Alabama is #1!

No, not the Auburn University Tigers or the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Football teams, but the great state of Alabama is numeral Uno in people using Food Stamps.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) - Alabama has made it's way to the top of a national list and it's not good news.

According to recent numbers released by The Food and Nutrition Service, Alabama is now the state with the greatest number of residents receiving food stamps.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or "SNAP," shows that in May of 2010, just over 808,000 people were collecting food stamps. This year, that number jumped to over 1.7 million. That's an increase of 118 percent.

And before some of y'all start blaming them there illiterate Aborigines and them there shiftless illegals who just want the Guvermint to take care of them, the majority of the people are the working poor and the unemployed.

In 2010, the total number of people on the SNAP food stamp program was a little over 40 million, and in the first five months of this year, that number has grown over 10%. Continued unemployment, and lack of jobs in the economy have led more people to require food stamps to supplement their monthly bills, especially as price inflation continues to grow at a faster pace.

As food stamp usage by the American people reaches an all-time high here on the final day of May, reliance upon the government program should continue to grow and quickly surpass the already 44 million users who need the benefits to buy food staples for their families. This growth in a program that cost the government over $64 Billion in 2010 will add to the fiscal burden already being experienced by Washington who needs to find ways to cut spending.

In the case of Sweet Home Anti Guvermint Spending Alabama, nearly 1/3 of Alabamians receive food stamp assistance.

The state Department of Human Resources reports there were a record 1.43 million Alabamians in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. The number was higher than normal because 43 of Alabama's 67 counties were receiving disaster assistance due to the deadly tornadoes in April.

I wonder what Mo Brooks and our other Congress Critters are doing on their summer vacations?

As the market closes on one of the worst weeks we've had in years—down more than 10 percent in the last two weeks, with at least $1 trillion in stock market wealth destroyed since the budget deal was reached—we also learned with Friday morning's jobless numbers that, according to Bloomberg, the share of the population holding a job fell to 58 percent, the lowest since July 1983. The headlines are screaming, the charts and graphs are horrible, and people are scared.

Yet Congress is gone on vacation. They're on a scheduled five-week recess, not back until after Labor Day. As Jerry Seinfeld would ask, Who's the marketing genius who came up with that idea?

Yep. We're #1!
SMH