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On May 21, Fox News reported that the number of Americans receiving food stamps had jumped by 70 percent since 2007. This is the latest sad example of Fox leaving out most of the facts to distort public opinion.
With the fervent support of George Bush2, China joined the WTO in 2001. This essentially eliminated our economic border with China. The U.S. government abandoned its obligation to defend the economic interests of average Americans.
According to the CBO from 2001-2005 the number of food stamp recipients (FSR) increased from 17.2 to 25.5 million, a yearly increase of 10.1 percent. From 2005-2009, this number went from 25.5 to 33.5 million. Thus from the CBO, we see that from 2001-2009 the number of food stamp recipients increased by 95 percent. Under Obama this number has increased from 33.5 million to 46.2 million, an increase of 38 percent. If we were to extrapolate the mean FSR growth rate from the first Bush2 term to today, this number works out to be 47.9 million, compared with today’s 46.2 million.
What was the cause of the double-digit growth of food stamps during the Bush2 boom? In 2001, our trade deficit with China was $83.1 billion, and increased to $202.3 billion in 2005. If you regress trade deficit numbers vs. food stamp recipients from 2001-2005, one obtains an R-squared of 97 percent, saying in plain English that the number of food stamp recipients is lock-step clamped to the trade deficit with China. (The reader must understand that such a regression does not prove, but suggests, a relationship between two variables.) During Bush2, 4.6 million manufacturing jobs were destroyed, compared with 0.3 million under Clinton and 0.6 under Reagan.
We see from this analysis that the cause of the growth of the food stamp program is free trade. The Republican pro-Chinese free trade policy of transferring American prosperity to China and hoping for trickle-back is a failure. We see from the analysis of all the numbers — not just dishonestly starting at 2007 as Fox does — that the king of food stamps is George Bush2, not Barack Obama.
The food stamp program is a policy embodiment of American decency. If we want fewer food stamp recipients, the government must resume defending the economic interests of average Americans — not just the 1 percent.
Hank Achor
When we were first married and had two little toddler boys, I could see the need for some clothes and other items they needed. So I went out to a new store in town — Kmart it was called. I thought, “Oh, boy, now I can open a charge account and get the kids what they need.”
So I did. They were giving out credit cards so you could charge all you wanted and pay only $7 per month for the credit. So I rushed home to share the good news with my husband. I thought he’d be delighted.
“Let me see the card,” he said in a serious tone. When I handed the credit card to him, I watched him as he cut it in half. I was horrified and began to cry. Really how could he do such a thing?
Then he was a business major in college and I was an English major. He knew all about what was going on in the real world, and I did not have a clue.
I’d never had a job, except baby-sitting or something related like working at a summer camp for kids, etc. So what did I expect? Never had a course in business, although both my uncles were business owners.
I got a degree without knowing how the world worked.
And I bet a lot of others did the same thing. That’s why we have two political parties. One knows about the real world and the other doesn’t. That’s about what it all boils down to, isn’t it? One thinks they know best.
Ellie Shaw
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