are you kidding? an "entire department worth of people"? uh, how about 1 consultant for a few months and it can be hosted on an existing server. this is an api to provide access to data that already exists, not a rocketship to the moon.
I don't know if you can really extrapolate from Greece to the US, but it is relevant to note that by living on credit for so long, Greece wound up in a position where they couldn't raise more money. So their GDP grew for years on borrowed money, and now that they can't borrow any more, their GDP is shrinking dramatically. In other words, you can buy an artificial GDP increase today but you may have to sell it back at a discount tomorrow.
A problem Greece has that the US doesn't have is the Euro. If the US need more money, it prints more money. It causes inflation and that's sometimes a bad thing, but it patches a hole. Greece can't print more Euros. The US can devalue her currency for a long time to keep things running.
Conjecture is trying to directly link food stamps to GDP to push a political agenda.
How is spending more than your revenue a long term plan? The only legit reason would be in a time of war or major disaster. Our entitlement spending and union retirements are a mirror image of Greece but on a much larger scale. We owe more per capita than Greece (don't forget to include unfunded liabilities).
Sure, we can devalue the dollar but too much inflation will be a very bad thing - just ask Zimbabwe.
I'm all for helping the poor and believe in reasonable safety nets, but the problem is they are being chronically abused in this country. I live in NYC and see the abuse first hand every day, in the checkout line seeing able bodied people using foodstamps (EBT cards). Come on man, really?
My point is food stamps and entitlements are definitely not an economic tool.
