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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (38975)	2/12/2013 8:46:53 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 85487

Please do. Maybe you can report back on how it goes the first month. Keep a log. Track your weight. Politician tries to live on food stamps By jbf on November 18, 2011 Could you live on $4.50 per day for food, as food stamp recipients are. Rep. Jackie Speier tried. You can better understand, too, the struggle of the poor, even the working poor, like the woman who wrote to Speier during the week she ate on a food stamp-limited diet to tell her that she had to rub the tummies of her children when they didn’t have food because they were in so much pain. “That put tears in my eyes,” said Speier, D-Hillsborough, who participated with other House Democrats in a “Food Stamp Challenge” the first week of November to call attention to the food stamp program facing a possible budget reduction in Congress. Now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – in California it is called CalFresh – the program that feeds some 44 million low-income Americans is threatened. At least one senator, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, has recommended to the bipartisan super committee trying to identify $1.5 trillion in federal savings by Thanksgiving that members reduce the food stamp program budget significantly. He said in a letter Nov. 7 that the nutrition assistance program is an “unmonitored welfare program” and that even modest reform to it “can save many billions of dollars over the coming years.” “I would like to take a big whack out of his salary,” Speier said of Sessions. “I don’t think anyone in Congress should be allowed to cut this program unless they have lived on $4.50 a day for a week.” Speier called the experience of living on $4.50 a day “humbling and difficult.” She said she found herself constantly thinking about food and controlled stomach growling by eating popcorn. She also learned to be a crafty shopper: She found three bunches of Romaine lettuce at Trader Joe’s and two cans of chicken noodle at Walgreens for half the price at Safeway. The popcorn came from the Dollar Tree store. At Safeway, she didn’t have enough cash for one of three tomatoes and one of two cans of chili in her basket. Back they went. On the fifth and final day she had one carrot and half a container of yogurt. “What if I had to go another day?” she asked. “It made me appreciate so much what we are not doing as a country,” said Speier. “That we have really become compassionless, almost like it is acceptable. Well, it is not acceptable. And we can’t be the biggest industrialized country in the world and yet have the worst policy around hunger and poverty.” Indeed, three of four people who are on food stamps are working people, but are below the poverty line. Libia Bustamante, a single mother of two in Redwood City who depends on CalFresh, said she and her kids eat foods they prefer during the first two or three weeks of the month, and other foods later. She said they rely on rice, beans and tortillas most days. “We are very grateful to have the food stamps,” she said. “The reason why we have food stamps is there are no jobs out there.” Speier noted that members of Congress are in the top 5 percent of the nation’s population economically – and enjoy free food all day long at meetings and receptions. “There is an indignation that I have about this because, how dare we, how dare we who are living in the very top of the food chain deny food to those at the bottom. I think there has to be a loud indignation expressed by all of us. I would say that for all the principles that many of my colleagues espouse around Christianity, they don’t practice it if they are looking at cutting programs like this.” famvin.org

To: i-node who wrote (38975)	2/13/2013 2:17:23 AM
From: Broken_Clock	Respond to of 85487

Maybe you should direct your ire to longnshort who has admitted overcharging for services on his gov't contracts. He's stealing right out of your pocket....and proud of it!

To: i-node who wrote (38975)	2/15/2013 3:41:52 PM
From: FJB	Respond to of 85487

Grassfire Update: Dear XXXX, The Obama administration has spent millions in taxpayer dollars to aggressively promote the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) -- including large cash payouts to local governments that sign up the most people. In fact, one state received a $5 million bonus for “the swift processing of applications.” Since taking office in January 2009, Obama has been adding 11,269 food-stamp recipients per day an astounding 49.3 percent increase, prompting Newt Gingrich to label him the “Food Stamp President.” Today, more than 47 million Americans are receiving food stamps -- a number larger than the entire population of Spain. A federal audit of SNAP revealed that many of the 47 million already receiving food stamps don’t actually qualify but receive them anyway under a special program that disregards income and asset requirements. That means American taxpayers are paying what’s been called a “multi-million-dollar tab to feed hundreds of thousands who can well afford to feed themselves.” The SNAP program was designed to be a temporary safety net for individuals and families in need. Yet under Obama, it has become a bloated, fraud-filled entitlement program funded by American taxpayers. But that’s not even the worst of it. Obama is even reaching across our borders to encourage foreign nationals, migrant workers and non-citizen immigrants to apply for SNAP benefits! With our economy in shambles, and our national debt approaching $17 trillion, taxpayers can ill-afford to fund another Obama handout that last year topped out at $80.4 billion. That’s why Grassfire is launching a national petition calling for an end to taxpayer dollars being used to recruit more food-stamp recipients. We’re also urging Congress to act in the best interests of our nation and its citizens, by enacting meaningful and comprehensive SNAP reform. Go here now add your name to our national “Stop the Food-Stamp Madness” petition: www.grassfire.com/982/petition.asp + + Killing The “Can Do” American Spirit Thomas Jefferson once said that “a wise and frugal government … shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.” But Obama, the great “wealth distributor,” is driven to use federal policy to take from the “haves” and give to the “have-nots.” Our nation was built on hard-working immigrants who came here seeking a better life. Through the sweat of their brow, these determined individuals made a better life for themselves and their families. Now generations later, Barack Obama is killing that American spirit through his statist redistribution policies. Fight back by going here now and signing Grassfire’s petition: www.grassfire.com/982/petition.asp As soon as Grassfire mobilizes 50,000 citizen signers, we'll hand-deliver these petitions to key members of Congress who are already demanding changes to the food stamp program. After signing, please alert your friends and family members to this Obama charade – urging them to join with you to stop the food stamp madness that cost American taxpayers $80.4 billion last year alone! Have them click here to be represented by Grassfire on Capitol Hill. Thank you for taking action with Grassfire and opposing Obama’s efforts to grow SNAP using your tax dollars! The Grassfire Team P.S. Again, after signing, invite your friends and family to stand with you in supporting SNAP reform. Urge them to go here now and sign our “Stop the Food-Stamp Madness” petition.