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PITTSBURG —
Dear editor,
Newt Gingrich, the wise old sage of the Republican Party, coined the phrase “food stamp president” referring to Obama. Wal-Mart is the “food stamp company” with the largest number of employees on the public rolls of any employer. Low pay and arbitrary scheduling force many of Wal-Mart’s workers to rely on public assistance to make ends meet. In 2004, Wal-Mart reported $9.1 billion in profits while their California employees collected $86 million in public assistance, according to researchers at the University of California. In 2004, Democratic staffers of the House education and workforce committee calculated that each 200 employee Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers an average of more than $400,000 a year, based on entitlements ranging from energy-assistance grants to Medicaid to food stamps to WIC-the federal program that provides food to low-income women with children. Wal-Mart counters these facts by talking about low prices, but the profits of Wal-Mart are enormous. I’m sure there are many out there who say that we shouldn’t blame Wal-Mart and just quit paying the $400,000 in entitlements. That is one way to look at it and apparently that is how Wal-Mart looks at it. The Wal-Mart family, which owns nearly half of Wal-Mart, is as wealthy as the bottom 42% of American families combined. An average Wal-Mart worker, who earns about $8.81 an hour, would need to work one year to earn as much money as the Walton family earns in Wal-Mart dividends every three minutes. Those Walton’s! Good night John boy.
— Albert Newland, Pittsburg
Dear editor,
Newt Gingrich, the wise old sage of the Republican Party, coined the phrase “food stamp president” referring to Obama. Wal-Mart is the “food stamp company” with the largest number of employees on the public rolls of any employer. Low pay and arbitrary scheduling force many of Wal-Mart’s workers to rely on public assistance to make ends meet. In 2004, Wal-Mart reported $9.1 billion in profits while their California employees collected $86 million in public assistance, according to researchers at the University of California. In 2004, Democratic staffers of the House education and workforce committee calculated that each 200 employee Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers an average of more than $400,000 a year, based on entitlements ranging from energy-assistance grants to Medicaid to food stamps to WIC-the federal program that provides food to low-income women with children. Wal-Mart counters these facts by talking about low prices, but the profits of Wal-Mart are enormous. I’m sure there are many out there who say that we shouldn’t blame Wal-Mart and just quit paying the $400,000 in entitlements. That is one way to look at it and apparently that is how Wal-Mart looks at it. The Wal-Mart family, which owns nearly half of Wal-Mart, is as wealthy as the bottom 42% of American families combined. An average Wal-Mart worker, who earns about $8.81 an hour, would need to work one year to earn as much money as the Walton family earns in Wal-Mart dividends every three minutes. Those Walton’s! Good night John boy.
— Albert Newland, Pittsburg
