khalling, transition can be hard on someone who is starting to Galt and twice I did say to not feel bad about using it under these circumstances and only to the point you had given monies to the gov't. I will admit one of my lines could have been taken as advocating doing it solely for the purpose of getting your own monies back but that was not my intent. I still disagree though that you can say in some cases money the gov't has taken is still yours while in others it is not. Case in point, I have never taken an earned income credit even when qualified as I did not earn that though the law says I am 'entitled.' I did however take food stamps for 3 months once even though friends offered to tide me over until things picked upped. I was only taking what I had paid for to the gov't already, taking from them would have been taking from their earnings.

One of the major problems with food stamps is they provide almost double what is actually needed, at least in my State. At the very least they should provide buying guidelines and recipes and stop making it so they get to have steak and high dollar foods to use up their monthly allotments. Because they will use them all each month instead of use them just for what they need. Before the '60s, welfare meant rice and beans for the most part, now it means steak and lobster.

Aw LS, I love debate and playing devil's advocate, but if you not having fun then <3 :)