Politicians on Welfare
From the Washington Post:
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) stood before the refrigerated section of the Safeway on Capitol Hill yesterday and looked longingly at the eggs.
At $1.29 for a half-dozen, he couldn’t afford them.
Ryan and three other members of Congress have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food, the amount the average food stamp recipient receives in federal assistance. That’s $3 a day or $1 a meal. They started yesterday.
$21/week?!? That would cover my iTunes purchases. Seriously. I am spending the same amount every week on two records that someone out there is spending to feed their entire family. That is a problem.
May 18th, 2007 at 10:21 am
jeffrey!!! i’ve missed you!
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Renny! So nice to hear from you! Are you in D.C. now? How are you?
May 31st, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I think it’s great that some politicians are trying to draw attention to the plight of the poor…however I would like to point out a few things which complicate the issue:
Most families on welfare get more than $21 a week total. While it may *work out* to $21/week/person, that figure may be mitigated by several factors: one or more of the people in the household may be children, some of whom are infants who breastfeed or drink formula (formula can be obtained through another federal program called W.I.C.), and the rest of the children probably eat a lot less than a typical adult. Second, the W.I.C. program provides some types of food, namely beans, rice, cheese, milk, and some types of canned juice, which can add to and supplement the food gotten with food stamps. Those are positive things. Negative things are, it’s true that it’s often hard to find enough healthy things you can buy with the small amount of “money” you are allowed on the food stamp program. Personally, having been on food stamps myself, I found the only way to eat healthy was to do the following:
1) be a vegetarian (meat is the most expensive food item in the grocery store by far, except possibly for convenience foods)
2) cook *all* your meals at home, without fail (something not possible for many of the working poor)
3) buy only what you will actually cook and eat, and do it every few days (again something a lot of families simply don’t have the time to do)