Free Republic

Agricultural commodity prices have surged almost 50% since mid-2020, causing concerns over food price inflation around the world and sometimes resulting in increased export taxes and quotas by producers at a time when importing countries want to import more. We can identify four major factors driving the surge across agri commodities that will remain active in 2021: 1) US dollar weakness: Rabobank forecasts the US dollar to remain soft through 2021 (US dollar index -7% lower since mid-2020), but no further weakness is expected. 2) Weather: La Niña could extend into the US spring planting season. 3) Global demand: Good...

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday for a government-wide review of welfare programs, with a goal of putting more people back to work, White House officials said. The order directs all federal agencies involved in providing more than $700 billion in low-income assistance annually to study programs that are “failing Americans,” and to report back in 90 days with recommendations, said White House domestic policy council director Andrew Bremberg. “Our country still struggles from nearly record-high welfare enrollments,” Mr. Bremberg said in a conference call with reporters. “President Trump endorses reforms that ensure those in need receive assistance, while...

Bread for the World warned that the current FY 2018 budget outline drafted by President Donald J. Trump would worsen hunger and poverty in the U.S. and abroad. The cuts to domestic social safety net programs and foreign aid are aimed to boost the Pentagon’s budget by 10 percent. “President Trump is proposing slashing programs that help hungry and poor people,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “These programs include nutrition assistance in the U.S. and aid to poor and hungry people around the world. This comes when 20 million people are at risk of famine...

If someone’s pay suddenly doubles, she may lose rental assistance, child care subsidies, and more. In L.A., a worker who currently makes $9 an hour and works 40 hours a week (which is not a given, but that would be a full-time workload) will earn $360 a week, or about $1,440 a month and $18,720 a year, before taxes. If that worker is a mom with two children, she is below the poverty line. She qualifies for a bevy of federal and state programs like food stamps, rental assistance, child care subsidies, health care for her children, and Medicaid because...

It's about a 4 per cent increase between the benefit increase and the increased expense deduction. Heard about this increase and searched 'Bing News' and Google News' and found nothing. Finally found this Pa. state welfare site that mentions it.

A needful young woman recently visited a food pantry in the southern Indiana city of Seymour, where she applied for emergency assistance. A pantry volunteer helped the woman complete her paperwork, after which the volunteer asked the woman, with loving-kindness, “Is there anything you would like us to pray with you about?” “Yes,” the young woman replied, without hesitation, according to a news story published yesterday by USA Today. So the pantry volunteer grasped the woman’s hands and prayed for her. Community Provisions, the faith-based organization that operates the pantry, has been following the same practice for the past 15...

It has become all too easy today to receive government assistance. Half of all babies born in the U.S. today receive food assistance, and half of all children live in a home that will use food assistance at some point during their childhood. 40 percent of the population in Washington, D.C. is on welfare. Between 2000 and 2010 the number of Americans receiving food assistance more than doubled, expanding to over 47 million, which is more than one-seventh of the population. Forty years ago, only 4.3 million Americans received food assistance. According to a Heritage Foundation study, means-tested welfare has...

Households headed by immigrants have a substantially higher rate of welfare use than native-headed households, according a report released by the Center for Immigration Studies this week. The report examined census data about the use of welfare programs – cash assistance, food assistance, housing assistance, and Medicaid – and compared usage by immigrant headed households with at least one child – those headed both by legal and illegal immigrants – with usage by native headed households with at least one child. 57 percent of immigrant headed households participate in at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent of native...