Atrios cites a rather amazing metric:
Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.
All a bunch of lazy parents and welfare bums, right? Well, every time I hear about food stamps, I think about the first place I ever saw them- standing in line at the commissary on a US Army base:
Military members and their families are using more food stamps than in previous years – redeeming them last year at nearly twice the civilian rate, according to Defense Commissary Agency figures.
The agency reports that more than $31 million worth of food stamps were used at commissaries nationwide in 2008 – an increase of about $6.2 million, or more than 25 percent – from the $24.8 million redeemed in 2007. That contrasts with a 13 percent overall increase in food stamp use by Americans for the same period, according to the Department of Agriculture, which administers the food stamp program.
Meanwhile, Congress is dumping half a billion dollars into a jet fighter engine the Pentagon doesn’t even want.