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(CNSNews.com) -- A record 20% of American households, one in five, were on food stamps in 2013, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The numbers also show that there were a record number of individuals on food stamps in 2013 and that the cost of the program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), was at an all-time high.

A pair of University of Maryland economists actually found themselves channeling supply side-icon Jack Kemp although they might be loathe to admit it. At a Brookings Institution conference, associate professor Melissa Kearney and assistant professor Lesley Turner noted thtat today’s SNAP [the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program]requirements have a “secondary earner penalty.” In layman’s terms, that meant that if both married spouses in a couple worked, they would be taxed or penalized for having both spouses work. Both Kearney and Turner proposed that the tax code be reformed to cut out taxes on these secondary earners in order to boost...

As budget negotiators lurch toward their December 13 deadline for funding the government, another conference committee is struggling to reach an agreement over the farm bill. Unsurprisingly, the dispute is not over the bill’s completely unjustifiable subsidies for agribusiness (both parties support those) but food stamps. House Republicans passed a bill calling for $39 billion in reductions in the planned budget for food stamps (technically known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) over the next ten years. A bipartisan Senate bill included just $4 billion in cuts. A couple of weeks ago it looked like negotiators were ready...

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) told the Rev. Al Sharpton of MSNBC on Wednesday that Sharpton and the pope are "on the same wavelength." McDermott's observation on what he perceives as the similarity between Sharpton and the pope came up in a discussion of food stamps. McDermott noted that when Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, “he didn’t charge food stamps.”(VIDEO-AT-LINK) “When Jesus had those five loaves and two fishes, he didn't charge food stamps. He didn't ask anybody how much money they had. He fed them because they were hungry, and that's really...

Those who are eligible for food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“food stamps”) can still collect their benefits if they’ve killed or raped someone, but if they have a drug felony on their record, the government will cut them off. This obscure policy is an often-overlooked provision of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 welfare reforms, known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. The main provisions of the bill limited the amount of time recipients could receive food stamp benefits, required them to get work within two years, scaled back the federal government’s responsibility for the program (letting...

From a Zero Hedge reader: My company, based in California, employs 600. We used to insure about 250 of our employees. The rest opted out. The company paid 50% of their premiums for about $750,000/yr. Under obamacare, none can opt out without penalty, and the rates are double or triple, depending upon the plan. Our 750k for 250 employees is going to $2 million per year for 600 employees. By mandate, we have to pay 91.5% of the premium or more up from the 50% we used to pay. Our employees share of the premium goes from $7/week for the...

Five-year-old cancer survivor Miles Scott recently delighted America when his wish to become Batman was granted by the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area Foundation. Social media exploded and the adventures of "#SFBatkid" were followed by millions of people as he saved a damsel in distress and rescued the mascot of the San Francisco Giants. Over 12,000 volunteers helped make Miles' wish come true, and numerous articles were written about how faith in humanity seemed to be restored. San Francisco city supervisor Eric Mar seems to have missed the heartwarming lesson behind the day, and instead decided to politicize the event....

Obama Steals Food From The Poor To Pay For Michele’s ‘Let’s Move’ Program Posted 6 hours ago by Dave Jolly Filed under Entitlements, Ethics, Government Spending, Liberalism, Politics Millions of food stamp recipients are finding their government supplement smaller this month. The federal government made sizeable cuts to the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) otherwise known as food stamps. This cut will affect 47.6 million Americans or about 1 out of every 6 people. Under the new guidelines, a family of 4 will see their food stamps drop from $668 a month to $632 a month. While $36 dollars doesn’t...

<p>As you dig into your Butterball with all the trimmings this Thanksgiving, remember that millions of famished schoolkids around America may be forced to forgo classic turkey — and chow down instead on vegan black-bean patties and organic locavore quinoa salad.</p>

The continuing attention devoted to the blunders, incompetence, and lies surrounding the Obamacare rollout is much deserved. But we shouldn’t forget that the President’s health-care monstrosity is merely the latest and biggest of scores of government entitlement programs suffering from the same flawed progressive assumption––that government “experts” armed with coercive power alone can solve problems better left to the states, civil society, and the free market. In reality, such programs relentlessly metastasize, increasing as well fraud, waste, abuse, and costs. One such program is SNAP, the kinder and gentler name for what we used to call food stamps. Apparently the...

Can you feed yourself on $4.50 a day? That’s the typical daily benefit for someone who gets food stamps. Millions of low-income Americans are dependent on the program, which is called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, for some if not all of their food money. SNAP benefits have just been reduced slightly, with the sunset of an economic-stimulus addition, and will likely be cut more by Congress before the year is through. Here in Clark County, Share and the Clark County Food Bank are inviting the community to get a sense of life on that kind of budget by...

One less bowl of cereal a week for his boy, one less sandwich a week for himself. That's what Friday's cut to national food stamp allotments means to Lionel Hill, but the math equation for lost meals is bound to get worse in the coming months. Hill, 57, and others who need the government aid to eat have no hope of getting their lost benefits back, considering the only debate in Congress over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - food stamps - is how much further to slash it. That makes the situation both personal and worrisome in his household....

U.S. food stamp cuts taking effect Friday are one of two stimulus safety-net programs ending, an economist said. The other is extended unemployment benefits. ... It was a temporary increase in the maximum amount of food stamp benefits people could get monthly as part of Washington's response to the Great Recession. ... Friday's change in the food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cuts monthly benefits 13.6 percent -- or, more precisely, ends a 13.6 percent increase in SNAP benefits from the stimulus act. Benefits to a family of four receiving the maximum amount...

It is late October, so Adrianne Flowers is out of money to buy food for her family. That is no surprise. Feeding five kids is expensive, and the roughly $600 in food stamps she gets from the federal government never lasts the whole month. "I'm barely making it," said the 31-year-old Washington, D.C., native and single mother. Starting Friday, the money is likely to run out even quicker. That is when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits are set to fall for more than 47 million lower-income people -- 1 in 7 Americans -- most of whom live in...

The fight over renewing the nation’s farm bill has centered on cuts to the $80 billion-a-year food stamp program. But there could be unintended consequences if no agreement is reached: higher milk prices. Members of the House and Senate are scheduled to begin long-awaited negotiations on the five-year, roughly $500 billion bill this week. If they don’t finish it, dairy supports could expire at the end of the year and send the price of a gallon of milk skyward. KLTV reports that the price of milk could reach $8 a gallon. “We are pretty much at the mercy of the...

Millions of people are in for a shock at the end of the week when their food stamp benefits will be cut across the board. There is little chance that Congress will act to avert what hunger activists call the “food stamp cliff” — a cut to benefits that will affect some 47 million beneficiaries, including children and the elderly. The cut takes effect on Nov. 1, and will bring an end to a funding increase that Democrats wrapped into President Obama’s 2009 stimulus law. For a family of four, the cut will be $36 per month, or about 20...

Food stamp recipients are turning the government handouts into quick cash with ads on Craigslist, despite efforts to stem fraud. The federally-funded grocery assistance coupons -- which are issued by states in the form of debit cards under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) -- are being sold on the online bulletin board as well as auction sites like eBay. FoxNews.com found several offerings at Craigslist sites around the country, where the sellers offered the welfare benefits at large discounts from face value.

Proud to be an American... Something is really wrong with this picture...

Every time an American signs up for food stamps in one of 23 states, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) adds to its revenue stream. That because JPMorgan Chase contracts to operate as the processor of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards in those states. JPMorgan earns a fee for each recipient, ranging from 31 cents to $2.30, depending on the state, every month for the term of the contract. JPMorgan's seven-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, the official name for the federal food stamp program) contract with New York state, for example, brought in more than $126 million of...

Under the POS’s presidency, the number of Americans receiving food stamps (now called Electronic Benefits Transfer or EBT) exploded. Today, one in five U.S. households are on food stamps. Worse still, we are taking two steps back for every step forward: For every new job that’s been created, two new recipients (let’s call them food-stampers) are added to the food stamps dole. Given our exploding national debt and the impending bankruptcy of, first, Social Security Disability (in 2016!), then Social Security itself, followed by Medicare, anyone with half a brain whose head isn’t plunged deep in the River of Denial,...