Food stamp usage is at record levels according to the New York Times, with one in eight Americans now receiving benefits. There are several reasons for the upswing, including expanded eligibility in the 2000s and the severe economic downturn. The following chart shows the dramatic rise in spending for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as the Food Stamp program until 2008 when Congress changed its name to sound more palatable.
Downsizing Blog
Stimulus Hypocrisy and the Tea Partiers
The Washington Times recently used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain letters sent to the USDA by numerous Republican lawmakers seeking stimulus money for their constituents. All of these Republicans had publicly criticized the stimulus and voted against it.
Healthcare Fraud Summit
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder recently convened a “National Summit on Health Care Fraud.” The two-hour event can be viewed at C-SPAN’s website.
The Government IS Creating Jobs
Federal government jobs that is. According to the president’s new budget, federal civilian employment in the executive branch will be 15% higher in 2011 than it was in 2007:
Kent Conrad and Fiscal Federalism
Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) has a reputation for being a “deficit hawk.” But the bar is apparently so low in Washington that merely paying lip service to “fiscal responsibility” is enough to earn you the hawk title in the press. In reality, Conrad is a tax and spender as a story in today’s Wall Street Journal demonstrates.
FHA Bailout Watch
The Federal Housing Administration has been one of the government’s main instruments for propping up the housing market in the wake of the housing bust. But as has been widely reported, the FHA is in danger of needing a taxpayer bailout because of rising defaults on mortgages it insures.
Obama Budget Still Goes to the Moon
The president’s new budget proposes to end NASA’s Constellation program, a Bush initiative intended to put humans back on the moon by 2020. But Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget still goes to the moon figuratively—if you stacked 3.8 trillion one dollar bills, the pile would reach the moon with 20,000 miles to spare!
Deficit Prognostications
Exactly two years ago, George W. Bush released his final budget. Here’s what the Washington Post had to say:
Obama's Budget Worse than Bush
In the defensive-sounding statement released with his budget this morning, President Obama repeatedly blames the previous administration for leaving him in a position where he had “no choice” but to send the nation deeper into debt. He blames “irresponsible risk-taking and debt-fueled speculation—unchecked by sound oversight” for a deep recession that he speciously claims his administration’s massive spending prevented from becoming a depression.
State and Local Subsidies
Earlier this week I criticized the U.S. Conference of Mayors for going to Washington and groveling for more federal hand-outs. Let me provide some more background for my criticisms with a look at federal budget data. The first chart shows that since 1960, total federal subsidies to state and local government have increased an astounding 1,173%.
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