Across the country, states are courting participants for food stamps (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) even has a webpage dedicated to helping states create “SNAP Outreach Plans.” The argument from the USDA is that “Food Stamps Make America Stronger” …
Most Americans believe “work is the best solution for poverty,” according to a recent Rasmussen Report. A full 80 percent of Americans agree with this statement (9 percent disagree and 11 percent are undecided). Using work to fight poverty was the driving force behind the welfare reforms of 1996. Temporary …
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported last week that even with improvements in the economy, food stamp participation rates have reached all-time highs. Since 2008, enrollment has increased by 70 percent, reaching a record 47.8 million this past December. Funding for the food stamp program—or, as it’s now called the …
Senator Pat Roberts’s (R–KS) amendment to the Senate’s budget plan (S.Con.Res. 8) to eliminate funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) Employment and Training Program is a serious attempt at imposing some much-needed fiscal discipline in Congress. According to the Government Accountability Office, officials at SNAP did not track …
A record number of Americans received food stamps in 2012. Citing the latest statistics released by the Department of Agriculture, the Weekly Standard reported food stamp participation was at an average of 46,609,072 people every month of 2012. In December of last year, 47,791,996 people received food stamps, or one …
In Alan Colmes’s view, social welfare programs have made America “exceptional.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Colmes’s preposterous article in The Wall Street Journal Monday, “How Democrats Made America Exceptional,” gave me a momentary flashback. I recalled vividly my days in Denmark as an impoverished university student. One …
The farm bill won approval from the House Agriculture Committee last week on a 35-11 vote. But it faces an uncertain future with mounting conservative opposition, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Shortly after last week’s committee vote, Jordan wasted little time to announce …
The federal government has financed a multi-million dollar ad campaign in New York City and elsewhere attacking sugary soft drinks. But legislation passed last week continues subsidizing sugar producers, and allows food stamp recipients to buy soda and other supposedly unhealthy foods with taxpayer money. Uncle Sam is fighting soda …
A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture states that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, more commonly known as food stamps) helps “alleviate” poverty. Essentially, the report says that by including the dollar amount of food stamps as part of a family’s income, fewer families are considered poor—or …
