>> It ranks last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a poor job getting eligible low-income people to apply, said Kevin Concannon, a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary, in an earlier meeting with reporters.
So — Texas is ranked first at encouraging ne’er-do-wells to find a way to not need foodstamps. Sounds like a win-win.
SnakeDoc
I’d be interested in seeing the state rankings alluded to in this article. I’d be especially interested in seeing who the top 5 are: I have a hunch that they will correlate pretty closely to the top 5 most insolvent states.
Other than the guy in the white t-shirt, I don’t see a thin one in the bunch. Must not be hurting on the food front.
So, which states give out the best food stamp service? Which states does this guy think we (Texas) should emulate? Now, that could be important information for “professional” food stamp recipients.
Texas also has one of the lowest welfare payments in the US too. Discourages the parasites from moving there.
They look like they are starving! /s
I’m a native son and I consider this GOOD NEWS! KEEP IT UP TEXAS! WE CAN DO WORSE IF WE TRY!
The States are missing out by not taking more charge of their food stamp programs.
To start out, food stamps are a real “Twilight Zone” support program, and nothing is as it appears. It should never be compared with any other form of public support.
In the US, since before the Great Depression, we have had the problem that our farmers are over productive. Even when the Dust Bowl wiped out much of the agriculture on the Great Plains, those farmers outside of the Dust Bowl region produced so much food that it was almost worthless.
And today things are such that every year we have thousands of tons of food that rots in warehouses. And it is very expensive to keep in warehouses. As such, giving it away actually *saves* money.
But, as the reasonable argument goes, if you give it away, won’t it depress prices? Ironically, no. This is because the overproduction food is in its basic form. Most people who buy their own food, buy only small quantities of “basic” food items, like raw vegetables or flour, at a time. The bulk of purchased food has been processed in many ways.
Yet people on food stamps are, and should be encouraged to buy food in bulk. 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of dry beans, 20 pounds of rice, and importantly, food that is on seasonal sale.
And this is critical. Crops all come in at once, of a particular crop. This causes a glut in the market, with much of the crop put in storage, either to be sold during the off season, or just as excess that will probably spoil.
So retailers have huge sales, trying to unload the excess, the sooner, the better.
And this is where food stamps can come in handy. Food stamps are issued in fixed amounts every month. But the States should intervene, to help their farmers at low cost, by buying a lot of their excess crop that would otherwise rot. At very low prices. Then they could turn around and give “bonuses” of one particular food item that month, to their food stamp recipients.
In one fell swoop, by doing this the States would help their local farmers, retailers, and food stamp recipients, while normalizing the cost of seasonal foods. And with low costs to taxpayers, which they would probably get back with more stable food prices.
Food stamps are a strange thing. As a final note, cutting food stamps does not work as a motivator to find employment, and it certainly doesn’t help poor children to do better in school.
I saw an article on Fox the other day that says all of those “universal service fees” on phone and mobile service are being used to provide cell phones to the “poor”. Thus far it has burned thru $1B. Terrific. On a related note, my brother had apartments that had subsidized housing tenants in one of them. They had two big screen plasma TVs and all kinds of new appliances. Moral is: there are many fewer truly “poor” in this country. Mostly we have lazy minorities and white trash who are conditioned to perpetual reparations for nothing we did or living off the dole.
Clearly the two young ladies in the photo are starving. They’ve started eating their own fingers. It’s a travesty.
Fellow Texans, my solution is simple:
I would offer a free bus ride and a $2000 cash card upon arrival in California, Wash. DC, or any other liberal sewer, to any current Texas welfare recipient, conditional upon them remaining at the destination. Failure to comply and returning to Texas without proof of income or financial support would result in the issuance of a felony warrant.
Census income is not the only qualifying factor