WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the first time, more than 34 million Americans received food stamps in May, the government said on Thursday, another symptom of the longest and one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression.
Enrollment surged by 2 percent to reach a record 34.4 million people, or one in nine Americans, in the latest month for which figures are available.
It was the sixth month in a row that enrollment set a record. Every state recorded a gain, and Florida had the largest increase at 4.2 percent.
Enrollment for food stamps, which help people buy groceries, is highest during times of economic stress. The U.S. unemployment rate of 9.5 percent is the highest in 26 years.
"Food stamp enrollment is rising because the economy is having a devastating impact on low-income families and they need this program to eat," said Stacy Dean of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank. "Every single state has been affected."
Amid new calls to DOUBLE the troops in Afghanistan/Graveyard of Empires
Anthrax Intimidation.
JFK RFK MLK & Malcolm.
Whistleblower leaks multiply.
Beware the divide and conquer.
Both parties are corrupt to the core.
Honesty compassion conscience guts.
Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil?
Elite Ruling Class Greed or "public servants"?
Independents agree on more than we disagree.
AIPAC 9/11 Bankers, Extortion Blackmail Bribery.
Wall Street Bailout Bill: Bush McCain Obama et al.
Poodles, Puppets, Sham debates, & Scam elections.
Has the Government & Propaganda Media lied to you?
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Chronic lying as career path, intellectual prostitution for paycheck.
DNC & RNC have both sold out the country in order to enrich themselves.
Future of a Nation that can not trust the Government & Propaganda Media?
Realignment of American Politics:
Anderson Baldwin Carter Choate Clemente Gonzalez Gravel Kaptur Kucinich McKinney Nader Paul Perot Sheehan Ventura
How much more evidence do we need to see that we're in a near-Depression type national economic situation?
In some ways, such as the stimulus bill, Obama has addressed the problems we face, while on others, like complete and systematic reform of the banking system, he's been Clinton II. It's better than a wash, but only by a little. Eventually things will turn around, but he and the dizzy, still-scared Democrats (especially Harry Reid and the Senate gang) could have turned things around a lot more quickly had they not been under Washington consensus (nonsense) bipartisan sway. But as with Clinton, things will improve, Obama will get some credit, and we'll probably end up with people forgetting quickly how we got where we were, only to elect another GOP wacko who destroys everything he or she touches. Remember, George H.W. Bush should have warned everyone everywhere about how awful the Bush family was, yet millions got more distracted by consensual blowjobs than by the damage the GOP Congresses were trying to enact from 1994 forward....
Today from the GOP side we hear nothing that could have pulled this country out of the mess we face. We would have gotten Hoover II, which is to say, a disaster far worse than we ever imagined, had McCain and Palin gotten into office. We still get zero beyond cold and rotten ideoogical BS, on every single issue, from this party. It's a tragedy that the GOP even still exists at all, it's so intellectually bankrupt.
The worst tragedy, however, is our blinkered, corporate media, who are still refereeing as if the GOP ought to be taken seriously. They are the ones who refuse to address the grave national crisis we faced and are still facing. They can't even discuss the "Cash for Clunkers" program, a basic stimulus effort that has succeeded, without falling into clichés and RNC talking points. We need a real liberal party, a real conservative party (and not the Trojan Horse Whig-GOP), and we need most of all A REAL MEDIA, comprising journalists who know what the hell they're doing and who aren't trying to be multimillionaire airhead celebrities.
And yet the government is steal dragging their feet on reform with anything regarding poverty while spending billions of dollars on god knows what.
"How much more evidence do we need to see that we're in a near-Depression type national economic situation?" - People eating lard sandwiches, living in tin shack shanty towns, going years without shoes. Things like that.
"The worst tragedy, however, is our blinkered, corporate media, who are still refereeing as if the GOP ought to be taken seriously. " - The worst tragedy is the continuance of endless agression in the middle east through the last six presidencies. January 17, 1991 was a long time ago, and both sides of the aisle made the war happen and nothing has changed.
The Worst is only yet to come. Remembe,r that Propagandized War on Terror is being fought on Credit.
The Vietnam War was fought on Credit. The Bill came in under The Carter Admin. along with the high interest rates and inflation. The Iraq/Afganistan Wars are being fought on Credit.
How long do you think before that tab comes in that we'll be hit with inflation. Coupled with the unemployment, and we've got ourselves a depression.
Remember, it took'em a whole year to tell us we were in a Recession. "Cash For Clunkers" my ass. They want you in DEBT. They need you in DEBT!
There're hoarding the CASH people. The Banks are only lending to themselves. The moment they lend to us BAM Interest Rates and inflation.
[...] } While Mandy and his rich prick friends have a good time 34 Million people in the US are on food stamps. [...]