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Actually - I don't feel like working anymore - I think I will quit my job and have YOU pay for my 12 cocktails (assuming you work and pay taxes) - how bout that?
Please do. There are millions who would like your job to do. They won't even mind paying taxes.
It uses examples like the "super donut" to say that food can be healthy, even when we first think of them not. Sorry, Krispy Kreme isn't healthy, and neither is snickers. I haven't heard of anyone dying that hasn't had a super donut.
And it compares food stamp families to those who have an income 130% of the poverty level. Both groups have 61% of their families consuming at least 1 soft drink per day. Sorry, food stamps don't need that.
And it isn't hard to implement these things today. You simply prevent the cards from paying for things with certain UPC codes. Each product has a specific code that shows what it is. Credit cards already prevent this, its not like its new technology thats going to cost a lot of money.
I'm not saying we restrict everything, and no system is perfect, but people are buying a bunch of crap junk food on food stamps, and there is no reason for it.
So the government should not dictate anything . . . except exactly what poor people can eat?
Some people are incapable of helping themselves. A civilized nation recognizes this and does not let santimonious petty policy dictate national standards.
Oh please.
Why are more people in poverty?
Greedy slime at the top of the pay scale. Wages have remained stagnant while the cost of items like health care, food, higher education and gas have increased tremendously. Meanwhile CEO pay has skyrocketed.
The Reps also want to keep importing millions of low skilled half wits from Mexico and Latin America so they take jobs. The Dems pander on that issue as well.
One mans wealth has absolutely nothing to do with another mans poverty.
Your point is that 1 in 8 American citizens aren't capable of helping themselves?
One mans wealth has absolutely nothing to do with another mans poverty.
Your point is that 1 in 8 American citizens aren't capable of helping themselves?
If so, we are REALLY in trouble!
Have you had a look at the job stats? Or are you just another Rep who only uses them to bash Obama? I believe the current stat is one job for every five applicants. ALL of the increase in funds in the last ten years went to the very upper percentiles.
This assertions in this thread are nothing more than petty carping. I'll let you in on a little secret: I'm a liberal and I pay taxes. Lots of them. You don't want your precious money going to make sure that people don't starve?
Eh. We'll put a little box on tax documents you can check. Call it the Ebenezer Scrooge deduction. Check it and you don't have to pay taxes for any of the poor people you hate so much.
Me? I'll indulge in a little charity. More importantly instead of whining that some poor schmoe got some money from me I'll be grateful I'm the giver not the recipient.
And i think that the economy would get better with more people becoming industrious.
You see, wealth is CREATED, not REDISTRIBUTED.
While I like the idea of more people becoming more industrious and more self sufficient that, IMO, is the same thing as going green for the economy, at least.
Going green requires people using less materials to do more. Recycling what they can and just a general overall lightening of their foot print on this earth.
Sounds good but the greenies don't seem to understand what the consequences of using less materials and lightening their load on mother earth. We know that it equates to a loss of about 2.2 jobs for every 1 created thanks to Spain.
Going off the grid is effectively the same thing. Our economy is based on activity not non-activity.
So to answer the original question, IMO, taking food stamps out of the equation would remove a huge demand in the economy which wouldn't be so hot.
Now I'm all for making food stamps work vicariously through their recipients.
It is always interesting to me to hear people griping about 'entitlement programs' for the poor and those in need when the government gives oil companies such obscene amounts of money, corporate farmers subsidies,etc. You will hear how these gifts to corporations are necessary for the economy and all of that other drivel. Truth be told, when the masses can be conditioned by these corporations to attack each other like chickens packed too tightly into a coop, and as long as the masses look for ways to attack each other instead of those who really should be attacked, the corporate elite will be smiling and counting their obscenely large stacks of cash.
I always hear about all of those that abuse the system- it is such an urban legend type thing- I have seen those waiting in line at the food pantries, talked with them, heard their situations, almost all of them i have tlaked with are out of work after working for decades and being laid off, many are just like you, only have had bad luck. This whole attitude that those in need are somehow lazy and just need to be forced to take care of themselves is something that is held by those who are small minded and who are lucky enough to still have their jobs, and their tune would change instantly if by some chance they lost their job, then their house, and were forced to apply for help just getting food on the table.
Americans love to think of themselves as so compassionate,donating to the cause of the day when the celebrities on the TV tell them to. They will be generous towards the current disaster victims across the globe, but the attitudes of some towards their fellow citizens in need is very callous and I think is just based in fear-fear that they might be next, or fear or denial that maybe our country isnt the first rate economic juggernaut it used to be- these callous attitudes will only grow and spread among the masses as our economy tanks deeper, and our technology industry slips. This will be due to our lack of commitment to really properly funding education so we can compete with other countries that are willing to do what it takes to ensure future generations will have the education and skills needed to compete worldwide.
Cut it all! Entitlements, military, wall street bailouts- ALL OF IT. 98% of the federal government has as its only function to perpetuate itself. Just about the only need for the federal government is defense and the national highway system. Everything else should be state or local.
I agree with a WIC-like voucher that would allow the disabled and temporarily down on their luck a way to get real food and just the basics. No able-bodied individual should have them for more than 3-4 months.
The voucher should be limited to a few choices of food items but pay for no soft drinks, no cakes, no candy, cookies, ice cream. Limit them to rice, beans, corn, a few fresh vegetables, some fruit, milk and eggs.
Food stamps shouldn't become a way of life for so many which they obviously have. There is proof that they have become a way of life. When people can live 15, 17, 20 and more years on them, they are no longer about a safety net to provide temporary assistance but a way of life.
If I remember correctly, when I was on foodstamps (gosh, 35 years ago!) I could not purchase soda, chips, etc., with them. Food in New Jersey is not taxed at the grocery store; soda, chips, and the like are taxed (they were not considered 'food'). I couldn't buy anything that was taxed. Maybe this has changed now, I don't know.
The problem with you liberals is that you want no limits, no restrictions - just have everything continue to be the free-for-all as far as government handouts.
Jobs are leaving the country (thank Mr. Clinton for that when he signed NAFTA) and impoverished are pouring over the border with their extremely high birth rates.
NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement. That has nothing to do with jobs moving to India and China. Central and South Americans have been pouring over the border since Reagan gave them amnesty, and no president since that time has bothered to secure it. Not even after 9/11, when there was clear evidence that middle eastern terrorists were crossing our southern border! Bush should have been concerned about that, but apparently he wasn't; there were record numbers crossing.
More and more people live off food stamps, it's already over 20% where I live, more children being born into welfare programs than are not, but what happens when the whole thing comes crashing down?
Indeed, what? But no one wants to 'upset' the major corporations which are building and hiring overseas, and in some cases not even paying taxes; no one wants to address the slave labor coming across our southern border.
Then what becomes of all the so-called poor who have become accustomed to having everything their hearts desire when our economy and socialism crash?
I was on welfare and food stamps many years ago and, trust me, I never became accustomed to having my hearts desire. I was lucky to have a dime for the phonebooth to call for a job.
It would be a whole lot better to cut back now, get these people having fewer kids, import fewer impoverished from other countries, and get our so-called poor working.
Absolutely, they should be having fewer children. But when birth control and abortion are not readily available (something the right wants) how can they accomplish that? (please don't say 'don't have sex'). Yes, I am still waiting for those impoverished people from other countries to get thrown out!
At some point we must cut massive government spending and get even the welfare class to do it's fair share of belt tightening. If not, it's going to be a disaster.
This country needs a major overhaul, for sure.
We should be spending on defense and education, and I mean education in a very large, even intrusive, way. More, many more teachers/aids in schools, many more social workers to intervene in failing households, etc.
There is nothing I would like to see more than all Americans employed and educated, making productive, educated choices, AND having the opportunity to better themselves. This economy presently is not providing those things, and hasn't for many years. I would go so far as to say about a decade.
I don't think food stamps should be eliminated, and there will always be poor people who don't have enough money to feed themselves. That being said, I don't think buying Papa Murphy's Take and Bake Pizza is the best way to use food stamps.
No, it's probably not the best use of food stamps. But when the food stamp money is gone, it's gone! Perhaps the recipients learn, as everyone does when they first start out, that the money will only stretch so far. And what on earth is wrong with someone having an occasional treat of Papa Murphy's?
Quote:
Originally Posted by alphamale
If your precious liberal socialist democratic policies actually worked, why are there so many more people in poverty today?
Just because you care doesn't mean you're helping.
Just watch who you slander, pal! You have no idea what I give to charity. BTW, there are fewer people in poverty today than there were in the 60s, when food stamps really got going.
......at some point people have to help themselves...Generations on food stamps and welfare is killing this country in terms of self confindence and self worth.
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