“Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet. And who will not become a public charge,” said Acting head of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
During the Nazi era, roughly 300,000 additional Jewish refugees could have gained entry to the U.S. But the immigration law’s “likely to become a public charge” clause kept them out.
SNAP benefits help millions of families put food on the table.
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In the US, poverty is measured by income level. But that measure misses many other aspects of poverty – like unemployment, poor health and a lack of health insurance.
Most adults under 49 without kids must work 20 hours a week to get food stamps.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Anya Samek, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
When asked to donate money they had earned through participating in a study, average people tended to choose the less onerous requirements rather than big ones.
Average Walmart workers make twice the federal minimum wage but may still qualify for public benefits.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Poverty rates across the suburban landscape have increased by 50 percent since 1990. This suburbanization of poverty is one of the most important demographic trends of the last 50 years.
Everyone needs to eat their veggies.
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Accounting for grocery prices and the effort eating home-prepared meals requires, the benefits commonly called food stamps fall far short of paying enough for the poor to eat right.
More than 40 million Americans rely on SNAP for groceries.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The demographics, which include declining numbers of adult children free to step up and potentially fewer immigrants, suggest that this big problem society faces will get bigger.
The first food stamps program, created amid the Great Depression, lasted four years.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
SNAP and its precursors have weathered plenty of efforts to shrink the safety net. Its decades of bipartisan support make it likely to survive this one.
This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos honored musician and philanthropist Elton John for his contributions to upholding ‘human dignity.’
AP Photo/Markus Schreiber
Tammie Jackson, looking at the prescription drugs she could not obtain before enrolling in Montana’s expanded Medicaid program, in the summer of 2017.
AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan
Diane Dewar, University at Albany, State University of New York
The new rules Kentucky and other states want to impose could leave millions of Americans who benefit from this safety net program uninsured – and resorting to the emergency room for their health care.
Associate Dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs, and an Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York