It ballooned under Reagan because he made many, many deals that a President has to make.
People here seem to forget that the President makes hundreds of deals under his 4 year term and some aren't what we want and some are down right discusting (Reagan not giving the military any raise in the late 80's). Yes, Ronnie did go along with this to get other things funded but if Bush suggested it now he would be hanged by everyone who voted for him. Ronnie took the hit for the good of the country and it went away soon after.
The foodstamp program costs we're talking about here is 500,000 million per year and this money would go to some other pork if it wasn't used for this.
It should also be pointed out that they don't give stamps out like they used to as they issue a credit/debit card that has the monthly money added each month--this has kept fraud way down the last two years.
Is it trading votes for dollars ? You bet you butt it is and I also bet 20 times as much gets cut from the budget that pisses off the dems as well. Do I like it--no way but I do understand the political reasoning behind it.
It's a pure political play !
It's not the money that is at issue. It is the principle of providing welfare to people who don't belong in the U.S. to begin with and how this encourages more immigrants to come here anyway they can to take advantage of our taxpayer financed give aways programs. That is the issue.