The New York Times today exposed a sobering truth about out nation's economy:
MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.
NY Times: Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades
One in eight Americans and one in four children.
More after the fold.
Thank God for Lyndon Johnson. Without food stamps, we would be seeing mass hunger. And with food stamps, people still are hurting.
More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.
snip
While the numbers have soared during the recession, the path was cleared in better times when the Bush administration led a campaign to erase the program’s stigma, calling food stamps "nutritional aid" instead of welfare, and made it easier to apply. That bipartisan effort capped an extraordinary reversal from the 1990s, when some conservatives tried to abolish the program, Congress enacted large cuts and bureaucratic hurdles chased many needy people away.
NY Times: Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades
Bush did a good thing in reducing stigma. And he did many bad things. Life is complex.
This is what Reagan's America created. Low paying jobs or no jobs at all:
With most of his co-workers laid off, Greg Dawson, a third-generation electrician in rural Martinsville, considers himself lucky to still have a job. He works the night shift for a contracting firm, installing freezer lights in a chain of grocery stores. But when his overtime income vanished and his expenses went up, Mr. Dawson started skimping on meals to feed his wife and five children.
When "outreach worker appeared at his son’s Head Start program, Mr. Dawson gave in." He applied for food stamps:
"It’s embarrassing," said Mr. Dawson, 29, a taciturn man with a wispy goatee who is so uneasy about the monthly benefit of $300 that he has not told his parents. "I always thought it was people trying to milk the system. But we just felt like we really needed the help right now."
NY Times: Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades
But the old myths die hard, especially among those who like to believe in a myth of welfare cheats:
Like many new beneficiaries here, Mr. Dawson argues that people often abuse the program and is quick to say he is different. While some people "choose not to get married, just so they can apply for benefits," he is a married, churchgoing man who works and owns his home. While "some people put piles of steaks in their carts," he will not use the government’s money for luxuries like coffee or soda. "To me, that’s just morally wrong," he said.
NY Times: Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades
Sounds like racism to me. But progressives fight for decency and he and his kids deserve food stamps to help them.
So when people tell you the recession is over, even if they have pretty graphs and pictures, think about the one in four children who would not be eating tonight but for social programs enacted by and fought for by the dirty progressive leftists.