Congress created the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to reduce food insecurity among impoverished Americans. At the same time, Congress recognized that welfare programs must foster self-sufficiency. The Trump administration is looking for innovative solutions that improve both goals.

Two months back, dozens of Democratic congressmen participated in the SNAP Challenge. The PR stunt — sorry, “awareness-raising exercise” — sought to promote the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and demonstrate how difficult is to eat healthy on the average weekly allotment of $31.50.

Every few hours, new facts emerge about the Boston Marathon bombers. While much has been made of their family, studies and religion, on Tuesday night we learned that American taxpayers helped finance them.Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism...

One would have hoped that after a couple of weeks the overblown brouhaha over the consequences of the sequestration cuts would have died down, but alas, there are those still insistent that the meager $85 billion in cuts will somehow result in a cataclysmic shock to the American economy.

One of the greatest threats to individual liberty is dependency on the state. Yet, over the last four years, America has experienced a surge in those trading economic freedom for government dependency.  The "land of the free" is now responsible for a vast portion of the population living off the means of others and there seems to be no end in sight.  The issue is laced with moral implications; those who see no problem with living off the hard work and sweat of others, as much as it is the economic ramifications of the unsustainable course America has currently chosen.

Whenever conservatives talk about lowering taxes, reducing entitlements, or rolling back our titanic government, the intellectual giants of the left deploy an incisive counter-argument: you're mean!But of course. Why, just a fortnight ago, I was strolling to the opera when a lowly chimney sweep spilled soot upon my spats. After making him polish my monocle, I thrashed the young ne’er-do-well roundly with my ivory-handled walking stick. Off to the poorhouse with you!

So, you didn't win last week's Powerball? I didn't either, which is why I'm writing blog posts instead of designing a helipad for my new private island.  I was surprised to see even my most cynical friends succumbing to lottery fever in a bad way. Though usually shrewd with their finances, they couldn't resist throwing a few bucks at a gas station attendant for that infinitesimal shot at half a billion dollars.

USA Today reports that a record number of Americans—one in six—are now dependent on government anti-poverty programs. Since the recession began in December 2007, the enrollment and cost of government programs have grown at an alarming rate.