An Entire Town Is Dependent On Federal Handouts

[red states rule]

Is this what the entire nation will be like one day? This is proof handouts will NEVER pull people out of "poverty" - but a job and a paycheck will





Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle


The economy of Woonsocket was about to stir to life. Delivery trucks were moving down river roads, and stores were extending their hours. The bus company was warning riders to anticipate “heavy traffic.” A community bank, soon to experience a surge in deposits, was rolling a message across its electronic marquee on the night of Feb. 28: “Happy shopping! Enjoy the 1st.”


In the heart of downtown, Miguel Pichardo, 53, watched three trucks jockey for position at the loading dock of his family-run International Meat Market. For most of the month, his business operated as a humble milk-and-eggs corner store, but now 3,000 pounds of product were scheduled for delivery in the next few hours. He wiped the front counter and smoothed the edges of a sign posted near his register. “Yes! We take Food Stamps, SNAP, EBT!”


“Today, we fill the store up with everything,” he said. “Tomorrow, we sell it all.”


At precisely one second after midnight, on March 1, Woonsocket would experience its monthly financial windfall — nearly $2 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Federal money would be electronically transferred to the broke residents of a nearly bankrupt town, where it would flow first into grocery stores and then on to food companies, employees and banks, beginning the monthly cycle that has helped Woonsocket survive.


Three years into an economic recovery, this is the lasting scar of collapse: a federal program that began as a last resort for a few million hungry people has grown into an economic lifeline for entire towns. Spending on SNAP has doubled in the past four years and tripled in the past decade, surpassing $78 billion last year. A record 47 million Americans receive the benefit — including 13,752 in Woonsocket, one-third of the town’s population, where the first of each month now reveals twin shortcomings of the U.S. economy:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/food-stamps-put-rhode-island-town-on-monthly-boom-and-bust-cycle/2013/03/16/08ace07c-8ce1-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html?hpid=z2

[Trigg]

For the past three years, the Ortizes’ lives had unfolded in a series of exhausting, fractional decisions. Was it better to eat the string cheese now or to save it? To buy milk for $3.80 nearby or for $3.10 across town? Was it better to pay down the $600 they owed the landlord, or the $110 they owed for their cellphones, or the $75 they owed the tattoo parlor, or the $840 they owed the electric company?
They had been living together since Rebecka became pregnant during their senior year of high school,


So now they have 2 kids they can't afford and instead of paying their back rent they got cellphones and tattoos instead.

Poor life choices IMHO

[Voted4Reagan]

if parents choose to spend $110 each for their cellphones per month instead of using it to feed their kids they are one thing...

LOUSY PARENTS.

$220 extra a month on Food and clothing for kids pays off the Landlord and buys extra food and other items they NEED.


Typical Liberal entitlement attitude.

Mr. and Mrs Ortiz... WAKE UP... YOU DONT NEED CELL PHONES!!!

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

if parents choose to spend $110 each for their cellphones per month instead of using it to feed their kids they are one thing...

LOUSY PARENTS.

$220 extra a month on Food and clothing for kids pays off the Landlord and buys extra food and other items they NEED.


Typical Liberal entitlement attitude.

Mr. and Mrs Ortiz... WAKE UP... YOU DONT NEED CELL PHONES!!!

Because of the vote buying it represents for the Dem party it went from helping the needy to helping the greedy!--Tyr

[Voted4Reagan]

Woonsocket lost it's textile industry back in the post WWII Years. Now it has a high population of unemployable illegals.



Story is the same all over New England (CT,MA,RI especially)

Too many Illegals soaking up services, raises the taxes , and causes legitimate business to leave .

a vicious cycle.

[aboutime]

if parents choose to spend $110 each for their cellphones per month instead of using it to feed their kids they are one thing...

LOUSY PARENTS.

$220 extra a month on Food and clothing for kids pays off the Landlord and buys extra food and other items they NEED.


Typical Liberal entitlement attitude.

Mr. and Mrs Ortiz... WAKE UP... YOU DONT NEED CELL PHONES!!!

Proves Mr. and Mrs. Ortiz aren't very smart if they didn't get one of those FREE OBAMA CELL PHONES.....you, and I can pay for.

[logroller]

I came in thinking that it would be about Washington DC.

[aboutime]

I came in thinking that it would be about Washington DC.

logroller. If Obama and the Democrats have their way. It will be Washington DC. Looks pretty close to that now.

[Robert A Whit]

logroller. If Obama and the Democrats have their way. It will be Washington DC. Looks pretty close to that now.

See, you are not afraid to talk to logroller. Or Kathianne. i don't know why you claim I make you afraid.

[red states rule]

So now they have 2 kids they can't afford and instead of paying their back rent they got cellphones and tattoos instead.

Poor life choices IMHO

Another poor choice is to suck the kids into a lifetime of dependency and loyal Dem voters. Nothing like passing their stupidity down to the next generation

[red states rule]

I came in thinking that it would be about Washington DC.

LR, Washington DC is the town that promotes the dependency and in the source of the economic misery that country is in.

[Abbey Marie]

So now they have 2 kids they can't afford and instead of paying their back rent they got cellphones and tattoos instead.

Poor life choices IMHO

Government-enabled poor life choices.

[Abbey Marie]

I came in thinking that it would be about Washington DC.


:laugh2:

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Woonsocket lost it's textile industry back in the post WWII Years. Now it has a high population of unemployable illegals.



Story is the same all over New England (CT,MA,RI especially)

Too many Illegals soaking up services, raises the taxes , and causes legitimate business to leave .

a vicious cycle.

^^^^^^^^^ They are just accomplishing the tasks set for them by the Federal government. Why do you think the government keeps the border down there so damn open?? -Tyr

[red states rule]

Government-enabled poor life choices.

Abbey, since I first entered the labor force I have noticed how libs reward poor choices. If you are underage and get pregnant - no problem. Taxpayers will pay for your medical expenses, food and shelter. If you can't get a job - no problem. Taxpayers will pay you not to work. If your kid drops out of school - no problem there are government programs to provided for his/her subsistence. Liberal compassion had locked generations into an endless cycle of poverty and stripped millions of their desire to work and accumulate wealth. But their main goal of getting a voting majority dependent on government handouts has worked and secured their political power for at least 2 more years. And in exchange, the handouts continue and more people are sucked into the cycle of dependency.

[aboutime]

Abbey, since I first entered the labor force I have noticed how libs reward poor choices. If you are underage and get pregnant - no problem. Taxpayers will pay for your medical expenses, food and shelter. If you can't get a job - no problem. Taxpayers will pay you not to work. If your kid drops out of school - no problem there are government programs to provided for his/her subsistence. Liberal compassion had locked generations into an endless cycle of poverty and stripped millions of their desire to work and accumulate wealth. But their main goal of getting a voting majority dependent on government handouts has worked and secured their political power for at least 2 more years. And in exchange, the handouts continue and more people are sucked into the cycle of dependency.


red states rule. The SECRET behind everything you mentioned above...as in 'no problem. The taxpayers will pay' can be founded, and verified in the phony Liberal/Democrat attempts to always use the words CHILDREN, and EDUCATION to gather the bleeding heart squads together...and DONATE more to the Democrats who...REALLY do not want WE THE PEOPLE to become more educated, or more knowledgeable. Despite their Liberal cries for MORE MONEY to solve those problems.
Truth is. Everything you mentioned above could be solved...IF ALL AMERICANS were permitted to honestly receive the KNOWLEDGE, and EDUCATION.
But. If that happens. The Democrats lose their source of BLEEDING HEART support that is always solved (or so they say) with MORE MONEY.

[red states rule]

and only in the Obama nation will you hear liberal reporters sigh over parents having to decide on spending their money on food or tattoos. This is how low Obama and the entitlement policies he is pushing, has taken the nation down