Joel Mathis

At National Review today, Robert Verbruggen urges the federal government to save (admittedly minimal) money by tightening standards for the food stamp program. Spending on the program, he says, has quadrupled during the last 10 years and standards are too loose: This has created some truly ridiculous situations — such as the case of a Michigan man who won $2 million in the lottery, tied it up in investments, and received so little income from them that he was still eligible for food stamps. Until a recent policy change, food-stamp eligibility in the state was based solely on income, with no consideration of savings accounts, investments, or other assets. Though the policy was set at the state level, federal taxpayers picked up the tab. But how many millionaires are gaming the system to get food stamps? I'm guessing maybe ... this guy. Maybe there are a few others out there. But I'll pull a number out of my posterior and guess that 99.99 percent of all food stamp recipients ar

Nothing makes middle-class conservatives angrier than suggesting millionaires should be paying more in taxes . One admires such folks for sticking so rigorously to a principle that won't benefit them in the least, but still one wonders—why? Anyway, I've heard from you in blog comments and at Facebook. I also received a couple of letters on the topic overnight. The first, from John Senuta in Wickliffe, Ohio: Hey Joel here is another way to look at it .The poor that don't want to work and live off you they look at you as RICH and they want alot more of your money to spend.They want your TAX rate to go to 75% so they could live better,you can afford it RIGHT????  And by the way a portion of your phone bill pays for a cell phone for them to use FREE.Do you have a cell phone????How much are yoiu paying???Let dig a little deeper into your pocket and help them out.... There's a presumption here that "the poor" are a bunch of lazy panhandlers trying to get t