Childless Welfare Recipients Forced To Work This is one statistic that will be hard for even the most extreme of liberals to deny. According to recent reports, the U.S. government spent on trillion taxpayer dollars on government welfare last year. A good chuck of that money went to the food stamp program, the nations second largest program. With a number that large, states are desperate to take action. Maine is requiring able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 to 49 to work to get food stampsassuming that they do not have children or other dependants to support. The states decision was based on a large number of job openings for lower-skill workers in Maine. Still, for those who are unable to find immediately employment, Maine offers both training and community service positions. Unfortunately, despite vigorous outreach efforts, that plan was unsuccessful this year in terms of getting more participants employed. Most childless adult recipients in Maine refused to participate in training, or even participate in six hours of community service a week. That meant that many citizens actually had their food stamp benefits cut off. In fact, in the first three months after Maines work policy went into effect, the caseload of able-bodied men and women without dependents dropped by 80 percent. What do you think? Do statistics like this help to illustrate the entitlement among welfare recipients in this country? Is this a problem we need to solve immediately? 