As for food stamps - why are they needed, and will people be happy to "eat cake" if they are eliminated?

If you'll go back, you'll see I referred to the "food stamp model", not food stamps in the entirety.

First, from 1989 to 1993 (and intermittently after that) I worked heavily in WIC for two of the larger WIC states, Georgia and Florida. I was the "data guy" on a food package committee that helped get peanut butter back on the program for little kids, built infant formula rebate reporting modules, and visited every single clinic in both states. I saw things I'll never forget. I believe in certain govt programs for those who need it.

So please take that "eat cake" line and put it back in your easy-bake oven. <s>

Second, I said food stamp model. In 1999 there were roughly 19 million on food stamps. Now there are almost 48 million. You can see huge spikes starting back in the Bush administration and the numbers have continued to accelerate during Barack Obama. The federal govt actually provides financial incentives to states to increase food stamp outreach/enrollment, and have done so for nearly a decade. This is just plain wrong. Just like there are Pentagon "beltway bandits" so deeply entrenched in military contracts that they can work the system to their favor, you now have companies on Wall Street deeply involved in the Food Stamp program. Get the picture?

Twice during the Obama term, USDA has been caught running commercials on Mexican TV and printing fliers in Spanish, giving people steps on how to come to the U.S. and get on food stamps without declaring their immigration status.

Asset tests need to be reworked and made reasonable - in some areas they are outrageous strict and in other areas outrageously lax. A family of four in one state who owns a car and has 1,000 dollars in the bank and the parents work multiple part-time jobs shouldn't be denied. A single person sitting on a much bigger pile of cash in another state should be more seriously vetted. Both are happening and more frequently than they should.

USDA has acknowledged that fraud/trafficking of food stamp benefits are at the highest levels in nearly 2 decades. If you extrapolate acknowledged trafficking $$$ over the next 10 years and then look at what the Republicans wanted in cuts, the message of trying to slow the trend certainly resonates.

This doesn't mean I'm passing judgment on those who are legitimately on the program or advocate the program. This was the one thing that would have made Mitt Romney a good president - he would have encouraged an environment of fiscal responsibility. One of the many things I liked about WIC - they vigorously pursued store vendors that tried to cheat the system. The program wasn't always perfect but it tried. The Food Stamp program could take a few lessons from the WIC model.

I applaud the Republican party for proposing to slash billions over the next 10 years. There needs to be reform - and it starts with ceasing financial incentives to states. When food stamp creation increases several times greater than the rate of job creation, there's a problem. Unlike Nancy Pelosi and her line that there isn't any room to cut the federal budget, I firmly hold that the federal govt needs to start doing what middle-class Americans have had to do for years - tighten their belts. Sequester was a stroll in the park for them, compared with what middle class Americans have had to endure.

I would bet you a steak dinner that some real cost-control measures could be implemented across a wide range of activities (including the private companies who have gotten their mitts into this), that would save money without a single legitimate participating starving. Nobody seems to want to do it, because there are too many special interests. This, by the way, was why I was initially so excited about the Tea Party - until many of them went schizoid-superlative.