Food stamp presidency makes a comeback

OPINION:

If Barack Obama was the food stamp president — as Newt Gingrich, former House speaker, famously once said — then President Biden is poised to go one better: He wants to make the entitlement program longer term.

Keep ‘em on the dole — that’s what the Democrats always say. The better to win their votes, dontcha know.

“Biden Quietly Preparing for Food Stamp Increase Without Congress,” Bloomberg wrote.

How so?

By making adjustments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food shopping list that’s used to figure how much should be given to program participants. In bureau-speak, it’s called a “review” or “reevaluation” of the government’s Thrifty Food Plan. In layman’s terms, it’s called an increase in entitlement spending using a backdoor channel.

“The Biden administration is reportedly looking into increasing long-term food aid for millions of households, building on the temporary expanded benefits that were included as part of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package,” The Hill wrote.

The hike — the taxpayer-funded hike, don’t forget — could mean an extra $136 per month per family of four.

Attaboy, Joe B.

It’s another step toward the universal basic income the left wants oh-so-badly to inflict on this country, so as to kill the free market, so as to squeeze the middle class, so as to widen the gap between rich and poor, so as to give the few at the top of the financial chain the power to control the many at the bottom.

So as to give the top of the food chain the power to disburse even food.

Back in the Obama days, Gingrich said this of the then-president: “[He’s] the best food stamp president in American history,” and “The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.”

PolitiFact did some fancy, schmancy quick and creative damage control and stuck Gingrich with only a “Half True” for that based on reporting that food stamp use was trending upward before Obama took office. But please. Everybody knows the government giveaway is the Democratic Party’s best friend. 

It’s true, in 2008, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, hit a record high of more than 28 million recipients. then-President George W. Bush, more Republican In Name Only than Republican when it came to entitlement spending, expanded food stamp spending with his thumbs up to a mega-massive-mightily expensive — to taxpayers — farm bill. But Obama took SNAP and ran with it.

“In 2008,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service website reported, “participation in SNAP hit a new high of 28.2 million people following a significant decline in participation through the late 1990s. Participation continued to hit new record highs every year until 2013.”

And 2013 — what a banner year for SNAP it was. That’s when the program hit a new high of 47.6 million users. Between 2013 and 2017, SNAP dole-outs then dropped a bit — but only to 42.1 million.

Bush may have cracked the door for SNAP entitlements. But Obama tore the door off its hinges.

Now comes Biden with a promise to — what, make permanent the once-upon-the-temporary-time entitlement?

“People will have a greater opportunity to afford the basics that they need,” Ellen Vollinger, legal director for Food Research & Action Center, told CNN.

Well, isn’t that nice.

But in America, people who want to buy the basics ought to do it the old-fashioned way: work. Why won’t they? Why aren’t they?

“Furloughed Workers Don’t Want To Return To Their Jobs As They’re Earning More Money With Unemployment,” Forbes wrote in April 2020.

Employees with unemployment benefits not returning to work,” WTVM wrote, just a few days ago. 

The story goes on to state that many businesses “face the struggle of employees not willing to come back to work, because of the extra boost in unemployment benefits.” The extra $300 per week boost in pay that’s just been extended until September.

The Biden Economy: keeping Americans at home, on the taxpayer dole, on the big socialist redistribution of resources plan. 

At this rate, we’ll all be SNAP applicants before the end of the year.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.