stamps

Trump administration officials are trying to cut enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP but still sometimes called “food stamps.” They say that too many people are getting this aid in a strong economy. The program helped about 35 million low-income people buy food in 2019. The average recipient gets US$128.60 a month, about $1.40 per person per meal. In December 2019, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced changes that require more SNAP recipients to work or lose their benefits. While speaking with reporters, he alluded to what he called the “original intent of food stamps” – moving “more able-bodied recipients off of SNAP benefits toward self-sufficiency.” The Trump administration is also seeking to take more executive actions that would cut ...

Where did all the jobs go? Well, we’re finally starting to find some satisfactory answers to the granddaddy of all economic questions. The share of Americans with jobs dropped 4.5 percentage points from 1999 to 2016 - amounting to about 6.8 million fewer workers in 2016. Between 50 and 70 percent of that decline probably was due to an aging population. Explaining the remainder has been the inspiration for much of the economic research published after the Great Recession. Economists and politicians have pointed at immigration, China, video games, robots, opioids, universities, working spouses - everything up to and including the academic equivalent of shrugging their shoulders and muttering, “Kids these days.” Until recently, there was no good system to untangle it all. University of ...

Tag: stamps

Scaling back SNAP for self-reliance clashes with the original goals of food stamps

Fewer Americans are working don’t blame immigrants or food stamps