Take out the military, unemployed or underemployed and maybe some seniors and the number is still unbelievably high. The program is supposed to be for the needy and I find it hard to believe there are that many needy people in this country. I think there are probably quite a few people that have eked out a lifestyle based on government welfare programs.

I've known a few over the years and they take advantage of every available program that there is. One woman I know of is on disability. She is married, her husband works and they have 3 kids. They live in a $400,000 house. She collects $16,000 a year from Social Security and receives $8000 a year for each child. Her husband works in IT and makes a 6 figure salary. Thats a good deal, isn't it? They go on more vacations than I do.

I used to babysit for woman with 4 kids whose husband left her. She went on welfare, received food stamps. Welfare got her a house, fully subsidized, to live in. She went to college for free and worked under the table for extra money. All of their healthcare was for free. She did get her degree and got a job and off the programs, but you can live a pretty nice lifestyle using government programs.

I agree that we need to give a helping hand to the needy, but it seems to me that our current food stamp and welfare programs do not have enough oversight to prevent abuse like this. Also, there are many charity organizations that provide help for the needy. Shouldn't it be the role of charities to provide this help for the most part and not the taxpayers? If we are spending $72B a year just on food stamps, we should be looking at why.

AV