Is it passive aggression? Is it cruel antagonism? Is it overt animosity? Is it open hostility, bordering on outright hate? Or it's much less evil that; maybe it's just apathy, ignorance or indifference.
It didn't take long before the new GOP House began passing a series of deficit-hiking tax cuts that will primarily help the rich at the expense of everybody else. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee (which writes tax legislation), wants to make some previous tax breaks permanent — arguing that Congress has previously extended certain tax breaks before.
Fifty years ago Lyndon B. Johnson declared War on Poverty. Great strides were made. Between 1964 and 1965 Medicaid and Medicare were enacted, food stamps made permanent, a flurry of work and volunteer grants were passed, and educational opportunities were made more egalitarian. Unfortunately later administrations have been tearing apart Johnson's weapons against poverty one by one.
One might think that $11 dollars less per month in food stamps for an individual is not a big deal. But considering the maximum monthly amount one could have is $200 a month, now $189, it is. A whopping 15% of the population are on food stamps and now will experience a 5.4% cut in benefits, just in time for the holidays. As of July 2013, 47,637,407 people were receiving SNAP benefits.
People are broke and hungry in America and the food stamp program has been the only thing between many and starvation. Food stamps are successful, it has an incredibly low fraud rate and most importantly, America doesn't have starvation filling the streets as a result. Yet for some reason House Republicans, with Majority leader Eric Cantor leading the charge, want to cut food stamps and force people to starve.
The House Agriculture Committee's farm bill would have denied food stamp benefits to as many as 5.1 million Americans, or more than 10 percent of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's enrollment, according to a new analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Consider the irony of companies like Walmart that economically forces their employees to apply for food stamps, and then profits from their food stamp dollars. That's not more public welfare, that's more corporate welfare. But now those profits are at risk, because the GOP's current version of a farm bill includes ZERO for food stamps --- meaning, 1 in 6 Americans could also go hungry.
Food stamp usage has leveled off in growth yet is still alarmingly high. As of April 2013, 47,548,694 people were on food stamps. That is 1 out of every 6.64 persons in the United States. This means that 15.05% of all people living in America are on food assistance. The United States population in middle of April 2013 was 315,928,000 and this figure includes everyone, including Americans overseas. Food stamp usage has increased 2.8% from April 2012.
Food stamp usage has soared to a new record high of 47,102,780. As of August 2012, 1 in 6.7 people are on food stamps in the United States. That's 15.0% of people living in America are on food assistance. The United States population in middle of August 2012 was 314,484,000 and this figure includes everyone, including Americans overseas. Food stamp usage increased 2.9% from August 2011 and 0.9% from July 2012.
Since October 2007, food stamp usage has increased 74.4%. Population has increased 3.9% during the same time period. That is how badly America is hurting.
A shocking claim was made by various press sources that those at the bottom of the American economic pile have living expenses which are double their income.
The bottom fifth of the U.S. income distribution -- 24.4 million households -- on average earned $10,074 in after-tax annual income and spent $22,001 last year,
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