Cutting Federal Spending: The Case Of Food Stamps

Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 16 May, 2025 | Francis Menton

[MtnClimber]

Down in the swamps of Washington, D.C., our Congress is said to be hard at work hammering out a budget for the coming fiscal year. With a crisis of massive deficits looming, supposedly they are going to come up with some major areas where government spending can be cut.

One of the areas under consideration for significant cuts is the program formally known as the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” or SNAP, and informally known as “food stamps.” According to the latest data from the Department of Agriculture, as of February 2025 the SNAP program had some 42+ million “participation persons,” with the cost of the program running at just under $8 billion per month, which is close to $100 billion per year.

Is it possible to achieve meaningful savings in this program? That depends on whether you think that the government’s goal should be to maximize the number of people living on handouts and in a state of dependency, or whether instead you think that the government’s goal should be to maximize the number of people living by their own resources and without dependency. The history of the program over the past several decades would suggest that plenty of current program participants are fully capable of making it on their own.

However, needless to say, the left-wing press has risen to the occasion to defend every last penny of current spending on the ground that any cut would constitute a cruel blow to the vulnerable. For one example among many that are available, let me pick on my usual whipping boy, the New York Times. The Times has a piece from Monday (May 12) with the headline and subheadline “Republicans Target Federal Anti-Hunger Program as They Prepare Trump Tax Package; Limiting funding for SNAP could help defray the costs of President Trump’s tax plans, but could result in millions of low-income families losing access to aid.” Excerpt:

House Republicans on Monday proposed a series of sharp restrictions on the federal anti-hunger program known as food stamps, seeking to limit its funding and benefits as part of a sprawling package to advance President Trump’s tax cuts. . . . The moves could result in potentially millions of low-income families losing access to the safety net program.

On cue, the Times rolls out a program advocate to throw around some inflammatory rhetoric:

Proponents of the food stamp program say that it has long served as a critical lifeline for low-income families by ensuring that they do not experience hunger. . . . “Slashing billions from SNAP would deepen hunger, increase poverty, and weaken communities,” said Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of the Food Research & Action Center, an advocacy group.

However, looking at the history of the program, what emerges is that it became bloated during the Covid pandemic, and the Bidenauts were only to happy to keep it that way. The best resource I find for a counter-view on food stamps is something called the Economic Policy Innovation Center, or EPIC. They have a web page called the EPIC Food Stamps Resource, updated to May 1, 2025. Some key data:

- In 2001, when Bill Clinton left office, the number of participants in the food stamp program was 17.3 million.

- During the George W. Bush years, food stamp enrollment went up substantially, reaching 28 million in 2008.

- But then, once Barack Obama took office, enrollment really started to soar. As recounted in this Manhattan Contrarian post from 2013, the Obama administration undertook an aggressive advertising and outreach effort to maximize food stamp enrollment. By 2013, enrollment had reached 47.24 million. Essentially all of that increase took place during times of economic expansion, when the normal expectation would be that enrollment would decline.

- During his first term, Trump and his people made substantial progress in decreasing the food stamp rolls. By Trump’s last year in office, enrollment was down to just over 34 million, almost a 30% decrease.

Covid was the excuse for letting the food stamp rolls begin to explode again. But at this point the pandemic has been over for at least three years. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the rolls are at a high level because the Biden people wanted them to be at a high level.

EPIC gives some insights into how the numbers come to be so high. For example, the food stamp program supposedly has work requirements for any able-bodied adults. But the work requirements “are currently waived completely or in part in 34 states.” As a result, many able-bodied adults enrolled in the program simply do not work. EPIC gives figures for 2017-19: “Before the pandemic and Biden expansions, 13 million able-bodied adults received food stamp benefits on average between 2017 and 2019, yet 62 percent of these work-capable recipients did not work at all.” Since then, the evasion of the supposed work requirements has only gotten worse.

With food stamp program expenditures currently running at an annual rate of around $100 billion or more, there is lots of room for that to be reduced without anyone actually going hungry. If Bill Clinton could have food stamp rolls of well under 20 million people, that should be achievable again.

[MtnClimber]

In high school I worked in a grocery store. I estimate that half of the people using food stamps drove brand new cars, usually Cadillacs.

[Gen.Blather]

” I estimate that half of the people using food stamps drove brand new cars, usually Cadillacs.”

I also worked in a grocery store and that happened repeatdly to me. They’d pay with stamps, and I’d load their groceries into a new car.

I think welfare is a subsidy to car companies, luxury goods suppliers and drug dealers.

[oldasrocks]

We were behind a young couple that looked pretty healthy using their card to buy 3 carts of groceries. No cheap cuts of meat. Over $1,100

[Bobbyvotes]

And most are over-weight.

[Bobbyvotes]

Food stamps has a VERY BIG LOBBY supporting it. It is the big food companies.

[dljordan]

” I estimate that half of the people using food stamps drove brand new cars, usually Cadillacs.”

It’s Hispanic women with four kids driving a new Ram now.

[Cloverfarm]

At the same time that million$ are spent on food stamps, we are told child hunger is still rampant so we have to send food packages home with school kids on the weekend and set up summer feeding programs.

$o where does all the food stamp money go?

[small farm girl]

Yes, in MA they added around 100k to the food stamp roles last year...I think 1/3 of our state is collecting. It’s super easy to blow up the numbers when you enroll every illegal. 😕

[Candor7]

Proponents of the food stamp program say that it has long served as a critical lifeline for low-income families by ensuring that they ( my edit here).......have lots of beer money to purchase vast quantities of Colt 45 Malt Liquor.

There , fixed it.

[BobL]

“Food Research & Action Center”

Half of their funding is from the government, so I’m not surprised regarding their position on any added requirements.

They’re also linked up with Big Food, again no surprise.

[nopardons]

BTTT

[MtnClimber]

Yes, most were very overweight.

[equaviator]

SNAP will pay for Skittles and Sour Patch Kids but not for a bottle of multi-vitamins?...Makes no sense at all.

[econjack]

I remember growing up and seeing my Mom return from grocery shopping, sitting down at the kitchen table, placing her face in her hands, and start sobbing. I was maybe 12 at the time, and asked her why she was crying. She said: “I was waiting in line and the lady in front of me bought 6 Delicious apples. I love those apples, but we can’t afford them. The lady paid for them with food stamps. It’s not fair...”

Personally, anyone drawing ANY gov’t transfer payments from food stamps to welfare and rent subsidies, should show up for a gov’t job every morning. They can always sweep floors and clean toilets, but maybe that would encourage them look for a better-paying job.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

At the local Walmart, Hispanics will fill several grocery carts and pull out a handful of SNAP cards, running each of them through the card reader until the groceries are all paid for.

Meanwhile, the poor and elderly are in line with the bare minimum and probably have to cut costs elsewhere to pay for it.

Cut off ALL welfare to illegals.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

“At the same time that million$ are spent on food stamps, we are told child hunger is still rampant so we have to send food packages home with school kids on the weekend and set up summer feeding programs.

$o where does all the food stamp money go?”

The children are fed free breakfast and lunch at school and sent home with food at night. The parents are flush with cigarettes, tattoos and weaves and wigs.

Illegals use their food stamps to fill their stores and send home to their family.

Welfare is an underground money system funded by taxpayers.

Cut it off, set up grocery stores with basic healthy foods.

[SharpRightTurn]

“According to the latest data from the Department of Agriculture, as of February 2025 the SNAP program had some 42+ million “participation persons,” with the cost of the program running at just under $8 billion per month, which is close to $100 billion per year.”

Incredible. This should be up to the states. If they want to fund this and risk bankruptcy, fine. If they want to eliminate it, fine. The founders never envisioned the central government to be involved in give-away programs.

[Openurmind]

I have a real concern that radical extremism is going to support complete slash and burn. There are actually folks out there who truly need this. And for those who have not tried to get SNAP it is not easy, and despite the myths they really do not receive that much unless they have children. In fact the truly homeless living under bridges or in their cars are not even eligible because they have no permanent physical “home” address. They can get one time “emergency” help but cannot get anymore until they can prove a physical address.

[rlmorel]

In a supermarket near me:

This is a source of open irritation to me. I fully am onboard with a food safety net for people with low income. Not as a right, but because I believe it is the right thing to do.

Our Founders knew full well what they were doing when they didn't include food, shelter, and clothing in the Constitution. If you make something a right, that means someone is obligated to provide that right.

I have always felt that food assistance should allow for the purchase of certain classifications of goods such as meat like hamburger, poultry, and dairy (like milk and cheese) and items such as flour, beans, and rice.

How that is accomplished in practice is a detail.

The fact that food assistance lets people buy steak, lobster, Cocoa Puffs, Cheetos, and any number of other things I view as luxuries, (especially when I may or may not avoid purchasing things like these because I pay my own way) is a sign that this is not assistance to those in need, but is a wealth redistribution mechanism.

It is also fully in line with the actions of devotees of Cloward-Piven such as Obama and Clinton that they would get as many people as possible on these types of programs.