The facts about food stamps
everyone should hear
Heritage – Rachel Sheffield
and T. Elliot Gaiser – 5/27/2013
One of the changes in
eligibility requirements is “broad-based categorical eligibility.” This type of
eligibility means that an individual who receives any service under another
welfare program, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—even something
as small as a TANF brochure—can be deemed eligible for food stamps. A full 50
percent of all food stamp recipients now enroll in the program through this
broad-based categorical eligibility procedure.
Moreover, according to
Obama’s budget plans, food stamp spending will not return to pre-recession
levels when the economy improves. “For most of the next decade, food stamp
spending, adjusted for inflation and population growth, would remain at nearly
twice the levels seen during the non-recessionary periods under President Bill
Clinton,” note Rector and Bradley.
What’s more, food stamps are
just one of roughly 80 federally funded means-tested welfare
programs. The total cost of government welfare spending has been on a
nearly continual climb over the past five decades and has increased 16-fold, to
nearly $1 trillion annually, since the 1960s. Welfare is the fastest growing
part of government spending, and under Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget, total
welfare spending will permanently
increase from 4.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 6 percent of
GDP.
However, a significant
portion of able-bodied recipients of food stamps perform little to no work. Of
the roughly 10.5 million households receiving food stamps containing an
able-bodied, non-elderly adult (there are approximately 20 million households
receiving food stamps total), more than half—5.5 million—performed no work
during a given month in 2010. Another 1.5 million to 2 million performed fewer
than 30 hours of work per week. This isn’t unique to the recession, but is
typical even during good economic times.
Programs like food stamps
should be reformed to promote self-reliance through work, empowering
individuals and families to become free from government dependence.
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