Mish points to a report by Reuters that some 40 million people are now enrolled in the Food Stamp program (Dang it! They ain't food stamps, it's the SNAP program!)
Mrs. OldSouth hears the gasp in her husband's voice, and asks, 'How many were participating before Obama took office?'
Good question! So, OS does a bit of digging, and arrives at the USDA SNAP site, which provides a detailed history of the program from its founding in 1939 by Henry Wallace, then Secretary of Agriculture under FDR. (Wallace served as Vice-President from 1941-1945, but was tossed under the bus in favor of Truman for the 1944 election. Good thing, since it was discovered later that he was a Soviet agent...but back to the subject of FoodSt-dangit-SNAP!)
The First Food Stamp Program (FSP) - May 16, 1939-Spring 1943
The idea for the first FSP is credited to various people, most notably Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program's first Administrator Milo Perkins. The program operated by permitting people on relief to buy orange stamps equal to their normal food expenditures; for every $1 worth of orange stamps purchased, 50 cents worth of blue stamps were received. Orange stamps could be used to buy any food; blue stamps could only be used to buy food determined by the Department to be surplus.
Over the course of nearly 4 years, the first FSP reached approximately 20 million people at one time or another in nearly half of the counties in the U.S.--peak participation was 4 million--at a total cost of $262 million.
Hey, it was the Depression! And 262 mil wasn't that much, right? Besides, WWII ended the need for it, although the FDA doesn't mention that per se:
The program ended (in 1943) "since the conditions that brought the program into being--unmarketable food surpluses and widespread unemployment--no longer existed.
Fast forward to The New Frontier:
...in fulfillment of a campaign promise made in West Virginia, President Kennedy's first Executive Order called for expanded food distribution and, on Feb. 2, 1961, he announced that food stamp pilot programs would be initiated. The pilot programs would retain the requirement that the food stamps be purchased, but eliminated the concept of special stamps for surplus foods. A Department spokesman indicated the emphasis would be on increasing the consumption of perishables.
Hey, it was Camelot! And there was all that food laying around, and all those votes to be bought with it. And besides, it was a temporary program.
Next stop, 1964, and Lyndon Johnson's running for the office he had lived his entire life for, only to inherit the job under the grimmest of circumstances.
On Jan. 31, 1964, President Johnson requested Congress to pass legislation making the FSP permanent. Secretary Orville Freeman submitted proposed legislation to establish a permanent FSP on April 17, 1964. The bill eventually passed by Congress was H.R. 10222, introduced by Congresswoman Sullivan. Among the official purposes of the Food Stamp Act of 1964 were strengthening the agricultural economy and providing improved levels of nutrition among low-income households; however, the practical purpose was to bring the pilot FSP under Congressional control and to enact the regulations into law...
[A]ppropriations for the first year limited to $75 million; for the second year, to $100 million; and, for the third year, to $200 million.
The Department estimated that participation in a national FSP would eventually reach 4 million, at a cost of $360 million annually.
Hey, it was The Great Society! We were gonna-by-gum eradicate poverty from the land, while running a war in Asia and keeping the lid on Europe, Japan, and Korea. No way we were gonna screw up the economy, right? Besides, we're helping 4 million poh' folks, and it'll only cost us $90 a head. What could go wrong?
OS will let you read the rest of the grim tale, if you care to.
But there are a couple of obvious items to note: We didn't eradicate poverty, and we did screw up the best economy in history.
And, if that many people are eligible for food aid, we don't have an economic recovery underway.
BTW--in answer to Mrs. OS's question:
By August 2008, participation had reached an all-time (non-disaster) high of 29 million people per month.
Sort of makes one's head, well, snap!
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