Food Stamps = Focus on cutting crop subsidies to the rich, not transfer payments to mostly poor
September 19, 2013 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358914/food-stamps-thought-henry-olsen
Food (Stamps) for Thought
Focus on cutting crop subsidies to the rich, not transfer payments to the (mostly) poor.
By Henry Olsen
The conservative war on food stamps is the most baffling political move of the year. Conservatives have suffered for years from the stereotype that they are heartless Scrooge McDucks more concerned with our money than other people’s lives. Yet in this case, conservatives make the taking of food from the mouths of the genuinely hungry a top priority. What gives? And why are conservatives overlooking a far more egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars in the farm bill?
The Heritage Foundation is leading the charge on this, and its argument (which has been largely adopted by congressional conservatives and House majority leader Eric Cantor) boils down to four points: Food stamps (a.k.a. the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) cost too much, have grown too quickly, encourage government dependency, and discourage work. They note that SNAP now costs around $80 billion a year, up fourfold from the program’s cost in 2000. One in seven Americans, about 47 million, now receive food stamps. About 4 million of these are able-bodied adults without dependents, many of whom work fewer than 20 hours a week or do not work at all.
The problem with the war on food stamps is that there’s one subsidy program in the farm bill that promotes greater dependency than food stamps and is growing just as fast: government-financed crop insurance. Yet conservatives say virtually nothing about this bailout of the rich and focus their ire on payments to the poor.
I can see why conservatives would find the rise in food-stamp enrollment troubling. .......
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