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Millions on food stamps facing benefits cuts
CBS News ^ | October 31, 2013 | By Alain Sherter

Posted on 10/31/2013 6:25:45 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

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 households with children, seniors or people with disabilities. Barring congressional intervention, the maximum payment for a family of four will shrink from $668 a month to $632, or $432 over the course of a year.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: agdept; ebt; foodstamps; snap
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To: glorgau

I honestly can’t remember the time we had budget monies for alcohol of any kind.

Other than rubbing.

I’m not that desperate.

Our phones are the old flip phones with no data plans. We can’t afford a data plan of any kind.

Or bottled water.


41 posted on 10/31/2013 6:47:50 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Where’s daddy? Maybe he could buy HIS kids some food.


42 posted on 10/31/2013 6:48:08 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Have you had your ObamaCare Marketplace shopping experience today?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

They shouldn’t be getting the equivalent of money to start with. There should be a place in each county where they’re given a sack of beans, a sack of rice, and a large block of cheese. And quit making uncle sam the baby daddy over and over.


43 posted on 10/31/2013 6:48:26 AM PDT by ZX12R (Never forget the heroes of Benghazi, who were abandoned to their deaths by Obama)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

We’ve all heard the line that America is becoming an entitlement society or welfare state, with half of U.S. households now receiving some type of government benefit. But a CBS 21 News investigation has taken that stat one step further to show you how much people are actually getting for free. A few years ago, reporter Chris Papst worked with a single mom who had two children. She turned down a raise because she said the extra money would decrease her government benefits. It was hard to understand why she did that, until Chris started working on this story. “You do what you have to do as a single mom,” explained Kristina Cogan. “And that’s what I did.” ……she admits living a life off the government can be comfortable. “If you’re going to get something for free, are you going to work for it?” Cogan explained. “It kind of like sucks you in.”

Here are some of the horrific details.

For this story, CBS 21 researched what government programs are available to a single mother of two making $19,000 a year. What we found was incredible. Our family would be eligible for $14,976 in free day care, another $13,400 for Head Start and Early Head Start, $7,148 in housing vouchers, $6,500 for weatherization projects, $400 to pay heating bills, $480 a year for a cell phone, with an extra $230 for a land line, and $182 in free legal advice. The family would get more than $6,028 in food assistance and another $6,045 in medical assistance. The mother is eligible for $5,500 in Pell Grants for school with an additional $12,000 for the Education Opportunity Grant; SMART Grant; and TEACH Grant. Our family would also get $6,800 in tax credits, and $1,900 in withholding would be returned.

Add it up and this family can get $81,589 in free assistance.

There’s nothing in the story to suggest that Ms. Cogan is utilizing all these programs, but the plethora of available goodies certainly helps to explain why so many people decide it’s easier to be moochers rather than producers.


44 posted on 10/31/2013 6:48:39 AM PDT by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: maica

Yup.

The children are being taught that ‘government is responsible for feeding you’.

It is any surprise they all vote for big government?

It’s a training exercise.

One day they’ll be like trapped hogs. That 4th pen side closes in and there’ll be no escape before the slaughter.


45 posted on 10/31/2013 6:49:40 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I should worry about her?

Is she worried about my kids?


46 posted on 10/31/2013 6:50:23 AM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: yldstrk
the kids don’t want to be on free lunch, it is embarrassing.

You obviously don't spend any time around these people. They aren't embarrassed. At all. They don't even consider it.

/johnny

47 posted on 10/31/2013 6:50:34 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: MrB
That would be dads or, more properly, baby daddies.

$600 a month can feed a dozen people. Especially when they are getting two free meals a day at school!

48 posted on 10/31/2013 6:50:39 AM PDT by antidisestablishment (Islam delenda est)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Not surprisingly, participation in SNAP has soared during the epic downturn and ongoing job slump that followed the housing crash, with an additional 21 million people added to the rolls since 2008.

IMPOSSIBLE!!!! We are four years into the OBAMA RECOVERY!!!! Good times are all around us! Hoped has "started to make a comeback". The smartest man in the world is President, and his perfect wife (look at her arms!) has taken a personal interest in the nation's nutrition! This alone guarantees success!

How dare the evil CBS decry the OBAMA MIRACLE! RACISTS!

Sorry, I just don't see how they can always play it both ways. IF conservatives were doubting the recovery, the media would be regurgitating faux 'unemployment' figures as proof of Obama's genius.

Economists say this is an effective way to stimulate growth because the poor must spend almost all of their money just to get by. That, in turn, funnels money into the economy, creating a "multiplier" effect as food benefits spent in a grocery store generate revenue for other businesses.

Its like when I buy your mule, and you buy it back from me for a profit, and then I buy it back from you for a profit. We're both gonna' get rich, right?

Just ONCE I'd like to hear a leftist "economist" consider growth as a function of increased PRODUCTIVITY, rather than increased CONSUMPTION!

49 posted on 10/31/2013 6:51:37 AM PDT by LucianOfSamasota (Tanstaafl - its not just for breakfast anymore...)
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To: Gaffer
However, the government willing doesn’t cross-check such things as the same SSN, fake SSNs, etc when using them for justification for entitlements.

The IRS knows. I filed my taxes on line a couple of years back and within seconds of my clicking the "send" button, it was rejected. The reason given was that somebody had already claimed a deduction for the s.s. number I gave for my daughter.

After close scrutiny, I discovered I had made a typo while entering her number, one of the digits was wrong. The IRS knew immediately. If they can do it, any agency should be able to.

50 posted on 10/31/2013 6:52:33 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Simple economics at work. Create an artificial demand for unproductive mothers cranking out illegitimate babies, and you get an unlimited supply of both.


51 posted on 10/31/2013 6:52:59 AM PDT by henkster (Communists never negotiate.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

yeah, actually I do

there is a clear delineation between the ones on the dole and the ones who wouldn’t consider it

and of the same race

it is a class distinction

the ones not on the dole disdain those on the dole


52 posted on 10/31/2013 6:53:21 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The picture at the link shows that she can afford many bottles of liquor (on the fireplace mantle), a smart phone and bottled water (on the table), but not enough left over for food.


53 posted on 10/31/2013 6:54:10 AM PDT by jaydubya2
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To: SoftballMominVA
I don't think that word means what you think it does.

Snappers spend more on groceries than the majority of working folks. It's not supplemental when it forms the largest part of your purchases.

54 posted on 10/31/2013 6:54:58 AM PDT by antidisestablishment (Islam delenda est)
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To: Cowboy Bob

probably doesn’t know who the baby daddy’s are, any of them.


55 posted on 10/31/2013 6:56:27 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) ( Hey Rubio, eat pooh pal))
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To: yldstrk
That's certainly not the case with the sets that I know and interact with. They don't even consider free lunches. It's below their threshold of consiousness, like the air they breath.

/johnny

56 posted on 10/31/2013 6:56:48 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: yldstrk

In urban areas kids have no problem with it. They already have an entitled attitude. At the high school in which I teach the free lunch recipients even complain about the poor food quality. When I suggest they bring a lunch from home I receive very strange looks. Pack a lunch? I’ve even received this response, “That ain’t my job.”


57 posted on 10/31/2013 6:57:36 AM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
"the maximum payment for a family of four will shrink from $668 a month to $632,"

A pretty small cut. Buy cheaper food and quit eating out.

58 posted on 10/31/2013 6:58:07 AM PDT by circlecity
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To: yldstrk

Women these days are in it just for the money. They have our whole society telling them how bad men are and how really bad boys are. Women think they are entitled - just because they are women. The family law courts back them up. In the vast majority of cases, child custody and support gets awarded to women.

Plenty of men coach baseball for their kids, go on Scout trips (like I did), go to t-ball, many, many other things.

So stop the misandry already.


59 posted on 10/31/2013 6:58:11 AM PDT by sauropod (Fat Bottomed Girl: "What difference, at this point, does it make?")
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To: yldstrk

I see you live in Kansas.

Around here, the families that are NOT on foodstamps in that particular demographic are the ones ridiculed. For the same reason the one kid at the party is ridiculed for not taking a drag off the doobie.

Maybe you’re thinking 40 years ago?

The ones under 40 see NO stigma in food stamps. None. The largess is how they fund other things they really want. Like the smart phones, new model cars and bling and expensive clothes/manicures/extensions.


60 posted on 10/31/2013 6:58:27 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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