How about getting rid of ethanol subsidies?

The food stamp program is horribly bloated. People are selling their over-prescribed food stamps.

It makes people who are scrounging to pay for groceries despondent to know that people who have managed to get $800 per month tax free in food stamps are making $9600 more per year than they are TAX FREE. It´s rampant with abuse.

Someone I know who has been unemployed or underemployed for the last five years, with a spouse who is a bedridden quadriplegic, mentioned to me that the amount of food stamps they get is generous. After reluctantly applying for food stamps, they find they can´t possibly spend as much as their allotted amount, unless they go heavy on expensive cuts of meat, seafood, etc. As folks who have lived carefully for years, they´re used to cooking from scratch, and eating simple meals.

Remember, not all of the money we spend at the grocery store is for food. Subtract out the paper goods, household cleaners, etc., and then calculate how much your food budget is. Then see how much the government allows for a family of your size--you´ll see it´s more than adequate.

I have been helping people to see if they qualify for Clfresh/Food stamps, online to pre- qualify. Not one person has qualified, not a one. I´m talking folks who are way below the poverty level, due to circumstances beyond their control. Would really like to know what the trick is to get food stamps. are they suppose to lie?

The federal government has and had no constitutional authority to steal money at gunpoint from one citizen and give it to another for charity/welfare/call-it-what-you-will. And now the federal government is broke and maxing out the credit cards. This has to stop and it will not end well no matter what the political weasels do.

#3 is a lib troll. Food stamp fraud is OUT-OF-CONTROL

I used to buy (10 years ago) chocolate bars in Walmart - "Sams" brand. Cheap, but good.

Walmart doesn´t sell stuff like that anymore. They sell mostly premium brand (HIGH GRADE) chocolate. Ghiradelli (spelling?) Godiva, Green and Black, etc. Only the very best for Walmart shoppers. Unfortunately for me, I can´t afford any of this stuff. I am not on FOOD STAMPS!!!

Uh, #4--that´s an interesting constitutional analysis. Of course they do. It´s not good policy but of course it´s legal.

#6 dead wrong. Taxes can be levied for purposes of paying America´s debts, providing for common defense, and for general welfare. As the Founders defined general welfare, food stamps don´t qualify at all. Government theft from the productive for specific welfare is not constitutional.

In Louisiana you basically have to have no income from the private sector at all. Now if you are a single mom with 5 children and dont work you can get the following

600 per month in disablity for each of your 5 children (crazy checks)thats why they act out in school so they can get the "crazy check = 3000 per month

1100 per month becaus you are disabled

200 per month in food stamps for you and your 5 children = 1200 per month.

Free section 8 housing with the electicity included.

So you have 5300 per month in tax free income and no expenses save for the payment on the Escalade.

Multiply this all over the country and you can see that their is going to be a rude awakening.

It´s the usual "threaten to lay off cops and teachers first of all" strategy.

Benefit amounts for food stamps vary widely and wildly. Don´t assume. And some who legitimately qualify for programs are put through the wringer, in spades. They may not all be for honest advocates, but all those late-night cable ads for help in dealing with the VA, etc., hint at the train-wreck that Federal [or state] bureaucracies often are. I don´t know how their employees sleep at night -- they seem to jerk people around just to string things out and charge hours to case after case. Again, the exact opposite of private business practice.

#4 and #7 are correct. #6 ought to provide specific citation. No, "the general welfare" doesn´t authorize anything like food stamps, welfare, education, etc.

#8´s got it right. In lots of states you need to have nothing - then you can get lots of something.

I seem to see some pretty pricey food stuff bought by food stamp users. I don´t often get to buy lobster tails and shrimp NOT using food stamps! What´s up with that?

We spent 76,000,000,000 Dollars in Food Stamps in 2011.

Cut cut, cut all the freeloaders out. These people should be out there working like everybody else. I understand there are 47 million of them, of which 18 million also get Obamaphones, not to mention welfare, disability and lots of other gifts. No need to work.

“everything is on the table”

Let´s correct that to everything within the US being on the table. Foreign aid is never on the table. First on the list is always Medicare, Social Security and the military.

Take the crayons from the elected federal welfare group making decisions.

There are no controls on people receiving food stamps and workman´s comp anymore. In the past if you were on food stamps, after a few months you were called in their office and had to submit your expenses and income to see if you still qualified. Obviously that is not being done. And workmans comp, after picking up your 3rd check, you had to show where you applied for 3-5 jobs during that period. Is that being done? I think now they just mail you your check or charge card. People should have to go stand in line to get their benefits and maybe that would weed out some fraud.

Obviously not enought people are on food stamps if they stand down at the border and sign people up and there are ads on the websites and in newpapers enticing people to sign up. What a government!

#8 - yikes!! I had no idea you could make so much. Makes me wonder why I work so hard and live so carefully.

It better be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!