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Sunday, November 07, 2010

Food stamp reliance in Minnesota soars. Government intervention is needed to keep people fed. The total truth about the depression the Republicans deliberately precipitated at the tail end of the Bush eight years. And this last election, Republicans were elected in droves because they lied well.


Strib reports on Food Stamp reliance in Minnesota, this link.

Numbers on food stamps are soaring in Minnesota
More people get food-stamp assistance than live in all of Minneapolis - a record high.
By JEREMY OLSON, Star Tribune update: November 6, 2010 - 11:52 PM


The number of Minnesotans receiving food stamp subsidies has soared to an all-time high, a sign that many families are facing continued hardship despite signs of economic recovery.

State figures rose from 381,000 recipients in September 2009 to 444,000 last month -- a total that surpasses the entire population of Minneapolis.

The numbers are expected to rise even higher due to federal changes that, as of last week, raised the income threshold for eligibility and waived an asset test.

While need has increased for most of the last decade, the latest spike shows that people have exhausted other options during their struggle to find work, Becky Lentz of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis said.

"People wait and wait and wait," she said. "The desolation of people when they finally sign up is mind-boggling."

Strib's reporting continues from that beginning, so please read it all.

The rest of the Crabgrass hadline falls into place from there. Now, after the election, Bernanke and cohorts in the Fed will be buying treasury bonds to increase the money supply, to lessen the pain. At least Minnesota has the Dayton victory to prevent utter destruction. How would those relying on food stamps to stay fed fare, had Emmer won?

Go figure.

And folks, this link Is a reminder that we in Minnesota are not alone. All around the US of A, decent honest working people have been beggared. It is a nationwide situation of plunging of people into poverty and dependence instead of freedom and independence, those laudatory goals to which the bosses give extreme lip service and feigned deference. As Olson of Strib reported it, the quote, "People wait and wait and wait," she said. "The desolation of people when they finally sign up is mind-boggling." It is mom and pop, and the folks down the street. It is a first step in demoralization and the denial of decent single payer healthcare and the upcoming GOP killing of Social Security as we know it. Food stamp statistics are but harbingers of greater and greater destitution inflicted on us by the self-indulgent overly wealthy regional bosses and the DC mix of bought and paid for lobbyists along with their bought minions placed in the Capitol.

Mark Dayton left after a single term, calling it a cesspool, and he was one hundred percent spot-on and until voices of truth are recognized and heeded, no change will happen except more of the same but getting worse.

It is GOP. It is immoral. Yet it presents the opportunity for long-term housecleaning and reform. First, the Democratic Party needs to retool, or stay irrelevant and part of the problem instead of a part of any solution. It is up to them to present an agenda of care, and of prosperity for everyone, even if the fat cats running things might need to thin down somewhat.

Do it, or regret not reforming the broken system we now have in place. The system of Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito. The system of Bush, Cheney, and the Clintons. CLEAN HOUSE.