Food-stamp use jumped in the U.S. in December with more than 1 in 7 people receiving benefits, even as a program for disaster assistance related to Hurricane Irene came to an end.

Food stamp rolls increased 5.5% in 2011, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths of the recession.

The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), rose to 46.5 million, or 15% of the population in December. The numbers receiving benefits were boosted by disaster assistance in the late summer and autumn due to Hurricane Irene, but the those programs were largely ended by December in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania the last states still in need.

Minnesota, Colorado, Hawaii, Alaska, New Jersey, Delaware and Iowa all saw year-over-year jumps in use by over 10%. Just Wyoming, Michigan, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia posted annual drops in the number of people receiving food stamps.

Mississippi reported the largest share of its population relying on food stamps, more than 21%. One in five residents in New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington DC also were food-stamp recipients.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/03/02/more-than-1-in-7-use-food-stamps-in-u-s/?mod=wsj_share_twitter

 

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Well, lets look at this objectively now.

Democrats give you food stamps.
Republicans give you nothing.

I know who I would prefer to have in office if I was starving and needed food.

 

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I checked to see what qualifies someone. 2 people have to make under 1,400... I work minimum wage and I still wouldn't be able to qualify... Who would think there would be people poorer than me?

Still better than having to steal to survive, despite BT's vision for America.

They could hand out beans and rice? Just a thought...

What do you make an hour Whipsmack, how many hours a week do you work and what do you take home every 2 weeks on a paycheck (after taxes of course).

Just curious. And no, I don't have some hidden intent to make you look bad or feel poor or anything. I am legitimately curious what somebody making that takes home.

 

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Percentage of American households receiving food stamps... Up 63% under Bush...up 47% under Obama.

They saved my ass for a few months after my stroke, before money showed up.
I did that rather than take money from my kids.

 

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Sometimes I wonder if it would be better if they just gave everyone a food allowance instead of giving those poor who apply said.

If everyone just got a card that gave $X food per month then they could close down the whole department, wouldnt have to bother interviewing or checking assets etc of anyone. And it would remove the downward bias to stay in the program vs a little higher salary and losing it.

Actually thinking about it that way you could give-take a lot of things and remove the baseline programs thus parodoxically shrinking government and making it such that yeah if you dont work you can live crappy but there is a reason to have even a minimum wage job as opposed to it being better to stay unemployed.

 

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I guess this shows how well the free market economy and trickle down economics really work. America where the top 400 people have more money then the other 150 million Americans combined and we don't see a problem with this.

 

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