Dear Keith Horton,

The United States Government funds many programs for the public to utilize. A major program our government funds is the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service; more specifically, food stamps. The government funds this program because “food stamps are for families who would otherwise struggle to buy healthy food on their own” because of a lack of income (Nichols par.1). Food stamps have definitely helped people in the past as well as in present day.

However, the United States of America is often putting money where it does not need to go. One of the areas they are funding far too much is food stamps. There are 41,170,732 people in the United States of America on food stamps. That is 14% of the population being supported by food stamps. In order to provide such an amount of food stamps to the population, we are spending $69,800,000,000 a year (Food Stamp Statistics). That is money we could easily put into something that could benefit more people, and possibly the whole country. However, I am not blaming the government entirely for funding such a program. I believe it is both the government and the peoples’ fault. If the government would make it harder to receive food stamps, then maybe they would not be spending so much money on such a small thing need. Because it is not hard to get food stamps, people take advantage of the Government and easily get food stamps that they do not need. Therefore, it is both the government and the peoples’ fault for the insane amount of money being spent on food stamps. 

In regards to whether or not the funding of food stamps should continue, I believe it should. If we disregard the people who take advantage of the system, there are actual people who are in need of assistance. Because of this, the government should keep funding food stamps, but to an extent. We need to put more regulations on the types of people getting food stamps and the amount of money we actually can afford to spend on such a program. I believe this will make a great difference in the economy and for the people who are actually in need of assistance. But if we keep disregarding the fact that there are people who take advantage of the system of food stamps, we will only continue to become more in debt as a country.

Sincerely,

Shelby 

Works Cited
Nichols, Jeffrey. "The Purpose of Food Stamps." eHow. Demand Media, N/A. Web. 03 Feb.
2015.
“Food Stamp Statistics.” Statistic Brain. Statistic Brain, 13 Jan. 2015. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.