an estimated forty seven million people now depend on the supplemental nutrition assistance program to put food on the table that's one in five adults and larger than the population of spain if you don't have the support that they ever have good jobs go to big farms that are around to support so you have to go out there to give every says they have to feed here's what they call an easy since two thousand and eight food stamp use has spiked over fifty percent and so have instances of fraud and abuse one example of food stamp fraud selling your card for cash and washington d.c. has one of the highest percentages of recipients applying for four or more cards so once a person claims that they lost a card they go to an office like the one across the street and apply for a new one of the ways of using food stamps angers people like tina who has health problems that make getting a job difficult if there were people like me did me really need food is that the battle. as the largest program in the u.s.d.a. food stamp benefits cost a record seventy eight billion dollars in two thousand and eleve

experiences this monthly financial windfall nearly two million dollars from the supplemental nutrition assistance program snap formally known as food stamps arrives for. the money is electronically transferred to the broke residence of a nearly bankrupt town where it would flow first into grocery stores and then on to food companies employees and banks beginning the monthly cycle that has helped socket survive so max snap spending this food stamp spending has doubled in the past four years and tripled in the past decade surpassing seventy eight billion dollars a year in this town of socket thirty percent of the population over thirty percent is on food stamps well let's call food stamps what they really are food stamps it's rationing in america their food rationing twenty percent of the population in america is being rationed food they're being rationed medicine. over seven million live on two dollars a day or less. and the degradation of society the collapse of the economy the emergence of a permanent underclass is shocking so much so that people are running away from america to move to cuba because the

for the wealthiest americans and cuts to vital social welfare programs like snap supplemental nutrition assistance program and also a limits obama's obamacare is medicaid expansion and exchange provisions all making no specific offer to cut the tax loopholes the pad the wallets of the super rich you know the year of the middle class killing budget out the republicans in the house but ryan and the ones on the right aren't the only ones working on a plan members of the congressional progressive caucus plan to present their own budget tomorrow march thirteenth in. february caucus chair's keith ellison a roll of offered an alternative to arbitrary sequester cuts they called it the balance in at balancing act that cut tax breaks for the wealthy while paring down on reasonable defense spending the plan then proposed reinvesting those savings in transportation and education c p c the congressional progressive caucus releases a budget every year in fiscal year two thousand and fourteen proposal will likely reflect those core principles of previous plans including trimming the pentagon expanding revenue sources an

close to 50 million americans enrolled in the supplemental nutrition assistance program as of december is up 70% since 2008. 15% of americans now using food stamps, costing almost $75 billion a year. that is the latest from fox biz, giving you the power to prosper adam: charlie gasparino says people on wall street are hawking what they say is sure pet to double your money. should you listen to all of the hype? charlie is here to answer that question. >> this is not a madoff situation. actually it involves kind of an interesting stock, bank of america. i never thought i would say this. bank of america is one of the most bailed out banks in the history of banks. only citigroup surpasses it. that came after, because of its purchase of countrywide in early 2008, right? as you know countrywide, all the bad mortgages. they appeared on bank of america's books. then the purchase of merrill, which during the financial crisis had a lot of problems. right now, bank of america is considered, it is down a little today. it is figures out picks the date it is down to do the story. it is now considere

assistance programs for many hard-working americans and kansans. my goal is very simple. again, restore integrity to the supplemental nutrition assistance program in a commonsense and comprehensive manner. enacting this package of reforms will allow the federal government to continue to help those that truly need food stamp, food benefits and assistance. again, i want to thank senators thune and johanns for their assistance in this effort. i look forward to working with my colleagues to enact these reforms for the benefit of all americans. i yield back, mr. president, and after very careful notice, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: worrquorum call: mr. mccain: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be suspended, and i be allowed to speak to the senate as if in morning business. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona, without objection. cane cannes thank the president. -- mr. mccain: thank the president. came to speak about a resolution that i've introduced that calls on the president of the united states pos

enrollment in the supplemental nutritional assistance program has jumped 70% since 2008 to a record 47.8illion recipients as of the end of 2012. the congressional budget analysts expect participation to expand next year. the rising poverty rate in the labor market as low wage jobs outpace middle income jobs three to one. many of the low wage jobs are found in the retail sector. the nation's biggest retail employer, you guessed it, walmart. it pace its average sales associate $15,576 a year. for a family of four, that's well below the poverty line of $22,050. making that employee eligible for food assistance. food assistance that goes right back into the pockets of our corporations. because a 2010 report estimated that more than a third of all food stamps redeemed in the united states were used, you guessed it, at walmart stores. adding up to 4.5% of the company's total sales. the traditional welfare is corporate welfare. so greg, we pay the employees poverty wages, the social safety net gives them food stamps. the only place where they can then spend those food stamps is back at the plac

once again, as they did last year, house republicans are proposing to slash the supplemental nutrition assistance program. this is commonly called the food stamps. this is for people who don't have enough money for their food, this helps them. and they are calling on take the food and food stamps and turning it into a block grant. new we who have worked in city, state, and federal government, we know that block grant is another way of saying cut. permanently cut. and in some cases, sliding it ut of existence. that currently helps 47 million low-income americans afford the food they put on the tables every day. during the past few dwhreefers great recession, it's been a lifeline to those in need to make sure that in the wealthiest country in the world, american families don't have to go hungry. people who apply for food stamps need food. now women make up roughly 60% of snap's adult beneficiaries and more than half of snap's households with children are headed by a single adult. the vast majority, over 90%, of whom are women. that means that single moms, single moms on snap, are already struggling. to --

agriculture, usda marketing and outreach program currently used in participation in supplemental nutrition assistance programs, snap, better known as food stamps, would instead be used to fund job training programs contained in the skills act. these precious taxpayer dollars should be used to facilitate upward mobility and employment, not dependence. the usda created an aggressive outreach program that has grown under the obama administration, particularly through the president's stimulus package. these expanded initiatives include the collaboration between the usda and the mexican government officials to promote participation in targeted communities which teaches recruiters how to convince working class families into dependence. the obama administration has conducted over 30 meetings with the mexican government personnel since he took office. since this program began in 2004, the united states taxpayer has funded this participation with the mexican government to promote the snap program by holding 29 health fairs and traveling to 19 cities. the usda in coordination with the mexican government has conducted a

it is an ackerman for the supplemental nutrition assistance program. let us go to jason from britain, new jersey. caller: thank you for this great topic. i think it is one we can all relate to because everyone has to eat. it all starts with food. athink the first lady has set good example with the garden she is growing behind the white house. given to allwas americans to grow a garden. this could wipe out the hunger problem probably within one growing season. some type of tax incentive, some the of extra tax on corporations and oil companies that are getting subsidies. take a small fraction of that away. give that to citizens to grow food. around in onethis season. this is an opportunity out of anniversary -- this is an opportunity. out of adversity comes opportunity. it is a travesty to see americans going hungry. these are programs i did not even get interested in. it is easy for us to blame government. let us look at ourselves in the mirror and say we can grow our own stocks. it has to start at the people and i hope everyone can grow a victory garde

on the table for their families, we are seeing that program, the snap program -- supplemental nutrition assistance program gutted -- $160 billion in cuts that would leave millions of church, millions of families -- millions of children, millions of families without help. interestingly, the spending on the nutrition programs, on snap, is actually going down. why? because it's there when you need it, when you have a crisis. and then the spending is not used when families go back to work. so we're seeing over $11 billion decrease in spending because the economy is improving and people are going back to work. that's the way you want to bring spending down. interestingly, within my purview as chair of the agriculture committee, i'm also deeply concerned about the cuts in the republican budget in the house to crop insurance. within our farm bill, we have two disaster assistance programs. one's for families -- nutrition assistance. it goes up and down with the economy. the other is crop insurance for families and ranchers that goes up and down about the economy. now, we've had huge droughts and late freezes on o

we especially interested in your work on the supplemental nutrition trance program known as -- assistance program. and also the department's long standing challenges with security information technology. we look forward to our testimony this morning. before you begin, i would like to ask the if he has any opening comments. >> unfortunately not addressing you with any budget. we have to make with his hearings. we have to make budgetary decisions based on it. it's difficult to do that. hopefully we'll do the right thing and we look forward to your testimony. i have a couple of questions i would like to ask on specifics, and we'll get to that at the q & a period. thank you very much. >> subcommittee members will do the usual pursuit with the usual of the hearing on the rule. we may have several rounds. i understand -- it's my understanding we will be having votes in the next twenty minutes. we'll be called on what we'll do when the vote is called. we'll take a recess and then we will return, reconvene after the vote and continue with the question from the members. but i think inspector gener

it slashes economic assistance to programs like the supplemental nutrition program which could mean eight million to nine million eligible households without benefits. it dismaventles the affordable care act. this means redeucing access to affordable health care for the 27 million uninsured americans who are projected to gain coverage under the law. this is neither the vision that the american people want, nor is it what the american people need. now let's cop trast the c.b.c. budget huned it creates opportunity instead of snatching it away. the c.b.c. budget includes $230 billion in the may want nance and repair for public transit, highways, ports, airports, railroads, bridges and other infrastructure development. $13 billion for work force development, programs like the work force development adult worm program, job corps and other employment and training services. it includes $50 billion to provide relief to states to preserve teacher and first responder jobs and $50 billion for neighborhood stabilization programs that prvide affordable house, development, infrastructure improvements a

supplemental nutrition rall program for women, infants and children. $333 million. medical and dental services for vets and their family, student financial aid and student assistance,million. cdc, $289 million cut and tsa is taking a $396 million hit. not just a agents, but they're cutting federal air marshalls as well as cops on the plane. some of the lesser known agencies include the harry s. truman foundation, marine mammal commission. never heard of those, probably not alone. >>> coming up, a remarkable announcement. how doctors say they've cured a 2-year-old who was born with hiv. stay with us. then courtroom drama over who gets martha stewart's products. why the biggest names in retail are really having to battle for the brand. >>> and is it a smoking gun in the michael jackson death case? how an e-mail could tie a convert promoter to jackson's doctor. all that coming up. at od, whatever business you're in, that's the business we're in with premium service like one of the best on-time delivery records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. od. helping the world keep promises. how did i know? well, i didn't really.

the ryan budget that makes deep cuts in supports like the supplemental nutrition assistance, snap, and women, infants and children, w.i.c., programs. combined, snap and w.i.c. have helped put food on the table for over 50 million, i repeat, 50 million americans, primarily women and children. the s -- the snap cuts in the ryan budget would put over 180,000 families in hawaii at risk of losing the ability to put food on the table. what could be more fundamental than putting food on the table? i don't know anyone who could look these families in the eye and say, sorry that you can't afford to feed your children any more. we have to balance the budget. we need to close the deficit. sorry. that, to me, is unconscionable and runs counter to our core values. the ryan budget would also deeply cut child-care assistance and head start, as mentioned by my other colleagues, leaving more than two million children and their families without realistic early childhood or day care. in addition, the pell grants cuts in the ryan proposal would make college less affordable for six million women students. add to that the millions of male students, and