Who would have expected Scrooge to live beyond December? By the story’s denouement, the miser had morphed into a philanthropist. But even after the holidays, Political Scrooge lives, a key character in the Food Stamp Chronicles.
The Food Stamp chronicles began almost a century ago, during the Great Depression, when Americans were literally, not figuratively, starving. Dorothy Lange’s photographs showcase the gaunt cheekbones, the distended bellies. Uncle Sam initially came to the rescue with distributions of surplus food … a politically astute melding of generosity with economics. Farmers, many near subsistence themselves, were growing too much food to sell at high enough prices to feed their families. To keep prices high, farmers could destroy crops. But destroying crops when people were starving seemed cruel — Scroogian. So Uncle Sam bought and distributed surplus food to poor families: flour, beans, dried milk, potatoes, oranges, eggs, cornmeal.
Food stamps began as a pilot program in 1939. Instead of giving people food, Uncle Sam let them buy “stamps.” People paid X dollars, received orange stamps worth X dollars. They used orange stamps to buy “regular” food in regular markets. For every dollar’s worth of orange stamps they bought, people also received blue stamps for surplus food — and, to enrollees’ delight, they could pick from the surplus food. No more bags of beans to families that didn’t want them.
The pilot drew enthusiastic approval not just from recipients, who didn’t have to wait in line for food they might not want (dried beans take a lot of power to cook), but from store owners, who, not surprisingly, reported an uptake in sales.
Food Stamps garnered bipartisan political support. President John Kennedy (1961) pushed through a major expansion of the pilot. By 1964, 380,000 people in 22 states were enrolled. A major change: families could buy food from retailers, were no longer forced to buy from agricultural surpluses. Lyndon Johnson followed through, with more money for more enrollees in more states. By 1970, six million people had enrolled; by 1974, 15 million; by 1981, 22.4 million. Richard Nixon included Food Stamps under his larger Family Assistance Program, making the program national. A bipartisan team — Republican Senator Bob Dole and Democratic Senator George McGovern — pushed the Food Stamp Reform Act of 1977.
Maybe because Hunger and Ignorance were the two children who dogged Scrooge in the spirit-driven wanderings through his miserly past, most politicians have accepted that Uncle Sam can at least alleviate Hunger.
Today our president has revived Scrooge, cloaking him in bureaucratese.
While people were kissing under mistletoe, hanging holly, and lighting candles, the administration proposed cuts to the Food Stamp Program. Normally applicants subtract their utility costs from their income, showing bureaucrats how much discretionary income the family has for rent, food, transportation. Why not reduce the amount people can subtract for utility costs? It won’t hurt people in Alabama or Mississippi, but will hurt those in the cold Northeast, West and Midwest — 29 states.
The overall savings of $4.5 billion is minute in terms of the total Food Stamp budget, but large in terms of a family’s budget. Nineteen percent of recipients will see their monthly stipend fall; families may lose as much as $75 a month — a month of cappuccinos for bureaucrats, a few weeks of breakfasts for recipients. As many as 8,000 families will lose benefits totally. To make the cuts politically palatable, 16% will see their benefits rise. (The administration had already proposed tightening work requirements for recipients.)
Admittedly, obesity, not hunger, is the bane of today’s poor; but cutting food subsidies is a cruel way to counter obesity. This administration has not proposed that rationale. Instead, the administration wants the poor to feel their poverty. To objections, this modern Scrooge might retort: “Are there no soup kitchens?”
Will any spirits of benevolence visit this president?
Joan Retsinas is a sociologist who writes about health care in Providence, R.I. Email retsinas@verizon.net.
From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2020
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