prices have sky rocketed and people are hurting… your arguments don’t hold up…yet you keep making the same argument using the same fallacies.

The news is doing a fine job of downplaying food prices and the problems they’re causing and I’m sure they’ll continue to try when a dem is in (although it’s growing pretty damn fast and the results of it will make it pretty tough to ignore).

Your dem vs repub stuff is silly to use on me

What if I were 18? See what I said to hp and if you still don’t get it, remember me the next time you drink from the well with an elder of yours who is full of baloney

And if crowds rushed the doors, “fights broke out” 34 squad cars on the scene, those were the “cons and idiots,” as you call them.

Say what you will but the US still has a safety net that works 99% of the time for those that can access it, and improved outreach is reaching more people.

This type of reporting is bulshit hype, “food riots” American style – as soon as a democrat is installed this sort of news disappears. God, how old are you Hue? 18?

And just how the hell would you know anything about that, Hue?.

I can find a biased sample to prove most anything if the biased sample were accepted by those I were pitching it to. Using a biased sample to disprove should be easier to spot…You are implying that large increases to food prices are not causing a crisis for certain people because these certain people are the same as the cons and idiots from your examples.

It’s a terrible effort and attempts to ignore simple math.

Your sample aside, do you honestly believe there is no one out there playing it by evie’s rules who can no longer afford to put food on their table? Who were not already eating left overs and scraps? Do you sell this line to the people at your soup kitchen? What an F’n nightmare to be hungry and judged by the woman feeding you

When we the people imitate the corruption at the top – what’s the difference. It breeds the “I got mine” mentality, regardless the dollar amount, it has the same socially corrupting effect. We’ve become a nation of thieves and cheats.

Maybe I’ve been around too long as I’ve seen a correlation between the growth of “social programs” and hustlers. The rich hustle programs to get richer and the rest hustle for nickles and dimes – and everyone justifies their own hustling.

According to the fns.usd the foodstamp rate has increased 2 percent per year every year since 2002 (before current gas and food prices). I didn’t see the 2007-2008 stats. The site also claims outreach programs since 2002 have reached more people, as I said, and that states have reduced the information the recipient has to report to maintain eligibility (which invites fraud). It also says more of the elderly on SS are receiving benefits, understandable as they live on fixed incomes.

I will claim too many folks spend what they have on “wants” instead of needs, and expect the government to feed them. And a dependent population will never change the government that subsidizes their lives at poverty level.

If folks were truly desperate in the US there would be revolution. Big Daddy guv and a “caring left” will make sure dumbed-down dysfunctional Joe Fat never gets that “desperate.”

it’s a one year increase…why are you muddying it with presidents? This author’s argument is at least supported. I think it’s weird that you are claiming high food and fuel prices have nothing to do with more people asking for assistance

Your son is right and I don’t disagree with the honor part…I don’t honor him for it, but millions and millions of welfare hating US citz do

Are the numbers up b/c the hated BushCo programs have reached more who are eligible? There are more outreach programs now to sign up those eligible for assistance.

Folks pulling their scams on uncle Sam – I’m amazed how many are doing it while feeling no guilt about taking from folks who are needy or would use it the way it was meant to be used. Abuse and fraud is shitty – whether coming from the top or the bottom.

I see your disgust at subsidizing the troops – my oldest once said the military is just welfare with honor, although you would probably argue the honor part.

Overweight and obesity in the US is the real “food crisis.”

It could have been a biased sample were it not to include the following,

“The number of families forced to rely on food stamp assistance has also shot up. In March, some 27.9 million Americans received food stamps — up 1.5 million, or 5.7 percent, from a year earlier. Nearly half of households receiving food stamp benefits have one or more working adults”.

Your biased samples do not address this…why are the numbers of rebate check squanderers, hillbilly heroine junkies, and food stamp hustlers up 5.7 percent over last year?

Regarding bootstraps…

I’d much rather taxes went to subsidizing food to your real or imaginary friends whom you find so disgusting, than to paying military salaries, military medical, military housing and military rations. Good for your soup kitchen, but how many bowls did tax payers buy your military kids?

Shall I tell you how part of the food lines at the moment are not from poverty and food crisis but rather misspent money? Perhaps some of those 2500 in Milwaukee fall into this category.

Here’s how it works in my ‘hood. The first week we moved in, years ago, I turned down 3 offers to buy food stamps at 50 cents on the dollar. I still get the occasional knock on the door with that sales pitch.

This past month I have listened to Latoya cry b/c she is 3 months behind on rent and with a bare cupboard, but has a new big screen tv and a trip to the boats (casinos on the Mississippi) thanks to her stimulus check.

Kristee and Mike 33 y/o still living at home with mom and dad used their stimulus for an $800 prom dress their 15 y/o daughter will wear once, they just never seem to have any extra money to put away.

I have heard Laquisha complain this week about her rent going up from $20 a month (section 8) to $60 because she is working a few hours now; she sells her stamps at $70 for $100.

They all try to sell me bulk cheese, dried beans, and canned meat they receive from the local food bank.

Then there’s Trey who used his wife’s last 2 paychecks for auto repairs b/c he needs his truck to look for a job (he’s been unemployed for 7 years, his wife walks to work even when the truck is running).

And there’s Sue asking for gas money every other week as she struggles to hold her household together with her prescription junkie 30-something y/o son and his second wife and 5 kids in a blended family – Sue the only one working while son and girlfriend spend their puny disability checks (bad back and carpal tunnel) buying things they “want” and/or scoring extra OxyContin on the street; they offer their foodstamps too at 50 cents on the dollar, unless momma Sue can get to the store first.

When these folks hear the words, in any combination, free and government and vouchers in the same sentence, they are the first in line. They’re not truly hungry – they are greedy and dysfunctional and those around them suffer regardless how much “assistance” you, me, or the government give them. Thankfully none of these folks come to our free kitchen, they claim they’re not that poor, but truth is it’s b/c they can’t resell and make a few bucks on the meals we provide.

I’m not worried yet about a crisis or famine in the US. I believe in helping those who need a handup, not a lifetime of handouts and I expect a lot of folks are the latter.