Running Against Food Stamps

[proud2BlibKansan]

Jobless and hungry, Anthony Jedvabny stood in a charity grocery line in Philadelphia, shocked at how far he’d fallen from his well-paying career as a music producer. “I never imagined this,” he said, inching along North Sixth Street in a grateful crowd at a food center run by Philabundance. “I’m down to basic survival,” said Mr. Jedvabny — a starkly human statistic in the news that Philadelphia’s poverty rate has hit 25 percent, worst among the 10 largest cities in the nation.

In the perverse ways of politics, Newt Gingrich, the Republican former House speaker, is advising his party’s candidates to make a big issue of the fact that food stamp distribution has hit a historic high of more than 40 million Americans. “It turns out that Barack Obama’s idea of spreading the wealth around was spreading more food stamps around,” said Mr. Gingrich in a supercynical stratagem that ignores the Republicans’ central role in unleashing the recession and blocking programs that could speed a turnaround.

Democrats preoccupied with political survival have been nearly as hostile toward the food stamp program. Fecklessly invoking fiscal responsibility, the Democratic-controlled Congress voted to strip $11.9 billion in long-term food stamp financing in a Peter-to-Paul stunt to pay for emergency aid for state budgets. And the Senate has been aiming to cut another $2.2 billion in stamps to finance child nutrition reform.

Child nutrition is essential, but the legislation’s title as the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act doesn’t parse well in the face of parallel food stamp cuts. The administration has promised to seek a saner form of financing when the House takes up the measure after the election. Otherwise, the Congressional shell game could eventually cut $59 from a family of four’s monthly stamp allowance, currently at $294.

more . . . http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17sun4.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[laughingliberal]

1. The amorality of our government is now as bad as the corporate world. This is indefensible. nt

[Solly Mack]

2. k/r

[boppers]

3. $233 a month for food?

I could *easily* feed a family of four on that, but I've been broke, homeless, and jobless, before, (and I was raised with lots of spates of severe poverty in my family) so I know a few tricks.

That being said, this line in the article caught my eye:
"Unlike the upper-income tax cuts Republicans furiously protect, food stamps, minimalist as they are, are antirecession sparks that generate $9 in economic activity for every $5 spent, according to federal statistics."

Heck, at that rate of return, we should put as many people on food stamps as we can get to sign up.

[sandnsea]

8. It's $668

I don't know what the motive of the OP is, but when there are such obvious errors, a reader won't believe any of it.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1269

[boppers]

13. Interesting catch...

I note your link has $668 as the "maximum benefit", so maybe the OP is about average benefit (or some other mitigating factor).

[sandnsea]

22. So maybe a NYTimes OpEd should say so

Instead of implying families have to eat on less than $300 a month. The $600+ figure wasn't used because that wouldn't sound much like Democrats "stripping" food stamps.

[boppers]

23. Well, they're in New York.

$1,200 A month there is poverty.

[Hannah Bell]

14. 9. What is the average benefit from SNAP? $101 per person and about $227 per household in FY 2008.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/faqs.htm#2

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. I do feed a family of four and it costs us way more than $233 a month

I spend that much and more in two weeks.

[boppers]

17. Do you buy bread, or make it? (Not a literal question, but a metaphorical one).

Growing up, how we scrimped was cutting out many of the "food middlemen", and making a lot of it all ourselves. Since we lived outside of the city, we also had goats, chickens and rabbits... which cut way down on milk/egg/meat costs.

Here's how far we took it: We learned that pre-packaged, bleached, flour was a huge cost over wheat grains, so we learned to grind our own wheat. Since buying yeast was a waste of money, we kept a yeast culture growing. We dried/canned *everything* from our gardens. Heck, we made our own soap.

I live in the city now, and only have a small plot, but even when I was in an apartment I had food growing in my house. Water is cheap, food is not.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I have one of those bread machines

Does that count?

[boppers]

20. Is it cheaper?

Is it worth the cost?

I like to do my own kneading and rising and baking, but that's also part of my fitness/gym budget. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. Not really.

But it's tasty. :)

[alp227]

4. Food stamps are feathers compared to wars.

The Iraq War cost 10x as much annually as these damn food stamps. How many of these anti-food stamp Democrats also voted to bring more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan? And appropriated more and more money into defense than into social services? And besides, food stamps DO help economy don't they?

But then again, poor people are just lazy and should enlist in the military to keep up America's world police department right? :sarcasm:

[Quantess]

18. Yes, food stamps DO help the economy.

All those food stamp dollars go right back into the local economy.

I know you know that. Just wanted to make that statement. :)

[mrcheerful]

5. Well gee who would have thought that out sourcing industrial jobs out of the

US and filling in the gaps with low pay service jobs would create an increase in the number of people needing food stamps. Mean while R's are now claiming that the earth is flat and the earth is now a proven fact of being the center of the universe. Oh and T Rex was the best plow horse ever known to man kind, why a T Rex could do the work of a 1000 horses.

[truedelphi]

16. I have noticed that the one difference between the republicans and teh

Democrats is that while neither party cares on whit about returning well apying jobs to this nation, or to regualting the banks, or to fixing what is really brokena bout the Health Care Crisis, at least under the Democrats the Food Stamp safety net is working.

But now this article points out that even the Dems are questioning the continuation of this program?

[sakabatou]

6. Lemme see here.. yep, they still want to kill the poor

[cutlassmama]

10. +4

[sandnsea]

7. Democrats did not strip anything from food stamps

They simply ended the 2014 stimulus increase. If higher food stamps are needed then, they can pass another increase with new funding. It's one of those things Obama did for the poor people he doesn't care about, according to some. And a family of 4 benefit is $668, I don't know where they got that $294 figure from.

Absolutely nothing like the Republicans' attacks on food stamps in any event.

I don't know why people feel the need to attack the politicians who are helping.

[laughingliberal]

12. I'm still with David Obey on that:

Their line of argument was, well, the cost of food relative to what we thought it would be has come down, so people on food stamps are getting a pretty good deal in comparison to what we thought they were going to get. Well isn’t that nice. Some poor bastard is going to get a break for a change.

http://washingtonindependent.com/91851/obey-white-house-suggested-cutting-food-stamps-to-pay-for-edujobs-funding

As for restoring funding once it's been cut, that's usually easier said than done.

Helping? Yes. Helping who is the question.

[left is right]

25. I don’t know about the $294 figure

but the proposed formula is $4 per day per person ($480) for the first month only and less after that

[dkf]

11. Exactly what is this child nutrition program?

Will it be providing hot nutritious meals for kids instead of food stamps?

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. I think that's what they're calling the school lunch program now

[maryf]

24. K&Rnt