"The Heritage study says, “Applying that same standard to means-tested welfare spending reveals that welfare will cost each household $560 per month in 2009 and $638 per month in 2010.”

Considering the economic climate and that there are thousands out there who lost jobs due to cut backs and can't find more work because nobody is hiring this is a good move.

Would you rather your government let them starve on the streets?

There are jobs...just perhaps not in the preferred field or with the same salary. This has been common though out our history. With our entitlement mindset it seems strange to imagine a change in the status quo of any of our lives but welcome to the real world of "change".

I was trying to think of something that he hasn't spent more money on; energy independence comes first to mind.

Welfare is habit forming. Are you willing to pay $638 a month out of your salary to your neighbor who does not want to work even being fully capable? The truly needy do have to be cared for, but, in my experience, most just do not want to work. The Bible says, "If you don't work, you don't eat". Perhaps this would be a better approach than taking from one person to give to another who is too lazy to get a job.