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Gov. Corbett declares war on food stamps
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has announced a major assault on the food stamp program that feeds 1.8 million Pennsylvanians, including 439,245 in Philadelphia.
Gov. Corbett declares war on food stamps
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has announced a major assault on the food stamp program that feeds 1.8 million Pennsylvanians, including 439,245 in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare announced that on May 1, people under 60 with more than $2,000 in savings or other assets will be barred from receiving food stamps. People over 60 would have a $3,250 cap.
As the Inquirer points out in a detailed look, the move to cut food stamps is way out of line with what other states are doing: “Pennsylvania plans to make the amount of food stamps that people receive contingent on the assets they possess — an unexpected move that bucks national trends and places the commonwealth among a minority of states.”
The trend during the Great Recession, with millions falling into poverty, has been to remove such barriers to assistance. Gov. Ed Rendell eliminated the state's asset test in 2008. Pennsylvania now joins 11 states with asset tests — including Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and South Dakota.
Eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” is an old and recurrent refrain from those who seek to dismantle the country's social welfare system. But it's a cynical ruse: 30 percent of those eligible for food stamps in Pennsylvania don't receive them. According to federal data, the Inquirer notes, Pennsylvania has a fraud rate of just one-tenth of 1 percent.
Conservatives frequently bristle at the idea that poor people might have nice things while receiving public assistance ("they have a television on welfare!"). But Pennsylvania will now create the most bizarre of disincentives: dissuading poor people from saving.
“We all know that families need to save money to get off government assistance and achieve self-sufficiency,” according to a press release from Carey Morgan, Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. “So it’s not only inhumane, but counterproductive to force people to drain their savings before they can get any help. Someone with less than $2,000 in the bank would easily be wiped out by one visit to the emergency room.”
The City of Philadelphia has condemned the move, as have local retailers who stand to lose business from food stamp recipients. The food stamp program is a major economic stimulus: every dollar of public funds spent on food stamps grows GDP by $1.73.
There was a time not too long ago when even Republicans seemed to support the food stamp program.
In November 2009, The New York Times announced “Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades": “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.”
How quickly things change — for the uglier and more racist. Newt Gingrich frequently calls Obama the “food stamp president” and Rick Santorum has declared, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” In April, House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) proposed cutting $127 billion from the food stamp program. This is all motivated by a powerful idea: it is poor people's fault that they are poor, and they should be punished for it. And though the program is stigmatized as a handout to urban blacks, whites make up a far greater share of recipients.
According to a recent article in The Nation, 46.3 million Americans benefit from food stamps — one out of seven. In 2010, food stamps brought 3.9 million people out of poverty.
“Food stamps are really the only functioning part of the safety net,” the New York Coalition Against Hunger's Joel Berg told The Nation. “It’s the only thing left.”
It's not like the guy is putting an end to food stamp assistance altogether, just for people who have EXTRA MONEY. If you have a couple grand saved (and Corbett's not counting your house, retirement accounts or a car) then you have extra, which should be enough to cover your own grocery bill.— Peter Fontana- That "extra money" is not extra! It is for in case of emergency... the car breaks down, the furnace breaks down, your out of work sick for three months and need to pay the mortgage... there is no help out there for those NECESSITIES!. Obviously you have never been part of the working poor... slaving at minimum wage, trying to support a family. Foodstamps help relieve the pressure! And society has a responsibility to help ALL her citizens... not just let the rich get richer off the poor working slaves in their businesses!!!
— Vicky C801 - Vicky: Common sense was never a virtue to many commentators here. They'll have a problem with anything that helps poor people, but cheer for anything that helps rich people. They're masochists. — DonnaMe
- Peter:
That's just the thing. If you have a car, you are screwed under Corbett's plan. Unless they make a vehicle exception.— Phil Perspective - Agreed... especially if you have two, one for you and one for your spouse! Oh yeah... that is one too many ...
— Vicky C801 - People who have been saving up all year to pay their property taxes and insurance, or first last and deposit in order to move will just have to go back to the under the mattress or in a fruit jar in the back yard savings strategy. This is very stupid.— thebewilderness
- Peter, how much do you spend on groceries? divide that into 2K and see how many months that will last you. Now where would that leave you if you were receiving assistance?— oceansizesound
- So the working poor who save money to fix their car to get to work, or fix their furnace when it breaks down, or pay their mortgage if they lose their job... are being penalized! Or they are the working poor trying to save money for a down payment of home to buy! They lose help if they are being responsible!— Vicky C801
- There are no jobs for experienced people with college degrees. Unemployment is at an all time high. This attack will hurt women, children and the elderly more than anyone. What a big man Corbett is. Instead of fighting the federal government for MORE funds for the vulnerable people of his state, Corbett attacks the weakest of the weak. Oh Ignatz, throw another brick at my head, please.— MorganLefay
- This is dumb. What really needs to happen is people need to stop using food stamps for booze, cigarettes and fast food.— applesz
- This was the case YEARS ago. When food stamps were paper money. Since they are now on a type of debit card, this no longer happens. If you don't know what's going on, do the research first! — sweetzie
- According to the PA Budget & Policy Center, "During 2010, the poverty rate increased to 15.1%, the highest level since 1993, with a record-breaking 46.2 million American adults and children living in poverty...The number of children in poverty grew by 950,000, from 15.5 million to 16.4 million...Public benefit programs such as unemployment insurance, Food Stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit on household income played an important role in making up for reduced jobs, wages and hours in the private sector. In 2010, 3.9 million Americans, including 1.9 million children, were lifted out of poverty because of Food Stamps, while 3.2 million Americans were kept out of poverty by unemployment insurance benefits."— MorganLefay
- I work with someone on Food Stamps had some opportunity to work some OT this week did not take it.— Cook31
- Maybe they couldn't take it because they needed to pay the babysitter extra so that's where the OT money would have went. Did you ever bother thinking of that? — DonnaMe
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