Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
I posted an article about the Congress addressing a "farm bill" a couple days ago. It turns out the farm bill will cost a trillion dollars over ten years and 75% of that money is for food stamps! $75 billion a year given away in food stamps. How much does that amount to, really? What's the arithmetic?
If there are 100 million households in the U.S. (300 million divided by an average household of 3 people), let's try to figure how many are so destitute as to qualify for food stamps. How about 5% of them, sound reasonable? If the unemployment rate is about 8-9% and people get 99 weeks of unemployment compensation, it seems like 5% of households that are truly destitute sounds reasonable.
So what do those food stamps amount to? The simple arithmetic says it's about $15,000 per household living off food stamps. Geez, that's a lot of food. Does your household spend over $1,200 a month on food? That's what he arithmetic says. Add to that some of he other "low income benefits" (of which there are lots), those "destitute" households can enjoy a pretty decent life...without lifting a finger to work! And those households don't have to pay any taxes at all!
If my arithmetic is right, now that's what you call income redistribution!
Obama's "tax the rich" proposal (the Buffett Rule) would only increase government revenues by $1.5 trillion over ten years. Nobody will argue that those asked to pay a little more in taxes will even notice it. And we all know the vitriolic, partisan hue and cry that proposal has caused from the conservative side of the aisle. But here's this "farm bill" wending it's way through Congress that will increase government spending and raise he deficit by two-thirds that amount...and nary a soundbite from the GOP.
Could it be that the reason the conservatives in Congress are silent on this legislation is that they don't want to PO the voters in all those households getting food stamp handouts? After all, those 535 jobs in Congress are pretty sweet deals.
If the GOP is serious about cutting government spending, this is a bill that should get their attention...and our attention...big time. It's totally in the control of the GOP to pass the bill, amend it, or reject it totally. Let's watch and see what happens. It'll help us all understand better what "fiscal conservatism" really means.
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Actually, your assumptions are incorrect. First of all, 46 million people benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on a monthly basis. That's about 15% of a total population of 300 M. A family of four only qualifies for SNAP if their net monthly income is less than $1863 per month or $22356 per year. ("Net" allows for some minor adjustments for child/dependent care and/or medical care). In addition, they can't have more than $2000 in "countable resources" which would include a bank account and may include a vehicle (depending on state rules) but excludes a home.
The maximum monthly benefit is $688; however, 30% of their monthly income is deducted from this benefit amount. So for a family of four who qualifies at the maximum monthly income level ($1863) would be eligible for $109 in SNAP benefits per month or $1308 per year.
I don't know about you but I won't want to try to feed a family of four on $109 a month. BTW SNAP is exclusively to purchase food - paper products (like toilet paper) and cleaning supplies are excluded.