Welfare: Earlier this month, the government reported that enrollment in food stamps plunged by nearly 600,000 in one month. Is this part of a broader trend toward greater self-reliance?
The Department of Agriculture, which runs the food stamp program — officially called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — reports that enrollment in January was 40.7 million, the lowest it's been since May 2010.
In the months since President Trump has been in office, the number of people collecting food stamps plunged by nearly 2 million.
The same is true for welfare. Enrollment in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program dropped 12% last year, to reach 2.3 million.
Better still, the number of workers on Social Security Disability Insurance was down to 8.6 million in March — a decline of more than 100,000 since January 2017, and the lowest level since February 2012.
So far this year, disability applications have averaged 179,000 a month, compared with more than 193,000 a month in 2016. And the number of people dropping off disability rolls is up.
Medicaid Enrollment Drops
Even enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP — the health care program for the poor and children — dropped by almost a million in 2017, to 74 million. In contrast, enrollment surged by more than 2 million in 2016. (Medicaid's rolls could climb gain if additional states decide to expand the program under ObamaCare.)
In other words, millions of people are now free from at least some of their dependence on federal benefit programs.
Except for Medicaid, these trends have been in place for years, as the growing economy produced the jobs and added income needed to move people toward greater self-sufficiency.
This is obviously good news.
Yet all too often, rising enrollment is the metric of success used by advocates. Which helps explain the hostility toward adding work requirements to receive certain federal benefits.
Work For Benefits
ObamaCare, for example, allowed able-bodied childless adults — with incomes above the poverty line — to enroll in Medicaid in expansion states. Because these states are now picking up a bigger share of the expansion costs, many are looking to impose work requirements to stay on the program. There's also a push to add work requirements for food stamps.
That may seem heartless. But keep in mind that most of these programs have the word "temporary" right in their titles. They were never envisioned as permanent means of support, but a way to cover over rough patches.
When you look at it that way, the best measure of success for any poverty programs is for enrollment to keep trending toward zero.
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/food-stamps-disability-welfare-medicaid-enrollment/Here's a break from the doom and gloom, economic recession, imminent stock market crash, time-to-buy-gold, econopocalyptic material that is often posted here--for whatever reason. There are many positives in our current financial and economic landscape which go unreported and neglected by the media. Decreases in welfare programs will cut state spending and contribute towards deficit and debt becoming more manageable. What we're witnessing is the US government becoming more efficient and streamlined by adopting proactive policies which create jobs and strengthen the economy, rather than reactionary measures which tend to be far less effective.
While some might disagree with a looming "US vs China tariff war" bordering on the horizon and cite economic negatives in terms of unfunded liabilities, nations abandoning the petro dollar, gold being repatriated and a host of other negative factors. There are positives in terms of job creation numbers and declining welfare enrollment which are neglected points in the media.
In the months since President Trump has been in office, the number of people collecting food stamps plunged by nearly 2 million.
Of course, it is also possible that food stamp enrollment is declining due to americans fleeing to canada and moving abroad not wanting to live in the US now that Donald Trump is President.
Anyway, here's an attempt @ good news for a change.
