“Food stamps” on The Daily Caller

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responded to allegations of racism at a town hall meeting convened for Hispanics and other ethnic minorities Sunday, saying that his comments had been twisted into something they were not by his critics. (more)

On Tuesday’s “Hugh Hewitt Radio Show,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich acknowledged that his front-runner status would open up his political record to the same level of scrutiny that has already torpedoed other candidates. And presuming he is eventually debating President Obama instead of other Republicans, Gingrich said he would emulate former President Ronald Reagan — whose catch-phrase “there you go again” was the standard response to attacks from President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential campaign (more)

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions has set his sights on a federal government program that he says has quadrupled its cost during the last decade. This year the federal government is projected to spend $80 billion on food stamps. Sessions says the program’s cost has doubled in the last three years and is set to increase another 14 percent this year. (more)

Many taxpayers object to government welfare programs. But so long as the state is in the business of confiscating some people’s wealth and awarding it to others, most would agree that welfare payments should be given only to the truly poor. (more)

Mickey’s Assignment Desk: Walter Russell Mead sees the flight of blacks from Northern and Midwestern cities to suburbs in the South as a repudiation of the liberal “blue state” social model (unionism, regulation, taxes). Which it may well be. But there’s another angle: the 1996 welfare reform, and the message it sent. Working hypothesis: Welfare–specifically the old AFDC program–in essence told blacks in the North it was OK to stay put in their declining former ghetto communities. If people stayed, instead of moving in search of jobs, the checks would keep coming.  The ’96 Clinton/Gingrich reform said: don’t count on welfare to be there for you. It is time-limited. You’ll have to work. If there are no jobs where you live, better move somewhere else. Result: Blacks moved to where the jobs are, which is the red states and the suburbs. … Problem with working hypothesis: Is it black middle class that’s moving? If so, how are they on welfare? Possible answers to problem: Welfare’s penetration of the African-American community is easy to underestimate. According to a startling statistic from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (publicized, if I remember, by Daniel Patrick Moynihan) almost three-quarters of black children who turned 18 in the late 1980s had spent at least a year on AFDC. Given the tremendous exposure of the black community to welfare, a change in its requirements could send a powerful cultural signal. Plus, tipping point! … And kids who might in earlier decades have fallen back on welfare knew it wasn’t going to be there and made other, better choices. … Also, not all those who moved were “middle class” as opposed to hard up.  … Alternative, nastier, Charles Murrayesque theory: Food stamps are the new welfare–they’re the only cash or cash-like entitlement the poor can count on. But they are set at a uniform level nationwide, and it’s not a wildly generous level. Might as well move to where living costs are lower. If you read Nicholas Lemann’s Promised Land, you know that an African American food stamp economy was already growing up in the South decades ago, so there may be something to this. … There are lots of other factors of course, many of them mentioned in the NYT‘s account: A decline of white racism in the South, cultural affinities, including a desire to be in communities where the bosses and elites are also African American, a flight from crime and lousy schools. Also, blacks were basically doing what everyone else was doing between 2000 and 2010 (though everyone else moved to the West as well as the South, apparently). The difference is blacks hadn’t done that before (e.g. in the 60s, 70s. 80s and 90s). … [via Newsalert, @TomBevanRCP] (more)

Every December, The Economist magazine comes out with a special feature that looks at the year ahead. In the sneak peak they provided for 2011, we saw a glimpse into one of the hottest culinary movements in the country: mobile food vendors. According to the magazine, “some of the best food Americans eat may come from the food truck.” (more)

Many American colleges and universities are steering their students toward a new source of “financial aid”: food stamps. (more)

I’m on food stamps. Last month, despite the fact that I’m middle class and have a job, the District of Columbia enrolled me in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. For the next year, I’ll be getting $105 a month in assistance, no strings attached. (more)

An old friend of mine recently concluded an email by noting that The Social Network, the Aaron Sorkin movie about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, “really makes you aware of how much good luck and timing are involved with great inventions and great fortunes.” (more)

There has been much talk amongst the Washington power elites about “compromise” in the aftermath of the Republican midterm victories.  The punditry — especially the left-leaning punditry — has been in a tizzy about the need for President Obama and Congressional Republicans to meet half-way.  The message of the election, we are being told by all of the smart politicians and their strategists, was that the American people want Republicans and Democrats to find common ground, compromise and work together. (more)

Dogs don’t bark at parked cars. (more)

With the election barely two weeks away, the nation is focused on what will happen if (when?) control of Congress swings rightward. While some far-reaching elements of Barack Obama’s agenda will face great — perhaps impassible — hurdles on Capitol Hill, that won’t stop the administration from implementing them via regulation, the ultimate end-run around Congress. (more)

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sought federal permission on Wednesday to bar New York City’s 1.7 million recipients of food stamps from using them to buy soda or other sugared drinks. (more)

The essence of the superior man is that he is free of … envy. Conscious of his capacity to survive and prosper within his own field, he has no desire to change places with anyone else, and hence he is incapable of envying anyone else. Thus he is inevitably a bad democrat, for democracy is a practical matter is based mainly and perhaps almost wholly on envy. — H. L. Mencken (more)

Everyone paid attention to a very noble cause that kicked off on September 22. The “No Wedding, No Womb” initiative was founded by Christelyn D. Karazin and Lorraine Spencer to form a coalition of new media professionals and hobbyists to push back against the dysfunction that has taken over American neighborhoods today — namely, the acceptance of out-of-wedlock births across the nation. (more)

Once the apple of President Obama’s eye, the stimulus was rotting away in the first lady’s compost pile as summer began. So on June 17, 2010, the White House launched a full-on PR blitz to save the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (more)

Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand. (more)

Would you be willing to exchange $86.79 for $24? (more)