[deMolay]

Unemployment has moved up to 9.6% and is the highest in 27 years. Coupled with this bad news. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... -says.html

[Daniel_Plainview]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')Under Obama], more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month ...

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deMolay', 'U')nemployment has moved up to 9.6% and is the highest in 27 years. Coupled with this bad news. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... -says.html

[Ludi]

In case I decide to vote Republican or some other party next time, what is the Republican (or other party) solution to this problem of so many people on food stamps?

<<<<not on food stamps (quite)

[Buggy]

Bread and circuses my friend. Bread and circuses. the Food Stamps program provides the bread (if you have ever stood in the supermarket checkout line behind somebody using their "Food Stamps" credit card, you know that bread is rarely in their cart. Pepsi and Cheetos is what I have seen). And for our circuses, why it's whatever Miley Cyrus wore out last night and the latest snap shots of Lindsey Lohan's nether regions. Who could ask for anything more???? Bill Gates and Warren Buffet can keep their money. They don't know what they're missing!!!!!

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I')n case I decide to vote Republican or some other party next time, what is the Republican (or other party) solution to this problem of so many people on food stamps?

<<<<not on food stamps (quite)

[Fiddlerdave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I')n case I decide to vote Republican or some other party next time, what is the Republican (or other party) solution to this problem of so many people on food stamps?

<<<<not on food stamps (quite)

[deMolay]

When the Chinese quit buying US debt, then the cuts to entitlements will sky rocket. "Millions Saved or Created". From the Best Used Car Salesman that the USA ever produced.

[MarkJ]

A record amount of Americans are On The Dole.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ASHINGTON — Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand.

More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA TODAY shows. That's up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007.

The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014.

More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years.

Caseloads have risen as more people become eligible. The economic stimulus law signed by President Obama last year also boosted benefits.

Close to 10 million receive unemployment insurance, nearly four times the number from 2007. Benefits have been extended by Congress eight times beyond the basic 26-week program, enabling the long-term unemployed to get up to 99 weeks of benefits. Caseloads peaked at nearly 12 million in January — "the highest numbers on record," says Christine Riordan of the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for low-wage workers.

More than 4.4 million people are on welfare, an 18% increase during the recession. The program has grown slower than others, causing Brookings Institution expert Ron Haskins to question its effectiveness in the recession.

As caseloads for all the programs have soared, so have costs. The federal price tag for Medicaid has jumped 36% in two years, to $273 billion. Jobless benefits have soared from $43 billion to $160 billion. The food stamps program has risen 80%, to $70 billion. Welfare is up 24%, to $22 billion. Taken together, they cost more than Medicare.

[Ludi]

So what is the GOP plan to fix the economy?

[deMolay]

So far the Dems have been calling them the Party of No. Seems to indicate that even tho the Dems have controlled the House for 4 years and 2 years with a Super Majority they have been resisting Mo spending. Welfare spending now exceeds every single other item in the Obama Budget. It exceeds all Military Spending, followed in number 3 position with payments on the Interest on the Debt to pay for Welfare. It's The Spending Stupid.

[Fiddlerdave]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deMolay', 'S')o far the Dems have been calling them the Party of No. Seems to indicate that even tho the Dems have controlled the House for 4 years and 2 years with a Super Majority they have been resisting Mo spending. Welfare spending now exceeds every single other item in the Obama Budget. It exceeds all Military Spending, followed in number 3 position with payments on the Interest on the Debt to pay for Welfare. It's The Spending Stupid.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fiddlerdave', 'G')ee, hand Obama an economy that is already losing millions of jobs and it is "Obama" who increased welfare spending?

[efarmer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... ral_budget

Take a look at what the spending is for and then what the income is from here.
One pie chart above the other. Look at the income tax haul and then look at
the input from Social Security and Health premiums being collected.

So say we pursue cut off of the welfare spending and Social Security payments, but be honest and cut
off the Social Security income to the federal government (which will have to be coincident
with cutting off outputs).

Next realize that Defense is often corporate welfare and government job creation in disguise
since weapons and defense spending unlike consumer manufacturing and service, has to stay in
America to a large extent. But this has to be cut as well as welfare if you are really to walk the
walk of austerity back to a fiscally sound nation.

The societal shocks delivered to the nation via any abrupt changes like this will be so profound as to undermine the ability of anyone of any particular philosophy or set of principles, including close adherence to our founding principles, to be able to maintain order or power in the nation long enough to achieve any worthwhile objective.

The men without plans but chock full of noble principles can not be rehabbing or they would have plans, so I am left to conclude they are simply dismantling while the scrap value is highest. They got the bulk of the treasure on the last raid.

I see a Viking ship coming up the river again, they have been here before, the place is not what it was before they visited last, the rumor is they are here to restore order and rebuild and that they are not drunk and filled with blood lust. They are however, largely the same men in the same boats.
I wonder how many will help this time for a share of the plunder and a ticket to Valhalla?

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', '
')Cut off the welfare spending and Social Security payments

[efarmer]

I edited my post, I needed to say that more clearly, Ludi.


I had a neighbor who was the life of the saloon, buying rounds and snacks for the entire place,
talking big business deals, and waxing poetic about all the issues of the day. Waking up broke on Sunday morning, the family got a speech about how they had to tighten their belts and go austere for the success of the family. Many of us neighbors covered a kid or two for lunch or a movie or a clothing purchase in addition to our own. This is called private charity. We have a political party in America that believes this is a national strategy. The way they describe it, private charity just has to fill the gap until all the great deals they are cutting at the money saloon trickle down and the old man comes home with a big wad of money to play catch up with the little people.

[AgentR]

To the various comments of "what would the GOP do?"... Please, the last thing any of them would touch is food stamps. Yall are looking at food stamps the wrong way. Its not a charity or social program at all; its a farm subsidy & stabilization program.

What was the problem in the great depression with regard to food? Was it that farmers couldn't grow or plant? No. They couldn't sell. No buyers. They'd get stuck with a bunch of produce that would quickly go from valuable asset, to expensive trash, and helpless to do anything about it. Food stamps guarantee that the food MARKET remains liquid at least for basic commodities. So the financial cycle of the farmer can continue even if the normal economy goes belly up. Grow food, harvest food, sell food, pay mortgage/taxes, buy seed, grow food... Any break in that financial chain and things go real bad, real fast.

Social security, again, bottom of the priorities for cutting.

That said, the whole notion of looking to politicians to fix the PRIVATE economy is just absolutely nuts.

As my own views about waging war while keeping taxes low is at odds with the official GOP position, I'll pass on defending what they WOULD do. My own vote though is in their camp, because the freedoms I care about are thought of in a positive light by the GOP and a negative light by the Democrats.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', 't')he freedoms I care about are thought of in a positive light by the GOP and a negative light by the Democrats.

[AgentR]

Wrong forum to discuss, but the 10th is more important to me than the 2nd, but the 2nd remains much more important to me than government handouts. Don't want to pull this thread in the direction of a different topic though.

Basic point... you might as well forget the liberal fantasy of the Republicans cutting food stamps. It benefits their constituents much more than it benefits the lefties.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', '
')Basic point... you might as well forget the liberal fantasy of the Republicans cutting food stamps. It benefits their constituents much more than it benefits the lefties.