With "Friends" Like the Heritage Foundation... (*SIGH*)

From the "conservatives" at Heritage

*  *  *

The food stamp program is the nation’s second largest welfare program.

The number of food stamp recipients has risen dramatically, from 17.2 million in 2000 to 45.8 million in 2015.

Costs have soared over the same period, from $20.7 billion in 2000 to $83.1 billion in 2014.

The most rapid growth in the food stamp caseload in recent years has been among able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs). These are work-capable adult recipients between the ages of 18 and 49 who do not have children or other dependents to support.

* LET ME GUESS; AT 50 YEARS OLD AND ABOVE THERE'S A DIFFERENT PROGRAM...

(*SMIRK*)

Since 2008, the food stamp caseload of adults without dependents who are able-bodied has more than doubled nationally, swelling from nearly 2 million recipients in 2008 to around 5 million today. They gained notoriety when Fox News aired a documentary on food stamps featuring 29-year-old Jason Greenslate, a Californian who reported that he spends his time surfing and playing in his rock band, all the while receiving benefits from the food stamp program.

* I SAY WE KILL HIM AND DONATE HIS ORGANS...

(*SHRUG*)

n response to the growth in food stamp dependence, Maine’s governor, Paul LePage, recently established work requirements on recipients who are without dependents and able-bodied.

* Er... JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY... WHERE WAS THE MAINE LEGISLATURE WITH ALL THIS...???

In Maine, all able-bodied adults without dependents in the food stamp program are now required to take a job, participate in training, or perform community service.

* GUESS WHO PAYS FOR THE "TRAINING!"

(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

Job openings for lower-skill workers are abundant in Maine, and for those ABAWD recipients who cannot find immediate employment, Maine offers both training and community service slots. But despite vigorous outreach efforts by the government to encourage participation, most childless adult recipients in Maine refused to participate in training or even to perform community service for six hours per week.

When ABAWD recipients refused to participate, their food stamp benefits ceased.

(*TWO THUMBS UP*)

In the first three months after Maine’s work policy went into effect, its caseload of able-bodied adults without dependents plummeted by 80%...

* WOO-HOO!

This rapid drop in welfare dependence has a historical precedent: When work requirements were established in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program in the 1990s, nationwide caseloads dropped by almost as much, albeit over a few years rather than a few months.

* THANK YOU NEWT GINGRICH!

The Maine food stamp work requirement is sound public policy. Government should aid those in need...

* NO. IT SHOULDN'T. NOT AS A GENERAL RULE OF THUMB. (AND, FOLKS... THIS IS THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION SPOUTING THIS CRAP!)

* PRIVATE CHARITY SHOULD BE THE KEY SUPPORT FOR "THOSE IN NEED." INCOME REDISTRIBUTION IS NOT A MORAL SUBSTITUTE FOR PRIVATE CHARITY! (YOU'D THINK THE FOLKS AT HERITAGE WOULD KNOW THIS...)

Government data show that many adults without children on food stamps use their own funds counter-productively. Over half of able-bodied adults without dependents regularly smoke tobacco; those who smoke consume on average 19 packs of cigarettes per month at an estimated monthly cost of $111. These individuals rely on the taxpayers to pay for their food while they spend their own money on cigarettes.

The federal government should establish work requirements similar to Maine’s for the 4.7 million able-bodied adults without dependents currently receiving food stamps nationwide.

* AGAIN... FOLKS... THIS IS HERITAGE. THIS IS HERITAGE CALLING FOR TOP-DOWN FAUX "REFORM" INSTEAD OF CALLING FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO SIMPLY GET OUT OF THE "BUSINESS" OF INCOME REDISTRIBUTION!

* WE... ARE... SO... SCREWED...

Some may argue that individual state governments, and not the federal government, should choose whether to require work in the food stamp program.

* I ARGUE THAT IT SHOULD BE TOTALLY (100%) A STATE ISSUE WITH NO FEDERAL FUNDING WHATSOEVER!

But over 90% of food stamp funding comes from the federal government. Since the federal government pays for nearly the entire food stamp program, it has the obligation to establish the principles on which the program operates.

* SEE WHAT I MEAN, FOLKS? INSTEAD OF CALLING FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOT TO FUND 90% OF FOOD STAMPS NATIONWIDE THESE IDIOTS AT HERITAGE (SUPPOSEDLY THE "CONSERVATIVE" THINK TANK) SURRENDER TO THE CONCEPT OF TOP-DOWN BIG (BIGGEST!) GOVERNMENT INCOME REDISTRIBUTION. FRANKLY... I FIND IT SICKENING.