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I don't necessarily disagree, but I'd like to point out a simple fact in order to put things in perspective. The federal government spends about $20 billion or so on the food stamp program. The same government spends about $200 billion, or ten times as much, on Medicare.

The average wealth of the food stamp beneficiary is well below the national mean, even accounting for fraud. The average wealth of the Medicare beneficiary is well above the national mean.

So, while it may be right to criticize social welfare such as food stamps, it seems ludicrous not to also criticize the real deadbeats in our society -- the millions of seniors who suck from the public teat while living in luxurious digs in places like Myrtle Beach, Sun City and Tampa Bay. Some 60 percent of the federal budget goes toward benefits to seniors, who are the richest demographic group in the US. Contrast this with about 17 percent of the budget that goes to the poor.

The biggest welfare chiselers are senior citizens and their AARP lobbyists. In a few short years, I will be one of them, and it makes me sick to think that my bills will be paid by the generations that come after me. But that's what our democracy has wrought: welfare for the old and rich.

"The average wealth of the food stamp beneficiary is well below the national mean, even accounting for fraud. The average wealth of the Medicare beneficiary is well above the national mean.......Some 60 percent of the federal budget goes toward benefits to seniors, who are the richest demographic group in the US. Contrast this with about 17 percent of the budget that goes to the poor."

You're comparing apples to oranges. Food stamps are only made available to the poor, so of course the average income of food stamp beneficiaries is going to be below the national average.

As for seniors being the richest demographic group in the U.S., these people have 40+ years of work behind them.......along with 40+ years of retirement savings. That "wealth" that they have accumulated is what they have to live on for the rest of their days. Would you prefer that they didn't have retirement savings, in which case we would be having to support all of their needs?