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Author: Steve203 ⎊🐝  😊 😞
Number: of 75973 
Subject: Friedman called it "riotous living"
Date: 10/31/25 5:22 PM
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House Republican Tells Food Stamp Recipients, ‘Stop Smoking Crack’

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) has little sympathy for millions of Americans whose food assistance benefits are set to lapse on Nov. 1.

“There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average,” he wrote. “Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries. Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-repu...

See? According to this Shiny, and plenty of others I have heard over the years, including Milton Friedman, being poor is entirely, in every case, a result of poor personal choices. Not the government's fault, so the government has no obligation to bail you out, they insist....of course, Argentina is a totally different case.

Sir Humphrey weighs in.

Blackmailed by the BBC?! | Yes, Prime Minister | BBC Comedy Greats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5ejPn8I8Lo

Steve
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Author: albaby1 ✶🐝 HONORARY
SHREWD   😊 😞
Number: of 75973 
Subject: Re: Friedman called it "riotous living"
Date: 10/31/25 5:36 PM
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No. of Recommendations: 19
“There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average,” he wrote. “Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries. Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack.”

I know, right? I mean, that's basically 82 whole dollars to buy groceries for a week for your entire family. Or $350 per month - which covers only 35% of the cost of what the USDA says is the amount required to feed a baseline family each month under their most "thrifty" plan - which costs $1K per month.

So I think that Rep. Higgins probably hasn't had to do his own household grocery shopping for a while - because he doesn't seem to have properly gotten his "head wrapped around" how few pantries you can stock with $82 per week for a baseline family of four under SNAP.

https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/...
https://www.fns.usda.gov/research/cnpp/usda-food-p...

P.S. I don't think that crack is as inexpensive as he seems to think it is, either. But the USDA doesn't provide that info on the website.
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Author: Goofyhoofy ✸🐝🐝 HONORARY
SHREWD   😊 😞
Number: of 75973 
Subject: Re: Friedman called it "riotous living"
Date: 11/01/25 7:22 AM
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I know, right? I mean, that's basically 82 whole dollars to buy groceries for a week for your entire family.

There are two of us in this household, Mrs. Goofy and me. OK, and a dog and cats. I go to Kroger a couple times a week and it’s rare that my bill is under $100, often it’s $150 to $180. Mrs. Goofy goes to her special foods stores every couple weeks (Trader Joes, Whole Foods) and spends an equal amount, so for the two of us I’d guesstimate it’s slightly higher than $82 a week.

Now I admit I’m not scanning the shelves for the cheapest can of green beans or the biggest, cheapest bag of rice, but still…

Maybe more than slightly. Maybe the good Rep should go to a grocery store once in a while.

I am going to have to talk to the casts about cutting back, I guess.
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Author: marco100   😊 😞
Number: of 75973 
Subject: Re: Friedman called it "riotous living"
Date: 11/01/25 8:30 AM
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SUPPLEMENTAL Nutrition Assistance Program, Albaby.

NOT "Comprehensive Replacement Assistance Program."

Snap, not Crap.
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Author: Steve203 ⎊🐝  😊 😞
Number: of 75973 
Subject: Re: Friedman called it "riotous living"
Date: 11/01/25 10:18 AM
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You guys are sort of missing the point: how the overlords see we Proles.

Remember Phyllis Schlafly? Besides campaigning against the Equal Rights Amendment, she had this nugget about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Schlafly: Sexual harassment no problem for virtuous women

'When a woman walks across the room, she speaks with a universal body language that most men intuitively understand. Men hardly ever ask sexual favors of women from whom the certain answer is 'no,'' Mrs. Schlafly said.

'Virtuous women are seldom accosted by unwelcome sexual propositions or familiarities, obscene talk or profane language,' she said.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/04/21/Schlafly-S...

I remember Mark Russell, in one of his PBS comedy specials, in the 80s, lampooning her attempt to "blame the victim".

Steve
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Author: albaby1 ✶🐝 HONORARY
SHREWD   😊 😞
Number: of 75973 
Subject: Re: Friedman called it "riotous living"
Date: 11/01/25 3:45 PM
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No. of Recommendations: 15
SUPPLEMENTAL Nutrition Assistance Program, Albaby.

NOT "Comprehensive Replacement Assistance Program."

I'm well aware of that. My point is that Rep. Higgins is not. He was clearly mistaken in his characterization of SNAP grants as being so incredibly generous as to permit recipients to purchase an o'erflowing amount of food, when in fact they are (by design) nowhere near enough to cover even half of family food costs. That's not a criticism of SNAP benefits being too low - it's a criticism of Higgins' ignorance of how they are not generous enough to permit recipients to purchase multiples of their grocery needs.
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Author: Steve203 ⎊🐝  😊 😞
Number: of 75973 
Subject: Re: Friedman called it "riotous living"
Date: 11/01/25 3:55 PM
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That's not a criticism of SNAP benefits being too low - it's a criticism of Higgins' ignorance of how they are not generous enough to permit recipients to purchase multiples of their grocery needs.

As it happens, I went to see a movie last night. From the trailer I saw, it appeared to be the common "fish out of water" comedy setup, with a de-winged angel learning to live like a human. Turned out to be a lot more than that. It has touches of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Heaven Can Wait", but I quite enjoyed it.

This is not the trailer I saw, but it fleshes out the setup better.

Good Fortune (2025) Official Trailer - Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keke Palmer, Keanu Reeves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKWndx83RwQ

Steve

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