What does a $36 cut in food stamps look like on the kitchen table?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.adn.com/2013/11/01/3153261/what-does-a-36-cut-in-food-stamps.html

What does a $36 cut in food stamps look like on the kitchen table?
By MICHAEL MUSKAL — Los Angeles Times
Published: November 1, 2013 Updated 4 hours ago

WASHINGTON — More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps awoke on Friday to deal with the harsh reality that their benefits will decrease because emergency payments from the federal government to stimulate the economy have expired.

That decrease, which works out to about $36 a month for a family of four, could be just the first step in food allowance cuts. Congress is debating how to fund what is now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, with Republicans seeking sharp reductions in the rapidly growing program.

While food prices vary around the country, what does a $36 cut represent in the pantry?

It roughly translates into a gallon of milk, a half-gallon of orange juice and a pound of bread a week in many areas. Or think of it as a weekly purchase of a 2-pound package of rice, a pound of dry beans, a pound of ground beef and a dozen eggs using national average costs.




unhappycamper comment: I suspect a large part of the problem is our love of expensive machinery:



The new, $40 billion dollar USS Gerald R. Ford




$7 billion dollar Virginia-class submarines




$5+ billion dollar stealth destroyers




$243+ million dollar F-35


It is ALL about guns or butter.

[chervilant]

1. Just THINK what we could accomplish

with all those wasted billions!

[modrepub]

2. If you think the military equipment pictured above is expensive

it probably pales in comparison to the upkeep the government has to pay to use it. I'd like to see a breakdown of how much the government has to pay over the lifetime of each piece of equipment it buys. My guess is that it could cost 100 times more than the original purchase.

[Scuba]

3. This isn't right ...

... I can only rec this once!