That’s the main problem right there – the belief that social programs are an entitlement. NO ONE is entitled to anything. Those social programs were instituted as a short term stopgap to help people who were temporarily out of work, unable to get a job, disabled/ill and unable to work, or unable to earn enough to live on, even though they were working. It was not meant as a weekly stipend to pay off the bills and buy the groceries of people who were NOT ready, willing, and able to step up to the plate.
That’s what you say. But, you are not the legislature. And even if that is what the legislature thought, that is not what the people who voted for them think.
The legislature is afraid to cut medicare because the old people will vote them out. They are afraid to cut medicaid because the “poor” people will vote them out. They are afraid to cut corn subsidies because the Iowa people will not caucus for them.
I don’t have to use the interpretation of the law that Oomis uses- I use the interpretation that the people who lobbied for it use. The purpose of food stamps is for me to get free stuff that you produced. If I can.