23,116,928 to 20,618,000: Households on Food Stamps.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

It is merely a statistic that dispels the lie of the "Obama recovery". There was never any real recovery from the crash in 2007. It's all been a bunch of economic jiggery-pokery. The stimulus, quantitative easing, spending bills, and every single bloody thing Obama has done has not increased real wealth or prosperity in the nation by one iota.

It has made the people that could make more jobs richer. If you want people off food stamps, you need some form of bottom limit to wages. Let each state set a minimum wage, which has to be at least the amount of money required to feed, house, insure (property and health) and clothe oneself in a month in that state (one amount might have a lot of buying power out in the sticks, but in LA or NYC it wouldn't even get you a 1 room apartment).

The sad reality is that for all of Obama's trillions in spending, he's created very few jobs. I'm talking REAL jobs, not the part time, low-wage junk jobs that his spin-monkeys in the media and elsewhere constantly cite. Obama claims to have created 2.X million jobs, but big whoop when like 90% of those jobs are working minimum wage at Wal-Mart. Meanwhile several million workers have just plain left the workforce altogether so that real employment in the nation is at an historic low - and what jobs are being created are total loser jobs compared to what has been lost.

Then legislate against that kind of employment. You know, the government could govern. Do its job for once and not be the lapdog of the super-rich.

And above all else, repeal the nightmare that is Obamacare

Yes, repeal Obamacare and implement a real national health insurance that cannot turn people down, that cannot stop payments because a customer is getting too expensive and does not need to turn a profit because it is not a business. Say 5% of your monthly wage (gross income) went to the national health insurance, and for that you got full coverage with no down-payments by the patient. Socialize that medicine.

[Rukentuts]

Maybe Republicans should work on the income disparity instead of taking it in the ass from the rich.

[Masark]

Yes, repeal Obamacare and implement a real national health insurance that cannot turn people down, that cannot stop payments because a customer is getting too expensive and does not need to turn a profit because it is not a business. Say 5% of your monthly wage (gross income) went to the national health insurance, and for that you got full coverage with no down-payments by the patient. Socialize that medicine.

Or sane-ify medicare and lower the eligibility age to 0 and leave taxes where they are. Seriously, you spend as much per capita on medicare as Canada runs out entire damn system on.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Maybe Republicans should work on the income disparity instead of taking it in the ass from the rich.

They do work on the income disparity. They have been successfully widening it for the last few decades.

[Masark]

Maybe Republicans should work on the income disparity instead of taking it in the ass from the rich.

What exactly implies the Republicans are "taking it in the ass from the rich"? It looks more like mutual masturbation from my point of view.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

What exactly implies the Republicans are "taking it in the ass from the rich"? It looks more like mutual masturbation from my point of view.

And the democrats are just as bad.

[Spectral]

SNAP isn't about not starving to death though. Its essentially targeted income supplementation.

I'm fine with that, but it doesn't match the rhetoric in Congressional "debates". I don't need to be sold on income redistribution as a reasonable part of government scope, I simply dislike the disingenuous arguments I hear from Congressional Democrats.

[Leonidas]

Low income is hasn't been enough to cover basic living necessities for a few years now, I don't understand the surprised reaction.

[Rukentuts]

And the democrats are just as bad.

I was referring to policy and not campaign finance.

[chrisberb]

Low income is hasn't been enough to cover basic living necessities for a few years now, I don't understand the surprised reaction.

I guess some people ignore or don't realize that even full time workers may not make enough to make ends meet*. Which is really a damn shame.

[Spectral]

Low income is hasn't been enough to cover basic living necessities for a few years now...

Even minimum wage is actually livable for a couple without kids. Most people make at least a shade above minimum wage; at $8/hour, that's ~$16K per person, per year. For an individual, it'll be pretty tight. Having kids that one can't afford will, of course, throw that wildly out of whack.

- - - Updated - - -

I guess some people ignore or don't realize that even full time workers can and do fall under the poverty line.

It is impossible for a full-time worker without children to fall under the technical definition of the poverty line (although I'd surely consider someone making minimum wage "poor" in common usage of the term).

[Xenofreak]

Low income is hasn't been enough to cover basic living necessities for a few years now, I don't understand the surprised reaction.

Actually it is in most places, assuming you get 40 hours a week. The problem is, many don't get 40 hours. The thing you have to realize about that, though, is that upping them to 40 hours won't have any real change in the amount of welfare spending because as more people get a full 40 instead of 30 or whatever they get now, less people are employed as places require less people to run them. So now, instead of just helping a bunch of people working 30 hours, you've got some you aren't helping anymore and others that are entirely reliant on you because they no longer have a job.

[chrisberb]

Even minimum wage is actually livable for a couple without kids. Most people make at least a shade above minimum wage; at $8/hour, that's ~$16K per person, per year. For an individual, it'll be pretty tight. Having kids that one can't afford will, of course, throw that wildly out of whack.

- - - Updated - - -



It is impossible for a full-time worker without children to fall under the technical definition of the poverty line (although I'd surely consider someone making minimum wage "poor" in common usage of the term).

Yeah I realized after googling poverty line that my use of the term was incorrect.

[Raintola]

Don't worry people, Obama just needs to raise taxes to 150% on the rich (Police, Unions, Congressman and anyone in the Government is exempt from this) and print up another $40 trillion dollars to support everyone. Money doesn't grow on trees you know!

Well technically it does....being part paper and all!

[Themius]

Even minimum wage is actually livable for a couple without kids. Most people make at least a shade above minimum wage; at $8/hour, that's ~$16K per person, per year. For an individual, it'll be pretty tight. Having kids that one can't afford will, of course, throw that wildly out of whack.

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It is impossible for a full-time worker without children to fall under the technical definition of the poverty line (although I'd surely consider someone making minimum wage "poor" in common usage of the term).

Slightly above minimum wage is about 800-900 a month. Add in rent (500-600 though I can't imagine that here, even for a share) and gas to get to and from work + food and minimum wage (or rahter just above) isn't livable.

[Rukentuts]

Slightly above minimum wage is about 800-900 a month. Add in rent (500-600 though I can't imagine that here, even for a share) and gas to get to and from work + food and minimum wage (or rahter just above) isn't livable.

And anyone who says it can be is a college-aged person with no obligations. And newsflash to those people: you won't be forever.

[Themius]

And anyone who says it can be is a college-aged person with no obligations. And newsflash to those people: you won't be forever.

Making that little you have to live with someone. My friend who makes 25 cents or so above minimum wage lived with her brother for a while and just finally moved in with her boyfriend so they split the cost of rent so she's paying only $300 but that still is quite a bit on top of car payment, school loan payment, and gas.

[The Riddler]

I donno about that

I do.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3788365.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/...ull-time-jobs/
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/...GgP/story.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...-jobs/2613483/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-0...-are-part-time
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...028432984.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapoth...t-time-nation/

And a dozen others. Needless to say, one article on the questionably biased Politifact citing OBAMA'S economic adviser does not in any way disprove the fact that the bulk of Obama's 'jobs' are just part time junk jobs. Krueger is Obama's shill, of course he's going to spin (lie) in order to deny the facts.

[Rukentuts]

Making that little you have to live with someone. My friend who makes 25 cents or so above minimum wage lived with her brother for a while and just finally moved in with her boyfriend so they split the cost of rent so she's paying only $300 but that still is quite a bit on top of car payment, school loan payment, and gas.

On the coasts probably, in the Midwest naw. My SO does it.

[chrisberb]

Making that little you have to live with someone. My friend who makes 25 cents or so above minimum wage lived with her brother for a while and just finally moved in with her boyfriend so they split the cost of rent so she's paying only $300 but that still is quite a bit on top of car payment, school loan payment, and gas.

Kinda sad that in NJ, one of the states with the highest median household income, we still have the federal minimum wage..and like you posted earlier, good luck living anywhere on your own while having a job that pays at or around minimum wage, unless possibly if you live in the country known as South Jersey lol. I'm in central NJ and the crappy apartments up the road are 900$ a month for a 1br.