Posted on 08/22/2011 10:16:25 AM PDT by markomalley
Genna Saucedo supervises cashiers at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera, California, but her wages aren't enough to feed herself and her 12-year-old son.
Saucedo, who earns $9.70 an hour for about 26 hours a week and lives with her mother, is one of the many Americans who survive because of government handouts in what has rapidly become a food stamp nation.
Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That's an increase of 74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses.
At the same time, the cost doubled to reach $68 billion in 2010 -- more than a third of the amount the U.S. government received in corporate income tax last year -- which means the program has started to attract the attention of some Republican lawmakers looking for ways to cut the nation's budget deficit.
While there are clearly some cases of abuse by people who claim food stamps but don't really need them, for many Americans like Saucedo there is little current alternative if they are to put food on the table while paying rent and utility bills.
"It's kind of sad that even though I'm working that I need to have government assistance. I have asked them to please put me on full-time so I can have benefits," said the 32-year-old.
She's worked at Wal-Mart for nine months, and applied for food stamps as soon as her probation ended. She said plenty of her colleagues are in the same situation.
(Excerpt) Read more at old.news.yahoo.com ...
Why didn’t they just start going to Sam’s Club or Costco? Buy bulk amounts of food and live off of that for a month or two. If you’re smart, you can afford a month’s worth of food or more for under two hundred, or even one hundred dollars. If they requried people on stamps to shop there, it would end up forcing the people on stamps to start learning how to cook nutritious meals and also reduce their ability to buy expensive items each time they get a craving.
That is ridiculous.
In order to eliminate welfare/SS/etc you’d have to eliminate every left-leaning democrat in the country. Will never happen.
So I trust you will return that SS check back to the government when the time comes, yes?
Notice that you’ll never see a person on food stamps who doesn’t have a nice flat screen TV and cable/internet/cell phone, tattoos, etc. Where do they get the “spare” cash to buy these things? And yes, I’ve seen people on medicaid drive to my office in brand new cars. Not 3 year old cars, not beaters. Brand spanking new. Better than the one I drive. And then they ask, why does my child keep getting earaches and why is their asthma so bad? As I notice the pack of smokes in the parent’s purse. Something really doesn’t add up about the “needy” in this country.
Proving citizenship is not a part of the process to qualify for food stamps etc.
you left out driving nice cars - no sarcasm intended
Why doesn't her husband help out?
That was money that was taken out of my earnings, involuntarily, so I would have something to live on when I retire. I have mixed feelings on that subject. On one hand I want to tell the gubmint to stick it,but on the other, they “took it out for my own good” and I would like to have it back.
Thanks, I appreciate that.
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