America rushing to aid to far east while cutting aid to own citizens

I see the US is sending tons of aid to the far east in wake of the typhoon disaster yet they cut food stamp aid here. I'm disabled through no fault of my own and struggling to survive in the richest country on earth. They cut food stamps by 47 million yet we're rushing to aid the Philippines. How about we fix our problems at home before we try solving the worlds problems.

reply to post by wantsome


The whole world is helping them out and rightly so it has been announced it is a national calamity out there, people have no food no water any right minded government should help those who need the help now!.
I will be giving 10% of my next pay packet to them, I just wish I could do more.
You have food clean water etc they do not.
Iam sorry for your troubles but they pail in comparison to what is happening in the Philippines.

Look at the pics....

www.bbc.co.uk...

Sod nationalistic BS for once and think of just people who need help Now!!

Why are you surprised? This is 'Murica to the core. Citizens are expected to "man up" and provide for themselves regardless, but are morally expected to give aid to needy foreigners. Giving aid to the needy citizens is just "pampering the lazy".

Wasn't the food stamp "cut" just going back to what it was originally? It was a scheduled expiration.

reply to post by SpaDe_


Why, yes, yes it was.

SpaDe_
Wasn't the food stamp "cut" just going back to what it was originally? It was a scheduled expiration.

Yep. It wasn't a 'cut'. It was a natural expiration of a 'stimulus' padding of the original amount.

wantsome
I see the US is sending tons of aid to the far east in wake of the typhoon disaster yet they cut food stamp aid here. I'm disabled through no fault of my own and struggling to survive in the richest country on earth. They cut food stamps by 47 million yet we're rushing to aid the Philippines. How about we fix our problems at home before we try solving the worlds problems.

Not sure how you can compare a removal of stimulus funding in food stamps with aid to people who just lost everything. If you have food on your table and a roof over your head then you are doing 100% better than those who just lost everything including loved ones in that typhoon. Maybe worry a little less about what the world is doing for you and a little more about what you can do for the world.

The more I think about this the more it burns me.

reply to post by wantsome


I am sorry, but your post is very selfish.

Getting the small amount less from food stamps is nothing of what it is like over there. There is no food, no water, no place to live at for 100,000s of people.

At the end US is one of the richest nations in the world. Being the largest country comes with a large power and large responsibility, whether you want it or not.

Despite the previously mentioned, when there was Hurricane Katrina most of other nations and large organisations were sending aid to US. Even Phillipines despite being a very poor country (96 million people with a government budget of 30 billion dollars) tried sending some aid to US.

The thing is - at the end it does not matter how good or bad your country is doing at some particular moment - these people are going through horror which is nothing compared to what is happening around you. There is no food, no water, no shelter - death and destruction surrounding these people. That is a horror no person on Earth should go through. Whatever is the situation in US, these people are far more worse off at the moment and any country in the world should be doing something to help them out. You might have to go through a little diet because of the cut (after all its just under 40 dollars) , but these people will die from hunger, if no aid is sent.

reply to post by wantsome


This is all needle and thorns bickering about the decisions of the hand that feeds us. We don't choose to pay taxes, don't choose to give charity, don't choose anything.

If the U.S. government decides to help these people instead of the large amounts of hungry homeless people that that exist in the U.S.(I was once one of them) that don't qualify for aid and are stuck in catch 22s that's their business. It's not our money to decide how they spend it. They stole it fair and square in the form of taxes.

Lost my cool
and that aint cool

Op maybe you should think about what you say before you type it.

THe US could certainly cut some of it's foreign aid that does nothing but prop up dictators or buy them weapons systems. I agree our government doesn't do enough for it's own citizens as anyone who was employed but now isn't can certainly testify to.
We have welfare for corporations and banks and the people who worked to pay those taxes are last in line when it comes time to pay back.
The biggest thing the government could do is make it easier to create new jobs instead of drowning small business in regulation and taxes.

Sorry to hear of your plight but I'll have to agree with others that those affected by Haiyan are in desperate need right now. There's no good reason you both can't (and shouldn't) be helped.

Gee; I know a few people that get food stamps, and it's one HELL of a lot more than my grocery allowance is! AND I include non-food items( toilet paper, soap, etc.) in my grocery allowance.
At a $36.00 reduction, you can still eat like a king as long as your cart isn't full of pop, convenience food, cookies and chips!
Many, many people trade their allowance 2 for 1 for cash, so they have pot and party money...I've personally seen it happen on more than one occasion.
Be happy you have a free safety net still.
And, since I'm footing the bill, I feel I have every right to get on my soap box!
I fell much better now.
Who's up next?
Nugget

P.S. I also believe that EVERYBODY getting public assistance should have to pass a drug test, since the people footing their bill have to pass one in order to work!

We watched a programme here on the BBC which was a documentary about the people who live there and how different it was about the rich and the poor who live in squaller then this happens a few days after we had seen the programme.
They lived on what we would call a tip as that what it was, wonder if any of the survived this disaster.
You never know what is just round the corner and my heart goes out to them in this hour of need....

Shame on you for even bringing this up.

I can`t begin to imagine what these people have gone through and continue to go through.
I`m disabled and on welfare but I`d give everything I`ve got if I know it would help those poor unfortunate souls.

What a selfish thread !

Op i must apologize for being brutal in response. Its just that i still have family there in the Philippines that are unaccounted for and i let my frustrations show.Hopefully power can be restored soon so they can make contact. Going to fly out Thursday to find them if no one gets in contact with me.

Obama using food-stamp cash to fund Michelle’s ‘Let’s Move’

"On Nov. 1, sizable cuts were gouged into the federal food-stamp program (or, as it’s now called, SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which feeds 47.6 million people, or nearly one in six Americans. In the city, 1.9 million folks get the bulk of their Jell-O and Campbell’s Soup from stamps.

But news has spread among the poor, like leafy green vegetables, that it wasn’t heartless Republicans who triggered the cuts.

Rather, some of the food-stamp cash was snatched to pay for Michelle Obama’s pet project, Let’s Move.

It’s come to this. Some 76 million meals a year will vanish from this city — poof! — partly because the president diverted money from SNAP to the first lady’s signature program, part of her Let’s Move anti-obesity initiative — the bean-sprout-heavy, $4.5 billion Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

Hunger activists are livid. In fact, the cuts will bring on no less than civil unrest, according to the head of the Food Bank for New York City.

“If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people can’t afford to eat food,” Margarette Purvis, Food Bank president and CEO, told Salon.com.

LINK

Its... What makes this melting pot what it is? Services To Others appreciated... THANKS

the USA has got to keep those Asian nations and the S China sea nations pockets full of all those Yankee Dollars


or else they will follow the Chinese and make a De-Americanized Financial World


if we put Trillions in circulation there will remain a demand for those Treasury Notes...USDs
money supply begets money velocity begets a desire and Need for more of that money in circulation...
the humanitarian angle is just a spin-off benefit

Even if it were to only appear that way, it's simply just the way it is. This country will always make sure to promote its global responsibilities rather than focus on those it should have towards its occupants.

Take a look at Native American reservations and witness the deplorable and "third world" conditions that are thrust upon them. I mean, the US will worry more about the next generation of potential terrorists than the "home grown" Native American.

It has always been "the way" that the US goes to the lengths necessary to assist in natural disasters.

Even AS one of its citizens that is not being helped the way I think I should be, I would personally choose not to change that policy.

reply to post by wantsome


OP, I completely agree with you, I wouldn't vote for the US to give them a penny. If individuals want to give their time and money that is great, I applaud them! But why is our government handing our money to foreigners? Makes no sense. If you want to give to the Phillipines, good on you, you're a good person. US government, you have a job to do, focus on that job instead of getting real generous with our cash.