By fitsnews – September 5, 2012
AMERICA’S DEPENDENCE ECONOMY IS GROWING
According to statistics released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a record 46.7 million Americans were enrolled in food stamp programs during the month of June. That’s up slightly from May’s 46.5 million mark – and way up from the 32 million people enrolled in food stamp programs when U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
The monthly tab for this ever-expanding program? An estimated $6 billion. In fact the annual tab for the fiscal year ending last September was a whopping $75.7 billion.
Ouch, right?
Of course it’s worth noting that food stamp usage also soared by more than 50 percent under the “compassionate conservatism” of former president George W. Bush – who dramatically expanded the program in 2002.
Food stamps have become the subject of controversy in South Carolina after workers at the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) – the agency which doles out these benefits - alleged that state bureaucrats were “cooking the books and supplying the federal government with false information.” Specifically, the agency has been accused of deliberately misleading the public regarding its food stamp error rate – thus creating artificial reductions that enable our state to receive more federal money.
South Carolina has one of the highest food stamp usage rates in America – costing taxpayers $1.3 billion annually.
***
