There’s a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, and one of the most important factors to remember is that when families gathered around their Thanksgiving tables on Thursday, fewer of those meals were bought with food stamps than in previous years.
Encouraging numbers reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the massive difference between the President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama’s presidencies.
During Trump’s first two years in office, 4.1 million people have been able to get off of the SNAP program (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program), also known as “food stamps.”
That’s a lot of people buying their daily bread with money they earned on the job, instead of relying on the government for a handout.
This is a great improvement — and it could hardly be more different than the depressing Obama years.
More Americans signed up for food stamps under Obama than any other time in U.S. history.
Starting when Obama took office in 2009 until he stepped down eight years later, 10 million Americans joined the food stamps program in order to get by… or in order to avoid getting a job.
At the peak in December 2012, about 47.8 million people had to get government assistance to feed themselves because of the Obama economy.
That increased the squeeze on the middle class, too. Taxpayers had to shell more than $16 billion more money for food stamps at the end of the Obama years because people couldn’t, or wouldn’t, work.
The number of Americans on food stamps increased 68% from 2008 to 2013 — and make no mistake, it was not by accident. It was by design.
Obama tried to follow the Cloward-Piven Strategy to overload America’s welfare rolls, signing up everyone eligible for services in order to create a new socialist economy.
To get that done, he actively recruited people for welfare programs. He even bragged about how much it was supposedly helping the economy.
The Obama White House posted a message — on Thanksgiving weekend 2013, no less — claiming that “SNAP is boosting the economy right now”! His Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, told MSNBC, “When you talk about the SNAP program or the food stamp program, you have to recognize that it’s also an economic stimulus.”
Meanwhile, Democrats just kept applauding and handing out money hand-over-fist. The second highest-ranking Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer, said that boosting food stamp enrollment is one of “the most stimulative (things) that you can do.”
The fact is, food stamps are bad for everybody — including the recipients. Relying on the government can be demoralizing, and in some cases it can make people feel like they don’t need to get a job.
You can’t live the American dream when you’re reliant on food stamps to eat every day. The doors or opportunity don’t open when you swipe your EBT card.
It’s also a bad deal for taxpayers, who have to cut back on their own food bill to pay for others… and sometimes, to pay for lawbreakers. Food stamp fraud cost taxpayers $13 million at just two flea markets — in Opa-Locka and Hileah, Florida, just outside Miami.
The good news is that all of that is history. Those numbers have been steadily decreasing over the past two years.
Trump has given America a job market that’s chugging along at the best rate in years, maybe even decades.
America saw a massive increase of about 6 million jobs in April 2017, and then again with 6.6 million in May 2018.
Taxes are low, wages are rising, and job openings are at a record-high. All this proves that Trump knows how to run a smooth economy, and Obama only knows how to run it into the ground.
Now, Americans who need a job can find one, sometimes after a phone interview without ever meeting the boss in person.
The Trump economy has financially supported throngs of people who moved from welfare to work, from food stamps to feasting.
With Trump’s help 4.1 million people have one more reason to be thankful this holiday season.
–The Horn editorial team