Here are some interesting facts [SNAP is the federal food stamp program]:
· The cost of the food stamp program went from $35 billion in 2008 to $65 billion last year. Part of the stimulus package temporarily raised those benefit amounts – I don’t know by how much.
· To be eligible for food stamps, you must have an income of 130% of the poverty level or less. Only two-thirds of those who are eligible have signed up.
· Currently, one in seven Americans are in the program.
· The benefit depends on income, assets and family size but the average is $133 a month per person; the maximum is $200. This benefit is available without time limit.
· About half of recipients are children and another 8% are elderly. 14% of food-stamp households have incomes above the poverty line; 41% have incomes of half that or less; 18% have no income at all.
· Medicaid does not cover childless adults in most states, regardless of poverty level.
· Only a small fraction of those who qualify for housing assistance actually receive it. I don’t know why.
· Moody’s Analytics found that food stamps increase economic activity by $1.73 for every dollar spent; unemployment insurance came in at $1.62; most tax cuts yielded a dollar or less.
I found these facts interesting. N and I have been talking for years about how we would define poverty, how those who don’t work live and whether a one-worker family can still live on minimum wage – we did it from September 1963 for three years; if we were ever poor, we didn’t know it.
A more recent addition to our conversation has revolved around the duties of government, especially the federal government. Questions arise quickly when you simply ask about any given program, “Who should provide this benefit or make this regulation – the city, county, state or federal government?” Try it, you’ll be amazed. While we have far more questions than answers, we have reached some conclusions:
· Government not only does things poorly but the further the government entity is from the governed, the more waste.
· Over time, too many local government duties have been abdicated to or usurped by the states or Washington.
· Non-needy people have been made dependent by government programs.
· Over time, more and more of the “poor” have been included in the group of truly needy; we think that’s wrong. Is right to classify lower middle class workers as “poor”?
· Americans absolutely need a “safety net” and the recent recession has demonstrated that ours is lacking. The most notable failure being the lack of saving and insurance.
· We have always known people who choose to work only sometimes and therefore earn far less than the government’s poverty line. The people we know are not discernibly needy in any way; they do not think they are poor; and when they need extra money, they work more. There must be a great many like them in the nation.
· We don not think any fit person should be able to live on taxpayer subsidies without working – certainly not for a lifetime. But we have no clue what to do about such people except that they should absolutely be a local problem.
· We believe Americans have the absolute right to be homeless and that vagrancy laws should be strictly enforced. You cannot live on my streets or in my parks and the authority and responsibility for this should be at the lowest local level.
· We should not send tax dollars to the feds so that they can offer food stamps to our citizens; we should provide those services at the city or state level.
· It’s wrong that needy people get $133 a month no matter whether they live in Manhattan or North Dakota.
· Who is it that has not signed up for food stamps? We think many are people who don’t know they are needy.
· The states, not the feds should provide rent subsidies and decide eligibility and subsidy amounts.
· Each year recently, our state has reduced all education spending for all students due to the impact of the recession on state revenues. The feds sent us $100 million of our own money during that period as “matching” funds to look after the uneducable in our public schools. We were required to reinstate three years of reductions and raise that budget or lose all federal “matching” funds retroactively. Taking a reduction in federal contributions that matched our local reductions was not an option.
o Does that sound right to you?
o Does it seem right that states begin to refuse such programs? My state can afford to educate its children; could yours?
The list is endless, once you start. There are things that must be standardized across all states but the feds have gone too far while we voters were sleeping.
A recent lefty writer railing about the Paul Ryan plan told his readers not to worry about Medicare insurance vouchers. The real problem he screamed was block grants for Medicaid. Republicans threaten to remove the management of an entitlement system from the feds and give it to local governments – a major threat to big government progressivism.
Food stamps
Economist, Jul 14th 2011
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