The Food Stamp President

Okay, let's first just look at the history.

The first food stamp program --they were called "food scrips" then-- originated in the thirties, in response to the widespread need during the Depression. Participants could buy a defined amount's worth of "orange" stamps, which were good for any food item, and with them get a proportional amount of "blue" stamps, that could be used to purchase only surplus commodity foods. By the end of its first year the program was regarded as a success in two ways: (1) as the nation began to ramp up its military preparedness, food stamps were viewed as enabling a larger supply of potential soldiers who were physically fit, malnutrition having been a serious problem; and (2) the food stamp program provided a market for surplus agricultural products and thus kept farm prices from collapsing --the government was already concerned about maintaining robust farm production to meet the needs of what looked like a brewing war effort.

This program was discontinued in 1943; the food surplus and the unemployment problem had vanished due to the war. It was revived during the 1961 recession by President Kennedy, and made applicable only in a few coal-mining areas where changes in the economy had produced widespread unemployment (Kennedy had begun his presidential campaign with an unexpected victory in the West Virginia primary, and the program was the result of a campaign promise). The first recipient was a miner whose mine had been closed a year earlier, and who had 13 children. He got a monthly allotment of $95, which the FDA expected would cover about one-third of his family's need.

In 1964, the program was expanded across the nation as part of the War on Poverty. Ronald Reagan, in campaigning in 1976, attacked the specter of a "strapping young buck" --yes, he really said that, in Florida-- using food stamps to buy a T-bone steak; but a year later, during another recession, the program had just over 16 million participants. By the way, there were 220 million people in the USA then, compared to 314 million today).

Jumping ahead, the number of people fell in the early '80s (Reagan, again) but then grew rapidly in the '90s; there were 27 Million participants in 1994. Republican efforts during the Clinton Administration succeeded in defining the food stamp program as "welfare," thus subjecting participants to the new work requirements that were a centerpiece of the Clinton "end welfare as we know it." As a result, enrollment began to decline substantially: single mothers and their toddlers aren't good candidates for work, it turns out, nor are elderly sick people. It was estimated in 2001 that half of the eligible population no longer received food stamps. Under G.W. Bush, the program was again liberalized, though, as the price the Democratic Congress exacted for an expansion of the farm subsidy program. Under Bush, the program also dispensed with paper coupons and began using electronic benefit cards; this step, along with the program's new name, Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance (SNAP) reduced the stigma of food stamps. In 2008, according to the Food and Nutrition Service of the USDA, about 66% of the 41 million eligible persons were actually receiving SNAP benefits. Overall participation was about 20 Million people in 2000; that had grown to about 30 Million in 2009; the average monthly benefit per person in the program is currently about $125. Currently, about 47 million people receive benefits. Well over $50 million is spent annually on the program.

Now: What does it mean to call Obama the "Food Stamp President?"

Well, certainly the number of people receiving SNAP benefits has grown during Obama's administration. Unemployment has also grown, dramatically. Here are some numbers:

	Month	Jobs Lost
	Aug '08	300,000
	Sep	450,000
	Oct	550,000
	Nov	725,000
	Dec	650,000
	Jan'09	780,000
	Feb	720,000
	Mar	750,000
	Apr	500,000
	May	400,000
	Jun	500,000
	Jul	350,000

That's nearly 7 Million jobs lost in the last 6 months of the Bush Administration and the first 6 months of the Obama Administration. In only one month during 2008 and 2009 was there a net gain in employment. If the eight or nine million people who lost jobs during those 2 years had one dependent each, and if all of them applied for SNAP starting 6 to 12 months after they became unemployed, that would account for an increase from 30 million at the start of 2009 to well over 45 million, all by itself.

Of course, the overly-simplistic nature of this analysis is obvious, on several counts; but the point is just to demonstrate that the increase in people on food stamps should not have been unexpected. It's very similar to the argument that government expenditures exploded under Obama, or that government employment spiked, again, as an example of waste, growth in big government, and so on, during the first part of 2010. There are reasons for this, and they point to the proper functioning of government rather than to the excesses of our first Muslim, Socialist, America-hating president. Automatic increases in unemployment compensation payments largely account for any unusual growth in government expenditures, and government employment in 2010 spiked, in April, due to the hiring of hundreds of thousands of temporary Census workers --it dropped back to the pre-Census level two months later.

So: you can complain that Obama didn't do enough to end the recession or to stanch the bleeding, where unemployment is concerned. I agree with that. But the food-stamp situation is just an aspect of that, not a separate indictment, as if there was an Obama plot to put zillions of people on food stamps.