Actually, the U.S. Can Afford Welfare
Health care is another matter, but safety-net programs such as food stamps and income support aren’t breaking the bank at all.
When food stamps aren’t enough.
Photographer: John Moore/Getty Images
About 42 million people received benefits in the 2017 fiscal year from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — still widely known as food stamps, although the paper coupons were replaced by debit cards more than a decade ago. That’s a lot of people! It’s almost 13 percent of the U.S. population, which is down from a couple of years ago but quite high by historical standards:
This is context for the efforts by House Republicans to cut back the SNAP program as part of this year’s farm bill, which failed a vote on the House floor last week because of an immigration-policy-related revolt by conservatives but will reportedly be brought up again next month. Somewhat perversely, the SNAP provisions approved by the House Agriculture Committee wouldn’t actually reduce spending, because a work requirement for food stamp recipients is accompanied by outlays on job training programs and administrative costs that more than offset the expected savings.