RETAIL IMPACT MOSTLY MUTED
Poor families might economize by squeezing spending on other goods and using the savings to supplement their food stamps. Recent declines in gasoline prices should provide an offset for now, said Scott Mushkin, a senior retail analyst at Wolfe Research.
"They still need to eat," said Mushkin.
"Customers may shift to spending more of their own cash on food and less cash on other things," said Keith Dailey, a spokesman for Kroger Co, the largest U.S. supermarket operator.
But Dennis Eidson, president of Spartan Stores Inc, a regional chain based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said the SNAP cut would be meaningful for sales. "We're a little concerned about the food stamp cut, I can tell you that," Eidson said.
Fruits and vegetables, grain products, meats, and dairy products comprise almost 90 percent of the food that SNAP households buy, according to the CBPP.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the discount giant that has the largest grocery sales in America, might fare better, U.S. Chief Executive Bill Simon said when analysts asked this month about the upcoming reduction.
"When the benefits expanded, our market share actually went down," said Simon, referring to 2009. "And so, our view is when price becomes more important ... we're more relevant."
The 2009 stimulus bill increased food stamps by an average of 18 percent, or around $24 a person, and it gave an immediate jolt to the economy. Benefits are spent quickly, and according to Moody's Analytics, in a weak economy every dollar increase in SNAP benefits generates about $1.70 in economic activity.
Most people who receive SNAP benefits live in households with very low income - about $8,800 a year on average in 2010, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
As of July, the most recent figures available, 47.6 million were receiving food stamps, up 1.7 percent on the year. Enrollment has been above 47 million for the past 12 months.
MORE CUTS EXPECTED IN NEW FARM BILL
More food stamp cuts - likely focused on reducing the number of beneficiaries - are expected to be included in the new U.S. farm bill, now in its final stage of preparation.
Conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a bill in September that aimed to tighten SNAP eligibility standards and end benefits for nearly 5 percent of recipients, cutting some $39 billion over 10 years.
On Wednesday, negotiators from the House and Senate will start to hammer out a compromise version of the bill. Food stamps typically account for about 75 percent of money in the farm bill.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was the most prominent sponsor of the Republican-backed food stamp bill, which would shorten the time able-bodied adults without dependents could collect aid, and end a provision that allowed people with larger household assets to get food stamps.
Cantor has termed the program as it now stands an unaffordable burden on middle-class families that can be pruned while still helping "those who truly need it."
Some 1.7 million able-bodied adults would lose benefits through a stricter enforcement of work requirements that Republicans propose, the CBO estimates. Many states currently have waivers in place because of high jobless rates. The budget office also estimates that 2.1 million people would lose benefits if limits on assets are tightened.
"By reforming food stamps, we will save the program for the truly needy," said Virginia Foxx, a Republican Congresswoman from North Carolina. "An overextended, unchecked SNAP program won't be capable of serving the citizens it's purposed to help."
The Democratic-run Senate has proposed $4.5 billion in savings over a decade by closing a loophole. A small-farm group said cuts of $8 billion to $12 billion might in the end be palatable to both the House and the Senate.
President Barack Obama has warned against heavy cuts to food stamps. House Democrats have voted en bloc against large cuts. And 39 Democratic senators sent a letter to farm bill negotiators this week opposing "eligibility changes designed to erect new barriers to participation" in SNAP.
Michael Tanner, author of a Cato Institute report that calls for converting food stamps into a block grant program run by the states, said lawmakers should overhaul the program's rules. "These are a much better way to reform the program than just playing with the number," Tanner said.
(Reporting by Charles Abbott in Washington and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, editing by Ros Krasny and Nick Zieminski)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/30/us-usa-nutrition-food-stamps-idUSBRE99T0ZI20131030
Local Charities Gear Up For Cut To Food Stamp Benefits
By Scott Neuman
October 31, 2013 4:39 PM
This shop in the GrowNYC Greenmarket in New York's Union Square accepts Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), or food stamp benefits.
More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps will be getting a bit less starting Friday when a temporary benefit enacted as part of the federal stimulus expires.
The Department of Agriculture, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, as the food stamp program is formally known, says a family of four receiving $668 per month in benefits will see that amount cut by $36. One in 7 Americans receives food stamps.
The House has voted to cut $39 billion over the next decade from the program, which falls under the omnibus farm bill, while tightening eligibility requirements. The Senate has proposed cutting a far smaller amount.
CBS MarketWatch quotes Ross Fraser, a spokesman for Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, as saying the Nov. 1 benefit cut "will be close to catastrophic for many people."
Rebecca Brislain, executive director of the Florida Association of Food Banks, says the cut will be "a significant hit for families; we already know SNAP doesn't last the whole month," but that the state's food banks stepped up their operations since the recession, boosting their collection and distribution from 72 million pounds of food a year to 173 million.
Georgia Public Broadcatsing reports that food donation agencies in the state, which is home to nearly 2 million SNAP recipients, are scrambling. Richard Le Ber is with the Atlanta Community Food Bank, which serves 29 counties in Georgia. He tells GPB that the cuts contemplated by the House bill are the largest he's ever seen.
"We're putting our plans together for how we're going to meet demand," he says. "But it's hard to predict exactly how this is going to happen because we've never seen these kinds of cuts before. So we're going to be monitoring very closely what they're seeing, and how individuals in Georgia are coping with these cuts."
In Montana, which has 125,000 recipients, Lorianne Burhop, public policy manager of the Montana Food Bank Network, says she's been keeping in close contact with the state's lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"I talked to them about the importance of the Farm Bill to get updates from them on what's happening, and just share some numbers on what we're seeing in Montana in terms of need," Burhop says. "To cut the program so dramatically it would simply increase hunger in Montana."
And in New Jersey, where an estimated 428,000 households are getting SNAP benefits, FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties Executive Director Carlos Rodriguez says the cut means a shortfall of $90 million in the state.
"To put it bluntly, we can't come in and make up $90 million across the state. We just can't," he says. "We've increased our distribution and continue to increase our distribution to meet the current need without these cuts. So this is just going to put an [undue] pressure on families and the community."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...rities-gear-up-for-cut-to-food-stamp-benefits
Additional:
http://community.allhiphop.com/disc...jp-morgan-and-other-food-stamp-empires#latest
[video=youtube;OBNpwFPVo1Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBNpwFPVo1Y[/video]
Will Munny
New member
create enough laws and everyone is a criminal
KingFreeman
New member
I'm too faded to read all that. Shit even sober I ain't reading all that. Cliff notes nigga.
Niggas gonna be having roommates in a $300 bedroom apartment, a $400 2 bedroom if they get lucky. Or better yet, a 2 bedroom house with a basement.
If they in a 1 bedroom...
Talking about "okay, you got the room, but in exchange you have to pay 50 extra, it'll just curtain off a section of the living room."
Paying $15 each a month for 10mbps Internet.
If they in a 1 bedroom...
Talking about "okay, you got the room, but in exchange you have to pay 50 extra, it'll just curtain off a section of the living room."
Paying $15 each a month for 10mbps Internet.
