Steve86, you seem to want to keep padding the nest to keep them there. I prefer to remove padding to get them out of the nest. I want food stamps gone. Skip the money train and go directly to providing basic foods.
You can’t cook so you found your own solution by sharing with friends that can cook. That’s the kind of self help that should be promoted.
That 47% isn’t going to ever vote Republican nor conservative as long as they continue to live in the world provided for them by the government. No matter how much they are given. I think the only way to change that is to make them join the world of the working taxpayer.
Actually, the majority of SNAP recipients already are "working taxpayers". For example, a family of four can have a gross income of something like $36,000 and still qualify for food stamps. And assets aren't counted at all in most states now. In my state there was a case last year of a multi-millionaire (asset-wise) collecting food stamps.