Watching Republicans try to come up with a plan to fight poverty is like watching a rock plan to learn how to swim. The entire enterprise is doomed from the start.

The idea of a universal basic income—money given to everyone each month to cover minimal living expenses—is having something of a utopian intellectual moment across the political spectrum. But the idea does have two obvious potential pitfalls.

Jeb Bush, whose handlers should be fired for failing to heroically leap in front of the photographer before this stunningly Shining-like photo above was snapped on Tuesday, has shifted his campaign into movie villain mode. His new welfare plan calls for the total elimination of SNAP, the federal food stamps program.

For the past few months, we have been bringing you true stories of Americans who receive welfare, food stamps, and other public benefits. Today we bring you our tenth and final installment of what it’s really like surviving on public generosity. These are worth reading.

Yesterday, the Oklahoma Republican Party posted a message on Facebook comparing America’s food stamp receipts—almost half of whom are children—to wild animals dependent on handouts.

State politicians across America are trying to restrict access to welfare and other anti-poverty benefits. To put this in perspective, we’re bringing you true stories from people who receive these benefits. A taste of society’s parsimonious generosity, below.

Even as the great recession recedes from memory, economic inequality in America widens and the class war rages on. We are bringing you true stories of people who have received welfare, food stamps, and other public benefits. Here is what it is like.

Across America, state governments are pursuing harsh restrictions on public anti-poverty benefits. Each week, we’re publishing true stories from people who receive those benefits. It’s not an easy life.

We are bringing you true stories from Americans who receive welfare, food stamps, and other anti-poverty benefits. Before you consider voting for a politician who would restrict these benefits, consider what life on the dole is actually like.

What is life like for Americans who receive food stamps, welfare, and other government benefits? It ain’t easy. Each week, we let some of them tell you in their own words. Today, we hear from six moms who are making it work.

The United States is one of the most effective reverse-Robin Hood economies in human history. But you may wonder: Could its redistribution of wealth from the impoverished to the rich be more efficient? Of course it can, with inspiration from that incubator of all great American innovations, Kansas.

As politicians threaten to cut public anti-poverty benefits, we are bringing you true stories from Americans who’ve received various forms of welfare and food stamps. Life on the dole is not as easy as some might think.

Access to food stamps and other government anti-poverty programs is often used as a political football. This amounts to playing with human lives. Each week, we are bringing you true stories from Americans who receive public assistance. Here are your fellow citizens speaking about their own lives.

Amid a nationwide push to restrict access to government anti-poverty programs, we are bringing you true stories from people who receive public assistance. Tight budgets, enraging bureaucracy, and real hunger, below.

More than one in four Americans—many of them employed—receive some type of government anti-poverty assistance. We are bringing you their stories. Today, seven different experiences from people in seven different states.

Across America, there is a significant political movement to restrict access to food stamps and other government aid programs for the poor. Earlier this week, we asked those of you who receive public assistance to send us your stories. The results have been overwhelming.

After the Great Recession of 2008 caused mass unemployment, the government expanded some elements of the social safety net. Now, states are moving to make food stamps and other public benefits harder to get. We want to hear from those of you who actually get these benefits.

Kansas—the flat, dusty mecca for anyone that loves tornadoes and hates gays—is looking to make life for families on welfare just a little bit worse. Meaning that soon, families could be banned from using public funds on movies, baseball tickets, and pretty much anything falling under the category of "enjoyable."