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Reuters Labels U.S. “Food Stamp Nation”

  • Spence Cooper
  • September 1, 2011

Reuters news service recently characterized the U.S. as having become Food Stamp Nation. And for good reason: almost 46 million people in the United States are now receiving Food Stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population — an increase of 74 percent within just 4 years.

In 2009, one in ten Americans were on food stamps, a record 32 million at the time. Food Stamp usage has nearly doubled in the last 2 years. And next year, the GOVT knows the number of Food Stamp recipients will be even higher.

Food Stamp costs doubled to 68 billion in 2010 — more than a third of the amount the U.S. government received in corporate income tax last year, notes Reuters.

Bill Simon, head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations claims the company has seen an increase in the number of shoppers relying on government assistance for food.

And Wal-Mart should now, because even as Wal-Mart stores have experienced a rise in earnings from a year earlier, Wal-Mart saw the ninth straight drop in its U.S. store sales last quarter.

Wal-Mart blamed the continued shortfall in store sales on fewer shoppers, and claims overall customer traffic at Wal-Mart stores was down last quarter compared to the previous year.

“We remain concerned about the economic pressure on our customers and the uncertain impact it can have on their shopping behavior,” Wal-Mart’s U.S. chief, Bill Simon, said in a statement.

Simon noted that Wal-Mart shoppers have downsized their buying habits; shoppers are buying more groceries and household goods, and cutting back on non-essential items such as clothing and home furnishings.

In fact for many, the economic outlook is so bleak they’re passing up Wal-Mart all together in favor of dollar stores such as Dollar General, and Family Dollar.

Reuters Labels U.S. “Food Stamp Nation”According to Reuters, roughly forty percent of food stamp recipients are in households in which at least one member of the family earns wages. The government estimates one in three who could be on the program are not.

“If they’re working, they often think they can’t get help. But people can’t support their families on $10, $11, $12 an hour jobs, especially when you add transport, clothes, rent.” said Carolyn McLaughlin, executive director of BronxWorks, a social services organization in New York.

House Republicans plan changing the program so that Food Stamp funding is through a “block grant” to the states, rather than allowing it to automatically expand due to an emergency such as a natural disaster or economic crisis.

Millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired exist only on food stamps, Medicaid, and welfare if they qualify. These days, in some parts of the country, Food Stamps usage is the norm.

Whatever the cost is to taxpayers, with approximately 6 million unemployed longer than 26 weeks, and extended benefits set to expire at the end of the year, Washington will quickly learn that cuts to the food stamp program will most assuredly result in civil unrest.

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