I looked, and there before me was a black horse!

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "Six cents a meal! Six cents a meal! and do not damage the pot and the Cheetos!"

Liberal_in_LA (30,748 posts)

$20 less for food each month
   
 http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Food-stamp-cuts-take-effect-hurting-families-4948219.php

Food stamp cuts take effect, hurting families

One less bowl of cereal a week for his boy, one less sandwich a week for himself. That's what Friday's cut to national food stamp allotments means to Lionel Hill, but the math equation for lost meals is bound to get worse in the coming months.

Hill, 57, and others who need the government aid to eat have no hope of getting their lost benefits back, considering the only debate in Congress over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - food stamps - is how much further to slash it. That makes the situation both personal and worrisome in his household.

"Food stamps mean a lot to me," said the retired elections worker, who lives in San Francisco with extended family and is attending community college to retool his job skills. "I'm raising my 7-year-old nephew, and with food stamps I can concentrate more on paying rent, gas, bus fare, utilities.

"Without them, something has to give. And it won't be good."

Hill already buys mainly the cheapest generic brands. He picks up weekly groceries at his local food bank, where he also volunteers.

4 to 6 fewer meals
Friday's cuts mean he will receive $20 less each month in food stamps than the $200 he's been getting for the past two years. That translates to four to six lost meals a month.

"I understand these cuts have to do with politics, but here on the local level, in my house, it hurts," Hill said. "Every dollar counts."

MannyGoldstein (23,669 posts)

2. Something to be proud of!
 
If you're a sociopath.

Enough!

TxDemChem (833 posts)

4. I feel for all families who need help right now.
 
Playing politics may be fun for those in office, but for the rest of us, it really hits home. It breaks my heart to know that people are struggling and trying to do what's right while certain members of our government take every chance they're given to kick these people back down. Absolutely horrible.

Hubert Flottz (37,207 posts)

15. The GOP kills every jobs bill...
 
Exports every American job they can and now this. Do they want to goad the middle class out into the streets in protest for a reason?

hrmjustin (21,961 posts)

6. Heartbreaking and criminal that this was allowed to happened.

DeSwiss (19,623 posts)

9. Or put another way.....
 
...that's the cost of one-quarter of the air-conditioned tents in Afghanistan. 

Yeah. Those ****ing dope-smoking slacker troops.

blkmusclmachine (5,953 posts)

13. Drip, drip, drip. No filet magnon/champagne for them! Golfing's out, too. Better park that Cadillac.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023969667



$20 / 30 days = .66 cents a day

.66 cents a day / 3 meals a day = .22 cents a meal

.22 cents a meal / family of 4 = less than .06 per person

You can't trim a meal's cost by .06 maybe you're so monstrously incompetent you will never be self-sufficient.

If you're one of those people then I am content to see you starve because you're obviously incapable of being worth anything to anyone at any time.



BTW -- obesity remains the #1 health issue among America's poor...

...which is why everyone else's health care costs are skyrocketing.

[ChuckJ]

I would feel a bit more sympathy if

1) I have not personally been suffering since the democrats started helping us in 2007.
2) I did not know so many on the dole who drive newer, more expensive vehicles than I.
3) I did not know so many on the dole who have tattoos, and I’m talking about tattoos done at real shops instead of those home scratchers.
4) I did not know so many on the dole wearing expensive cloths.
5) I did not see so many on the dole spending their days enjoying life instead of looking for a job to get off of the dole.


We have tried to tell you lunatics that when you have more people getting a slice of pie that the slices have to be smaller. Despite this, you have constantly elected and reelected individuals whose policies have clearly been shown to add to the number of people getting a slice of the food stamp pie. In other words, you guys have brought this upon yourself by voting against your own self-interests.

[txradioguy]

A family of four on food stamps gets per month than I do feeding a family of five on my separate rations pay.

And even with the minuscule cut that Food Stamps is about to get...it will still be more.

If you can't feed a family on $1,100 a month in free government money your problems run deeper than needing food stamps.

[Carl]

said the retired elections worker

 

[Dori]

I don't even know what they get per meal in CA.

In 2011, I think it was $1.33.  But that might depend on how much income you get, not sure how it works. 

[JohnnyReb]

I don't even know what they get per meal in CA.

In 2011, I think it was $1.33.  But that might depend on how much income you get, not sure how it works. 

Ask a DUmmie how it works......they may have dropped out of school but they have a PhD in "How To Get Freebies".

[Freeper]

Considering those of us who work for a living and buy our own food just had our pay slashed back in January due to the "payroll taxes" returning to their normal level, I don't have any tears for people on food stamps having their food stamps returned to the normal level as well. In addition if you consider the fact that premiums for health insurance are going up for a lot of working people and the DUmmies tell them to budget their money, how about we tell the poor the same thing, just budget your food stamps better. If it's good enough for us it's good enough for them. Just consider this the shared sacrifice that 0bama loves to yammer about, and yes I know he really means that the middle class and rich.

[obumazombie]

Don't work for your freebies. Make your freebies work for you. Enslave your freebies, before they enslave you !

[jukin]

I pointed this out elsewhere but each kid gets at least two meals a day at school, breakfast and lunch. Some places they get dinner too. That's 10 meals/kid/week. All of the freebies add up to making about $57,000 for a family of four in the real world. No I don't feel sorry for them losing $20/month. Might cut into the high end Nike budget. 

[BannedFromDU]

     I thought this thread was about someone meeting Michelle 0bama.

[dane]

A family of four on food stamps gets per month than I do feeding a family of five on my separate rations pay.

IIRC, the separate rations amount is a substitute for the amount of food the service member would be consuming in the base dining facility, and is not intended to pay for the food for the entire family - only for that of the service member him/herself.

And there's this
http://www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/allowances/basic-allowance-for-subsistence.html

2013 BAS Rates:
 
Because service members are assigned to a variety of situations, some of which either mandate or prevent obtaining meals from a government facility. Due to a rise in food prices in 2012, BAS has increased for 2013.
 
Enlisted: $352.27 a month

Officers: $242.60 a month

[obumazombie]

     I thought this thread was about someone meeting Michelle 0bama.

A compliment to all wookieyetis

[Tess Anderson]

The increase in the food stamp allotment to supposedly "stiimulate the economy" expired, that is all. Something for them to talk about other than that disaster called Obamacare.

[Mike220]

Racist. Why does the horse have to be black?

[Bad Dog]

The increase in the food stamp allotment to supposedly "stiimulate the economy" expired, that is all. Something for them to talk about other than that disaster called Obamacare.

Yeah, you'll be talking out of the other side of your rich bastid mouth when you lose all your ill gotten money in the stock market crash caused by this blow to the economy.  DU mode off.

[JGHB]

I grew up in a four room farmhouse with no indoor plumbing.  We had a outhouse and a cistern, meaning all the water we had was rainwater.

We were poor, but I didn't know it at the time.  I thought poor people slept on sidewalks and had no food.  We didn't have much, but we always had plenty of food.  I can only conclude that my Mother was a magician.  She would go to the grocery store and spend around $15 and made everything from scratch.  Her kids grew like weeds.

My community was made up of Christian Conservatives (aka bitter clingers...in liberal speak, mean hateful bigots)

One of our neighbors lost their home and everything they had in a fire.  They had no money and no insurance.  You know what that community of mean hateful rednecks did?  Everyone came together and built that family a new house, better than the one they lost.  (Think Extreme Home Makeover)   Some donated labor, my Dad donated lumber from our woods.

Nobody I knew received government assistance.  Nobody I knew wanted it.  We did the best we could and took care of each other...government not needed.

[landofconfusion80]

On occasion, some primitive will post something about their concerns on world population numbers and how we're losing our resources at some ungodly pace.  Seems like cutting back the food stamps would curb the growth and help those resources all at the same time.  Why don't they ever put two and two together?  Save the world! Starve a poor person!

[obumazombie]

I've never met a lib who couldn't afford to miss a few meals.

[Celtic Rose]

Rice, beans and spices makes up the majority of the food eaten by the poor in other countries.  Only in the US can the poor complain about not getting enough free food while being hugely overweight. 

[BlueStateSaint]

I grew up in a four room farmhouse with no indoor plumbing.  We had a outhouse and a cistern, meaning all the water we had was rainwater.

We were poor, but I didn't know it at the time.  I thought poor people slept on sidewalks and had no food.  We didn't have much, but we always had plenty of food.  I can only conclude that my Mother was a magician.  She would go to the grocery store and spend around $15 and made everything from scratch.  Her kids grew like weeds.

My community was made up of Christian Conservatives (aka bitter clingers...in liberal speak, mean hateful bigots)

One of our neighbors lost their home and everything they had in a fire.  They had no money and no insurance.  You know what that community of mean hateful rednecks did?  Everyone came together and built that family a new house, better than the one they lost.  (Think Extreme Home Makeover)   Some donated labor, my Dad donated lumber from our woods.

Nobody I knew received government assistance.  Nobody I knew wanted it.  We did the best we could and took care of each other...government not needed.

H5 for the way things ought to be.

CR, ain't that the truth.  About 10 to 15 years ago, I was at St. Mary's in Albany for noontime Mass, and there was a 'homeless person' in there before Mass, agitating the attendees.  This church is right next to the NYS Court of Appeals building in Albany, and is attended by a lot of power brokers in Albany.  Here she was, calling me an 'asshole' for starting a prayer before Mass, and generally making an ass of herself with ranting, and she was about 6'3" and looked as if she hadn't missed a meal in months.  Father Siniskey (God Bless his soul--he was a tough confessor!) very gently took charge of the situation and calmed her down, and ushered her out of the back of the church.

Father Siniskey died in 2006.  I miss him.  He was tough--but at the same time, he had a really good, sarcastic sense of humor.  He was a riot.  I made sure that he was invited to our wedding, and my parents pretty much demanded that he sit at their table.

Sorry for the thread hijack.

[whiffleball]

Rice, beans and spices makes up the majority of the food eaten by the poor in other countries.  Only in the US can the poor complain about not getting enough free food while being hugely overweight. 

I saw it all when I saw a morbidly obese EBT family with a cart containing mostly soda, chips, steaks, syrup and several packs of frozen PB&J on white bread and frozen pancakes.  Frozen PB&J and pancakes!  How much effort does it take to make a PB&J or a pancake for that matter? 

[BlueStateSaint]

I saw it all when I saw a morbidly obese EBT family with a cart containing mostly soda, chips, steaks, syrup and several packs of frozen PB&J on white bread and frozen pancakes.  Frozen PB&J and pancakes!  How much effort does it take to make a PB&J or a pancake for that matter?  

My wife buys frozen pancakes to feed The Heiress on school days.  It's a big time-saver, when you're rushing around at 0-dark-30.

[vesta111]

Before the days of LBJ I remember a neighbor that fed her kids ketchup on bread twice a day.   No food stamps or welfare back then that I know of.   

Men came home from work expecting a meal on the table, kids to have hands and face washed, and home to be swept clean.

This was life back then before the food stamp thing went into law.   Family's held on together for their own and children's sake, somehow they made it, kids got jobs delivering the papers or cleaning up yards and they turned the money over to their parents to pull their weight.

We kids did get school lunch but we had to pay for it, those too poor to afford it had to bring a bag lunch or go hungry.

At that time the schools paid for our books and papers, we carried a pencil box and for the kids that could not afford to buy one, they made their own out of cardboard and school glue.

Later when the LBJ welfare state took over, life for so many went to hell.     

[Gina]

See if I was overweight and poor I would take this as an opportunity to lose those pounds that plagued me.  Gotta think of the silver lining in everything people!

[Karin]

...just had our pay slashed back in January due to the "payroll taxes" returning to their normal level, I don't have any tears for people on food stamps having their food stamps returned to the normal level as well.

Exactly, Freeper!  I heard some bit on the radio, a woman with a family of 3 was going to have to go from $800 a month to $700.  I couldn't believe it!  If they were trying to make that a sob story, it didn't work. 

"Retired elections worker," what is that?  They're all volunteers here, little old retired ladies themselves.  Take the job seriously, too.