Read about it here. Did you know that food stamps are budgeted under the USDA, the Department of Agriculture? Thus $73 billion of the ag budget goes to this program, feeding 40 million people per year....
The much-reviled subsidies that are actually paid to farmers are estimated by one source to total between $10 and $30 billion annually depending on disaster payments.
Business Week said that last year (2009) it was $15.4 billion.
Nuff said.
I guess what gets me is now they can buy liquor and DVD's, video games etc with their food stamps... At least here anyway.
ReplyDeletethey can't buy that stuff in nys..but you should see what they can buy...seafood galore, thanks to food stamps, many holiday clam bakes and lobster will be consumed, at halloween they purchase MEGA amounts of candy for the trick or treaters, soda...and they don't have to pay the bottle deposit or tax..but boy do they know how to return them for the nickel!!!! very aggravating!!!
ReplyDeleteIIRC, the whole mess was bundled together so that the inner city politicians would support the farm bill every year.
ReplyDeleteSara, they are restricted more than there here, but it still gravels me to stand in line behind people who are dressed much better than I, with a better car etc and watch them spend hundreds of dollars on expensive things that would be unimaginable luxuries to my hard-working family. I probably shouldn't feel that way but....
ReplyDeleteAnon, gets my goat for sure. We see the same exact thing every time we go to the grocery store.
Jeffro, yeah, that makes sense at a governmental sort of level. It gets to me when I hear the USDA budget numbers quoted and know who gets most of the money.