Most of the folks I've known getting welfare/food stamps were NOT happy and singing about it.
But should we cut off the people who need these programs because there are those who abuse them?

No one truly needs these programs. Millions of people need food, to be sure, but no one needs the bureaucratic juggernaut that we've created to deliver it.

Traditionally, hunger was solved by private charity. Indeed, before food stamps came along, no one starved in this country, and if they eliminated them tomorrow, I have every confidence that charities would quickly fill in the gap, at lower cost, and without creating a cycle of dependency.

Yes, but that might let the [GASP!] CHURCH impose requirements on people's behavior.

Can't have that. Edith Keeler must die.

Control is precisely why all of the various faces of socialism despise private charity. Anything than diminishes the authority of the collective(state) is perceived as a threat.

Yes, get the government out of the business. It even perverts charities. There is a food bank I donated a lot of stuff to last year. They had recently moved into a new, custom-built facility. They were quite proud of it, but I was shocked - a huge, luxurious facility that was total overkill for their needs. Price tag $10,000,000 - but the state government had kicked in most of that. Of course, they now need more administrators, facility managers, etc, etc..

No more donations from me - I'll find someplace not on the government teat...

FWIW, the kind of charity I'm talking would come without strings... traditionally this is how it was. I am not Christian, nor are legions of others out there would (and do) gladly feed the poor. Even among Christians, only a few attention whores out there would demand that those they service listen to doctrine.

Spot on, Bar Sinister! Notice that there are gorups now that are actually being arrested for feeding the poor.

Government corrupts and destroys everything it touches.