Showing posts with label food stamps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food stamps. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Tea Party leaving veterans without food, or coffee or tea

Mistreating The Military-Nearly One Million Veterans To Suffer The Pain Of Food Stamp Cutbacks
Forbes
Rick Ungar
October 30, 2013

In just two days, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP)— better known as food stamps—will experience a drop in benefits as the boost provided as a result of the 2009 stimulus bill expires.

Clearly, this comes as good news to the many Americans who believe that the food assistance program has grown out of control, allowing many low-income Americans to ‘scam” the taxpayers by using our tax dollars to feed their children at government expense.

One wonders, however, if the millions of Americans who are so pleased to see food stamp benefits lowered—with more cuts likely to come— understand the impact this will have on a segment of society that one would be loathe to call ‘freeloaders’ seeking to live on the largesse of their country?
read more here

On the subject, here's a few more
GOP On Food Stamp Program-Let 'Em Eat Peanut Butter And Root Beer
Rick Ungar
Contributor

GOP Congressman Stephen Fincher On A Mission From God-Starve The Poor While Personally Pocketing Millions In Farm Subsidies
Rick Ungar
Contributor

The Conservative Case For Welfare Reform Suffers Massive Blow Via Cato Institute Study
Rick Ungar
Contributor

It's Official: House Republicans Could Not Care Less About Their Own Party Or The Hungry-It's Just All About Them
Rick Ungar
Contributor
That would be the 900,000 veterans who offered up their lives for their country only to return home to find employment exceedingly difficult to come by—thereby creating the need for food stamps to provide for their families.


Food stamp cuts for veterans ‘unacceptable’ and ‘revolting’

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Food stamp cuts for veterans ‘unacceptable’ and ‘revolting’

Veterans Duckworth and Soltz: Food stamp cuts for veterans ‘unacceptable’ and ‘revolting’
The Raw Story
By David Ferguson
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

An estimated 900,000 U.S. military veterans will lose some or all of their Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Friday. According to Think Progress, the program — more commonly known as food stamps — will be cut by $5 billion thanks to budget shortfalls caused by the Nov. 1 expiration of 2009 stimulus funding initiated by President Barack Obama.

Veteran pilot and Iraq War soldier Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org told Raw Story that the cuts coming Friday are unnecessary and unconscionable. Duckworth called the cuts “unacceptable” and Soltz questioned why Republicans in Congress are so “hell-bent” on hurting people in need.

“Cutting assistance to veterans is completely unacceptable,” said Rep. Duckworth. “Congress needs to find ways to cut costs, but compromising our care to veterans is not one of them. We must honor those who served our country and continue to provide the benefits they need. I am hopeful that my colleagues can come together and right this wrong by reinstating funds to the SNAP program to help our veterans.”

Soltz told Raw Story, “It’s revolting that so many men and women who served this nation in uniform are about to be cut off of the help they need the most for them and their families. What’s wholly irresponsible is for the Republican Congress to repeatedly reject the idea of a conference committee to pass a budget, which would help at least stabilize the economy, so many of these families could get off SNAP, and then turn around and fight to cut their SNAP benefits too. I don’t know why they are so hell-bent on hurting the American troops, veterans, and their families who are in need.”
read more here

If you think Tammy Duckworth is wrong, think again. Aside from a lot of veterans getting by on food stamps, the reports of military families on food stamps goes back to the 90's and you read about them here.

As Military Pay Slips Behind, Poverty Invades the Ranks
New York Times
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 12, 1994

Like other airmen at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, 21-year-old Jason Edwards worries about tensions far away in North Korea that could erupt into fighting and involve his supply base.

But Airman Edwards has more immediate concerns, too. He is worried about how to feed his 22-year-old wife, Beth, and their two small children on his total pay and allowances of $1,330 a month. In desperation, the Edwardses last month began drawing $228 a month in food stamps to get by.

"It's a very tight squeeze for us," Mrs. Edwards said. "We haven't bought any steaks since we've been here, and whenever I want to cook something with ham, I substitute Spam for it."

In a trend that has senior Pentagon officials deeply troubled, an increasing number of military families are turning to food stamps to make ends meet. Three-quarters of America's enlisted forces earn less than $30,000 a year, and the gap between civilian and military wages is growing.

To be sure, no one ever joined the military to get rich. But neither did they expect to have to go on welfare. Military officials worry that a growing demand for food stamps and other Government assistance may signal larger personnel problems in a culture that preaches self-reliance and self-discipline.

The overall number of military personnel on food stamps is small and difficult to measure because the Government does not track military recipients.

But a 1992 survey by the Defense and Agriculture Departments found that about 3 percent of the 1.7 million service members qualified for food stamps and that 1 percent, or about 17,000 people, received them monthly. The Agriculture Department manages the food stamp program.

The Defense Department said the total value of food stamps redeemed at military commissaries increased to $27.4 million last year from $24.5 million in 1992. That amount included those redeemed by retired military recipients. Food donation centers are bustling at bases from Hawaii to Florida.
read more here


Using food stamps now easier at commissaries
Army Times
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 29, 2008 16:39:58 EDT

It’s now easier for commissary customers redeeming food stamps to use their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards — and they have more privacy, too, as all checkout lines now accept these cards just as they do any credit or debit card.

The new checkout system is dubbed the Commissary Advanced Resale Transaction System, or CARTS.

Previously, commissaries had to use stand-alone, state-provided systems to process the benefit cards, and the terminals were installed on only one or two registers. Food stamp benefits are not received overseas.

“On occasion, customers with food-stamp EBT cards found themselves in the wrong line, and we’d have to direct them to use one of the registers with an EBT terminal,” said Gary Hensley, director of the commissary at Fort Benning, Ga., in an announcement from the Defense Commissary Agency. The Fort Benning commissary rang up more than $1.1 million in purchases in the food stamp redemption program in 2007, tops among commissaries. read more here
What is more revolting? Taking food off their tables or the fact they have to be on them in the first place? In my opinion, I have no clue how any of them can sleep at night doing this to citizens but when they don't care about veterans on top of it, that only proves corporate welfare is fine with them above all else.

UPDATE
Food stamp usage levels off at commissaries
Redemptions in recent years greater than increase in past year
Army Times
By Karen Jowers
Staff writer
Oct. 29, 2013

Use of food stamps in commissaries continued to rise last year, although not as sharply as in previous years, while redemptions through the nutrition program for women, infants and children have declined, according to Defense Commissary Agency data.

In fiscal 2013, commissary patrons redeemed $103.6 million worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps. That’s up 5 percent over fiscal 2012. The number of transactions rose by 2 percent, to 968,358.

SNAP redemptions in commissaries began climbing in 2009 when eligibility rules were expanded due to the national economic stimulus programs. But the growth appears to be leveling off.

Commissary officials track the number of transactions and the dollar amount, but they don’t track the status of those using the benefit, so there is no way to compare usage among retirees with active-duty members, for example.
read more here

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Food stamp cards not working in 17 states not tied to shutdown

Food Stamp Debit Cards Failing To Work In 17 States
By The Associated Press
10/12/13

People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure.

The electronic benefits system experienced a temporary shutdown during a routine test of Xerox back-up systems, company spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer said Saturday.

"While the system is now up and running, beneficiaries in the 17 affected states continue to experience connectivity issues to access their benefits. Technical staff is addressing the issue and expect the system to be restored soon," Wasmer said in an emailed statement.

"Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher system where available. We appreciate our clients' patience while we work through this outage as quickly as possible."

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Courtney Rowe underscored that the outage is not related to the government shutdown.
read more here

Friday, October 11, 2013

Tammy Duckworth blasts congress for what they are doing to the troops

Military and Veterans programs don't matter to this congress and that is obvious to everyone but them. Tammy Duckworth ran down the list on what has really been going on when the hacks in congress pretend they are taken care of.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
VA Freezes Expedited Disability Claims in Shutdown “Despite a 2003 law mandating that VA provide ‘expedited’ processing of appealed claims, VA is now completely ignoring veterans’ appeals during the shutdown,” Bergmann said. “In effect, VA is treating veterans with appeals as second-class citizens.”

The VA announced Oct. 1 that processing of appeals would be suspended and that, in the event of a prolonged shutdown, no decisions on appeals or motions would be issued by the Board of Veterans Appeals.

As of Oct. 5, the VA said the number of appealed claims was 258,077 -- a number unchanged since its Sept. 28 posting.

The number of appeals claims is less than half the overall number of initial disability claims, which was about 670,000 as of Oct. 5, according to VA figures. The initial claims backlog -- those more than 125 days old and not acted on -- numbered just over 399,000 as of Oct. 5.


If this is the first time you heard about military families on food stamps and public assistance, you must not know any of them or you've been reading the wrong site.

Tell Boehner ransom only works if they don't know where the hostage is

The only time that a hostage taker has any power is when they are hidden and no one knows where the hostage is. Then everyone will do everything to find them. Once they do, then the thug is surrounded and there is nothing to talk about other than "turn yourself in" and give up.

The list grows everyday about people paying for the behavior of congress. You know, the people elected to take care of this country. At least that was the way it was supposed to happen. They want to leave us suffering unless they get their own way but never once asked us if we want the same things they do.

We're stunned and sickened by what they have failed to do and now after not being able to pass a budget, they think we're supposed to just go on suffering for their sake. Why? They put a Tea Party hack into the seat of controlling the budget of this country and expected a different result? Look up Paul Ryan the budgets he kept coming up with and know exactly how we got here.

On a personal note, I am terrified for my friends in the military and their families as much as I am for veterans and our families. Do you really think that we should have to go through all of this next month because Boehner can't get his act together and do his job? Congress gets paid but no one else is even though they caused all this mess.

This temporary fix means they still don't understand what they have done so what can we expect from them in six weeks? They don't deserve more time to make it worse.

Now, just keep this in mind when you think about them keeping the government shut down.
Some military families are feeling the same ripple effects as civilians. For example, food benefits for stateside families under the federally funded Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) may be uncertain, depending on the state. WIC provides supplemental food, health care referrals and nutrition education for pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants and young children.

Statistics are not available about the number of military families on WIC in the U.S., but in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, $29 million in WIC benefits was redeemed at commissaries worldwide in nearly 1.7 million transactions, according to the Defense Commissary Agency.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Congress "Farm Bill" cut 170,000 veterans off from food stamps

From Vote VetsLast week, Republicans passed a Farm Bill that would kick 170,000 veterans off food assistance. 

Faced with a looming, losing debt ceiling fight, Tea Party Republicans have turned to veterans and the poor as a sacrifice designed to appease their austerity-starved base. 

We've been fighting this battle for a few months, but the stakes are higher than ever this week. 

It's critical that you send a letter to your Senator telling them to oppose any legislation that cuts food assistance for veterans and military family members. You can do that here: 

http://action.votevets.org/food-assistance 

It gets worse... 

A Department of Agriculture study last year found that over 5,000 active duty service members receive food assistance. And, in the same year of the study, over $100,000 in food aid was used on military bases. 

Hundreds of VoteVets veterans have also told us they're currently receiving assistance. We're going to fight for them on this issue. 

Thanks for standing with us in that effort. 

Friday, September 20, 2013

Afghanistan veteran on food stamps has message for Congress

I'm a 35-Year-Old Veteran On Food Stamps
Huffington Post
Jason Kirell
Combat veteran, former reporter and blogger
Posted: 09/20/2013

My name is Jason. I turned 35 less than a week ago. My first job was maintenance work at a public pool when I was 17. I worked 40-hours a week while I was in college. I've never gone longer than six months without employment in my life and I just spent the last three years in the military, one of which consisted of a combat tour of Afghanistan.

Oh, and I'm now on food stamps. Since June, as a matter of fact.

Why am I on food stamps?

The same reason everyone on food stamps is on food stamps: because I would very much enjoy not starving.

I mean, if that's okay with you:

Mr. or Mrs. Republican congressman.
Mr. or Mrs. Conservative commentator.
Mr. or Mrs. "welfare queen" letter-to-the-editor author.
Mr. or Mrs. "fiscal conservative, reason-based" libertarian.
I do apologize for burdening you on the checkout line with real-life images of American-style poverty. I know you probably believe the only true starving people in the world have flies buzzing around their eyes while they wallow away, near-lifeless in gutters.

Hate to burst the bubble, but those people don't live in this country.

I do. And millions like me. Millions of people in poverty who fall into three categories.
read more here

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Does Romney think disabled veterans are "victims" too?

UPDATE
Fact Check: Mitt Romney's '47 Percent' Claims Wildly Inaccurate
The Huffington Post
By Bonnie Kavoussi
Posted: 09/18/2012

It is true that 46 percent of American households did not pay federal income taxes last year, according to the Tax Policy Center. But that number is unusually high, in part because of the recession -- and a majority of that 46 percent still paid payroll taxes. Only 18 percent of American households paid no income taxes and no payroll taxes last year. It is largely low-income seniors and very poor people that legally don't pay federal income taxes or payroll taxes, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Tax Policy Center.

It was also inaccurate for Romney to claim that those who don't pay federal income taxes would vote for President Obama "no matter what." Nearly all states with a high percentage of Americans that don't pay federal income taxes vote Republican in presidential elections, according to the Washington Post.
read more here
Does Romney know disabled veterans do not pay income tax for what they get from the Federal Government? After all, while some politicians say VA compensation is an "entitlement" this is something they paid for when they became disabled serving this nation. Some are receiving Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, also other "entitlements" they paid for. Then again, considering when he was Governor of Massachusetts, he cut state programs for veterans topped off with ending the hiring preferences they had been given for serving this nation, so it is very unlikely he thought much about them at all.

Does he know his list of "victims" also include working folks that do pay income taxes every week but make so little money they get most of it back in a tax refund?

Controversial private fund-raiser video shows candid Romney
Posted by
CNN Political Unit

(CNN) – Mitt Romney on Monday said his controversial statements caught on tape were "off the cuff" and "not elegantly stated," but he defended the main message of his remarks.

Romney took three questions in a brief press conference with pool reporters late Monday night in California, scheduled at the last minute in response to the release of secretly recorded video of the candidate speaking at a private fund-raiser in May.

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney says in one clip. "There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."


The non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that for tax year 2011, 46% of households will end up owing nothing in federal income taxes. But if payroll taxes are counted, the number of non-payer households drops precipitously - to an estimated 18% in 2011.
read more here


Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Romney Budget Proposals Would Require Massive Cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Other Programs

PDF of this report (16pp.)
By Richard Kogan and Paul N. Van de Water
Revised May 21, 2012
RELATED AREAS OF RESEARCH
Budget — Federal
Congressional Action
Deficits and Projections
Process
Food Assistance
Food Stamps
Health
Health Reform
Insurance Coverage
Medicaid
Medicare
Tax — Federal
2001/2003 Tax Cuts
Alternative Minimum Tax
Individuals and Families
Other Issues
Taxes and the Economy


Governor Mitt Romney’s proposals to cap total federal spending, boost defense spending, cut taxes, and balance the budget would require extraordinarily large cuts in other programs, both entitlements and discretionary programs, according to our revised analysis based on new information and updated projections.

For the most part, Governor Romney has not outlined cuts in specific programs. But if policymakers exempted Social Security from the cuts, as Romney has suggested, and cut Medicare, Medicaid, and all other entitlement and discretionary programs by the same percentage — to meet Romney’s spending cap, defense spending target, and balanced budget requirement — then non-defense programs other than Social Security would have to be cut 29 percent in 2016 and 59 percent in 2022 (see Figure 1). Without the balanced budget requirement, the cuts would be smaller but still massive, reaching 40 percent in 2022.

The cuts that would be required under the Romney budget proposals in programs such as veterans’ disability compensation, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for poor elderly and disabled individuals, SNAP (formerly food stamps), and child nutrition programs would move millions of households below the poverty line or drive them deeper into poverty. The cuts in Medicare and Medicaid would make health insurance unaffordable (or unavailable) to tens of millions of people. The cuts in non-defense discretionary programs — a spending category that covers a wide variety of public services such as elementary and secondary education, law enforcement, veterans’ health care, environmental protection, and biomedical research — would come on top of the deep cuts in this part of the budget that are already in law due to the discretionary funding caps established in last year’s Budget Control Act (BCA).

Compensation payments for disabled veterans (which average less than $13,000 a year) would be cut by more than one-fourth, as would pensions for low-income veterans (which average about $11,000 a year) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for poor aged and disabled individuals (which average about $6,000 a year and leave poor elderly and disabled people well below the poverty line).
click above link for more

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

1 in 6 Floridians now depends on food stamps, government says

1 in 6 Floridians now depends on food stamps, government says
Fallen middle class turns to government aid, food banks

By William E. Gibson, Washington Bureau
12:44 p.m. EST, December 21, 2011

WASHINGTON –—
As Floridians prepare to celebrate the year-end holidays with food and festivity, the U.S. government has delivered some distressing news: the number of state residents who rely on food stamps has nearly tripled since the Great Recession.

Figures released this month by the Agriculture Department paint a grim picture of widespread dependence nationwide but especially in Florida, where a record 3.1 million people — one in six residents — received food-stamp aid in September.

The numbers reflect a need witnessed every day by those who distribute food to the poor and to the growing ranks of Floridians who have fallen out of the middle and working classes.

Food banks in South and Central Florida report that they can hardly keep up with the demand for emergency assistance. Even some who once donated food now seek help for themselves.
read more here

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Proof, some military families are on food stamps by the military

There are way too many people in this country that claim the stories of military families on food stamps is nothing more than "far left fantasy" much as they deny there are homeless veterans. Well, as with the homeless veterans, and the government proving there are homeless veterans, here is one more time when the government once again proves the reality of what some of our troops are going through. They had to change to new cards so that the other people in line wouldn't know who had food stamps instead of ATM cards or credit cards. There are only two kinds of shoppers who can go onto bases. Disabled veterans with 100% disability ratings and military families. This proves they don't make enough money to survive without getting food stamps and it's so wrong there are no words. Maybe the next time you see one of those blogs denying the reality of how we really do "support the troops" in this country, you can tell them they need to read Army Times once in a while to know some facts.

Using food stamps now easier at commissaries

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 29, 2008 16:39:58 EDT

It’s now easier for commissary customers redeeming food stamps to use their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards — and they have more privacy, too, as all checkout lines now accept these cards just as they do any credit or debit card.

The new checkout system is dubbed the Commissary Advanced Resale Transaction System, or CARTS.

Previously, commissaries had to use stand-alone, state-provided systems to process the benefit cards, and the terminals were installed on only one or two registers. Food stamp benefits are not received overseas.

“On occasion, customers with food-stamp EBT cards found themselves in the wrong line, and we’d have to direct them to use one of the registers with an EBT terminal,” said Gary Hensley, director of the commissary at Fort Benning, Ga., in an announcement from the Defense Commissary Agency. The Fort Benning commissary rang up more than $1.1 million in purchases in the food stamp redemption program in 2007, tops among commissaries.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/military_foodstamps_082908w/

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Now That We’ve ‘Won,’ Let’s Come Home

Now That We’ve ‘Won,’ Let’s Come Home
By FRANK RICH
Published: June 22, 2008

THE Iraq war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate anymore. When a bomb killed at least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s) even bothered to mention it.

The only problem is that no news from Iraq isn’t good news — it’s no news. The night of the Baghdad bombing the CBS war correspondent Lara Logan appeared as Jon Stewart’s guest on “The Daily Show” to lament the vanishing television coverage and the even steeper falloff in viewer interest. “Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier,” she said. After pointing out that more soldiers died in Afghanistan than Iraq last month, she asked, “Who’s paying attention to that?”

Her question was rhetorical, but there is an answer: Virtually no one. If you follow the nation’s op-ed pages and the presidential campaign, Iraq seems as contentious an issue as Vietnam was in 1968. But in the country itself, Cindy vs. Michelle, not Shiites vs. Sunnis, is the hotter battle. This isn’t the press’s fault, and it isn’t the public’s fault. It’s merely the way things are.
click post title for more


Nothing really gets covered about Iraq on the TV and even less than nothing on Afghanistan. No one noticed the death count in Afghanistan has gone up and we lost more there than we did in Iraq. No one notice the five killed just the other day or the other deaths there this year.

It's easy for the backers of the Iraq fiasco to claim victory when they don't know what's happening behind hearing there are less attacks now and less deaths of American forces, when every other indication leads to even more violence around the corner. It's easy for them to ignore the rise and fall in deaths over the years and even easier to ignore that the Iraqi people are pretty much fed up with all of it. None of the backers noticed the fact that troops have been treated to contaminated water by KBR. The billions of funds missing and unaccounted for. The other pieces of news coming out pointing fingers all at this are easy to ignore when they have their fingers in their ears.

Everyone agrees that the occupation of Iraq will not end unless Obama becomes the President. We know where McCain will take this and it is not to the end as soon as possible but more of the same "whenever" it happens and screw over those sent to finish it out. There is nothing we can do now about any of this until the election is over. It's obvious that Bush has managed to trap the Democrats leaving them no room to end this because the fact is their slim majority is not enough to end it no matter how badly they want to.

What the American people right now can do is put the pressure on Congress to take care of the wounded right now and those who will come until this is finally over. Take care of the families who have been living on food stamps while their husband or wife has been deployed yet again on the meager pay they receive at the same time the cost of living is leaving them out. Yes, the troops worry about their families with the price of food going up along with everything else and gas at over $4.00 a gallon. If you don't think the thought of their families suffering while they are deployed is hurting their morale, you better think again.

Over 800,000 claims backlogged is also damaging their morale when they know the next one added to the pile of claims could be their own claim if they get wounded.

It's not bad enough the people in this country pay so little attention to Iraq and even less to Afghanistan, it's the fact we don't pay attention to the troops either.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Armed Forces Day, armed with food stamps

"A Tradition of Heroes"
Armed Forces Day History












On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department -- the Department of Defense. Each of the military leagues and orders was asked to drop sponsorship of its specific service day in order to celebrate the newly announced Armed Forces Day. The Army, Navy and Air Force leagues adopted the newly formed day. The Marine Corps League declined to drop support for Marine Corps Day but supports Armed Forces Day, too.

In a speech announcing the formation of the day, President Truman "praised the work of the military services at home and across the seas" and said, "it is vital to the security of the nation and to the establishment of a desirable peace." In an excerpt from the Presidential Proclamation of Feb. 27, 1950, Mr. Truman stated:


Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 20, 1950, marks the first combined demonstration by America's defense team of its progress, under the National Security Act, towards the goal of readiness for any eventuality. It is the first parade of preparedness by the unified forces of our land, sea, and air defense.

The theme of the first Armed Forces Day was "Teamed for Defense." It was chosen as a means of expressing the unification of all the military forces under a single department of the government. Although this was the theme for the day, there were several other purposes for holding Armed Forces Day. It was a type of "educational program for civilians," one in which there would be an increased awareness of the Armed Forces. It was designed to expand public understanding of what type of job is performed and the role of the military in civilian life. It was a day for the military to show "state-of-the-art" equipment to the civilian population they were protecting. And it was a day to honor and acknowledge the people of the Armed Forces of the United States.


According to a New York Times article published on May 17, 1952: "This is the day on which we have the welcome opportunity to pay special tribute to the men and women of the Armed Forces ... to all the individuals who are in the service of their country all over the world. Armed Forces Day won't be a matter of parades and receptions for a good many of them. They will all be in line of duty and some of them may give their lives in that duty."

http://www.defenselink.mil/afd/military/history.html


While the neglect from the DOD and the VA for medical treatment has been on the front pages of most newspapers, these are not the only issues our Armed Forces have to deal with that they should never, ever have to deal with at all.


Did we live up to it when they had to go on food stamps?

President Bush last term and President Clinton's first term
As Military Pay Slips Behind, Poverty Invades the Ranks

By ERIC SCHMITT,
Published: June 12, 1994
Like other airmen at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, 21-year-old Jason Edwards worries about tensions far away in North Korea that could erupt into fighting and involve his supply base.

But Airman Edwards has more immediate concerns, too. He is worried about how to feed his 22-year-old wife, Beth, and their two small children on his total pay and allowances of $1,330 a month. In desperation, the Edwardses last month began drawing $228 a month in food stamps to get by.

"It's a very tight squeeze for us," Mrs. Edwards said. "We haven't bought any steaks since we've been here, and whenever I want to cook something with ham, I substitute Spam for it."

In a trend that has senior Pentagon officials deeply troubled, an increasing number of military families are turning to food stamps to make ends meet. Three-quarters of America's enlisted forces earn less than $30,000 a year, and the gap between civilian and military wages is growing.

To be sure, no one ever joined the military to get rich. But neither did they expect to have to go on welfare. Military officials worry that a growing demand for food stamps and other Government assistance may signal larger personnel problems in a culture that preaches self-reliance and self-discipline.

The overall number of military personnel on food stamps is small and difficult to measure because the Government does not track military recipients.

But a 1992 survey by the Defense and Agriculture Departments found that about 3 percent of the 1.7 million service members qualified for food stamps and that 1 percent, or about 17,000 people, received them monthly. The Agriculture Department manages the food stamp program.

The Defense Department said the total value of food stamps redeemed at military commissaries increased to $27.4 million last year from $24.5 million in 1992. That amount included those redeemed by retired military recipients. Food donation centers are bustling at bases from Hawaii to Florida.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E3DE113AF931A25755C0A962958260


President Bush's first term
The Odd Warfare State

By Barbara Ehrenreich, The Progressive. Posted April 5, 2004.

Frontline battle troops earn less than $16,000 a year. So when the Bush administration hurts the working poor, you can count the troops among them.

Here's one way our President proposes to "support our troops": According to his 2005 budget, the extra pay our soldiers receive for serving in combat zones -- about $150 a month -- will no longer count against their food stamp eligibility. This budget provision, if approved, should bring true peace of mind to our men and women on the front lines. From now on, they can dodge bullets in Iraq with the happy assurance that their loved ones will not starve as a result of their bravery.

Military families on food stamps? It's not an urban myth. About 25,000 families of servicemen and women are eligible, and this may be an underestimate, since the most recent Defense Department report on the financial condition of the armed forces -- from 1999 -- found that 40 percent of lower-ranking soldiers face "substantial financial difficulties." Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, reports hearing from constituents that the Army now includes applications for food stamps in its orientation packet for new recruits.
http://www.alternet.org/story/18313


President Bush's second term
Storms may have spurred jump in food-stamp use

By Karen Jowers - kjowers@militarytimes.com


A 10-percent spike in food-stamp redemptions at military commissaries is likely a lingering aftereffect of Hurricane Katrina and other storms, commissary officials said.

Across the commissary system, food-stamp redemptions were up by about $2.3 million, to $26.2 million in fiscal 2006 compared to the previous year.

Officials have not definitively verified the causes for the spike, said Defense Commissary Agency spokesman Kevin Robinson, but three stores affected by Hurricane Katrina and other storms accounted for about 83 percent of the increase, at levels that were five or six times the previous year’s redemptions for those stores.

Those commissaries, which usually are not close to the top of the list when it comes to quantities of food stamps, were in the top five of all commissaries. Fort Polk, La., had the highest total of all.

At Fort Polk, where a number of people were evacuated after the storm, the commissary rang up $973,544 worth of food-stamp redemptions in fiscal 2006, five times the previous year’s total of $190,682.

The fiscal years run from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30; Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

The New Orleans Naval Air Station store, which is relatively small, redeemed $687,585 worth of food stamps in fiscal 2006, nearly six times its 2005 total of $116,329. It ranked number five among commissaries for food-stamp redemptions in 2006.

http://www.armytimes.com/benefits/pay/military_foodstamps070507w/

2007

Bill to help military families get food stamps

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 8, 2007 12:27:33 EDT

A bipartisan bill supporting the administration’s request to permanently exclude combat-related pay from income calculations for food stamps was introduced in the House on May 3.

“Feeding America’s Families Act of 2007,” a bill introduced by Reps. James McGovern, D-Mass., and Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., has a provision that would exclude from food-stamp eligibility calculations any additional payment received by a service member as the result of deployment to a designated combat zone, for the duration of the member’s deployment. The additional pay must be the result of deployment to or service in the combat zone.

The proposal likely will be considered as lawmakers craft a new farm bill, which provides spending authority for federal nutrition programs. The current law will expire at the end of this fiscal year.

The administration requested this exclusion in its budget proposal earlier this year, noting that combat pays could reduce a family’s benefits or make them ineligible. “This policy change recognizes this problem and would ensure that military families are not penalized for doing their civic duty,” according to the Department of Agriculture’s farm bill proposal released in January.

The proposal has been a part of the budget for several years and was first enacted in the 2005 Appropriations Act, but it has been handled on a recurring annual basis. The new farm bill proposal would make the annual policy fix permanent, agriculture officials stated.

Most military families are not eligible for food stamps because of their housing allowance, said Joyce Raezer, chief operating officer of the National Military Family Association.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/05/military_foodstamps_070508w/


Foreclosures
In early 2007, Air Force National Guard Tech. Sgt. Timothy Springer and his wife, Teresa, took out a second mortgage for $30,000 at 10.5 percent interest because they had money problems for a variety of reasons related to Timothy deploying, Teresa losing her job because of medical problems and child care issues, along with costly home repairs. Timothy is home now, but will probably deploy again in May.

The lender valued the Springers’ house over the phone at $132,000, without an appraisal, before giving them the $30,000 second mortgage, Teresa Springer said.

A rate of 10.5 percent is on the high side for a home-equity loan; Navy Federal Credit Union, for example, offers equity loans with fixed rates as low as 6.15 percent. But home equity rates are based largely on an applicant’s credit history; those with shaky finances pay more.

Teresa Springer acknowledged that the interest rate was high. “All we did was delay the inevitable,” she said, by putting off a problem that they knew was looming large for them.

The combination of their primary mortgage and new second mortgage propelled the Springers’ monthly payments from $775 to $1,400.

A few months later, when the Springers had no choice but to put their house on the market, real estate agents told them the house was worth just $59,000 — half of what they owe.

So in addition to the house being in foreclosure, Teresa Springer said, “We’re not going to have any option other than bankruptcy.” That’s on top of a previous bankruptcy as a result of medical bills.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/military_foreclose_080126w/

Homeless

Additional challenges related to housing and homelessness we face here that require the support of NYS include:
The return of servicemen and women from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan- especially those who are members of local National Guard and Reserve units. These vets are beginning to show up in our emergency shelters and our Addictions Crisis Center, and their family members are struggling as well. We have also had incidents with vets suffering from PTSD threatening the public or their family members with weapons. Funding for affordable housing is critical for this group- especially for those who are homeless: we have already asked for your support in this area and we are looking to the VA and HUD for additional support.
Where we need additional help from NYS to support our returning veterans is with upgrading our support service knowledge and skills. Community mental health and other front line human service workers here and elsewhere around the state are currently unequipped to identify, treat, and/or refer veterans’ for care for their mental health and related issues. They need training and technical assistance. Appropriate early intervention is most the effective approach, and will lead to long term cost savings in Medicaid, corrections budgets, hospitals, and other social welfare agencies.
Given the number of soldiers returning to our community with posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and other mental health problems, it is critical that we prioritize funding for the training of community mental health providers in the treatment and identification of these disorders. A large proportion of deployed and returning soldiers are National Guard and Reserve who return directly to their communities, families, and jobs, and whose federal VA benefits expire after two years; it is crucial that they can access quality mental health care in the communities where they live, especially in areas like ours that are remote from VA healthcare facilities. Furthermore, adequate training of other frontline workers such as police officers, doctors, physicians assistants and nurse practitioners, and social service staff will assist communities in intervention and prevention of crisis situations involving veterans with PTSD.
By training our human service and healthcare provider workforce in identifying and treating trauma-related disorders up front, we can avoid the long-term costs of ignoring such problems, such as emergency room utilization, incarceration, emergency housing, and intensive inpatient treatment. For the cost of one emergency room stay, or a week of inpatient substance abuse treatment (often paid for by Medicaid), we could train a mental health provider for a lifetime.
We ask for your support to fund a statewide training and education initiative to support community mental health providers and front line human service and law enforcement workers who are currently unequipped to identify, treat, and case-manage veterans’ mental health issues.

http://www.budget.state.ny.us/pubs/press/2007
/townHallMeetings/Utica/MohawkValleyHousingandHomelessAssistanceCoalition.pdf


They end up homeless for a lot of reasons but the National Guards face the loss of income while deployed.
Please tell me why we still want to talk about supporting them, when clearly we do not? A day to honor them does not come close to really honoring them by taking care of their needs while they take care of us. It is not abandoning them when they come home with wounds and allowing them to have to fight to have those wounds cared for and their financial needs met.

We can do better, so why haven't we? Why did it take so many years of these problems to build up while being ignored at the same time "support the troops" seemed to be all we heard?

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com



"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington