Record 28 million Americans on food stamps
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Here's a heart-breaking statistic. We tout ourselves as the richest country in the world. But the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million this year.
The New York Times reports this is the highest level since the food stamp program began in the nineteen sixties.
The number of recipients around the country who have near poverty incomes to qualify for the aid are staggering. Fourteen states have seen record increases in the number of people on food stamps just since last December. Among them, Michigan, where it's one in eight, West Virginia where it's one in six, and Ohio, where it's one in ten. Of the 50 states, 40 saw their numbers rise with several of them actually seeing increases of ten percent or more.
While the federal government is bailing out failing investment banks like Bear Stearns, an estimated two million people are looking at the possible loss of their homes through foreclosure. Last month the U.S. economy actually lost sixty three thousand jobs. While the cost of food is expected to go up by four percent this year, and the average cost of a gallon of gas is three dollars and twenty nine cents... almost a dollar more than it was a year ago. Some experts predict $4 a gallon gasoline this Spring.
Here’s my question to you: What’s the answer to a record 28 million Americans being on food stamps?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Iraq on the campaign trail
Iraqi Madhi army militiamen dance as they stand near a burning Iraqi army vehicle after attacking it on March 30, 2008 in the city of Basra. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Iraq is back in the headlines and making its way back into the discussion on the campaign trail. A recent surge of violence in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra has revived the political debate over the war.
According to Iraqi officials, at least two hundred people were killed and another five hundred wounded just in Basra fighting since Tuesday. More than 100 were reported killed in Baghdad as of Sunday. This was the result of a U.S.-supported Iraqi effort to rid Shiite militias from the southern city of Basra.
The radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr called a truce yesterday between his Mahdi Army and Iraqi security forces. He wants concessions from the Iraqi government in return. And a curfew imposed by the government as a result of the fighting has been lifted for now. But the fighting could resume at any moment.
And the overriding question remains–is the surge in Iraq working? John McCain, who has staked his political fortunes on his support for the troop surge in Iraq, insists it is. He argues the recent uptick in violence is proof of the dangers of an early withdrawal of troops.
Senator Obama says the surge has decreased violence levels, but has not resolved the underlying tensions that exist in Iraq.
And Hillary Clinton says keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is a clear admission that the surge has failed.
Who is right?
Here’s my question to you: How will the recent violence in Iraq affect the campaigns of the presidential candidates?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Bill Clinton tells Democrats to “chill out”
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Chill out. That's Former President Bill Clinton's advice to Democrats who think the race between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has gone on too long.
He says that letting all of the voters have their say will actually strengthen the party.
This comes on the heels of two senior senators, Patrick Leahy and Chris Dodd, themselves Obama supporters, calling for Hillary Clinton to pull out of the race - something she says she won't do.
Clinton told the Washington Post that she would take her campaign all the way to the convention floor if need be.
Barack Obama says that Clinton has every right to stay in the race as long as she wants to.
Meanwhile - Obama picked up an endorsement today from Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota... he's also expected to get the backing of North Carolina's seven Democratic house members. Party officials say that Klobuchar, like her colleague in the Senate, Bob Casey who endorsed Obama on Friday, had planned to remain neutral. Klobuchar is also a superdelegate whose vote could help decide the fate of the democratic race.
Another good sign for Obama is a new Gallup national tracking poll shows him with an eight point lead over Hillary Clinton, 51 to 43 percent. Over the weekend, Obama topped Clinton by ten points which was the first double digit lead that either candidate has had over the other since February when Clinton was leading Obama by 11 percentage points. A new pew poll out today also has Obama up by ten points.
Here’s my question to you: Bill Clinton says that Democrats need to "chill out" and let the election process play out. Is he right?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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