Are you aware that the United States Senate just passed the Farm bill which provides funding for the Department of Agriculture? The vote was 66-27, so it was, as they say, a bipartisan bill. Spending is pegged at $955 billion over the next ten years. That's right, the Department of Agriculture is going to spend just under one trillion dollars over the next decade. Even worse, the senators portray this bill as "cutting" spending by $24 billion during that period, a cut which includes a reduction of $4 billion in the food stamp program.
Let's just take a step back for a moment. Food stamps or, as it is now known, SNAP, covers about 80% of the spending included in this bill. The Department of Agriculture is running a welfare program rather than the Department of Health and Human Services which runs most of the others. USDA has, for the most part, little to do with agriculture and the "Farm" bill has little to do with farmers and farming.
We also need to realize that the senators put out news that aggregates spending for the next ten years, even though this bill really only authorizes spending for the next year alone. What this means is that the cut in food stamps mentioned above is not $4 billion but really about $300 million during the next fiscal year. That is a cut of $300 million out of spending of about $75 billion. In other words, it is a cut of less than one half of one percent.
Spending on food stamps has soared during the last five years under president Obama. The total has risen by about 50% during those five years. Now, those penny pinching Democrats who control the senate want to cut the program back by less than half a percent.
For the last few years, we have been told consistently by Obama and his party that the economy is recovering. We have been told that millions of jobs have been created. We have been told that happy days are here again. So why is an additional 5% or so of the population of the country on food stamps? Why is poverty and hunger spreading in the midst of all this economic growth?
The Republicans in the House have their own version of the Farm bill. The GOP bill cuts the food stamp program by about 2.5% over the next decade. This is hardly a drastic cut. Indeed, it would bring the number of folks on food stamps only down slightly so that there would still be more than 45% more recipients than on the day Obama took office. Even so, the Democrats and Republicans are getting ready for yet another fight in which the Obamacrats will call the GOP cruel and heartless and the GOP will call the Obamacrats spendthrifts and unmindful of the impending debt debacle.
The real truth is that neither plan comes close to doing what is necessary. Before 2009, America somehow managed to get by with over ten million fewer folks on food stamps. We could easily go back to that level again. It would not require much in the way of tightening the requirements to get the food stamps. Only those with higher income levels would be bounced from the plan. The country, however, would save about a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next ten years. That is quite a nice chunck of change. We cannot continue to live in a society where once someone is given a benefit, it can never be taken away. America has to live within its means. Until the economy actually recovers (not just a phony Obama recovery), there need to be small cutbacks.
Let's just take a step back for a moment. Food stamps or, as it is now known, SNAP, covers about 80% of the spending included in this bill. The Department of Agriculture is running a welfare program rather than the Department of Health and Human Services which runs most of the others. USDA has, for the most part, little to do with agriculture and the "Farm" bill has little to do with farmers and farming.
We also need to realize that the senators put out news that aggregates spending for the next ten years, even though this bill really only authorizes spending for the next year alone. What this means is that the cut in food stamps mentioned above is not $4 billion but really about $300 million during the next fiscal year. That is a cut of $300 million out of spending of about $75 billion. In other words, it is a cut of less than one half of one percent.
Spending on food stamps has soared during the last five years under president Obama. The total has risen by about 50% during those five years. Now, those penny pinching Democrats who control the senate want to cut the program back by less than half a percent.
For the last few years, we have been told consistently by Obama and his party that the economy is recovering. We have been told that millions of jobs have been created. We have been told that happy days are here again. So why is an additional 5% or so of the population of the country on food stamps? Why is poverty and hunger spreading in the midst of all this economic growth?
The Republicans in the House have their own version of the Farm bill. The GOP bill cuts the food stamp program by about 2.5% over the next decade. This is hardly a drastic cut. Indeed, it would bring the number of folks on food stamps only down slightly so that there would still be more than 45% more recipients than on the day Obama took office. Even so, the Democrats and Republicans are getting ready for yet another fight in which the Obamacrats will call the GOP cruel and heartless and the GOP will call the Obamacrats spendthrifts and unmindful of the impending debt debacle.
The real truth is that neither plan comes close to doing what is necessary. Before 2009, America somehow managed to get by with over ten million fewer folks on food stamps. We could easily go back to that level again. It would not require much in the way of tightening the requirements to get the food stamps. Only those with higher income levels would be bounced from the plan. The country, however, would save about a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next ten years. That is quite a nice chunck of change. We cannot continue to live in a society where once someone is given a benefit, it can never be taken away. America has to live within its means. Until the economy actually recovers (not just a phony Obama recovery), there need to be small cutbacks.
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