The Food Stamp or SNAP(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ) program is turning this once great nation into a population of lazy, self entitled, and just plain useless organisms. A parasitic one at that, taking everything they can but give little in return. This is a dangerous lifestyle that we cannot afford to keep accepting. I personally have witnessed people take their food stamp cards to certain convenience stores and get half the amount of cash for their stamps. It just seems that each day I see something or someone and I just wonder how they can live with themselves. The amount of Americans applying for food stamps jumped an incredible seventy percent from 2007 but an increased of sixty three percent happened during George W's eight year reign . A total of FORTY SIX MILLION people are on food stamps, that's one out of every seven Americans.(Crimi) The idea that someone else should feed,clothe, and shelter people has become an epidemic. I do believe that SNAP can help those who truly need but it must be regulated and used properly. Those who support SNAP say it has boosted our economy, but the money being spent is by our bankrupt government. It is a fast and easy way to make the once mighty dollar into what it actually is, a worthless piece paper. It's an unfortunate lesson to the children who grow up learning the blueprint of how to get by with as little work as possible.You ask, why should I care, It's not my problem; That's how we ended up in this mess and it is only going to get worse if that continues to be the attitude. It is a fact that as early as the 1920's government aided food programs were met with stiff resistance from many people. John Q Tilson, The Majority Leader of the House in the 1930's said " It was an idea of Revolutionary Character and it would end an American tradition of self-reliance, that it would establish the dole in the U.S."( qtd. Roth) The federal government food stamp budget has grown to seventy two billion dollars a year and shows no signs of slowing down! No child or anyone should go to bed hungry but those who can provide for themselves, must.
The year the whispers began for government aide to feed the hungry was 1932 , before that local charities and those in the community took on that responsibility.( Roth) The initial program was focused on helping the farmers who were hurt by to worldwide competition and high prices. In an eight year battle and two presidential veto's the McNary/Haugen bill was finally passed.( Roth) The Farm Board was created and their first action was to buy all the surplus wheat. Government warehouses filled with wheat did not sit well with the public, who were in the mists of The Great Depression . Newspapers reports of wide spread hunger led Americans to speak out for the government to help. President Herbert Hoover and congress thought Americans work ethic would be compromised and did little about the issue. Enter Franklin Delano Roosevelt who during his first years helped to create the Agricultural Adjustment Administration(AAA) and Federal Surplus Relief Corporation(FSRC). The AAA was focused again on the farming economy but FSRC would be directly involved in the public's welfare. The AAA , spent 75 million dollars to buy surplus agricultural food products to help feed the unemployed and needy during the winter's of 1933-34. The FSRC provided about $7.80 per person per year and $60 was spent or received in groceries by it's recipients.(Roth) In 1939 the USDA began an experimental Food Stamps Program, both recipients and advocates thought a steadier flow of food and a more varied nutritious diet would be accomplished. There were two kinds of stamps blue and orange; The orange were purchased at face value allowing people to buy anything, half that amount in blue stamps were given free but could only be used to purchase foods declared Surplus.( Roth) The illicit trafficking of stamps was a problem but the outbreak of WWII caused an economic boom for America and the program was abandoned. During John F. Kennedy's campaign for president he witnessed poverty in West Virginia and his first executive order increased the USDA's surplus commodity distribution program. The Food Stamp Act of 1964 authorized spending for three years and started at $75 million in 1965 and was raised to $200 million by 1967. During the next decade enrollment rose steadily from 4.3 million to 9.4 million. In September of 1977 a new Food Stamp Bill was passed, giving for the first time, free food stamps to families whose income was less than $30 a month. The beginning of Americans dependence on government aide to make sure our needs were well taken care of starts. Many have passed this tradition down generations and have become totally dependent on the government.( Roth)
The most recent USDA numbers are proof that our population is becoming more and more dependent on government to live. January's 2012 report of 46.5 million Americans on SNAP and an expected growth rate of 5% a year are disturbing, to say the least. During our most recent great recession more enrollment was expected but June 2009, marked an economic upturn,since then 10 million more have enrolled. People or families receive benefits based on food insecurity, which is considered making less than 130% of the poverty line. As of September 2011, 17.2 million households were food insecure, 6.4 million were very low, and 1.4 lived on $2 or less per person per day.The last statistic has doubled over the past fifteen years and has showed no signs of slowing or leveling off. The percentages of households with children on SNAP is 71%, 47% are children under the age of eighteen. The elderly, who many think would make up a significant percent are shocked to find it is only 8%. People who enrolled in the early and mid 2000's, stayed on the program on average seven years. Half of that number is back on the program within two years of leaving the program. The average benefit amount for households is $277 a month and $132 for individuals. These numbers are calculated with the assumption that SNAP participants spend 30% of their income on food but the national average is 8% according to the consumer price index(CPI). The CPI determines the amount people spend on everything from food to the amount of men's polo shirts bought in San Francisco.Why it is 22% higher then the average is a question with no answer. Keith Hennessey, economic adviser to George W. Bush said "We have a very large share of the American population getting checks from the government, and an increasingly smaller portion of the population paying for it"(qtd. in Miller). Ronald Regan dubbed the term "Welfare Queen" while on the campaign trail in 1976. Regan said" There's a woman in Chicago, she has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 social security cards . ... She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000."( qtd. in Blake.) This was a fictitious person but there are people close to this description! Two women, both from Los Angeles, did their best to play the part of the Welfare Queen. One collected $377,458 in welfare benefits in seven years and lived in a house with a swimming pool. She did drive a Cadillac, along with a Rolls Royce and Mercedes Benz, Gustafson, author of Cheating Welfare discovered.( Blake). Those who say every $5 in food stamps generates about $9.27, have you think well that seems good. The fact is, it's a recipe to bankrupt our nation and hand to our future generations a problem with no solution!
The reality is some of us need help and I am fine with that. It becomes a problem when the helping hand becomes a handout and the one receiving the handouts is a glutton with 46.5 million hands. The feeling of entitlement has got to stop, we cannot continue to teach our children that it's okay not to work and lounge around the house all day. The U.S., once a super charged Chevy other countries wanted to emulate. Today, that same Chevy is on blocks sitting in the front lawn and is serious need of repair. In 2007 the USDA investigated fraud among SNAP participants and retailers who except them. The results, 1.365 indictments, 944 convictions, and 792 sanctions against businesses and individuals, who cheated the program for more than $200 million. A 2011 USDA report showed out of 4,600 retailers found to be defrauding the program and were permanently banned, 1,492 still are involved with SNAP.( Crimi) I myself have received SNAP. I almost lost a foot and was unable to work but I applied for school to become part of the solution. An article, about a new character on Sesame Street from the web site called American Dream said it all "This new character comes from a family that is poverty-stricken and that struggles to get enough food. She is going to teach the other residents of Sesame Street the facts about hunger in America."(American Dream,Sesame Street Poverty Stricken) If all the people receiving SNAP were to be considered a state, it would be the largest one in the union. ( Durden) It isn't the lack of jobs or the economy, it is people are content to let the smaller and smaller amount of us pick up the tab.It's not a racial thing either, one person, and we are all people, must do their part to make our nation become great again. The only person holding each one of us back, is you and who doesn't want to help fix up that Chevy and take her for a spin!
Works Cited
Blake, John. "Return of the Welfare Queen." CNN.com.
Cable News Network. 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 04 May. 2012.
United States. Dept. of Agriculture. " FOOD STAMPS: 1932-1977: From Provisional and Pilot Programs to Permanent Policy." Economic Research Service. 2005. Web.
Durden, Tyler. "FoodStamp Nation." ZEROHEDGE.com.
ABC Media. 20 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 May. 2012.
"Muppets Are Poverty Stricken and Hungry." ENDOFTHEAMERICANDREAM.com.
American Dream. 24 Oct. 2011. Web. 04 May. 2012.
Crimi, Frank. "Food Stamp Nation." FRONTPAGEMAG.com
FrontPageMag. 20 Apr. 2012. Web. 01 May. 2012.
