Allowing Americans to go hungry because of the Extremists Agenda and the refusal to raise taxes on the wealthy and Big Coporations, many of which pay no taxes or receive TAXPAYER REFUNDS, close loopholes, or Stop Coporate Subsidies should shame us all!

Military families need for food stamps is on the rise. (photo: GoArmy.com)

Military Families' Reliance On Food Stamps Hit a Record High Last Year

By Alan Pyke, ThinkProgress

19 February 14

ilitary families were more reliant on food stamps in 2013 than in any previous year, according to a Department of Defense (DOD) review that found over $100 million in food stamps spending at military grocery stores last year.

 

The DOD-run stores, known as commissaries, sell food to active-duty and retired military personnel and their families at prices that are lower than what private grocers charge. Nearly $104 million of the $6.2 billion in total revenue the commissaries brought in during fiscal year 2013 came from food stamps.

 

Food stamp usage at the stores has more than quadrupled since 2007 as the recession compounded the already difficult financial situation faced by military families. New soldiers with a child and a spouse earn $20,000 per year in pay, according to CNN Money, and the frequent relocations and disruptions inherent to the lifestyle of a military family make it harder for military spouses to find jobs and bring in supplementary income. The unemployment rate for young military spouses was 30 percent in 2012. Retired military servicemen and women who joined up after 9/11 have a 10 percent unemployment rate, which also contributes to the elevated food stamp figures at DOD commissaries, and nearly a million working-age veterans lived in poverty in 2010.

 

Despite elevated need, veterans have not been spared from the successive waves of food stamp cuts imposed by Congress in recent months. The automatic cuts that came into effect in November took a bite out of the food budgets for 900,000 U.S. veterans. Over 486,000 of those veteran food stamp recipients live in states affected by the most recent cut to the program enacted as part of the farm bill, according to figures from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

 

Veterans and their families make up less than one tenth of one percent of all food stamp recipients.

 

Tens of millions of poor and hungry people who rely upon the program to feed themselves, and tens of millions more are eligible but do not receive the benefits for one reason or another. In addition to making life harder for all of those people, recent food stamp cuts are also unnecessary, given that the program's costs will fall back to 1990s levels naturally as the economy improves over the coming years.

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

WE NEED A BIT MORE URGENCY ON DONATIONS: Right now the pace is sluggish. While we are seeing significant support (thank you) the current pace will have this fundraiser dragging on too long for everyone. Toss something in the hat. That's all it takes. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

Okay, I'll make a donation.

---

Glenn Greenwald | The UK's Equating of Journalism With Terrorism

Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
Greenwald writes: "The UK Government expressly argued that the release of the Snowden documents (which the free world calls 'award-winning journalism') is actually tantamount to 'terrorism'."
READ MORE

Sister Megan Rice Sentenced to Three Years in Jail for Nuclear Break-In
Karen McVeigh, Guardian UK
McVeigh reports: "An 84-year-old nun was handed a 35-month jail term on Tuesday for breaking into a US nuclear weapons plant and daubing it with biblical references and human blood. Sister Megan Rice was sentenced alongside two co-defendants, Greg Boertje-Obed, 58, and Michael Walli, 64, who both received 62-month terms."
READ MORE

Ukraine Erupts: 25 Deaths Are Reported in Fierce Clashes in Kiev
Andrew Higgins, Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times
Higgins and Kramer report: "Protesters in Kiev stoked what they are calling a 'ring of fire' separating themselves from the riot police in a desperate effort on Wednesday to defend a stage on Independence Square that has been a focal point of their protests."
READ MORE

Older Americans Are Early Winners Under Health Law
Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press
Johnson reports: "These luckless people, most in their 50s and 60s, have emerged this month as early winners under the nation's new health insurance system."
READ MORE

Military Families' Reliance On Food Stamps Hit a Record High Last Year
Alan Pyke, ThinkProgress
Pyke reports: "Military families were more reliant on food stamps in 2013 than in any previous year, according to a Department of Defense (DOD) review that found over $100 million in food stamps spending at military grocery stores last year."
READ MORE

After Fracking Blast, Chevron Offers Pizza
Peter Moskowitz, Al Jazeera America
Moskowitz reports: "A Chevron well in the preparation stages for hydraulic fracturing exploded last Tuesday 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, Penn., causing a fire that lasted for four days."
READ MORE