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ARGH.

Posted by CherryBlossom 
ARGH.
February 12, 2009
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090212/ap_on_go_co/stimulus_poor

Food stamps, tax breaks for poor in stimulus bill

WASHINGTON – More than 37 million Americans live in poverty, and the vast majority of them are in line for extra help under the giant stimulus package coming out of Congress. Millions more could be kept from slipping into poverty by the economic lifeline.

People who get food stamps — 30 million and growing — will get more. People drawing unemployment checks — 4.8 million and growing — would get an extra $25, and keep those checks coming longer. People who get Supplemental Security Income — 7 million poor Americans who are elderly, blind or disabled — would get one-time extra payments of $250.

Many low-income Americans also are likely to benefit from a trifecta of tax credits: expansions to the existing Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, and a new refundable tax credit for workers. Taken together, the three credits are expected to keep more than 2 million Americans from falling into poverty, including more than 800,000 children, according to the private Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The package also includes $3 billion emergency fund to provide temporary assistance to needy families.

There are other, more indirect ways that the stimulus package is likely to benefit poor people.

For example, cash-strapped states will get an infusion of $87 billion for Medicaid, the government health program for poor people (mostly, BREEDERS), and that should help them avoid cutting off benefits to the needy. In addition, more federal dollars will flow to high-poverty areas for education programs and preventing homelessness.

Advocates for the poor say that directing stimulus money to the neediest Americans makes sense because they're the most likely to put cash back into the economy quickly.

"Poor people just spend money faster, because they're really living at the edge," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at the private Center for Law and Social Policy.

Sharon Parrott, a senior analyst at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said that while the benefits provided under the stimulus program are short-term, they could have a lasting impact on families by helping them maintain stable housing and avoiding disruptions in schooling.

Opponents of the stimulus bill are skeptical that the expanded benefits will ever be allowed to expire, and question whether they're warranted in the first place.

"This is the largest expansion of welfare in the history of the country," said Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "It's all in the form of one-way handouts."

The plan does, however, have some steps to get people back to work.

For example, a program set to expire in June lets people keep their Medicaid coverage for up to a year when they leave welfare for a job. The stimulus package keeps that program alive until the end of next year.



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Re: ARGH.
February 13, 2009
i have just had a mental flash.

all these food stamps, are to be used by people. now keep that thought in your mind, and think about all the food hysteria, eating too much, this type of food is bad for you etc

put them together, could one day everyone who wanted to eat be given one of these food cards with the "proper" nutrition. and you can only eat x amount per day. essentially a state run food stall.

no one would be fat, everyone would eat the same food, everyone would be healthy. the stamp/voucher system could be just a little step into that system.

(worse case i know but frequently the worse i can imagine isnt a worse as the world really gets)

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein
Re: ARGH.
February 13, 2009
What to do, what to do.......

I am actually asking for financial aid for my MBA courses. Why shouldn't I? I'm supporting MILLIONS.
Re: ARGH.
February 13, 2009
My fiance's getting financial aid to go to college (because you can't have a halfway decent life these days without a college education). He doesn't make a lot of money, and that's the only help he can get. Maybe things would be different we popped out a few kids? Duh with bratsd
Re: ARGH.
February 14, 2009
Fortunately for me (and for everyone else,too), you couldn't pay me enough to have even one kid.
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