The dependency class is expanding faster than Michael Moore’s waistline at “all the buffalo wings you can eat” night at T.G.I. Fridays — in other words, “Mission Accomplished”:
The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014.
Spending for the program, not including administrative costs, rose to $72 billion in 2011, up from $30 billion four years earlier. The CBO projected that one in seven U.S. residents received food stamps last year.
In a report, the CBO said roughly two-thirds of jump in spending was tied to an increase in the number of people participating in the program, which provides access to food for the poor, elderly, and disabled. It said another 20% “of the growth in spending can be attributed to temporarily higher benefit amounts enacted in the” 2009 stimulus law.
The outlook:
CBO said the number of people receiving benefits is expected to fall after 2014 because the economy will be improving.
Oddly enough that slight recovery will follow a 2012 election when voters have decided they’ve had enough Hope & Change™. What a coincidence.
The problem with liberals is they view exploding welfare rolls as evidence of compassion, so if food stamp use does start to decline in a couple of years, Dems will use that fact to hammer the GOP for hating the poor.
Update: Also, the number of Americans on disability continues to skyrocket. Crippled by The One’s awesomeness no doubt.
Fair or unfair, President Obama is being called "The Food Stamp President" by those critical of his handling of the U.S. economy. Credit: WH Press Office
This week the United States Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General, the agency’s in-house watchdog, disclosed in a report that many food-stamp recipients use their benefits to purchase items such as illegal drugs, weapons and other contraband from unscrupulous vendors.
In fact, according to USDA Inspector GeneralPhyllis Fong, some trade food stamps for reduced amounts of cash.
While the Obama Administration promotes food stamps to a large number of unemployed or underemployed people, the food stamp assistance rolls are already higher than ever and with the enormous increase in recipients comes an increase in fraud and corruption that often accompanies an out-of-control government program, according to a non-profit Beltway watchdog organization.
A record 46.3 million people — including illegal aliens — get taxpayer-funded food stamps at an annual cost of $76 billion, according to the agency that distributes the welfare benefit, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
This represents an increase of more than 16 million over the previous year, according to USDA figures. That’s because the administration is on a mission to eradicate “food insecure households,” according to the Judicial Watch blog.
Obama’s economic planincludes a multi-million-dollar federal initiative to recruit even more food-stamp participants and hefty cash rewards for states that sign up the most people, according to Judicial Watch, a group that investigates and exposes government corruption and abuse.
A few months ago, Oregon politicians and bureaucrats boasted that they were successful in getting the USDA to give their state $5 million in “performance bonuses” for ensuring that residents eligible for food benefits receive them and for its “swift processing of applications,” according to Judicial Watch.
Inspector General Fongtestified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and she reported to the panel of lawmakers that in the last five years 779 probes have resulted in 1,356 indictments, 944 convictions and 792 sanctions against individuals and businesses that have cheated the system. Those fraud cases alone cost taxpayers nearly $200 million, Fong reported.
The inspector general provided lawmakers with a number of examples of food stamp fraud and abuse. Among them is an illegal alien store owner in Connecticut who got deported after being convicted of food-stamp trafficking. He reentered the U.S. to open several stores using fake names.
In Florida, Fong said, a group of criminalsdefrauded the USDA welfare program for as much as $6.2 million.
In addition, thousands of people who aren’t even eligible for food stamps are getting them by lying or using the social security number of dead individuals. In a check of just five states, the IG found that 8,594 recipients were receiving “improper payments.” In one state alone, Fong claims that the ineligible collectors are getting about $1.1 million each month.
Fong noted that when this sort of fraud occurs, “families do not receive the intended nutritional assistance and retailers profit at the expense of the American public.”
It also does nothing to help meet the president’s goal of eradicating “food insecure households,” stated the Judicial Watch blogger.
A while back the White House denied Newt Gingrich’s charge that Obama is the “food stamp president,” a title they instead tried to bestow upon, you guessed it, George W. Bush.
According to Jesse Jackson this past weekend, Team Obama should wear the title as a badge of honor.
Say, it’s an honor to be a food stamp president. Food stamps feed the hungry. Food stamps save the children. Food stamps help the farmer. Food stamps help the truck driver. Food stamps help the warehouse. Food stamps help the store. Food stamps hire people and feed people. Food stamps save people from starvation and malnutrition. Whenever you attack feeding the hungry, you undermine the moral authority of our faith. Give President Barack Obama a big hand. Show your love. Show your appreciation.
So it’s settled then… food stamps for everybody! Nobody will ever take them away! They can take our lives, but they can never take our food stamps!
At times Jessie Jackson sounds like the William Wallace of the dependency culture.
“Keep food stamps alive!” What an inspiring message that is sure to motivate the impoverished to seek to improve their lives and encourage the jobless to find a job:
For the first time in our nation’s history, it pays better to sit on your ass and let the government take care of you than it does to get a job.
The average individual who relies on Washington can now receive benefits valued at $32,748. That’s more than the nation’s average disposable personal income of $32,446! Is it any wonder that so many people are leaving the workforce?
Of course the unemployment rate is going to tick down when you have that kind of incentive not to work.
Did you ever think you would live to see the day in America when it became more profitable not to work than to have a job?
It brings to mind my eye-opening personal encounter with a welfare plagued homeless man in Fort Myers Beach, Florida this past summer.
And make no mistake, that’s exactly how Barack Obama and his minions want it.
According to the Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Index of Dependence on Government , fully 1 in 5 Americans rely on the federal government for everything from housing, healthcare and food stamps to college tuition and retirement assistance. That’s a whopping 67 million Americans — a voting block that certainly rivals Catholics against government mandated contraception.
In fact, government dependency jumped 8.1% in the past year alone, with the most assistance going toward housing, health and welfare, and retirement. To add insult to injury, nearly half of the US population (49.5%) does not pay any federal income taxes. Coincidence? Hardly. This is by design, starting with Wilson and Roosevelt all the way to Barack Obama.
Moreover, according to a recent CNN report entitled “The New American Dream,” a full one-third of all Americans get means-based assistance. So now more than one-third of Americans are dependent on the so-called “social safety net” and 20% live entirely on government subsidy. Twenty percent!
The federal government sent out a record $2 trillion to individuals in fiscal year 2010. That’s equal to the entire federal tax revenues collected in 2010 and a 75% jump from 2002. As of now, according to the Heritage Foundation which tracks, documents, and keeps the data: 70% of the federal government’s budget goes to individual assistance programs.
To say that’s unsustainable would be putting it mildly and that number is still going up. The elections are nine months away and Barack Obama wants to get as many Americans as possible dependent on Uncle Sam’s social net. And he’s doing a brilliant job.
With unemployment insurance extended to ninety-nine weeks, Obama knows all too well that complacency leads to dependency, dependency leads to entitlement, entitlement leads to addiction, and addiction leads to socialism.
In 21st century America it is no longer: “Give me liberty or give me death!” It’s . . .
“Give Me ‘Subsidies’ or Give Me Death!”
Until next time . . . Wake Up America!
Kevin A. Lehmann
Share my blog and radio show with friends and family who value real, raw and relevant talk radio. Thank you.
Florida seems to be joiningthe movement in other states to limit what food stamps can be used for. Why not limit it even further to really basic foods that aren’t already? For example, not allowing the money to be spent on TV dinners.
Florida’s poor can use food stamps to buy staples like milk, vegetables, fruits and meat. But they can also use them to buy sweets like cakes, cookies and Jell-O and snack foods like chips, something a state senator wants stopped.
Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, also wants to limit other welfare funds, known as Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, from being used at ATMs in casinos and strip clubs and anywhere out of state. The bill comes after reports that the debit cards welfare recipients now receive were used in those places, as well as locations in Las Vegas and the Virgin Islands in a small percentage of cases, but the state does not track what items were purchased.
The bill recently passed a committee. A companion bill in the state House companion is being considered by a subcommittee.
The bill would also require the state to launch a culturally sensitive campaign to educate people about the benefits of a nutritious diet. Supporters say it would help recipients follow healthy eating habits and prevent taxpayer funds from being used to purchase luxury foods like bakery cakes when they can whip up a cheaper box mix.
“Most individuals using public assistance dollars are using the funds to get by and to provide for their families. However, we should do what we can to prevent dollars intended to help Florida’s poorest families from being spent in the wrong places,” Storms said in a statement. . . .
Florida’s poor can use food stamps to buy staples like milk, vegetables, fruits and meat. But they can also use them to buy sweets like cakes, cookies and Jell-O and snack foods like chips, something a state senator wants stopped.
Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, also wants to limit other welfare funds, known as Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, from being used at ATMs in casinos and strip clubs and anywhere out of state. The bill comes after reports that the debit cards welfare recipients now receive were used in those places, as well as locations in Las Vegas and the Virgin Islands in a small percentage of cases, but the state does not track what items were purchased.
The bill recently passed a committee. A companion bill in the state House companion is being considered by a subcommittee.
You’d think the food police would be thrilled. If there’s anything they should get behind, it’s an initiative designed to encourage lower income people to avoid unhealthy eats… right?
But instead, one Democrat gives us our chuckle of the day by denouncing (albeit selectively) the notion of food police — and maybe even things like health care mandates. Get a load of this:
But critics say the government shouldn’t dictate what people eat.
“What I choose to ingest even though I may be on food stamps, that’s at my discretion. I don’t need government telling me what I can and cannot purchase,” said Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed, a Pompano Beach Democrat who voted in committee against the bill (SB 1658). She said the bill is demeaning and invasive and she worries the education campaign would imply to “minorities and low-income folks that they’re not intelligent enough to make selections on the foods they want.”
How many calories are burned by doubling over in laughter for several minutes? Maybe this is part of the “Let’s Move” program and people are being tricked into exercising. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I don’t really understand the constitutional objections over privacy to drug testing. Someone doesn’t have to take government money, but if they do there can easily be certain requirements, including a drug test. From Fox News:
After a federal judge blocked a much broader drug-test rule in Florida, Pennsylvania is taking a more careful approach. Instead of mandating drug tests for all welfare recipients, Pennsylvania plans to randomly test only those with a felony drug conviction within the past five years and those on probation for such offenses.
Officials are taking it slow. A pilot program has started in Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill County, which could pave the way for a statewide program this summer if it proves cost effective.
State Sen. David Argall said in a statement last month that the program is “overdue,” as officials try to cut costs in the state’s most expensive division — the Department of Public Welfare.
“This initiative seeks to stop the abuse within our welfare system,” he said, adding that government benefits should only go to those “who genuinely deserve state assistance.” . . . .
This week the First Lady told an audience at a fundraiser that the economy has made “remarkable progress” these past three years. One example of a hiring spree uptick can be found in New York City, where a couple hundred workers have been or are being added to the payrolls due to wildly increasing demand. Sure, it’s to work in welfare offices, but the recovery has to start somewhere:
The Human Resources Administration added more than 100 workers last July and plans to hire another 100 to serve the burgeoning number of New Yorkers applying for food stamps and rent assistance at their offices, according to the Daily News.
About 1.8 million New Yorkers are now on food stamps, which marks nearly a 65 percent increase from four years ago, according to city records. The increase in applicants has led to overcrowding at HRA offices throughout the city, and the agency said at a council hearing Tuesday that it had to hire scores of new workers and supervisors to manage the situation.
The HRA has also expanded its waiting rooms to accommodate the swell in applicants.
Despite the numbers debate here, when you include the children on welfare the answer is clearly yes.
There are more Mainers receiving welfare benefits than there are income tax filers paying taxes, Republican Gov. Paul LePage said Saturday.
But Democrats said LePage’s numbers are deceptive and not entirely truthful.
In reiterating his call for the need to cut humans services programs to save money, the governor said in his weekly radio address that Maine had 453,000 people receiving welfare benefits in 2010. At the same, he said, the state had only 445,000 people who paid taxes.
LePage said he doesn’t relish the thought of people being hurt by spending cuts, but said it isn’t fair to cover the $221 million Medicaid funding shortage by raising taxes or asking other state agencies to make up the difference. Rather, the state needs to rein in Medicaid costs and restructure the program, he said. . . .
Don’t you wish the government and the shill “media” outlets they allow to remain lip-locked on the public teat would drop the puppet charade and just start robbing us at gunpoint? I’d feel less insulted.
A “food insecure” Muppet is helping to promote a national “Food for Thought” campaign that teaches poor families to seek out nutritious food and to eat on the taxpayers’ tab.
At the National Press Club on Thursday, Lily the Muppet – who worries about her family not having enough money to feed her properly — pitched free food at school:
“Sometimes we can’t always afford to buy all the food that we need,” Lily said. “I mean, but we’ve been finding lots of ways that we can get help…Yeah, for example, at school I get a free breakfast and a lunch…part of the meal plan.”
Lily’s message is being circulated through schools, hospitals and food assistance programs as part of Sesame Street’s “Food for Thought” multi-media campaign, which includes DVDs and a booklet listing “services that can assist your family” as well as “referrals to social service agencies.”
Organizers say they have produced a million of the kits.
Could they at least use the opportunity to teach the kids where the money comes from and that it’s not in fact “free”? Sorry, stupid question… let’s move on.
Probably the most twisted part is the excuse that the more government handouts there are, the greater the cut in the deficit:
At the National Press Club on Thursday, the Rev. Douglas Greenaway of the National WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Association lauded Sesame Street’s ‘Food For Thought’ campaign – even linking it to federal deficit-reduction.
“What ‘Food For Thought’ does is remind people that eating healthy now gives them a good health outcome in the long term. So the folks you’re looking at up here, the programs that they represent, what ‘Food For Thought’ does is really a deficit reduction strategy, and we hope policymakers will take notice of that,” Greenaway said.
“You have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt.” Hey, if Joe Biden agrees it must be true.
I can’t get the video at CNS News to embed here, but you can watch the newest Muppet touting her free breakfasts and lunches here.
Catch Kevin
If you like facts over fiction, reality over rhetoric, and truth over tradition, tune into my radio show, “Catch Kevin: Unscripted & Uncensored!”
Chuck Baldwin Live
Dr. Baldwin’s messages from Kalispell, MT, will be livestreamed on this page every Sunday afternoon at approximately 2:30 p.m. MST.
Clash Radio
Listen to Doug Giles Live Monday – Friday at 11am – 12pm[est]
Our Sponsors
Get in on the modern Gold Rush. Call now to buy gold bars from The U.S. Gold Bureau.
The dependency class is expanding faster than Michael Moore’s waistline at “all the buffalo wings you can eat” night at T.G.I. Fridays — in other words, “Mission Accomplished”:
![bookmark](http://island-adv.com/wp-content/plugins/share-and-follow/images/blank.gif" height=){kind=small}
For the first time in our nation’s history, it pays better to sit on your ass and let the government take care of you than it does to get a job. 
Catch Kevin
Chuck Baldwin Live![Clash Radio Listen to Doug Giles Live Monday – Friday at 11am – 12pm[est]](http://island-adv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/clash_logoreverse.png "Listen to Doug Giles Live Monday – Friday at 11am – 12pm[est]")
Clash Radio
