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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKrugman on Food Stamps and the supposed "explosion of moocherism"
But theres a crucial point such analyses miss: the Bush boom, such as it was, never did trickle down to lower-income Americans the kind of people who might use food stamps. Heres a chart comparing income, in 2012 dollars, at the 20th percentile (left axis, inverted) with the percentage of the population on SNAP:
The Clinton expansion led to a substantial rise in incomes near in the lower part of the distribution, and was accompanied by a sharp fall in SNAP usage. The Bush expansion never did reach many Americans, so its no surprise that SNAP use didnt fall. And then, of course, SNAP use surged in the crisis, which is what is supposed to happen with a safety net program.
Oh, and SNAP use hasnt come down yet in the recovery because for lower-income Americans, there hasnt been a recovery...
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/snap-notes/
gopiscrap
(23,674 posts)dumb ass fucked up political base.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)But they also don't need one. Leaders aren't elected, they're selected based on whose financial backing they have.
They steal from the poor to give to themselves, and the only people who support it are the ones who think they're going to get a piece of the pie at some point.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)just like less than 2% on welfare use illegal drugs. Florida found that out and stopped the testing and others have yet to find the same facts.
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)There's about a 1 to 1.5% trafficking rate (retailers accepting SNAP benefits for items other than eligible food or converting benefits to cash.) There's also a 4% error rate in the benefits issued with most of that error coming from workers not participants.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)on the demonization in the poor in the MSM.
This is the poison we marinate in.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-18-2011/world-of-class-warfare---the-poor-s-free-ride-is-over