Monday, April 23, 2012

Obama's America: Forty-five million people – that's one in seven living in the United States – received food stamps in 2011

That's a 70% increase from 2007, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office. It shows that in 2010, about three out of four food stamp households included a child, a person older than 60 or someone who is disabled. Most households getting food stamps were very low income, only about $8,800 per year. The average food stamp benefit per household was about $290 a month, which comes out to $4.30 per person per day. The worst part is food stamp use is only expected to grow. In 2022, it's estimated that spending on food stamps will be among the highest of all non-health related federal programs for the poor. Speaking of spending, it follows that the cost of the food stamp program has skyrocketed along with the growing number of participants. The cost rose from $30 billion in 2007 to $72 billion in 2011. The CBO says that about two-thirds of the cost increase is due to more people getting food stamps. But spending is also going up due to temporarily higher benefits from the stimulus law.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nearer, my love, to insolvency.