"We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls people to lives of complacencies and dependencies, into a permanent condition where they never get on their feet." -Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin)
"I get home and realize I'm hungry. No need to ask myself what I feel like eating. It will be Farina for breakfast - all week long." -Sheila Steffen, reporter attempting to subsist on food stamps for a week.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, is one of the most efficient, effective, penny-pinching programs in today's government-scape. Food stamps have cushioned the recession's blow for the 45 million Americans that depend on them for daily meals. And we're not talking government-subsidized caviar: On average, food stamp recipients can expect an allotment of $30 per week.
Plus, it's a dream of a stimulus - every $5 in SNAP benefits generates nearly double that in economic activity.
However, as the race to 2012 builds and the crazies get crazier, the top GOP presidential hopefuls have turned on this all-star program with a vengeance.
In September, Rick Perry proclaimed a "Hunger Action Month," expressing "deep concern" for his state's hungry families. It was about time: Texas has the second-highest rate of food insecurity in the country. However, it appears that Perry staunchly opposes action to alleviate the problem.
Just a week and a half before his grand "awareness" proclamation, Perry trash-talked food stamps to a South Carolina luncheon audience. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (the census showed that in 2010, 3.9 million Americans - almost half of them children - were boosted out of poverty by food stamps), Perry denied SNAP's role as economic stimulus.
"Most Americans do not yearn to be dependent on government subsidies," he said. "They want economic freedom, and economic freedom comes from work and wages, not welfare."
