatives convinced many these were not necessary, convinced many Americans to vote to transfer wealth from the middle class to the super rich. Now, it is the role of government, through the minimum wage, to help Americans reduce income inequality.
Small government only means giving power to corporations and the powerful.
6
Kudos for gutting education funding for colleges at the State level, just at the time when economic trends indicate higher demand for labor with skilled trade and technology training.
An accreditation process for for-profit schools is also an acute need, there is little accountability for those schools, that account for a significant share of troubled student loans outstanding.
An accreditation process for for-profit schools is also an acute need, there is little accountability for those schools, that account for a significant share of troubled student loans outstanding.
1
The food stamp program was passed in an era when bipartisan solution of problems still flourished and it was the finest example of such a solution. Republicans despised agricultural programs in which the government bought from farmers and kept the food off the market by storing it at great expense. Farm state Republicans and Democrats wanted better demand for their farmers. Urban Democrats and liberal Republicans wanted aid for the poor. The food stamp program was an elegant legislative achievement.
3
Food stamps are welfare for the employers. Want to get rid of "guv-mint" healthcare and food stamps? Easy. Pay employees a living wage from which she can pay their own medical and food costs. End of story.
3
correction to typo: should read "they can pay" not she can pay; sorry.
The problem is the people who represent us, have no idea how we live.
7
They don't care to know, either.
This is another example of how the GOP intends to balance the budget and reduce the debt. Just shift the program to the states. The GOP wants to do that with healthcare and now programs to help the poor. By shifting the cost to the states the national level of the GOP can wash their hands, wipe the sweat from their brows, and say "problem solved". Then governors like Mr. Abbott and our state legislature will cut the programs even more.
1
Just think of it. On social welfare, healthcare, taxes, the environment, every impulse of the Republican agenda and the men behind it, is self serving, destructive and immoral. It is beyond understanding.
1
As long as poverty is framed in the context of moral failure and character defect, these types of proposals will continue to be proffered up by conservatives.
238
Numerous commenters insist the problem is simply "opposition to raising the minimum wage."
Hogwash!
Nearly everyone who favors raising the minimum wage would change sides at some point. For example, if you think the minimum wage should be $15 an hour, would you support someone who insists that it be $35 an hour? Or would the usual counter-argument -- that employers will hire fewer people if the minimum wage is set too high -- strike you as persuasive at $35 an hour?
I'll venture a guess at your answer: "Of course -- $35 is too high. $15 is not."
Fair distinction, but doesn't that mean your support (or not) of a higher minimum wage is really just a question of where the line should be drawn?
Hogwash!
Nearly everyone who favors raising the minimum wage would change sides at some point. For example, if you think the minimum wage should be $15 an hour, would you support someone who insists that it be $35 an hour? Or would the usual counter-argument -- that employers will hire fewer people if the minimum wage is set too high -- strike you as persuasive at $35 an hour?
I'll venture a guess at your answer: "Of course -- $35 is too high. $15 is not."
Fair distinction, but doesn't that mean your support (or not) of a higher minimum wage is really just a question of where the line should be drawn?
2
When the minimum living wage was based on an assumption of one wage earner per household, it worked. For nearly half a century now, the minimum living wage has assumed two wage earners per household - creating an enormous "doughnut hole" in earning power/independent living for the individual.
Being that obesity is so prevalent among these "poor" folks, I'm not so worried about some cuts to their government food program.
8
Obesity is prevalent because the poor folks cannot afford fresh healthy food, only cheap processed food high in fat and sugar and calories. Of course, that leads to diabetes and early death, which saves on health expenditure. The US is truly a shining example to the world of how a wealthy nation looks after its citizens.
110
Junk food is cheap AND makes you fat. Healthy food is more expensive than junk food.
3
If your only transportation were your feet and those of your family and the only food source within walking distance were the nearest "convenient" store, imagine how much trouble you would find in buying good healthy food.
6
Increase wages, employment protections, and support skill acquisition through education, then food stamps become an afterthought. They are a downstream cost due to poor upstream investments.
2
The food stamp program can also be viewed as a subsidy for businesses that will not pay a fair living wage, and the other irony of this is that those wages can be held down in part because there are immigrants willing to work for less. Perhaps that is why many Republicans who love to complain about the illegal immigrants, have not been willing to penalize companies that illegally hire immigrants. No, thier corporate constituents need those immigrants willing to take low pay for their work, and the abuse of holding over the head of that worker the threat of being turned in to immigration officials should they complain. The whole mindset of right wing politics is shameful.
15
This is a common fallacy. Eliminate welfare and wages drop as people are forced to work it is called supply and demand
Bingo. In order for an upper class to exist, there must be an underclass to exploit.
Actually, most Republicans feel illegal immigrants should be deported. Problem solved.
1
Yes, expanding government mandates and services is always the best way to "get there." Amtrak, post office, VA, food stamps, Obamacare, Foreign Aid, National Security Agency and HUD are a few of the most successful programs. So many left out due to space limitations.
3
I'm not sure low wages are the core problem, although they are contributory, but a second-order cause. This is an area, where, sorry to say, the Trump administration is right: illegal immigrants are working jobs that US citizens could have. There is one problem there, however, where Trump is wrong, in that those US citizens don't wan't them, or won't simply do the work, or are not qualified (roofing, construction, HVAC, gardening, agriculture, ranching, welding, auto repair, dry wall, plaster, brick work and a dozen others). Moreover, why aren't those "illegals" on food stamps? Is the problem, really, more cultural? Otherwise, this is not a convincing argument for raising the minimum wage, at say, McDonalds: those jobs will get automated to some degree (and the food stamp recipients won't even know, or care to know, how to fix those machines--you'll have to call Mexican mechanics). Another problem contributing to family poverty and food stamp dependency is absent fathers: 60% or more of Black families in Chicago, for example, are fatherless, and leave mothers to fend for themselves. Another problem is corporate out-sourcing of jobs to Mexico (high-wage manufacturing); South Korea (United Airlines maintenance, for example); India (service jobs); Taiwan and China (consumer goods); Poland, Czech Republic (food processing, light and heavy manufacturing); the Philippines (mixed); Canada (textiles); and Japan (high-tech). The decline of family farming is also causal.
5
Most white female recipients of food stamps also head fatherless families.
1
I am 55 years old and work full-time, 7 days a week. Without my monthly food stamps, the end of the month means no food. It's that simple. Before food stamps, I would from time to time put ads up on CraigsList asking people to buy me some food to get me through the last few days of the month where one has the choice of keeping the lights and phone on, or buying oranges and eggs. They would buy the food and leave it on their porch and tell me to come and get it, or they would yell at me for having the nerve to not have enough money to eat.
If this disaster of an administration goes through with the cuts, this old man's just gonna get skinnier. No complaints, no whining. It's just the way it is. Life is really, really rough for a lot of people, and that's all there is to it. Peace
If this disaster of an administration goes through with the cuts, this old man's just gonna get skinnier. No complaints, no whining. It's just the way it is. Life is really, really rough for a lot of people, and that's all there is to it. Peace
13
The Obama Administration bumped up benefits even though it wasn't clear they were needed. In Massachusetts, my elderly aunt was called by a state official and told that her benefit was being bumped up - she laughingly told us that she didn't need it but wasn't going to reject either...and it was clear to all around her too that she didn't need it. It just makes the taxpayers around her rather furious that the state tosses money seemingly callous around.
4
I grew up on the west coast, but lived for 32 years in Austin, Texas. Austin has a booming economy. I recently had several long internet conversations with people in West Virginia and they are desperate. They refute the claim that they lack education and say there are colleges everywhere. They say that they have seen the middle class disappear within their lifetimes and there are no jobs. They don't understand how this happened and all ask, "What are we doing wrong?" I told them that in Austin we bought jobs. For example, we paid the South Korean multi-national Samsung 25 million dollars and no taxes for five years to build their factory in Austin. They spent 1.5 billion to build the factory and now employ 15,000 people in high technology. They were shocked by the concept of buying jobs. It's globalization. That's called winning at globalization. We brought many other multi-nationals to Austin with tax incentives as bribes. They said they never thought of that, but that they have a lot to offer. Great natural beauty, water resources, lots of willing workers, lots of colleges, low crime, low housing prices, and honest people. There are thousands of multi-national looking for a home in America. Go and find them and sell them on Appalachia. We sent our best sales people around the world to sell Austin to multi-national corporations.
Kevin McFarley, Ph.D.
Kevin McFarley, Ph.D.
3
For those of us you left behind here in Austin, all that tax abatement leaves us with inadequate infrastructure to support all the people filling those jobs. Traffic congestion, limited public transit, scarce affordable housing, over-crowded schools, and limited access to the area's natural beauty are just a few of the costs that have been imposed on Austin's residents. Should West Virginia goes out to buy jobs, hopefully they will have the sense to better plan for the consequences of rapid growth.
2
West Virginia has the highest number of people on Social Security Disability than any other state.
There are more users of "Hillbilly Heroin" (Oxycontin) than any other state.
It has the highest number of opiate overdoses of any other state.
That is affecting their ability to attract businesses.
There are more users of "Hillbilly Heroin" (Oxycontin) than any other state.
It has the highest number of opiate overdoses of any other state.
That is affecting their ability to attract businesses.
I would interested in seeing the correlation between education level, single parenthood and food stamps. I fear that our loosening morals regarding marriage, sex and children are producing an ever-increasing spiral of poverty.
6
You've just now thought of that? You're in a big city which has so many examples and you can't see the correlation between them?
1
You can argue, as some commenters have, that people can't climb out of poverty without a good education and the skills employers want. I agree. But then you look around and see that the GOP continues its attempts to totally dismantle and eviscerate public education in the U.S.. Ms DeVos is the grim reaper that Republican pols have been hoping for for years now.
You can't have it both ways. Republican business leaders need to support public education, not call for its ruination!
You can't have it both ways. Republican business leaders need to support public education, not call for its ruination!
4
Will congress be offering free abortions after your sixth child? ...just askin'
11
Yes, Serolf, that's exactly what it means. (rolls eyes)
2
Yes, there are many Americans who have children they cannot financially support, but why is it that this is always the default position of the GOP ostriches? The real truth is we have now moved to a service based economy where wages are stunningly low. These so-called welfare queens are people who serve us in restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, home health agencies, and the list goes on and on. Most of these workers have limited or no access to decent healthcare, affordable housing and nutritional food. It is a travesty.
2
We should be offering free abortions before the first child.
Why are wages so low for so many? Millions of people do not have any skills that employers want. All they can offer is a physically fit body that can perform simple routine tasks, and a basic level of education that can tell a customer the sheets are in aisle 6, or your chicken sandwich will be ready soon. They can read and write, but only at an elementary-school level.
Employers will only hire them because they will work for low wages. If the minimum wage were raised, employers in most industries would a smaller number of higher-skilled people instead. There is no way the government can make employers pay $15 for $5 worth of work - they will find some other way to get the work done at a better price.
Employers will only hire them because they will work for low wages. If the minimum wage were raised, employers in most industries would a smaller number of higher-skilled people instead. There is no way the government can make employers pay $15 for $5 worth of work - they will find some other way to get the work done at a better price.
12
In other countries, which have much higher wages for such jobs, companies simply have less employees. They hire a worker who can do several simple tasks in a timely manner - thus the most productive workers. A good example is Aldi grocery stores - they have one worker in the store, working the checkout, restocking shelves, cleaning up. They can pay that person $20 an hour because they're doing the work of 10 employees. Another good example is the Walmart model (many employees performing 1-2 basic tasks) versus the Costco model (a few employees who know how to do several jobs in a store). More productive employees means you can pay them more - it's good for companies because they can save $ by having few employees who are less likely to leave the company (and therefore save $ on training). It's good for the economy because you only have the most productive workers participating. The downside of paying workers more (i.e. a living wage) is that you're going to have less people working and thus higher unemployment or even a significant portion of of the population permanently drop out of the labor force.
Essentially what you are saying is that food stamps are a subsidy for EMPLOYERS who refuse to pay a living wage. So an employer who pays the minimum wage has no incentive to increase their employee's pay because government assists the employee with food stamps. For example, if the owner of Hardee's or Carl's, Jr. happens to be against the increase in the minimum wage and becomes extremely wealthy in the process, a good part of his earnings are the direct result of this government subsidy to his business which comes in the form of food stamps to his a employees. Likewise, if his employees receive Medicaid the upstanding "job creator" can count that as a subsidy as well. Plus let's not overlook the cost to society that the healthy fare offered at his fine restaurants have in terms of the contributions to obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and whatever else results from consuming such high-calorie, fat-filled, sodium laden health food! Excuse me while I ask that said restaurant owner (and every other small business owner dependent on these subsidies) to pay their own freight. If you choose to frequent such places then yes...you pay for it. Not the tax-payer!
1
Really?
My problem with the Food Stamp program is that it is sometimes a hidden benefit for those large, hugely profitable corporations like WallMart and McDonalds. They pay their employees a wage level so low many have to get the Stamps to feed their families.
Her's an approach to think about: Make these Corporations pay a living wage; let them cut employees where they can (They will anyway) and take the money saved by the reduction in numbers needing the Stamps and put it into educating those people you refer to who lack those skills due to lack of a better education.
The added advantage is we will have an enhanced job training operation in place to handle the hordes of undereducated that will be flooding our country as Ed. Sec. DeVos destroys our public school system. Oh BTW, we can fund this by actually collecting the taxes Billionaires now cheat their way out of paying. Let's call it "Real Tax Reform".
My problem with the Food Stamp program is that it is sometimes a hidden benefit for those large, hugely profitable corporations like WallMart and McDonalds. They pay their employees a wage level so low many have to get the Stamps to feed their families.
Her's an approach to think about: Make these Corporations pay a living wage; let them cut employees where they can (They will anyway) and take the money saved by the reduction in numbers needing the Stamps and put it into educating those people you refer to who lack those skills due to lack of a better education.
The added advantage is we will have an enhanced job training operation in place to handle the hordes of undereducated that will be flooding our country as Ed. Sec. DeVos destroys our public school system. Oh BTW, we can fund this by actually collecting the taxes Billionaires now cheat their way out of paying. Let's call it "Real Tax Reform".
But Sec of HUD, Dr Carson, said poverty is just a state of mind. For example, with a positive mindset, Jared Kushner's renters might be able to avoid being evicted. And certainly, there would not be the need of food stamp since poor people could be eating imaginary steak 3 meals a day*
* note: this is sarcasm in case some Trump voters don't understand this
* note: this is sarcasm in case some Trump voters don't understand this
54
It's too bad you diid really understand what Dr. Carson was saying because it is a message worth absorbing....
1
Republican opposition to raising the minimum wage while seeking multiple ways of adding to the net pay of millionaires would be funny if it weren't murderous. Yes murderous since malnutrition can lead to death. My word of the week is TRUMPERY. which according to Mr. Webster means Showy but worthless, Deception trickery or fraud. That seems to fit the Trump republicans.
83
How appropriate this name is to the administration and to its leader. Thank you.
More that 66% of the American population is classified as OBESE....would appreciate if some official could square this with the food program.
1
Low wage rates are nothing more than legalized serfdom. Countries like Australia and New Zealand have a minimum wage of $17.00 (along with universal health care and affordable education). And guess what, those countries have next to no poverty of the depth we have and strong economies. The hard scrabble, third world poverty in this country is inexcusable and mind boggling. We are captives to one party's winner take all ideology at the expense of prosperity and a better life for all.
390
Their government is perhaps not driven by a philosophy of "Of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation," as ours has become. To the point that at its core, the food stamp program is as much a subsidy for greedy businesses not willing to pay a living wage as it is an aid program for individuals.
2
Yes, long ago Marx described it as capitalism's "wage slavery" and that description remains accurate. Only gov't regulation and assistance and the counter-power of organized labor (now sadly weakened) can mitigate such exploitation and its human consequences.
Agreed. It is also "inexcusable and mind-boggling" that the UN estimates that worldwide 20,000 people die daily from malnutrition and easily preventable disease.
This administration, indeed many in the GOP, have a dim view of human nature (or at least the nature of certain humans). In their mind-set 'those' people are basically lazy folks who like nothing better than sitting around all day watching soap operas and eating potato chips. The attitude reminds me of the assumption held by many men years ago that women at home all day (even those with several little kids) were sitting around 'on the couch eating bon-bons & watching soaps and game shows.'
Yet, as noted many who benefit from food stamps are children and their working parents whose wages are simply too low to support a family fully. Others are on disability or senior citizens whose social security is a pittance. We, as a society, must decide if one of the wealthiest countries on earth finds it acceptable to have citizens who are either hungry or food insecure. Is it truly worth tolerating that on the off chance that the few lazy ones may be getting away with something it we make sure that everyone is adequately fed?
Yet, as noted many who benefit from food stamps are children and their working parents whose wages are simply too low to support a family fully. Others are on disability or senior citizens whose social security is a pittance. We, as a society, must decide if one of the wealthiest countries on earth finds it acceptable to have citizens who are either hungry or food insecure. Is it truly worth tolerating that on the off chance that the few lazy ones may be getting away with something it we make sure that everyone is adequately fed?
155
If they can't support a family why do they have one that you and I must then finance?
7
The problem is that we have too many poor having too many children. When we subsidize the poor, we get even more poor children to support. Eventually, we will have too many poor children than we can support. Do you not get that? That is where we are headed
1
It might surprise you to learn that *many* single parents did not expect to be abandoned after their children were born, and to shoulder alone the responsibilities of raising and providing for their families.
2
Americans need to be proud of The Food Stamp Program and other Social Programs like Medicaid. We need to fight back against the de-humanizing Propaganda of the Republican Party and it's Billionaire backers. Trump's budget has nothing to do with Greatness. It has everything to do with Death and Starvation for lower income Americans.
609
How can you expect people to get so desperate they will "fight for a nickle" if they don't have to worry about their kids starving? The GOP loves the story of the Chinese factories with guarded fences around them to keep the destitute from sneaking in to work and live in the factory, available 24/7 like machinery. They love the labor costs and lack of rights for the workers in China and would love to have it here. Not for them of course; but for the masses.
Obama said the financial crisis / recession is over - so isn't it time to dial back the food program to where it was pre-2009.....44 million people taking food stamps is pathetic
1
End poverty.
The rich will still be rich; just not unnecessarily and obscenely so.
And, also, as a result, the economy will be stimulated.
A win win for everybody.
We will just need to control the capitalists who are predators; and control our urges to be predators which comes from our instincts as well as from having more money.
The rich will still be rich; just not unnecessarily and obscenely so.
And, also, as a result, the economy will be stimulated.
A win win for everybody.
We will just need to control the capitalists who are predators; and control our urges to be predators which comes from our instincts as well as from having more money.
53
The economy will NOT be stimulated by transferring money from those that wok to those that don't. Hating rich people will not improve the lives of people less economically fortunate.
Lenny, being rich is no more of a crime than being poor. Remember it's the capitalists along with the people that get up every morning and go to work that pay taxes which fund the welfare and entitlement programs. Bite that hand hard enough and watch what happens. I suppose Lenny that you wouldn't recognize a welfare predator if you saw one. Take a good look, they're out there.
1
"Extreme proposals are a way to make less extreme proposals seem acceptable"
Exactly, and because our country has almost no left wing political influence while the right wing enjoys a media megaphone, our government has strongly pulled to the right in the last 50 years.
Is there a shred a research that shows food stamps inspire laziness, or is this more ideological rationalization to justify cruelty and greed?
It has gotten to the point where regular people are treated as liabilities rather than assets by the Republican party and government policies that help children reach their potential are regarded as a wasted investment.
Progressives need to focus on helping the poor as much out of self interest as compassion. especially children. Human capitol is our most important resource and our nation does the poorest job in the modern world of realizing the full potential of this capitol. Assuring our children do not suffer the debilitating affect of a poor diet is about the most basic requirement to begin to achieve their ultimate potential as citizens.
Exactly, and because our country has almost no left wing political influence while the right wing enjoys a media megaphone, our government has strongly pulled to the right in the last 50 years.
Is there a shred a research that shows food stamps inspire laziness, or is this more ideological rationalization to justify cruelty and greed?
It has gotten to the point where regular people are treated as liabilities rather than assets by the Republican party and government policies that help children reach their potential are regarded as a wasted investment.
Progressives need to focus on helping the poor as much out of self interest as compassion. especially children. Human capitol is our most important resource and our nation does the poorest job in the modern world of realizing the full potential of this capitol. Assuring our children do not suffer the debilitating affect of a poor diet is about the most basic requirement to begin to achieve their ultimate potential as citizens.
105
Those who use food stamps often make two separate purchases at the market. They sometimes get into extended discussions over eligible items. These can be embarrassing matters. I think the rules of eligible purchases should be simplified. Many folks end up using their food stamps at convenience stores to avoid embarrassment while overpaying for everything. Better to allow them to purchase soap and shampoo at the supermarket so they can save money and check out without drawing attention to themselves.
55
Our government makes it very clear Michjas which items can and cannot be purchased with food stamps. There is no gray area that needs discussion at the check out counter in less you're trying to take advantage of the system by hood winking a check out clerk. Food stamps are for basics, no convenience items.
1
After all Sears catalogs are a thing of the past.
One solution -- something I tell the folks I work with about -- is to use the self-checkout machines in the supermarkets. No one can see what card they're using for their purchases. Easy enough to learn how with an experienced friend along for the first couple of shopping trips.
1
There is no possibility of a 9plus dollar an hour wage to sustain anyone , unless they are working to make some extra cash in high school . This article is spot on
as it makes very clear the trickle down has never given anyone other than the cream at the top , a life that is sustainable .The truth is so glaring at this point
that we , will not be buying the lie .An old lie starting with the much admired Reagan .Thomas Pikkety and many world wide economists blew the Greenspan myth clear out of the water . The situation here is unsustainable and will most probably lead to chaos .
Bernie Sanders is correct .
as it makes very clear the trickle down has never given anyone other than the cream at the top , a life that is sustainable .The truth is so glaring at this point
that we , will not be buying the lie .An old lie starting with the much admired Reagan .Thomas Pikkety and many world wide economists blew the Greenspan myth clear out of the water . The situation here is unsustainable and will most probably lead to chaos .
Bernie Sanders is correct .
34
Stay in school, work hard to achieve good grades and to increase your human capital - then perhaps you'll be worth something in the market. No employer is going to pay for something overpriced and unable to satisfy his employment needs.
Millions of seniors are expected to survive on what amounts to about 3 or 4$ an hour in SS benefits, but I never see anyone posting on their behalf.
2
Raising the minimum wage, updating the overtime-pay rules and instituting paid sick leave (in US) is the best way to stimulate economy, of China.
13
Raising taxes on the rich in the US is a great way to encourage them to pay living wages. They can still outsource their jobs; but if they want to live in the US rather than China, they will have to pay the taxes required to support the people whose jobs they shipped to China.
How do you figure that paying American workers more stimulates the economy of China? Please explain?
So it's better to give the Uber rich more money so they can invest in China.
RIGHT!
RIGHT!
1
"The proposed cuts have little chance of enactment..."
Isn't that what everyone was saying about the Trumpcare bill getting thru the House? But it got thru, didn't it? Now it's in the hands of Mitch McConnell's Senate, which has already exercised the "nuclear option."
The point is - unlike the Democrats - the Republicans are willing to use their power while they've it. They have proven many times that they are not to be underestimated, especially since it's more than obvious that they don't care about hurting the country's most vulnerable citizens, many of whom never even go to the polls.
Isn't that what everyone was saying about the Trumpcare bill getting thru the House? But it got thru, didn't it? Now it's in the hands of Mitch McConnell's Senate, which has already exercised the "nuclear option."
The point is - unlike the Democrats - the Republicans are willing to use their power while they've it. They have proven many times that they are not to be underestimated, especially since it's more than obvious that they don't care about hurting the country's most vulnerable citizens, many of whom never even go to the polls.
48
fortunately the Senate Republicans care more about getting re-elected than they do about supporting Trumps' insane behaviors. They are more vulnerable in many states than their House counterparts and know it.
There is some hope that the extreme edges of Trumps so-called budget will be blunted, and if the universe is kind they will be at impasse and no budget will pass leaving in place Obama era spending and budgets.
There is some hope that the extreme edges of Trumps so-called budget will be blunted, and if the universe is kind they will be at impasse and no budget will pass leaving in place Obama era spending and budgets.
1
President Herbert Hoover, a man whose concern for the destitute was demonstrated by his work with the Belgian refugees in WWI, nevertheless opposed direct aid (the 'dole) to the unemployed during the Great Depression. He desperately feared that such dependence on the federal government would sap the independence of the recipients, undermining democracy by converting millions of people into wards of the state. Roosevelt shared Hoover's concern but argued that the threat of mass starvation trumped such fears.
Hoover's political heirs profess anxiety over the economic (rather than political) independence of food stamp recipients. The facts about employment status cited by the editorial, however, expose the true mean-spirited motives that spur this recurrent effort to shred the social safety net. In like manner, whatever supply-side nonsense serves as a fig leaf to obscure the real reasons for the accompanying tax cuts, this Reaganite fiscal policy reflects a strong sense of identity with the wealthy and a parallel absence of empathy for the poor.
President Hoover, despite his errors in judgment about the need for direct aid, genuinely cared about the plight of the unemployed. Modern Republicans, by contrast, have demonstrated on numerous occasions that they regard low-income Americans as "takers," too indolent to pursue the opportunities available in this economy. Ronald Reagan, not Herbert Hoover, serves as their intellectual godfather.
Hoover's political heirs profess anxiety over the economic (rather than political) independence of food stamp recipients. The facts about employment status cited by the editorial, however, expose the true mean-spirited motives that spur this recurrent effort to shred the social safety net. In like manner, whatever supply-side nonsense serves as a fig leaf to obscure the real reasons for the accompanying tax cuts, this Reaganite fiscal policy reflects a strong sense of identity with the wealthy and a parallel absence of empathy for the poor.
President Hoover, despite his errors in judgment about the need for direct aid, genuinely cared about the plight of the unemployed. Modern Republicans, by contrast, have demonstrated on numerous occasions that they regard low-income Americans as "takers," too indolent to pursue the opportunities available in this economy. Ronald Reagan, not Herbert Hoover, serves as their intellectual godfather.
51
James welfare is supposed to help people through a rough period in their life, not become the economic center of it for life. Democrats are gifted masters at cooking up government entitlement programs but fail miserably when it comes to administering them; hence the Republicans have to follow after them and clean up their messes.
1
Remember republicans don't believe in facts.
So, two thoughts. One, this is another example of why we should move to the Milton Friedman endorsed guaranteed annual income. Get rid of all these messy programs that are hard to manage and attempt to root out the one percenters who cheat at great expanse. Two, the solution to low paid jobs could be the Trump agenda. Tax cuts, trade tariffs, and so on. It's worth a try.
4
I'd like to think that the government could give every family a guaranteed annual income Tim and eliminate welfare, but you know as well as I there would still be those which would blow through their money and request aid.
one of the many problems with Milts ideas is that it would be impossible to manage and still not solve the problem based on geography.
Annual pay sufficient to avoid "social safety net" payments in Kentucky would do nothing for recipients in NYC. That means complicated and graduated payment formula's just like today and the money would still come from other taxpayers and federal financial trickery. In short it would just be more magical money.
Annual pay sufficient to avoid "social safety net" payments in Kentucky would do nothing for recipients in NYC. That means complicated and graduated payment formula's just like today and the money would still come from other taxpayers and federal financial trickery. In short it would just be more magical money.
Trump and his ilk don't pay any taxes now.
Should we pay them for the graciousness of their presence?
Should we pay them for the graciousness of their presence?
1
"So the problem is not the number of people on food stamps; it’s that companies pay wages so low that their employees qualify for them."
Once upon a time, companies bragged that their most important asset was their workers.
Once upon a time, companies bragged that their most important asset was their workers.
70
And once upon a time, our leaders bragged that the United States had a high standard of living. Can't do that now -- it's not "business-friendly."
2
After so many years, I am used to paying income taxes. As long as my tax money isn't used to kill innocent people, I am proud to support government programs. Why do the rich need a tax cut? If you raised their income tax on laddered rates we would improve employment in this country. Companies would reinvest, hire more people, purchase new equipment rather than waste their profits on a CEO that had to pay half of an obscene raise to the government in taxes.
42
Why are they still under the department of Agriculture?
That alone indicates the goal of the program isn't alleviating poverty. You make assumptions about what the program's goals and baselines.
Too many programs that lack questions about what we are doing and need a sunset plan if they fail in objectives decided in advance.
That alone indicates the goal of the program isn't alleviating poverty. You make assumptions about what the program's goals and baselines.
Too many programs that lack questions about what we are doing and need a sunset plan if they fail in objectives decided in advance.
6
If that was meant to be a coherent argument, it wasn't. How, exactly, does being under the Dept. of Agriculture "alone" indicate that.
What absurd claptrap.
What absurd claptrap.
NYT " The Problem Isn’t Food Stamps, It’s Poverty."
Excellent piece by the NYT Editorial Board. It goes to the heart of the question and raises important questions. Among them a fundamental one of political-social economy nature.
To begin with, the majority of Americans should be convinced that poverty cannot be tolerated in the most prosperous and advanced nation on earth.
Such social-political consensus about poverty does not exist in the USA.
Millions of Americans are still convinced that poverty is not caused by the political-economic system but rather by a personal character-religious flaw.
That is, the poor does not work hard enough to climb up the social ladder in the land of plenty and opportunity. They point out immigrants are not present in the streets begging for money.
In sum, a political-sociological challenge has been present in the US for a long time: how to establish anti-poverty programs if the majority of Americans do not believe the government is the answer for it?
Excellent piece by the NYT Editorial Board. It goes to the heart of the question and raises important questions. Among them a fundamental one of political-social economy nature.
To begin with, the majority of Americans should be convinced that poverty cannot be tolerated in the most prosperous and advanced nation on earth.
Such social-political consensus about poverty does not exist in the USA.
Millions of Americans are still convinced that poverty is not caused by the political-economic system but rather by a personal character-religious flaw.
That is, the poor does not work hard enough to climb up the social ladder in the land of plenty and opportunity. They point out immigrants are not present in the streets begging for money.
In sum, a political-sociological challenge has been present in the US for a long time: how to establish anti-poverty programs if the majority of Americans do not believe the government is the answer for it?
24
When Lyndon Johnson tried to wage "the war on Poverty," with the help of many, many civil rights leaders, television had hour-long documentary news shows. Middle-class Americans got to see, via TV, the horrible shacks people lived in in the Deep South, the starving children in Appalachia, the lines at tiny medical clinics, the lines at food banks and food pantries. I was a little kid, I remember those pictures vividly. The media today ("60 Minutes," perhaps, excepted) rarely show us these parts of America for more than a few seconds, if at all. They are complicit it portraying America with a veneer of wealth, ignoring the rest. Shows like "Roseanne," which Trump loves to hate, a program about a family whose blue-collar financial state was always precarious (sometimes on food stamps), are long gone from TV. Shows where Archie Bunker, "Meathead" Mike, Mr. Jefferson, and Maud could argue the left-right issues of the day from a working-class neighborhood they shared made America think. This type of show has disappeared.
Until the media does more to show the middle and upper classes how our brothers and sisters at the bottom of the economic ladder are forced to live, the country won't "get it." Remember the mile-long lines of folks lined up for dental care we saw when Mr. Obama tried to show how critical affordable health care was for our fellow Americans? We need more of that. The media have a critical role to play, and they are not stepping up to the plate.
Until the media does more to show the middle and upper classes how our brothers and sisters at the bottom of the economic ladder are forced to live, the country won't "get it." Remember the mile-long lines of folks lined up for dental care we saw when Mr. Obama tried to show how critical affordable health care was for our fellow Americans? We need more of that. The media have a critical role to play, and they are not stepping up to the plate.
128
So you're saying Uzi, that poverty in the United States is really a political/sociological malady of those who have jobs, families, pay taxes and go to church. That's rich.
1
The purpose of food stamps is not to give people food. We have WIC and other programs for that. The purpose of food stamps is to keep mainstream supermarkets and specialty markets, not just small footprint, overpriced, convenience stores, in poor areas and keep the jobs they provide. There are places in the US where the supermarkets closed with the last food stamp cut.
7
WIC specifically targets mothers with young children to pay for specific itms to support the health of the mother to be, and her newborn up to age five. It covers a very limited and specific basket of goods targeted specifically at that population. Often, families will receive both, but that's a totally different story.
Also - in urban centers of poverty - the fact there aren't super markets has nothing at all to do with "the last food stamp cut," but because there aren't high enough margins, or customers with enough income, to cover the rent.
Anyway - the purpose of both SNAP and WIC is most decidedly to "give people food." I haven't heard this particular "propping up the supermarkets" argument before. Do you have any supporting evidence of that, or is it some anecdote?
Also - in urban centers of poverty - the fact there aren't super markets has nothing at all to do with "the last food stamp cut," but because there aren't high enough margins, or customers with enough income, to cover the rent.
Anyway - the purpose of both SNAP and WIC is most decidedly to "give people food." I haven't heard this particular "propping up the supermarkets" argument before. Do you have any supporting evidence of that, or is it some anecdote?
1
so to your mind it is the distribution channel that is the sole purpose of Food Stamps? your lack of cognitive reasoning is astounding.
1
Are republicans amoral or do they simply have no brains? In this country we spend 18% of GDP on healthcare, other developed countries spend between 8 and 12% on healthcare and get better outcomes. We spend far less on social programs such as food stamps which are directly correlated to disparities in health outcomes such as the progression of costly chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. For $1 spent on social programs $2 or more can be saved in healthcare costs. Attacking social programs like food stamps along with education and healthcare, the pillars that give the less fortunate in our society at least a chance at the American dream is not only amoral but bad fiscal policy. Oh and we have the highest incarceration rates.without sturdy social pillars in place let's simply build more prisons.
44
Our government will become, as it appears, a means of welfare for the wealthy who the poor, elderly and unemployed will support on their meager wages. Of course those with real money who will see most of the benefit cannot seem to focus beyond the gates of their private retreats, enclaves or yachts.
Full employment is a piece of cake for employers at the present cost of labor and our present administration can crow about it to boot. Win win if one is part of the winning class
Wish I thought this funny ha ha, but I don't.
Full employment is a piece of cake for employers at the present cost of labor and our present administration can crow about it to boot. Win win if one is part of the winning class
Wish I thought this funny ha ha, but I don't.
18
"That so many working households are eligible for food stamps reflects the prevalence of low wage jobs". No, it reflects households too big for their own good. Or worse, too big by design just to become eligible.
Tough problems like these, where a program ends up getting abused in ways never originally imagined, call for tough medicine, and debates need to be centered on which tough medicine is best. Not bemoaning how cruel and bitter the medicine is.
With Food Stamps, the goal should be not just feeding fewer households, but smaller households too. Because, for the most part, these households are households for accounting purposes only. Heck, we don't even know the breakdown of how households actually consume their stamped food. We think it is $1.43/person, it may well be 2.86 for one, the other goeing hungry. Think that doesn't happen? Think again. At the very least, eligibility based on more than two children needs to go next.
So yes, we need more cuts, and using the savings from these cuts, towards State-sponsored soup kitchens.
The overall goal should be to make Food Stamps an honor system for poor AND responsible living, an Uncle Sam's dean's list of poor determined to have the best shot at getting out of poverty, if you will. Just making eligibility has gotta be huuuge. Present to cashier with pride, acknowledging looks of envy optional.
Not a lifetime dole entitlement award for the poor and proud. For them, the soup kitchen around the corner.
Tough problems like these, where a program ends up getting abused in ways never originally imagined, call for tough medicine, and debates need to be centered on which tough medicine is best. Not bemoaning how cruel and bitter the medicine is.
With Food Stamps, the goal should be not just feeding fewer households, but smaller households too. Because, for the most part, these households are households for accounting purposes only. Heck, we don't even know the breakdown of how households actually consume their stamped food. We think it is $1.43/person, it may well be 2.86 for one, the other goeing hungry. Think that doesn't happen? Think again. At the very least, eligibility based on more than two children needs to go next.
So yes, we need more cuts, and using the savings from these cuts, towards State-sponsored soup kitchens.
The overall goal should be to make Food Stamps an honor system for poor AND responsible living, an Uncle Sam's dean's list of poor determined to have the best shot at getting out of poverty, if you will. Just making eligibility has gotta be huuuge. Present to cashier with pride, acknowledging looks of envy optional.
Not a lifetime dole entitlement award for the poor and proud. For them, the soup kitchen around the corner.
12
In today's America, rife with homelessness, those large families you hope to discourage tend to be composed of relatives and their partners and kids sheltering with the only family member who still has a roof over his or her head. Someone's grandmother, sister, or brother-in-law. They all need food as well as shelter.
They're not cramming themselves into small quarters just to grab money for food from your very unwilling hands.
They're not cramming themselves into small quarters just to grab money for food from your very unwilling hands.
53
Supporting only "smaller households" sounds like a great idea, until you realize that many folks are doubling up so that they have a roof over their heads at all. Hunger is one problem, affordable housing a whole other problem.
Smaller households would mean providing family planning/contraceptive/abortion services. It would mean community resources to teach people that having another kid to get "extra" public benefits is counterproductive and leads to additional poverty. It would mean not incarcerating so many people with addictions, so grandma doesn't have to try to raise three kids while she's only got Social Security and the kids get Medicaid (so far, but just wait for those cuts, too). It would mean providing low-cost and easy access to effective mental health treatment so people can get help for severe depression and psychotic illnesses (that often exist with addiction and severe physical illnesses) whenever needed. It would mean providing more low-cost housing. And more subsidized bus and subway access, so people could get to their 2-3 low-paying jobs. It would mean allowing teenaged boys to continue living with their moms in homeless shelters, whereas now they're often kicked out, for being "too old" (as in 14), and then have to fend for themselves. A domino effect of one problem cascading into another, all because of greed at the top of the heap.
Smaller households would mean providing family planning/contraceptive/abortion services. It would mean community resources to teach people that having another kid to get "extra" public benefits is counterproductive and leads to additional poverty. It would mean not incarcerating so many people with addictions, so grandma doesn't have to try to raise three kids while she's only got Social Security and the kids get Medicaid (so far, but just wait for those cuts, too). It would mean providing low-cost and easy access to effective mental health treatment so people can get help for severe depression and psychotic illnesses (that often exist with addiction and severe physical illnesses) whenever needed. It would mean providing more low-cost housing. And more subsidized bus and subway access, so people could get to their 2-3 low-paying jobs. It would mean allowing teenaged boys to continue living with their moms in homeless shelters, whereas now they're often kicked out, for being "too old" (as in 14), and then have to fend for themselves. A domino effect of one problem cascading into another, all because of greed at the top of the heap.
1
@M.L.
Food's not an issue and neither is shelter, just how it's doled out. What have you got against government-funded kitchens?
Food's not an issue and neither is shelter, just how it's doled out. What have you got against government-funded kitchens?
1
In a recent article in these pages, single middle aged people were sited as being among the most vulnerable financially and would be among the most penalized under trumpcare. This group has been among the hardest hit from the recession if they lost their job. While they may have found work again, it is more likely to be less secure, much lower paid, with no benefits. These people will not only be priced out of healthcare, they will also be pushed out of the food stamp program.
One thing that is not well known is that after several months of looking for work, exhausting unemployment because middle aged people's search for work is up to a year, much longer than younger workers, when they finally find a couple of month's work that even at $11 or $12 dollars per hour put them out of food stamps while not having cash to cover survival basics or even transportation to that job as well as owing for rent and utilities that have gone unpaid while looking for rent.
They are then let go for little or no cause from work often caught not being able to overcome the consequences of being so cash poor and without healthcare from job performance.
This trend will only become worse under gop's favoring employers over workers combined with growing ageism in an aging work population where everyone will be working longer in a financially less secure economy.
One thing that is not well known is that after several months of looking for work, exhausting unemployment because middle aged people's search for work is up to a year, much longer than younger workers, when they finally find a couple of month's work that even at $11 or $12 dollars per hour put them out of food stamps while not having cash to cover survival basics or even transportation to that job as well as owing for rent and utilities that have gone unpaid while looking for rent.
They are then let go for little or no cause from work often caught not being able to overcome the consequences of being so cash poor and without healthcare from job performance.
This trend will only become worse under gop's favoring employers over workers combined with growing ageism in an aging work population where everyone will be working longer in a financially less secure economy.
39
The "actual" unemployment rate is the lowest it has ever been for over a decade and a half at 4.5%.
1
Let' be clear Nemo the goal of the food stamp program is indeed to push people out of it. Welfare was never meant to be a lifestyle but rather a helping hand to see people through tough times in their life. Agreed people need to be paid a living wage while at the same time people need to be responsible for themselves. Repeatedly making bad life choices comes with consequences that welfare was not meant to support.
1
If middle aged people are experiencing difficulties, what do you think the situation is like for people over 60? I have friends who would be overjoyed to land a 12$ an hour job. Has EITHER party done anything for this demographic? Do they admit this demographic exists? The Ford/Nixon Administration was the last Administration to help working class seniors when they instituted the SS COLA.
3
"President Trump's budget plan would destroy the food stamp program, on the pretense that it discourages work. That's nonsense..."
Of course it is nonsense, but then, the Republican party may as well rename itself the party of nonsense, the most recent, glaring argument for doing so being the man who occupies the Oval Office as their representative.
Of course it is nonsense, but then, the Republican party may as well rename itself the party of nonsense, the most recent, glaring argument for doing so being the man who occupies the Oval Office as their representative.
20
The cost of one tasting menu meal at Per Se with tax and tip and wine is MORE than the SNAP benefit for a family of 4 for a month.
The SNAP benefit for an individual for a month is LESS then 1 complete fancy steak house dinner, without alcohol.
SNAP allows less than $2 per meal per day, less than $5 per person per day. The very poor in the USA do NOT go to McDonalds or any restaurant every day. They go once a week or so as a "special treat" for the kids.
The SNAP benefit for an individual for a month is LESS then 1 complete fancy steak house dinner, without alcohol.
SNAP allows less than $2 per meal per day, less than $5 per person per day. The very poor in the USA do NOT go to McDonalds or any restaurant every day. They go once a week or so as a "special treat" for the kids.
30
That would be why it is called "assistance" and not replacement.
And a fancy meal at a restaurant has absolutely nothing to do with a meal at home for the working poor anymore than to compare a price of a Ferrari versus a used chevy.
And a fancy meal at a restaurant has absolutely nothing to do with a meal at home for the working poor anymore than to compare a price of a Ferrari versus a used chevy.
2
And the cost of a moon shot would feed the entire country...that's not a valid comparison
Sounds like to me BigGuy that you need to be spending less on tasting meals at Per Se and steak house dinners with alcohol and more in taxes to support those on SNAP.
Well said. Poverty in a wealthy country depicts the underlying gross inequality, and its iniquities, created by its capitalistic system'. One thing is entrepreneurship and a 'healthy' desire to excel and triumph in life, another is being greedy, and the latter seems in ample supply. Lest we forget, 'a chain is only as strong as its weakest link', making us at least morally a weak country. That working folks can't make a living wage is an outrage...while the 'rich and powerful' corporate world skims off the cream. Cutting the funds to support the essential social safety net is cruel and so, but so unnecessary. Are we really so blind to the evidence, and lacking in justice, let alone in compassion? I don't think so, Trump's arrogant misrule excepted.
268
Isn't it Walmart that pays workers such a low wage that it gives them handouts on how to apply for government benefits, including food stamps?
The Waltons are the richest family in America – achieving this great status on the backs of its workers.
Poor people don't just wake up poor and say I love being poor! It's a source of great humiliation for many not only low wage people but long-term unemployed including Connecticut executives who can't land jobs in their 50s but still have to eat.
Message to Donald Trump: cutting off food stamps does it erase the problem of hunger.
Just because a solution to a problem is stopped doesn't mean the problem has been solved.
The Waltons are the richest family in America – achieving this great status on the backs of its workers.
Poor people don't just wake up poor and say I love being poor! It's a source of great humiliation for many not only low wage people but long-term unemployed including Connecticut executives who can't land jobs in their 50s but still have to eat.
Message to Donald Trump: cutting off food stamps does it erase the problem of hunger.
Just because a solution to a problem is stopped doesn't mean the problem has been solved.
78
Christine just because you have verified status from the NYT to write what you want without being moderated, doesn't mean that you should. Whatever Walmart pays it's employees, it's at least the federal minimum. I am sure there are employees who work there which support large families on their income and qualify for welfare, but that's got nothing to do with Walmart. There are many good reasons people have turned to welfare for help Christine, but there are many bad reasons too that allows people to take advantage of the system and that's what burns so many of us up. I'm all for the twelve step program but the day comes when you graduate and make your way in the world.
"The Waltons are the richest family in America – achieving this great status on the backs of its workers."... and the rest of us as well, by shifting the cost of supporting workers to the government, paid for by us.
I'd say that makes the Waltons the biggest freeloaders in America.
I'd say that makes the Waltons the biggest freeloaders in America.
138
Funny how even the most intelligent commenters never admit that offshoring of entire industries plays a role in the increase in poverty.
3
The problem is not really the food stamps for the needy but refusal to accept the fact of wide income and resource gap in society. Instead of facing the problem squarely, the Trump administration is aggravating the problem further to such an extent as to make it irreversible. The proposed budgetary plan offered by Trump to offset the heavy cost of tax cuts for the super rich by cutting on the social welfare programmes like food stamps for the poor working households, job training, public health projects such as the prevention and control of diseases etc. are some of the examples that reveal his class bias for the rich and a complete insensitivity to human deprivation and suffering.
139
Perfectly stated!
1
Two thoughts on food stamps.
First, all meals provided to elected officials in Washington, e.g. meals provided to the president and family in the White House or served in Congressional facilities, should be based on the $1.40 per meal per person budget. No purchasing extra. If this is a luxury life there is no reason for elected officials to receive more. In fact perhaps we might adjust their incomes and simply give them food stamps as part of compensation.
Second, if receiving food stamps reduces motivation to work think of the destructive impact of large inheritances. The "free stuff makes you slothful" argument applies not only for government funds but for inherited wealth. Far from eliminating the inheritance tax it should be essentially confiscatory in nature to save all those beneficiaries from sloth, laziness, and all the other character-destroying impacts of free stuff. If Donald Trump had been forced to earn money rather than inherit it he might never have experienced a single bankruptcy and would have appreciated how hard the craftsmen and suppliers he stiffed with regularity had worked for their money. Inheriting millions may be the root of all his character defects.
First, all meals provided to elected officials in Washington, e.g. meals provided to the president and family in the White House or served in Congressional facilities, should be based on the $1.40 per meal per person budget. No purchasing extra. If this is a luxury life there is no reason for elected officials to receive more. In fact perhaps we might adjust their incomes and simply give them food stamps as part of compensation.
Second, if receiving food stamps reduces motivation to work think of the destructive impact of large inheritances. The "free stuff makes you slothful" argument applies not only for government funds but for inherited wealth. Far from eliminating the inheritance tax it should be essentially confiscatory in nature to save all those beneficiaries from sloth, laziness, and all the other character-destroying impacts of free stuff. If Donald Trump had been forced to earn money rather than inherit it he might never have experienced a single bankruptcy and would have appreciated how hard the craftsmen and suppliers he stiffed with regularity had worked for their money. Inheriting millions may be the root of all his character defects.
976
You're mistaken. The Rich, especially those with inheritances, need to be rewarded for being rich, by not being taxed upon their capital gains, dividends, interest, and inheritances.
The Poor need to be punished to encourage them to work harder.
The Poor need to be punished to encourage them to work harder.
5
Two problems:
1) Even if elected officials were limited to $1.40 per meal, they make so much money once they become elected officials (and after) that they could easily pay for a much more generous lunch, and
2) The Republicans aren't against sloth. They're just against giving any help to people who actually need it. So they introduce obstacles like drug tests and evidence of employment.
They clearly have never had the difficulty of having a spouse come home after being laid off and sit in front of a computer monitor every day sending out resumes, only to be rejected. They seem to think that anyone who is not working can find work, and that people receiving benefits are just living the high life off of their $1.40 per person per meal.
1) Even if elected officials were limited to $1.40 per meal, they make so much money once they become elected officials (and after) that they could easily pay for a much more generous lunch, and
2) The Republicans aren't against sloth. They're just against giving any help to people who actually need it. So they introduce obstacles like drug tests and evidence of employment.
They clearly have never had the difficulty of having a spouse come home after being laid off and sit in front of a computer monitor every day sending out resumes, only to be rejected. They seem to think that anyone who is not working can find work, and that people receiving benefits are just living the high life off of their $1.40 per person per meal.
9
I could not agree more. If the Ayn Rand fans truly believe that entitlements (their word, not mine) diminish the soul and rob people of the joy of full self-realization, then inheritance tax should be 100%. Why should Mr Trump begin his working life with his father's money? Let him begin at zero, as do so many others, and experience the euphoria the GOP promises.
3
Perhaps the results would be different if those proposing these draconian cuts weren't multi-millionaires themselves and didn't receive political contributions from those endorsing their present positions. Empathy is not in their vocabulary, nor do they care.
93
People who sneer at the dead-endedness of poverty should do the math.
$10/hour (more than minimum wage in many places) for 40 hours a week is
$20,800. After taxes that has to pay for rent, food, utilities, transportation, clothing, internet (nobody can live without it and work, miostly), health care, and quite a few other necessities. Many of these necessities are more expensive in less wealthy districts (food, transport).
That's working poverty. Most people have more than one job (for which they get no overtime) and are still living from paycheck to paycheck.
This kind of grinding poverty shuts the door on progress. A hardworking healthy person can better their circumstances, but this requires some support from somewhere or some luck.
I am so sick and tired of Republicans living comfortably and blaming victims, or not living well and still refusing to blame the perps of this top-heavy exploitation and looting.
Poverty is not a state of mind. Making food more affordable, and birth control readily accessible, improves the chances of a person getting off the treadmill.
It is shameless that corporations continue to increase pay at the top while not paying a living wage to the people who do the hardest jobs at the bottom.
$10/hour (more than minimum wage in many places) for 40 hours a week is
$20,800. After taxes that has to pay for rent, food, utilities, transportation, clothing, internet (nobody can live without it and work, miostly), health care, and quite a few other necessities. Many of these necessities are more expensive in less wealthy districts (food, transport).
That's working poverty. Most people have more than one job (for which they get no overtime) and are still living from paycheck to paycheck.
This kind of grinding poverty shuts the door on progress. A hardworking healthy person can better their circumstances, but this requires some support from somewhere or some luck.
I am so sick and tired of Republicans living comfortably and blaming victims, or not living well and still refusing to blame the perps of this top-heavy exploitation and looting.
Poverty is not a state of mind. Making food more affordable, and birth control readily accessible, improves the chances of a person getting off the treadmill.
It is shameless that corporations continue to increase pay at the top while not paying a living wage to the people who do the hardest jobs at the bottom.
695
I would like to add that most people have more than one job because employers won't hire full-time (e.g. acadamia) due to the HIGH COST of insurance. We need a single payer to decouple healthcare from employers, which may motivate employers toward more full-time employment.
17
A single person can live on $20,000 per year. A married couple, each earning $20,000 can support a family of four. How many middle class families do you know where both parents aren't working? The median household income is $50,000. Are you really arguing that a family is in dire poverty if their income is 80% of the median?
5
It is ludicrous to say that every individual can live on 20k per year. It depends on the cost of living in their area, especially housing and transportation.
1
Indeed this is about poverty, including poverty of working people who still can't make ends meet/feed their families. Yes the administration should have credible policies for job growth, better employment benefits (WalMart employees are on food stamps because it doesn't pay a living wage), access to affordable health care by improving Obamacare/ACA, raise the minimum wage to a living wage, better job training & work options for disabled - there's plenty this administration should be concerned w/ but aren't - because Trump & Jared had everything handed to them by millionaire dads & are afflicted (like most Republicans) w/ contempt for middle-class & lower income people. Trump & Jared have never wanted for anything in their lives, w/ Trump's dad giving him $$ to keep him out of his numerous bankruptcies ('cause Trump doesn't know jack about business) & Jared's dad bought Jared's admission to college & law school w/million$. Those 2 never saw a problem they couldn't throw $$$ at. Til now anyway. If we can get rid of Trump & then vote Pence out - because Pence's also a congenital hater - & get a Democratic president, we can resume working on poverty, income inequality, affordable healthcare, affordable college & other things that would make our country better for the majority of Americans.
Til then don't hold your breath. The Trump administration would just as soon starve the poor as look at them.
OTOH, there may be some baloney sandwiches in their future.....
Til then don't hold your breath. The Trump administration would just as soon starve the poor as look at them.
OTOH, there may be some baloney sandwiches in their future.....
114
Income inequality grew under Obama. That is why Hillary was not elected.
1
Yes, a million times over, yes. I work for a SNAP outreach program in California and this piece hits the nail on the head. This is THE government program that keeps people from starving--it is a lifeline. Without SNAP, our society would be exclusively relying on charity organizations, which cannot meet the need alone, to make sure its citizens don't go hungry. What support could be more important? What could be a better example of common decency than to pitch in to make sure our neighbors are fed? Thank you for this editorial.
88
Haven't you heard? The problem isn't poverty. According to HUD Secretary Ben Carson, poverty isn't real. It's only 'a state of mind'.
26
The crushing of America’s poor took on sharper edges in the 1990’s when Pres. Clinton yielded to the Republican controlled congress, against Democratic Party resistance, accepted changes in welfare reform in Reagan terms of ‘a shiftless crowd of indigent Individuals unwilling to work so long as they could reap public welfare and living like kings (and queens)’ that resulted in the new approach developed and pasted by President Clinton’s administration that did serious damage at several levels to our country and effectively created a class of cashless cases whose lives in order to survive are not pleasant and often likely not legal -- degrading at best.
Add to that globalization as ‘Free Trade’ was to create jobs it didn’t and the soaring income inequality that made the poor invisible to the establishment and you have America today where one child in five is living in poor households (households earning half the median income or less).
We as a people need to lay down the endless chatter about the President we have and turn to the country we occupy and how is can possibly deal with the world as it is forming with a sense of justice and equity. The Times appears to be headed in that direction, good to see.
Add to that globalization as ‘Free Trade’ was to create jobs it didn’t and the soaring income inequality that made the poor invisible to the establishment and you have America today where one child in five is living in poor households (households earning half the median income or less).
We as a people need to lay down the endless chatter about the President we have and turn to the country we occupy and how is can possibly deal with the world as it is forming with a sense of justice and equity. The Times appears to be headed in that direction, good to see.
16
As Senator Bernie Sander´s would say, ¨Anyone in the USA who would support a budget like Trump's would be lacking compassion, empathy or self-respect for themselves or their compatriots.¨ It amazes me the Pope would give President Trump an audience much less take a picture with him! Hopefully the Pope´s encyclical writing he gave Trump will be something he will read!
14
The Catholic Church is a spent force of zero ethical value. Trump's visit to the Vatican was just an photo-op for the women in his life to sport a neo-Gothic look, that's all.
If he indeed is ABLE to read!
He'll only read it if it's 2 pages long with lots of bullet points and mentions Trump's name frequently.
Food stamps help prop up the farm economy...and profits...so Republican state voters and their representatives loooove food stamps. There's more. The stamps help states without enough jobs and opportunity, like Maine, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, etc., to keep their economies moving. So, while they might say otherwise, those states, and the merchants therein, would lose tremendously if the program were to be cut sharply.
American politics are backward. Those who say they hate the federal govt. and vote against regular business instead of obstructionism are actually sucking down massive billions in payments. A neat trick would be for the other states to withdraw their support of such programs and then let the Republicans try to make a deal to get them back by making a compromise on something the Dems want.
Sooner or later, someone is going to figure this out. The states that vote Democratic, in the main, send billions and billions to the states that vote against everything the Dems say they want. Who made this deal? What keeps this crazy stuff going? I dunno.
The Trump Republicans claim that federal assistance creates a culture of dependency (as opposed to letting people die from hunger?). Well, yes, all that federal money helps to assist corporations paying less so that their workers have to turn to public assistance. One of the biggest offenders is America's biggest employer, WalMart. Corporations are the ones getting the biggest advantage. This is a mess.
American politics are backward. Those who say they hate the federal govt. and vote against regular business instead of obstructionism are actually sucking down massive billions in payments. A neat trick would be for the other states to withdraw their support of such programs and then let the Republicans try to make a deal to get them back by making a compromise on something the Dems want.
Sooner or later, someone is going to figure this out. The states that vote Democratic, in the main, send billions and billions to the states that vote against everything the Dems say they want. Who made this deal? What keeps this crazy stuff going? I dunno.
The Trump Republicans claim that federal assistance creates a culture of dependency (as opposed to letting people die from hunger?). Well, yes, all that federal money helps to assist corporations paying less so that their workers have to turn to public assistance. One of the biggest offenders is America's biggest employer, WalMart. Corporations are the ones getting the biggest advantage. This is a mess.
31
There may be some lazy freeloaders, but I'm sure most people would rather earn their living than eek by on food stamps. So, the editors are correct: what is needed is employment, not fewer food stamps. Happily, there is much work to do, and Trump agrees. In fact, he promised a trillion dollar infrastructure initiative, which would create millions of jobs, and raise our productivity through more efficient infrastructure. But we haven't seen any plans for this bill yet. Why not?
C'mon Donald, stop destroying America, by repealing social programs, and make America great again with your promised investment in infrastructure. Oh, and Congress, you don't have to wait for POTUS, you know. Get workIng on that bill!
C'mon Donald, stop destroying America, by repealing social programs, and make America great again with your promised investment in infrastructure. Oh, and Congress, you don't have to wait for POTUS, you know. Get workIng on that bill!
23
Republican policy is how you turn a democracy into an oligarchy by passing it through a kleptocracy masquerading as the Second Coming.
41
As a Father to a former military spouse with 1 child, whose husband served in Iraq and Afghanistan and gave over 20 years to our country, I can say with certainty that a large percentage of our military families qualify for and rely on food stamps to feed their families.
Will our draconian leader now take out his ignorant proposals on the section of our citizens that offer the ultimate treasure to this maniacal despot, so that he can give up what is their right to a paycheck generous enough to support their families in order to offer a tax gift to his wealthy cronies.
Cutting the food stamp program will not only endanger the sick and disabled but also those who are some of the most able, that are criminally underpaid, of all our citizens, our soldiers. It is extremely difficult or impossible for military spouses to get employment since they are constantly moved from post to post, and therefore must have food assistance to survive. They surely will be among the ranks of the hungry if this horribly demonic travesty is allowed.
The fearful draft dodger Occupant of the Oval Office ( 000 ) knows nothing of the life circumstances of of those he seeks to deprive. Is there no end to his cruelty?
Will our draconian leader now take out his ignorant proposals on the section of our citizens that offer the ultimate treasure to this maniacal despot, so that he can give up what is their right to a paycheck generous enough to support their families in order to offer a tax gift to his wealthy cronies.
Cutting the food stamp program will not only endanger the sick and disabled but also those who are some of the most able, that are criminally underpaid, of all our citizens, our soldiers. It is extremely difficult or impossible for military spouses to get employment since they are constantly moved from post to post, and therefore must have food assistance to survive. They surely will be among the ranks of the hungry if this horribly demonic travesty is allowed.
The fearful draft dodger Occupant of the Oval Office ( 000 ) knows nothing of the life circumstances of of those he seeks to deprive. Is there no end to his cruelty?
324
If what you say is true the answer is to get rid of food stamps and raise military wages -- increase the defense budget -- and decrease the assistance budget. Military families already can buy food at the PX.
1
Mr Powell
You will be pleased to learn that Mr Trump ate LOTS of the BEST chocolates during his recent visit to Brussels on government business. Doesn't the sight of that warm the cockles of your heart? He's a growing boy, he needs his calories.
You will be pleased to learn that Mr Trump ate LOTS of the BEST chocolates during his recent visit to Brussels on government business. Doesn't the sight of that warm the cockles of your heart? He's a growing boy, he needs his calories.
In the 60s when our family lived on an Air Force Base, The lower ranks ("Airmen") qualified for not only Food Stamps but AFDC\. The Air Force privately announces that anybody who applied would immediately be dishonorably discharged.
1
Compared to the profits made by corporations and investors over the past few decades, while wages and benefits were being slashed, and jobs off-shored, the cost of food stamps and other social safety net programs is a small price to pay for this wealth in the hands of a relative few. And yet, they whine that their taxes are too high, and their Republican toadies do their bidding.
Forty years ago we had the largest, and most affluent, middle class in history, and everybody prospered, even the "poor" rich people and corporations who had to pay such "onerous" taxes. But then came St. Ronnie, to save the wealthy from the dirty masses, and bequeathed "trickle down economics" on America, to suck the wealth up from the bottom, in return for the never delivered promise that the "surplus" wealth would trickle back down.
If we would reverse the "trickle down" policies, food stamps, Medicaid, and other social assistance programs wouldn't be so necessary. Go back to letting capitalism do what it did for the forty-plus years before Reagan and the Republicans ruined it. But that's anathema to the Greed Over People Party.
Forty years ago we had the largest, and most affluent, middle class in history, and everybody prospered, even the "poor" rich people and corporations who had to pay such "onerous" taxes. But then came St. Ronnie, to save the wealthy from the dirty masses, and bequeathed "trickle down economics" on America, to suck the wealth up from the bottom, in return for the never delivered promise that the "surplus" wealth would trickle back down.
If we would reverse the "trickle down" policies, food stamps, Medicaid, and other social assistance programs wouldn't be so necessary. Go back to letting capitalism do what it did for the forty-plus years before Reagan and the Republicans ruined it. But that's anathema to the Greed Over People Party.
93
This was always the plan. After the USSR went down, the people who own this country didn't have to pretend anymore.
NAFTA .Don't forget that we had to purchase lemons from south America
and had them growing right in our own back yard.Thank BILL CLINTON for that corp sell out of the American people .
and had them growing right in our own back yard.Thank BILL CLINTON for that corp sell out of the American people .
1
Food stamps don't keep people from falling into poverty. You have to be desperately poor already to qualify for them. I know because I qualified at one point, following the loss of a job in the 2008 recession. Visit the food stamps website and see for yourself--you must be near destitute to qualify for food stamps. Even if you qualify, the benefits aren't easy to get. The application process is onerous and geared to screen people out. Once I finally did get an EBT card after applying a second time, it was quite literally a life saver. It made a huge difference at a time when I would not have been able to buy groceries otherwise. Then I got more work and a regular job and no longer qualified. I don't think it would have been easy to continue to get the benefits and "freeload," but why would an unemployed childless adult be more likely to freeload than anyone else? People who are poor and out of work especially need the help. Why punish them in particular?
As for the idea that food stamps discourage people from working, that is ridiculous. The benefit amount is minimal (a few hundred dollars) and can only be spent on food. It helps people survive, but it's far from a livelihood. I was really grateful for the SNAP benefits I received, and I definitely want them to be there for others.
As for the idea that food stamps discourage people from working, that is ridiculous. The benefit amount is minimal (a few hundred dollars) and can only be spent on food. It helps people survive, but it's far from a livelihood. I was really grateful for the SNAP benefits I received, and I definitely want them to be there for others.
489
You can apply online. You do not have to provide any evidence. Under Obama, the resource test was eliminated, so you could have an infinite amount of money in the bank as long as your reported taxable income was low.
There is a reason why the food stamp budget exploded under Obama and has not returned to pre-2009 levels.
The Bush recession ended mid-2009.
There is a reason why the food stamp budget exploded under Obama and has not returned to pre-2009 levels.
The Bush recession ended mid-2009.
2
Everything you say is true and correct but that does not mean it will bother some people at all. But perhaps this will:
If food stamps are cut, America will experience an increase in homelessness that they cannot imagine. We are unable to walk down many of the sidewalks today in our big cities because of the abundance of tents that house our homeless. After the cuts we will not be able to drive the boulevards!
If food stamps are cut, America will experience an increase in homelessness that they cannot imagine. We are unable to walk down many of the sidewalks today in our big cities because of the abundance of tents that house our homeless. After the cuts we will not be able to drive the boulevards!
21
I think we will see fewer fat poor people.
1
We have "imported" poverty in the form of illegal "immigrants". Many have little education and scant prospects for ever earning much. And they have produced a lot of kids, US citizens, thanks to the continuing lunacy of Birthright Citizenship. Birthright Citizens are eligible from birth for the full array of entitlements to which their parents' poverty entitles them. In fact, the US taxpayer usually pays for their birth in the first place.
I haven't seen data on the ethnicity of food stamp recipients but I have seen who is on Medicaid. The proportion of non elderly Hispanics on Medicaid is about double their proportion of the population in every state in the country. They account for 58% in California.
http://kff.org/medicaid/state-indicator/distribution-by-raceethnicity-4/...
It's a reasonable assumption that the same pattern prevails with food stamps too. Anyone with data, please post.
I haven't seen data on the ethnicity of food stamp recipients but I have seen who is on Medicaid. The proportion of non elderly Hispanics on Medicaid is about double their proportion of the population in every state in the country. They account for 58% in California.
http://kff.org/medicaid/state-indicator/distribution-by-raceethnicity-4/...
It's a reasonable assumption that the same pattern prevails with food stamps too. Anyone with data, please post.
28
Our businesses invite these folks here with employment, often of the extremely exploitative variety. Interesting that none of the interventions I'm hearing about from the Trump Administration have to do with punishing employers. There has always been a pretty straightforward solution to this problem, and it is about hammering the employer's not the people making a rational decision to come here for employment
2
Dear Kurfco, California has so many "illegal" immigrants because it has this large, low-paying backbreaking agriculture industry. Now, if we could find a way to move all these poverty stricken West-Virginians of that other article in the NYT yesterday, to California to work in agribusiness, we'd have two problems solved: immigrants not needed anymore and the benefits go to "deserving Americans".
3
Illegal aliens do not get government benefit. They never had. The reason, if you check behind Kaiser Family Foundation's statistics, that a high proportion of hispanic citizens are getting aid, is that in California for many generations, our hispanic citizens have has the lowest paying, hardest working jobs and the poorest health care of any other group. The importation of illegals into California is done by businesses who are unwilling to pay decent wages and benefits to attract American workers. About 6 years ago, the illegal farmworkers did not come one Spring to work the fields. The farmers had to plow under crops because, even at $15 per hour, no US citizens would work in the fields.
3
I don't care if there is some fraud or abuse or parents who don't take care of their kids the way they should. If we cannot make sure that NO child goes to bed hungry or has to go to class hungry or has to worry about their siblings going hungry, then nothing else we do matters.
237
Do you have any evidence that requiring able bodied childless adults to work, volunteer or attend job training for 20 hours per week will result in a single child going hungry?
3
The problem isn't food stamps, "it’s that companies pay wages so low that their employees qualify for them"
A bit broader perspective is that it's not just low wages, but that many jobs aren't paid for at all, because corporations see no value in them. They are just problems for government, oh, and by the way, let's cut corporate and executive taxes and so make it impossible for government to pay for them adequately.
Jobs like infrastructure development (transit, airports, etc), environmental protection (clean air & water, emissions, renewable energy, etc), affordable housing, rehabilitation, child & elder care, etc. The profit-before-all-else private sector makes use of these things, but avoids paying for this use by political manipulation of Congress and State legislatures.
A bit broader perspective is that it's not just low wages, but that many jobs aren't paid for at all, because corporations see no value in them. They are just problems for government, oh, and by the way, let's cut corporate and executive taxes and so make it impossible for government to pay for them adequately.
Jobs like infrastructure development (transit, airports, etc), environmental protection (clean air & water, emissions, renewable energy, etc), affordable housing, rehabilitation, child & elder care, etc. The profit-before-all-else private sector makes use of these things, but avoids paying for this use by political manipulation of Congress and State legislatures.
41
Yes, our poverty of spirit. Behold our mirror image in the Oval Office.
32
After watching several episodes of the PBS program Victorian Slum House about poverty in London from 1860 to 1900, I have been struck by the parallel between conservative Republican rhetoric and budget proposals and the blame the poor position of more affluent Victorians. It is striking to get an idea of what might happen with drastic reductions to social safety nets like food stamps and Medicaid.
Without addressing the underlying problems of lack of education, jobs paying living wages and access to routine healthcare the problems will be as difficult to solve now as they were in Victorian England.
Without addressing the underlying problems of lack of education, jobs paying living wages and access to routine healthcare the problems will be as difficult to solve now as they were in Victorian England.
64
The book by Upton Sinclair " down and out in London and Paris " , that is a good example .While we still have in some places , decent water , it is quite appearant that with fracking coming to more communities and the lack of EPA penalties for millions of super fund sites , the venal officials that will benefit from
the lack of having to perform their duties ,will destroy what was once a great
possibility.
the lack of having to perform their duties ,will destroy what was once a great
possibility.
1
You don't have to look that far back, because here in America, with all of its wealth, we did not enjoy Food Stamps until the sixties, and many went hungry as a result. During the early days of the FDR administration, there were times that the government was involved in food aid, but the present program has its roots in the early to mid-sixties.
When the program first began in the 60's - REAL food was distributed - mostly surplus food stuffs (helped farmers too!)...no cash....now one gets stamps that can be sold to buy sneakers & cigarettes...buy shampoo etc...
1
Are we such a mean spirited, shortsighted populace that we could even be considering such destructive policies? As author F.Scott Fitzgerald said decades ago, "America, America, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." The Republican Congress, with their life long pensions (even if they only serve 1 term in office), their gold plated health care for themselves and their families, and their privileged lives, are out of touch with the hard realities of life for millions of our citizens. They must remember their solemn oath to uphold the Constituion of the United States. If they continue to blindly follow bully boy Trump they will be judged harshly by history.....as collaborators in the downfall of our Republic. The damage is already great and the time is late.
85
The Democrats in Congress waive their salaries and illegal health insurance subsidies as well as their pensions, I'm sure. Obama is going to waive his $1 million per year in post retirement benefits, now that he has been paid $400,000 for a single speech to the banking industry and he and Michelle have their $60 million book advance.
In your dreams.
In your dreams.
And We are paying for every one of the privileges that the Republican Congress reaps!
What the article fails to mention are the recipients of food stamps who then trade them for cash; how shameful right! Except at that level of income or lack of it shoes for a child heading off to school or a dress or a jacket (or underwear) sometimes makes food less important in a cash poor family.
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin; H. Luke Shaefer may help you understand The Poor a little better. Should be available at the Public Library in communities where they still exist.
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin; H. Luke Shaefer may help you understand The Poor a little better. Should be available at the Public Library in communities where they still exist.
66
The cash-for-food-stamps also goes to pay for necessities, like toilet paper, diapers, sanitary napkins, shampoo and laundry soap, that can't be purchased with food stamps. I'd be willing to guess that more cash-for-food-stamps goes to pay for these things rather than for beer or cigarettes, especially when there is too much month at the end of the money.
1
Not to mention toothpaste, laundry detergent, and a host of other necessities that cannot be purchased with food stamps
You can lend someone you or card and PIN. Or sell the food for drugs or alcohol. There is fraud. But it still requires a cash transfer to a local merchant. Also food stamps assure that food come into a family when other people are taking the cash, such as an addict in the family.
The problem is also selfishness and indifference to human suffering.
276
You said a mouthful! Thanks for the stark truth.
17
Why is obesity so prevalent among these supposedly hungry people? Please answer that simple question. The answer ain't healthcare. It's too much food.
What if instead of giving food stamps to the poor we gave food stamps to everybody? The poor could use them to pay for food that they need and the wealthy could use them to partially pay for their more expensive foods. The rich might hate giving the poor anything, but they'd love getting a deal that lowers their food budgets. Me, I'm a pragmatist, I'm all for feeding the hungry because people who are hungry steal stuff so they can buy food, if the proletariat is fed and happy they're much less likely to steal from you. That and it's not nice to let people starve.
With minimum wage the problem is that as you raise it companies cut jobs to compensate, so while those with jobs may be able to afford to eat well and pay their bills those without jobs have a harder time finding them. In my lifetime I've seen the local groceries that have always been a source of jobs downsize their employment. They use to employ workers to help bag groceries, now after the last minimum wage hike they've eliminated that position and expect that the checkout clerk and/or customer will bag the groceries. That might seem like a lazy complaint, but that's a decent fraction of jobs that got priced out of the market.
With minimum wage the problem is that as you raise it companies cut jobs to compensate, so while those with jobs may be able to afford to eat well and pay their bills those without jobs have a harder time finding them. In my lifetime I've seen the local groceries that have always been a source of jobs downsize their employment. They use to employ workers to help bag groceries, now after the last minimum wage hike they've eliminated that position and expect that the checkout clerk and/or customer will bag the groceries. That might seem like a lazy complaint, but that's a decent fraction of jobs that got priced out of the market.
24
The reason the Medicaid budget is exploding is because wealthy people are Medicaid planning their estates so that the federal taxpayer will pay the overwhelming majority of their nursing home care, and they can leave their estates to their children. Any reduction in Medicaid funding is going to require a bigger contribution from the wealthy, and they are not interested.
The same logic applies to universal pre-school. Democrats are not willing to chip in to subsidize day care for poor children, but if they can avoid preschool fees, they'll go for it.
The same logic applies to universal pre-school. Democrats are not willing to chip in to subsidize day care for poor children, but if they can avoid preschool fees, they'll go for it.
5
Eliminating baggers in supermarkets was a business decision to increase profits by cutting payroll. Citing minimum wage hikes was a pretext. With the same business fundamentals as in your area, the supermarkets in my high-taxes community manage to employ enough cashiers and baggers. The business decision here is that customer service is critical to remaining competitive.
And the poor are no less ethical than anyone else. The stunning thefts committed against large numbers of ordinary people by the wealthy Bernie Madoff and successful Wells Fargo Bank showcase simple greed unfettered by ethics.
A lot theft at all economic levels is directly related to drug addiction. The president's proposed federal budget also slashes support for substance abuse treatment.
And the poor are no less ethical than anyone else. The stunning thefts committed against large numbers of ordinary people by the wealthy Bernie Madoff and successful Wells Fargo Bank showcase simple greed unfettered by ethics.
A lot theft at all economic levels is directly related to drug addiction. The president's proposed federal budget also slashes support for substance abuse treatment.
None of the people in Congress who are Tea Party or Ayn Rand devotees care one whit about any of this. The billionaires, particularly those who have inherited money, have never seen, smelled or touched poverty, except for the people who work for them as housekeepers, grounds keepers, nannies, janitors and such. In EVERY wealthy enclave there is an area of low income housing full of the people who support the very wealthy as workers who are glad to have those jobs. The rich live behind high walls, security guards and electronic surveillance and do not want to "associate" with the "help". The movie was correct.
You cannot legislate compassion, generosity, understanding, kindness, or sympathy. You cannot wake someone else up. All of us all the same. We all matter. Life matters! There is no reason not to help the sick, the elderly, the frail, the weak, the injured and the poor. The richest country in the world never has any reason to be cheap or mean. We can only pity the very very wealthy who need to have more wealth, as this is a serious mental and emotional illness. We can only mourn the election of DT who is our current leader and hope that he will go as soon as possible.
You cannot legislate compassion, generosity, understanding, kindness, or sympathy. You cannot wake someone else up. All of us all the same. We all matter. Life matters! There is no reason not to help the sick, the elderly, the frail, the weak, the injured and the poor. The richest country in the world never has any reason to be cheap or mean. We can only pity the very very wealthy who need to have more wealth, as this is a serious mental and emotional illness. We can only mourn the election of DT who is our current leader and hope that he will go as soon as possible.
168
Pity the wealthy if you wish, but tax them bigly.
"The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the state gives him."
--Teddy Roosevelt
"The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the state gives him."
--Teddy Roosevelt
Those enclaves are majority Democrat. They voted for Obama and Hillary, because they knew that the status quo would be continued, with more government largesse going to the 1% and pennies to the poor.
1
Why complain about billionaires? There are only about 100 of them or so. That's not many votes. Better to start wondering why millions of poor people agree with them. Open your ears and eyes.
1
And yet the NY Times insists on de facto open borders and unlimited immigration. Why does the NY Times want to import yet more poverty and more demand/need for food stamps? Shouldn't the nation focus on taking care of its own first?
20
GRH, can you please cite the article(s) in which the NYT "insists on de facto open borders and unlimited immigration"?
I've been reading the Times for years, and cannot recall a single article advocating those things. I can recall articles that opposed specific immigration policies based on evidence they would be inhumane, costly, indiscriminate and/or ineffective.
Why don't conservatives ever propose lengthy detentions for the executives who HIRE undocumented migrants or exploit the H1B visa program? Shouldn't the nation focus on making well-heeled business owners obey our laws BEFORE cracking down on the peons they lure here?
Where I come from, we turn off spigots with the handle, not by sticking our thumbs up the nozzle. Both try to accomplish the same thing, but one method is smart and effective, while the other is pointless and self-defeating. You seem to think that "opposing stupid plans" = "not wanting a solution."
I've been reading the Times for years, and cannot recall a single article advocating those things. I can recall articles that opposed specific immigration policies based on evidence they would be inhumane, costly, indiscriminate and/or ineffective.
Why don't conservatives ever propose lengthy detentions for the executives who HIRE undocumented migrants or exploit the H1B visa program? Shouldn't the nation focus on making well-heeled business owners obey our laws BEFORE cracking down on the peons they lure here?
Where I come from, we turn off spigots with the handle, not by sticking our thumbs up the nozzle. Both try to accomplish the same thing, but one method is smart and effective, while the other is pointless and self-defeating. You seem to think that "opposing stupid plans" = "not wanting a solution."
9
I missed the editorial on open borders and unlimited immigration. Please provide link, thanks.
3
Exactly!! You can't expect that people with low-wage jobs will be paid more if there is an unlimited supply of illegal aliens willing to work for less. At the same time their children, born here or elsewhere, are being fed 2 free meals a day in many school districts, even if they don't apply for food stamps.
3
Walton family (Walmarts) will get 34 billion $ tax cut in estate taxes and their employees are subsidized by the USA food stamps. Republicans obsessed with tax cuts for the donor class could care less about under nourished kids or poor seniors as they know none of them, They do know the donor class quite well ask Ryan who gets calls every day from them asking about those tax cuts , Sadly these facts never reach the poor Trump voters who are fed fox news hype about the wonders of Murdocks buddy Donnie t!
16
43 million people on food stamps is an astounding figure. We can't go on like this.
13
Humanism and Darwinism are at such odds with one another I can't believe we've lasted as long as we have as a species. Or current trajectory, however, seems pretty inevitable considering our low seniority in the overall realm of things. Nature isn't stupid.
Just this week, Ben Carson described poverty as "a state of mind." No, Dr. Carson, poverty is a very real state of being, which permeates every aspect of one's life. Carson also suggested that if everyone had a parent like his own mother, poverty would end. No, Dr. Carson, what would reduce poverty is fewer employers exploiting workers by offering low wages, part time hours and no benefits.
It is not the poor whose state of mind needs to change.
It is not the poor whose state of mind needs to change.
38
The hypocrisy of Republican farmers in Congress who trashed SNAP benefits (food stamps) and recipients while feathering there own nests with subsidies for themselves in the Farm Bill a few years ago is something I, a United Methodist Church minister and writer, devote a considerable number of paragraphs to in my book The View From Down in Poordom: Reflections on Scriptures Addressing Poverty. They always do violence to the context in which the Apostle Paul wrote that "those who don't work, don't eat" in their Bible-thumping attempts to justify cuts to food stamps. Jesus was unequivocal and forceful in his condemnations ("Woe to you hypocrites!") in the very Bible they employ to wage war on the poorest and most vulnerable among us--the very people that he stood up for his entire short life.
16
Food Stamps: Another corporate subsidy.
5
The farm bill provides price supports to farmers, 85% of which goes to wealthy corporate farm entities. It raises the cost of food for all Americans. The food stamps compensate the poor for the excess food prices and a little bit more. The grocery monoliths profit, bodegas and convenience stores skim off their cut, either with overpriced food or exchanging food stamps for cash, at a big discount. The junk food manufacturers get an expanded market. The civil servants and poverty workers have jobs.
The rich get richer, the poor and middle class get poorer. Wealth inequality grows.
Suggest that any changes get made to the program and the corporate welfare beneficiaries accuse you of wanting to starve the poor, sick and elderly. The big boys have their narrative down.
The rich get richer, the poor and middle class get poorer. Wealth inequality grows.
Suggest that any changes get made to the program and the corporate welfare beneficiaries accuse you of wanting to starve the poor, sick and elderly. The big boys have their narrative down.
8
Trump strongly supports the concept of the welfare state. It's just that in his view, it should be welfare for the rich, rather than welfare for the poor.
21
I am a psychologist and work with many people who rely on food stamps due to disability. Some survive for a week on a jar of peanut butter they waited for in line at a local church or food bank and a loaf of bread purchased at the dollar store. These are our brothers and sisters, yet we treat them like strangers or criminals. Where has our humanity gone?
91
Are you seriously making an argument that a disabled person who is getting $193/month along with free food from a food bank is surviving for a week on jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread? That $193 is in addition to the SSDI payment or SSI if they never worked under Social Security. Medicaid and/or Medicare is paying your fees.
Sounds like they need some money management skills.
The Republican proposal does not suggest that the poor and disabled should be starved. The work requirement would apply to the able bodied adults.
People like you, who exaggerate need, are a big part of the problem. If your clients are shooting up their food stamps, they are not going to be better off if the minimum wage is increased or if they get more food stamps.
Sounds like they need some money management skills.
The Republican proposal does not suggest that the poor and disabled should be starved. The work requirement would apply to the able bodied adults.
People like you, who exaggerate need, are a big part of the problem. If your clients are shooting up their food stamps, they are not going to be better off if the minimum wage is increased or if they get more food stamps.
4
Trump to the poor, Let them eat air craft carriers.
12
"That so many working households are eligible for food stamps reflects the prevalence of low wage jobs."
The prevalence of low wage jobs is the one fact is the overriding weakness of the US economy.
It is the reason it is possible to have approaching zero unemployment with minimal wage growth. People with minimum wage jobs don't go out and compete their skills with various companies because they are merely completing for minimum wage, take it or leave it.
The low wage jobs are overwhelmingly service sector positions, so these low paid jobs are what is left as many well paying jobs continue to flee the country.
It's the reason healthcare is becoming more and more important, because minimum wage jobs virtually certainly don't come with medical benefits and poor people can't afford insurance premiums.
It is the reason growth in the economy is fueled excessively by debt. Poor people can't afford what they need from their wages so they do it on credit. Then improvements in the GNP go into the pockets of the rich. Those debt levels will likely never be repaid and will fuel the next recession.
I have ranted before and I will again. Unemployment numbers and GNP growth numbers, by themselves, are irrelevant. Growth of the economy requires wage growth and the Republican programs for healthcare, the budget, and taxes won't deliver that.
The prevalence of low wage jobs is the one fact is the overriding weakness of the US economy.
It is the reason it is possible to have approaching zero unemployment with minimal wage growth. People with minimum wage jobs don't go out and compete their skills with various companies because they are merely completing for minimum wage, take it or leave it.
The low wage jobs are overwhelmingly service sector positions, so these low paid jobs are what is left as many well paying jobs continue to flee the country.
It's the reason healthcare is becoming more and more important, because minimum wage jobs virtually certainly don't come with medical benefits and poor people can't afford insurance premiums.
It is the reason growth in the economy is fueled excessively by debt. Poor people can't afford what they need from their wages so they do it on credit. Then improvements in the GNP go into the pockets of the rich. Those debt levels will likely never be repaid and will fuel the next recession.
I have ranted before and I will again. Unemployment numbers and GNP growth numbers, by themselves, are irrelevant. Growth of the economy requires wage growth and the Republican programs for healthcare, the budget, and taxes won't deliver that.
22
A government program that works. Of course Republicans want to get rid of it.
30
Upton Sinclair put it best: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
I don't want to sound too cynical but poverty simply pays someone a profit, otherwise it would have never thrived like it has for over ten thousand years along with farming and prostitution.
I don't want to sound too cynical but poverty simply pays someone a profit, otherwise it would have never thrived like it has for over ten thousand years along with farming and prostitution.
11
Check out the salaries that are being paid to the people running the charity system. The information is public record, IRS form 990.
3
The minimum wage is abominable. The stagnation of wages over the last forty years, while profits have rocketed, should be criminal. We must do much better. Otherwise the GOP is going to destroy us. They are on a mission.
43
The only "real" problems with SNAP are the few freeloaders who take advantage of an otherwise benefic and worthwhile system. There are those who lie on their applications for food stamps, and those who use them for items other than food, or use them as a medium of exchange on a black market.
Like any safety net program, the cost of investigation and enforcement has to be weighed against the overall program costs and benefits. My memory tell me that NY City tried the "investigation and enforcement" approach many years ago, and it became a national scandal, with officers breaking down doors to determine whether or not an "earner" was present.
SNAP has to be viewed, I think, in the context of American society's tendency to "wriggle" in all respects. As an ex-IRS auditor, I can report that very taxpayers who claimed things such as the "home office" deduction were being truthful. That's just one example among many.
But I never believed my salary was justified by what I exposed. People - especially those in desperate situations suggesting a genuine need for SNAP - WILL cheat. In economics, it's called "social overhead", an acceptable cost... the same as the racket of an airliner roaring overhead for those whose homes are near an airport.
Most don't cheat, though. Most need the supplemental benefit of SNAP. The cost of catching the cheaters is far outweighed by the benefits to those genuinely in need. The GOP would have us believe otherwise, but they're WRONG.
Like any safety net program, the cost of investigation and enforcement has to be weighed against the overall program costs and benefits. My memory tell me that NY City tried the "investigation and enforcement" approach many years ago, and it became a national scandal, with officers breaking down doors to determine whether or not an "earner" was present.
SNAP has to be viewed, I think, in the context of American society's tendency to "wriggle" in all respects. As an ex-IRS auditor, I can report that very taxpayers who claimed things such as the "home office" deduction were being truthful. That's just one example among many.
But I never believed my salary was justified by what I exposed. People - especially those in desperate situations suggesting a genuine need for SNAP - WILL cheat. In economics, it's called "social overhead", an acceptable cost... the same as the racket of an airliner roaring overhead for those whose homes are near an airport.
Most don't cheat, though. Most need the supplemental benefit of SNAP. The cost of catching the cheaters is far outweighed by the benefits to those genuinely in need. The GOP would have us believe otherwise, but they're WRONG.
32
The fraud level is far higher than you realize. It is close to 30%.
3
If the cost of the investigators' salaries cannot be justified then why does the IRS continue to employ them?
Seems to me that increasing numbers of investigators, especially of the stores that exchange food stamps for cash at a discount, would provide benefits in the form of acceptance of the program by the public, as well as saving money.
Seems to me that increasing numbers of investigators, especially of the stores that exchange food stamps for cash at a discount, would provide benefits in the form of acceptance of the program by the public, as well as saving money.
1
This country has a gaping chasm where it used to have a heart.
24
That the richest country in the world can't afford to feed it's citizenry is crazy.
It is beyond a sin as well to not provide food for those who need it. We have plenty of food, more than enough, actually too much, that grocery stores from coast to coast throw away mountains of food each and every day. As well as restaurants.
If you have ever been hungry ever in your life, this is incomprehensible.
Bail out food banks.
It is beyond a sin as well to not provide food for those who need it. We have plenty of food, more than enough, actually too much, that grocery stores from coast to coast throw away mountains of food each and every day. As well as restaurants.
If you have ever been hungry ever in your life, this is incomprehensible.
Bail out food banks.
30
It is an all together terrible idea to deprive people of food in our country on the Calvinist idea that the baby should tossed with the bathwater. People using the food stamp program feed themselves AND their families. Depriving families, is plain wrong. .... On the false notion that people take advantage. I've heard this all of my 65 years. Interesting that the GOP care so much about Family until those in need actually need
24
These proposals by the Trump regime, and the potential death panels to be enacted if Trump care is passed, for the 23 million Americans, that would lose their health care! To eliminate "Meal on Wheels" which may be the only meal of the day for the elderly and infirm,to pay for a tax cut for the rich,the1% is beyond comprehension, except for our republican congress! If these heartless schemes are enacted ,couldn't the ensuing illness and death of the vulnerable,the elderly,the very young, be considered an act of domestic terrorism?
19
Food Stamps also benefit retail stores and staff tremendously.
I have worked in many supermarkets and seen the increase in business every month which always results in increased hours for employees.
A large percentage of the recipients are elderly, how will they get their needs met under this budget?
So many people are doing without medical supplies because of the inflated costs and now under this budget they will have less food.
I want my taxes to go for the betterment of society - not a stupid wall.
I have worked in many supermarkets and seen the increase in business every month which always results in increased hours for employees.
A large percentage of the recipients are elderly, how will they get their needs met under this budget?
So many people are doing without medical supplies because of the inflated costs and now under this budget they will have less food.
I want my taxes to go for the betterment of society - not a stupid wall.
241
The GOP budget displays it's priorities fully - tax cuts for wealthy people are more important than feeding the poor, the elderly and disabled. That is their policy in a nutshell. The can try and spin it any way they like, however the sorry truth is they are more worried about putting money in the pockets of the contributors to their political campaigns then assuring their constituents have food on the table. It must be completely disheartening to be working in a job with pay so low you currently qualify for food stamps, and then essentially be told you are a freeloader. Message from the GOP - don't expect any help from us if you are in distress - it's really being compassionate, don't you see.
29
If dairy farmers weren't getting taxpayer price supports, with 85% going to the wealthiest of farmers and farming conglomerates, the price of milk and dairy products would be 10-15% lower. Take the government largess away from the wealthy farm conglomerates, food prices decline, the poor and middle class pay less for food and wealth inequality decreases.
The big farmers are getting millions in price supports under the current scenario, everyone is paying more for food, and the poor are getting pennies.
Stop corporate welfare and poor people will need less to survive, or will have enough to move forward.
Message from the farm families--don't take our subsidies away.
The big farmers are getting millions in price supports under the current scenario, everyone is paying more for food, and the poor are getting pennies.
Stop corporate welfare and poor people will need less to survive, or will have enough to move forward.
Message from the farm families--don't take our subsidies away.
2
I remember well what it was like to be a poor child and not have enough to eat. Welfare supplied beans, powdered milk and cheese to my mother struggling to feed her family of six. My mother would try make the $20 for groceries stretch for week and we children had our hearts in our throats when the bill came in at $19.43. Trump, McManus, the gilded billionaires and Republican ilk would cut the meager benefits now which pay only $1.40 per person per meal. Before they consider this further, they should go hungry long enough to understand the experience they would force on our nation's most needly and vulnerable.
170
“Poverty” is like a word repeated so many times that it becomes meaningless: when liberals talk about it after so many decades of failed attempts to combat it, many Americans simply stop listening.
Today’s America bears little resemblance to FDR’s or LBJ’s. Some of that must be celebrated, such as the fact that despite remaining challenges we are an immensely more inclusive society than we were then. But despite the programmatic means Democrats invented to redefine the purpose of government, we still read a NYT editorial in 2017 lamenting the entrenched nature of poverty.
You’ve spent trillions on poverty that we DIDN’T spend on education, infrastructure, basic research and other traditional responsibilities of government; but what real impact have you had on poverty in America? All those social welfare programs that eat up fifty percent and more of our outlays, that haven’t reduced poverty but require ever-increasing resources, weren’t enacted by Republicans (mostly).
Trump’s budget proffer will not be enacted as offered and SNAP won’t be eliminated -- it may not even see a funding reduction. Republican experience with the AHCA is (slowly) teaching them that you don’t simply eliminate an entitlement on which millions have become dependent and survive politically. But from the reality of undivided Republican government, with no good news for Dems after Montana, Americans clearly have decided to stop listening to Democrats on “poverty” and give Republicans a chance.
Today’s America bears little resemblance to FDR’s or LBJ’s. Some of that must be celebrated, such as the fact that despite remaining challenges we are an immensely more inclusive society than we were then. But despite the programmatic means Democrats invented to redefine the purpose of government, we still read a NYT editorial in 2017 lamenting the entrenched nature of poverty.
You’ve spent trillions on poverty that we DIDN’T spend on education, infrastructure, basic research and other traditional responsibilities of government; but what real impact have you had on poverty in America? All those social welfare programs that eat up fifty percent and more of our outlays, that haven’t reduced poverty but require ever-increasing resources, weren’t enacted by Republicans (mostly).
Trump’s budget proffer will not be enacted as offered and SNAP won’t be eliminated -- it may not even see a funding reduction. Republican experience with the AHCA is (slowly) teaching them that you don’t simply eliminate an entitlement on which millions have become dependent and survive politically. But from the reality of undivided Republican government, with no good news for Dems after Montana, Americans clearly have decided to stop listening to Democrats on “poverty” and give Republicans a chance.
7
We're an immensely more inclusive society than we were then? I guess that's why the GOP and its supporters keep on trying to deny African Americans the right to vote, take away Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. It's why they want to eliminate SNAP, and other programs that help the needy. We're a more inclusive society and that bothers the GOP. Those people might start thinking they are real Americans and then they'll want to exercise their rights. And that might lead to less for the GOPs masters to give the GOP in gifts.
The GOP does not want to share the wealth. That's been clear since FDR did the New Deal. Maybe the GOP was more civilized in its approach before they took in the Southern Dixiecrats but they do not want an inclusive society and they will do whatever they can, up to and including impoverishing all Americans, to keep the perks of being white coming.
The GOP does not want to share the wealth. That's been clear since FDR did the New Deal. Maybe the GOP was more civilized in its approach before they took in the Southern Dixiecrats but they do not want an inclusive society and they will do whatever they can, up to and including impoverishing all Americans, to keep the perks of being white coming.
53
It's clear you don't know any working poor. I do, I help them when I can.
Their courage, goodwill, and stoicism should put us all to shame!
Their courage, goodwill, and stoicism should put us all to shame!
49
hen3ry, You are usually right on, but thanks for being masterful here.
13
"Extreme proposals are a way to make less extreme proposals seem acceptable." No truer words have been said about the methods of the billionaire class.
245
Trump wants to save 193 B /ten years or 19.3 B /year by cutting SNAP benefits.
Put that 19.3 B /year in perspective.
Not taxing unrealized capital gains at death [step up in basis] costs about
43 B/year.
Closing that loop hole would pay for the SNAP reduction and leave
23.7 B /year in additional revenue.
Put that 19.3 B /year in perspective.
Not taxing unrealized capital gains at death [step up in basis] costs about
43 B/year.
Closing that loop hole would pay for the SNAP reduction and leave
23.7 B /year in additional revenue.
83
The loophole was phased out under the Bush tax cuts. Wealthy Democrats did not like it. The Democrats shut down the government rather than allow the step up in basis to continue to be eliminated.
Put that into perspective. Democrats are the party of the 1%.
Put that into perspective. Democrats are the party of the 1%.
5
@ebmem. Nonsense. Republicans wanted to shut down the government. They are the party serving the 1%
7
But yet the Republicans oppose raising the minimum wage at every opportunity. Cut corporate taxes, yes. Increase wages, no. The Dow is over 20,000. How did that happen? Soaring profits maybe?
Here in Kansas City, we voted to raise the minimum wage. It easily passed. The super red state legislature has passed a law that prohibits municipalities from setting their own wage minimums. This one is headed for the courts. Not optimistic.
Republicans wail constantly about government abuses of individual rights. They want to get big government out of our lives but then impose big state government to crush local self government.
Then they counter by shifting the costs of social programs to the states. Many states are broke because of massive tax cuts for big business and the rich.
Who loses? Those that are the weakest. Those are the people that need food stamps. There are a few freeloaders, of course. Just as there are big corporations and the super that pay little to no taxes. Feed hungry kids? No money for that. Must pay for that aircraft carrier.
Here in Kansas City, we voted to raise the minimum wage. It easily passed. The super red state legislature has passed a law that prohibits municipalities from setting their own wage minimums. This one is headed for the courts. Not optimistic.
Republicans wail constantly about government abuses of individual rights. They want to get big government out of our lives but then impose big state government to crush local self government.
Then they counter by shifting the costs of social programs to the states. Many states are broke because of massive tax cuts for big business and the rich.
Who loses? Those that are the weakest. Those are the people that need food stamps. There are a few freeloaders, of course. Just as there are big corporations and the super that pay little to no taxes. Feed hungry kids? No money for that. Must pay for that aircraft carrier.
346
And that aircraft carrier needs to be maintained too. Don't forget that it's hungry and needs to be fed gas before every mission. The USA, for a country that claims to value family, freedom, and all its citizens sure doesn't act like it does. We elect these people to office and then we're surprised that they try to cut the things that help us. We hear their speeches. Do we think that we're the exception to the rules they want to enact? SNAP in New York is SNAP in Tennessee too. Red state or blue state, the cuts will affect you if you're in the "wrong" economic class.
But I guess it's more important to think that your welfare won't be cut, only the other guy's and he doesn't deserve it anyway. Guess what, he feels the same way about you and you're both wrong. Republicans love that. It allows them to keep on doing what they do best: betraying Americans while serving their corporate owners.
But I guess it's more important to think that your welfare won't be cut, only the other guy's and he doesn't deserve it anyway. Guess what, he feels the same way about you and you're both wrong. Republicans love that. It allows them to keep on doing what they do best: betraying Americans while serving their corporate owners.
37
Oh well. Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
22
Agreed. I think we can start to worry about "freeloaders" who could hardly break the poverty barrier if they did receive a benefit AFTER we address the biggest freeloaders: individuals and corporations that avoid taxation, many of which receive kickbacks in the form of subsidies as well.
I will worry that an unemployed adult got SNAP benefits after he/she found an under the counter part time job after GE and Verizon pay their fair share of taxes. These companies gouge us for goods and services, and then rob us again by not paying taxes.
They need to be reminded: You are suppose to shear the sheep, not skin them.
I will worry that an unemployed adult got SNAP benefits after he/she found an under the counter part time job after GE and Verizon pay their fair share of taxes. These companies gouge us for goods and services, and then rob us again by not paying taxes.
They need to be reminded: You are suppose to shear the sheep, not skin them.
6
I have lived through a few bouts of long term unemployment. As a single adult with some savings I wasn't eligible for anything. It didn't matter that I couldn't find a job even as I sent out resume after resume. I was lucky in one sense only: I had money saved, no loans to pay, and I was healthy so the lack of medical insurance didn't hurt me too badly. However the experiences of being unemployed for long periods of time knowing that I would be shown the door if I asked for any assistance because, as a single person I'm automatically considered less than worthy of assistance, hurts.
We give welfare to corporations that don't pay their fair share in taxes. We give tax breaks to the very wealthy, some of whom pay far less of their income than we do. Yet America refuses to create a decent social safety net for people who can't find jobs through no fault of their own, who will never work because they are too handicapped, people who are temporarily disabled, and citizens in general. It's not always possible to pick oneself up after losing a job, losing one's health, or other events. It may be easier to say we're saving money by not spending it on moochers or people who don't want to work. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When we refuse to help our fellow citizens with a decent social safety net we make America a very unkind country. We leave people in their despair, their hunger, and their hopelessness. We create problems that could have been solved.
We give welfare to corporations that don't pay their fair share in taxes. We give tax breaks to the very wealthy, some of whom pay far less of their income than we do. Yet America refuses to create a decent social safety net for people who can't find jobs through no fault of their own, who will never work because they are too handicapped, people who are temporarily disabled, and citizens in general. It's not always possible to pick oneself up after losing a job, losing one's health, or other events. It may be easier to say we're saving money by not spending it on moochers or people who don't want to work. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When we refuse to help our fellow citizens with a decent social safety net we make America a very unkind country. We leave people in their despair, their hunger, and their hopelessness. We create problems that could have been solved.
766
It is a lot more complicated than that but you are correct that we as a society don't give a hoot what others are dealing with and we won't collectively plan for others challenges and misfortunes. SAD.
5
Currently in New York, savings do not generally restrict one's access to food stamps. See: "Most households applying for SNAP no longer have to pass a savings/resource test in order to get SNAP benefits. This means that the household's assets (stocks, savings and retirement accounts, etc.) are not considered when determining eligibility." (https://otda.ny.gov/programs/snap/)
The federal guidelines appear to be as follows: Households may have $2,250 in countable resources, such as a bank account, or $3,250 in countable resources if at least one person is age 60 or older, or is disabled. However, certain resources are NOT counted, such as a home and lot, the resources of people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the resources of people who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and most retirement (pension) plans. The procedures for handling vehicles are determined at the state level. (from: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility#Resources)
Additionally, in my personal experience, food banks do not restrict access based on savings, either.
The federal guidelines appear to be as follows: Households may have $2,250 in countable resources, such as a bank account, or $3,250 in countable resources if at least one person is age 60 or older, or is disabled. However, certain resources are NOT counted, such as a home and lot, the resources of people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the resources of people who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and most retirement (pension) plans. The procedures for handling vehicles are determined at the state level. (from: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility#Resources)
Additionally, in my personal experience, food banks do not restrict access based on savings, either.
2
During the Obama administration, if you were single, childless and had substantial savings, you were eligible for food stamps if your income was below 1.3 times the poverty level, even if only temporarily, Obama waived the resources test for food stamps. Under ObamaCare, it doesn't matter how much money you have in savings, you are still eligible for Medicaid if your income is low enough or for ObamaCare taxpayer subsidies if your income is below four times the poverty level.
It is immoral to look at temporary reported income exclusively as a test for whether or not someone needs safety net resources. It does matter that someone who has high income and the opportunity to save, or has received a legacy or windfall, has alternatives not available to people who were struggling and devastated by the loss of a job.
If an individual wins the lottery under the Obama rules, they are ineligible only for the month in which they win the lottery. Crazy.
A childless adult, living in his parents' home, who has low income, is eligible for food stamps regardless of how prosperous his parents are. Crazy.
And yet, any expectation that an able bodied adult be required to work or volunteer or attend job training 20 hours per week is met with accusations that the poor, disabled and elderly are going to starve.
It is immoral to look at temporary reported income exclusively as a test for whether or not someone needs safety net resources. It does matter that someone who has high income and the opportunity to save, or has received a legacy or windfall, has alternatives not available to people who were struggling and devastated by the loss of a job.
If an individual wins the lottery under the Obama rules, they are ineligible only for the month in which they win the lottery. Crazy.
A childless adult, living in his parents' home, who has low income, is eligible for food stamps regardless of how prosperous his parents are. Crazy.
And yet, any expectation that an able bodied adult be required to work or volunteer or attend job training 20 hours per week is met with accusations that the poor, disabled and elderly are going to starve.
5
It is estimated that it would cost 1% of GDP for the US to eradicate poverty through a similar program. But if successful it would add to the GDP because the poor would then purchase the things they need and support the economy from the bottom up rather having it "trickle down".