i was only trying to show you that poor people do pay taxes.....i do agree with you that this state treats business like cow dung and needs to rework the business and ownership tax.........but i will tell you the department of social and health sevices which controls the food stamp program in this state doesnt not allow the purchase of cigarettes or beer with food stamps....the transaction will be denied if a person tries to use foods stamps for such a purpose....but you can with TANF(cash benefits some people recieve)(people on tanf and food stamps get a debit card which ironically is taken care of by jp morgan chase!!!)......maybe they should control how its spent but the goverment doesnt have the time to babysit and they would have to start doing it with unemployment bene's and any other help that is given out....i also understand that most poor people dont purchase enough to qualify for a deduction when they do their taxes for retail tax...is that true or incorrect?

so you dont care for palin or rush.......fair enough i stand corrected...im guilty of sometimes making assumptions too....i just saw that you made the statement "eff you obama" and it sounded like something that would come from a typical limbaugh listener or a fan of palin.

you talk about disconect of obama supporters but what you dont realize is that for most obama supporters when obama was running it was the first time the people were really that excited about a poltician since john f kennedy for democrats and ronald reagan for republicans....he had amazing support from all sides of the democratic party but what some forget is the amount of support he got from a lot of republicans and idenpendents was unprecendented...how many red states did he win????? obama is not perfect and he has made some mistakes....even being the democrat i am i can admit that but like any other politician im giving him the benefit of the doubt i do it with the republicans i support and i do the same thing with democrats i support.....giving him the benefit of the doubt....realizing he has a very tough job ahead of him...and he has the added complication of trying to please everyone...never going to happen....

so you dont want to pay (taxes) to help any one or anything fine fair enough...i wish as americans each of us got to make that choice but we dont......you say im a "obama supporter sheep because i dont realize im paying for it too i do realize im paying for it and you know what im okay with it....its not a perfect program but its not really a grant because the money is eventually paid back....

i agree with your last statement completely better and more dignified to teach a man to fish....but contrary to your belief poor people do pay taxes...they pay retail taxes and about half pay federal income taxes depending on how they claim when they go to work for some one. they also pay non traditional taxes especially the ones who live in poor neighborhoods where good grocery stores like albertsons and safe way are sometimes out of reach requiring them to shop for food at the corner mart or jack and the box....not only less healthy but they pay more for the food they purchase....oh and before you say it... food stamps never covers the full food bill they always end up having to cover towards the middle of the month, food out of their own meager pockets...the taxes they typically dont end up paying are: property taxes, capital gains taxes or "death taxes"...and i personally beleive there is no problem with the poor getting one tax credit to help them at the end of tax year....it all gets spent helping families cover bills and its at the very least a small shot in arm for the economy....its not like the poor hoard it like the rich do. and from a compassion standpoint for some families it helps keep heads above water...that is a good thing right? oh and lastly i agree with you tax policy already helps the poor in certain ways but it also helps the very wealthy who aint going to starve to death if they have to give up a few extra dollars...i dont see any problem with creating additional programs to help the poor or middle class as long as their are safe gaurds in place against abuse and audits...but i stated it before this program will do nothing unless its expanded and currently the deficit really makes me wonder if it can be afforded...but really how fair is it that we are debating lower middle class folks getting a hypothetical piece of the stimulous package when we just got done dumping billions of dollars into the corporate world....to me nothing stinks more than corporate welfare....they really pay it back that is one thing but how fair is it not to do the same for small business who are struggling just as much??? the guy in this story will have to pay back the money when he sells the home.....

"if poor people could just change their behavior or way of thinking about things than they wouldnt be in the mess they are in" "just pull your self up by the bootstraps even if you are two poor to afford a pair of boots" its this type of thinking that has kept the republican party the party of poor old rich white men....being poor is typically a generational thing and most people dont break the cycle with out some help....no you use the word throwing money at them....go back and read the story....it states the money has to be paid back when the house is sold and if its sold before 5 years their is a penalty attached....it sounds like you are still expected to have good credit and good income but its giving a helping hand to people who are having trouble with the down payment....just like there are programs for people trying to transition from being homeless to getting a rental house or apt...some ask that you eventually pay the money back some dont...the main thing is with out the help a majority of these families would be stuck on the street with no hope of getting back on a good path...your statement means that all homeless people for instance are to blame for their own demise could you tell that to a man and his family who lost his job a year ago and is now homeless due to the current job market...could you sir and your family survive for a year with no income...could you imagine being homeless or poor? or are you fortunate enough to be well off to the point where none of this that is going on in this country will ever affect you???? so typical just like all of you being against health insurance reform or the idea of all people being covered...i wonder how many of you have been with out health insurance or how many of you have faced the prospect of bankruptcy due to medical bills or even further how many of you argued for bankruptcy reform because to many poor and middle class were getting out of paying off bills and debt....i guess that is why i wear the bleeding heart liberal badge with honor even though im more conservative then most liberals and progressives i know...id rather be a bleeding heart liberal with too much compassion than a cold hearted conservative republican....with none at all to speak of....

i have four kids for your information...should i make the assumption that you have never been poor???

i do agree with that but didnt you read that once the house is sold as long as its after 5 years the government gets that money back...if its before 5 years there is a severe penalty....and the government still gets the money back...

every one in this country is taxed to some extent to cover the costs of governing...and some of that money is used to fund programs geared towards the poor and poverty stricken...i think that in a given year the rich are the ones that typically are taxed the most but from a proportion standpoint both the poor and middle class are still taxed the most....the poor and middle class shouldnt be against each other we are both being pushed further and further towards the bottom both politically and financially....

be careful about making comments against republicans on here...this site is frequented by them and they mark down any one who dares to challenge their supposed "moral superiority" or call them out for "their purity pledge" or point out there party for being "against poor people and minorities" or anything else....they dont look at the full context of the comment or even try and look at the value of the comment only that it says something "bad" about the party...

eff you too...people do want these homes but there are currently so many of them for sale and not enough people that can currently qualify under more stingy loan company rules...there are a lot of people with decent credit who at this point cant qualify for a loan because...well the money has dried up for one and loan companies are scared....this program provides a down payment and nothing more...people still have to qualify but either way the program aint going to make a difference...the target group and area is too small....but it seems like this is just a trial thing....either way i wish you conservative "family guy" watchers would lay off the obama critisizm since its obvious you only dislike him because limbaugh and the rest of the fox news morons told you so and well he is a democrat and an educated black man...and all of you use the same talking points that have no fact to them and are based off conspiracy theory rumors conjured up by no other than the likes of sarah palin and rush limbaugh....

this seems like a program that really wont do anything or affect much unless it is increased to include more people and communities...they are picking the worst of the worst off communities and only using enough money to help a couple people with this....

so are you one of those people who don't like the idea of using taxes to help the poor? which happen to be the most disadvantaged of the economic groups?

im not one my self to support giving help with out some type of program in place that works with the person to get out of the situation they are in...i dont really like freebees but agree more with having incentives and safe gaurds in place that work against generational welfare dependency

this is a decent attempt at getting people into homes who could qualify with out this if it werent for the down payment...and the current market...if you notice these houses are going for way below 200k so alot of these people pulling in 40-60k and year and more can logically afford it but again the big issue is not many people in this country have 40k or more sitting in a bank account to put as a down payment on a house...the whole idea of this seems to be to help distressed communities with large foreclosure numbers to attract people back into these homes...it seems like a good attempt but in my opinion it wont do no good unless its expanded....and with our deficit the way it is can we really afford it and at the same time how fair is it to bail out big banks and corporations but leave out the poor and middle class from stimulus spending?

in agreement with you that we got into this mess because of lenders selling loans to people who couldnt afford them but they also sold exotic loans that most people didn't understand......but there were some who just wanted a house before they could afford it...on a larger scale the financial industry can be blamed for rampantly packaging and creating securities based off these loans that caused the pyramid scheme bubble that helped put us in the mess we are in...

the way you made this statement...its well put and i agree with it for the most part.....a lot of us make bad choices and we have to learn from the consequences but still there are resources available to help even those who make poor choices because sometimes the consequences are a matter of life and death or they drastically effect a whole family or community or worse....where do we draw the line on helping and not helping....there is a difference between cleaning up some ones mess and giving them a hand....an example...neighbor has been told for years to cut down a dangerous tree but for one reason or another he never does...wind storm comes and nocks it into his deck and cutting part of his house in half...now the good neighbor in me despite my warning to him would want to help him out with clean up and moral support but if i took your approach(as i see it maybe im misreading you) i would need to tell my neighbor sorry about your bad luck you need to live with the consequences.....

let me ask an honest question which in no means is meant badly: have you ever received help from others and have you ever accepted help in a situation where you may have had some responsibility that caused you to be in the situation....