The problem is that people have a bias against food stamps, because many (most?) Americans think that people on food stamps are lazy, good for nothings that are unnecessarily on the public dole. Thus, they chafe at the notion that food stamps are a good stimulus, even though economists' analysis (which look at the numbers and not the moral values of particular spending decisions) indicates that they are the best stimulus. The reason food stamps are good stimulus is clear: the money MUST be spent in a specific way...on food...which has a value chain that employs many people, and therefore that $ spent on food translates to more dollars all the way down the value chain, which are in turn spent on goods and services. Use of food stamps also frees up the recipients other income for other, more discretionary, uses. Those goods and services also have a value chain. This is a very basic economic conept called "a multiplier", which you learn in Macroeconomics 101, a coourse which, unfortunately, most of the idiots whoa re ranting about this stimulus package have not taken. So...for the individual who suggested (albeit sarcastically) that EVERYONE should get food stamps...that's actually a great idea. Rather than giving people tax cuts, which they can squirrel away in a bank or use to pay down debt, why not give everyone a debit card with a certain amount of value that they can only use on specified items. Or even just food. That would insure that ALL the money would be spent and therefore demand would be stimulated by each and every dollar in the package. That would have been my approach to all of this..a debit card for everyone (employed or unemployed, rich or poor) to provide immediate stimulus, plus infrastructure spending to fix our aging infrastructure to keep the stimulus momentum going for the next few years.Oh and PS, to the same individual who accused people who are on unemployment of "sucking the government's teat", unemployment insurance is funded by employers, not by the government (with the exception of extra funding being put into teh system by the feds as stimulus or to shore up the states' unemployments funds...many of which are broke from the unusually high demand.) ANd PPS...anyone who thinks it's a happy little joy ride to be on unemployment is quite welcome to have my unemployment check in return for their job. UNemployment doesn't pay even 20% of my non-discretionary monthly bills, which got considerably higher when I had to start paying for my own health insurance. I have a 20 year work history and went to school at night for ten of those years (have a BS, MS,and MBA) so I could have a stable, good paying job. I now spend 10 hours/day trying to find a new job in a market where ever major employer is either on a hiring freeze or laying people off and I've seriously considered lying on my resuem to make me look less qualified so I could get hired for a job that pays $30K/year less than what I had before. If you'd like to place a bet that I'm more lazy than you, I'd welcome that bet...any day...any time.