Stated succinctly, Ariana
Cohen’s column of June 12 is almost slanderously inaccurate. It begins by
citing (correctly) an increase in food stamp eligibility in the years
2008-2014. She then (incorrectly) implies that this is linked in a cause/effect
causality to the election and policies of Barack Obama. By implication she also
makes it seem as Obama policies allowed more previously ineligible persons to
have access to food stamps by ‘loosening” requirements.
Ms. Cohen is
and has been for years, typical of those who sell fake “facts” while
criticizing mainstream media. During the early Obama years, any Democrat who
pointed out that all the precursor conditions and events resulting in the
“housing bubble” collapse, Wall Street malfeasance, real estate market
inversion and resulting recession/unemployment surge happened on George W.
Bush’s watch was shouted down by Republicans, eager to avoid responsibility for
the lack of financial market oversight which led to this debacle.
Was it “W”’s fault? No, and the history of the
various financial panics in America largely bears out the fact that Presidents
truly have relatively minimal, if any, impact on many things for which blame or
credit is allotted them. More recently, we had Michelle Bachmann promising 1$
per gallon gas if elected. Of course, in reality, the only “gas” involved with
Ms. Bachmann was of another, nether, sort. In the same campaign cycle (2012) we
had Newt Gingrich promising that if Obama was elected we’d see $10 per gallon
gas. Didn’t happen, in fact we saw historic low gas prices, and that wasn’t to
Obama’s credit either. It was, as Adam Smith would easily grasp, simple supply
and demand market economics. For two
people (Bachmann, Gingrich) with University degrees to have so little real
economic sense and yet want to be President is simply ludicrous. But I digress.
Returning to
Ms. Cohen’s screed, and her allegation that Trump’s economic genius is the reason
fewer Americans are on food stamps today. It is noteworthy that there was zero
Obama administration legislation enacted which in any manner changed SNAP eligibility as established
in 2008 (who was POTUS?) by the 2008 farm bill (H.R. 2419, the Food,
Conservation, and Energy Act of May 22, 2008). In the interest of full disclosure,
it was passed over a Presidential veto.
That’s right, facing a deepening recession and rapidly escalating unemployment,
“W” tried to limit availability of food stamps!
The new law increased the
commitment to Federal food assistance programs by more than $10 billion over
the next 10 years. In efforts to fight stigma, the law changed the name of the
Federal program to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as of
Oct. 1, 2008 and changed the name of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to the Food and
Nutrition Act of 2008. No legislation related to food stamp eligibility has
been passed since. Trump has made it clear he’d like to tell people what they
can buy, but that has gone nowhere as of yet.
In truth, Cohen
begins the period she cites with “W” still in the Oval Office (he was until
early 2009), and compares the peak (depth?) of the recession with current
conditions which have been on a steady rebound since 2014 (who was president? Oh yeah, Barack Obama). The number of people collecting benefits
under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food
stamps, has been declining since fiscal year 2014. Obama was in command through
fiscal 2016, since the worst year of the Great Recession, as economists (real
ones) are calling it and food stamp enrollment has tracked unemployment in the
vast percentage of the US population with an essentially one to one
correlation.
Consistent with that trend, average monthly SNAP (food stamp
program) enrollment decreased by about 2 million from fiscal year 2016 to
fiscal year 2017. What Ms. Cohen conveniently omits is that the decreasing
trend was well under way during the second Obama term as unemployment decreased
due to (slow) economic recovery.
That decrease
happened only partly on Donald Trump’s watch. Trump took office on Jan. 20,
2017, while the 2017 fiscal year ran from Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017. So,
about four months — a third of that fiscal year — were during Barack Obama’s
presidency. Some, mainly White House affiliates or Faux News talking heads,
have attributed the entire drop in enrollment last fiscal year to Trump’s
policies after the Department of Agriculture released data for the last fiscal
year on March 9.
On “Fox &
Friends” on March 17, Rachel Campos-Duffy said: “Two million Americans are off
of food stamps. This is, like (sic) the opposite of what happened in the Obama
administration, where we saw that number grow. In one year, it’s coming down.” It’s true that the number of people enrolled
in SNAP initially increased during the Obama administration — reaching a peak
average monthly enrollment of 47.6 million in fiscal year 2013. That rise was a
consequence of the deep recession that began in 2007, according to a 2012
report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Assigning blame for the
recession to Obama indicates first and foremost the lack of economic
comprehension and the partisan zeal of the claimant. As the recession weakened, (while Obama
was president) the economy recovered, and poverty and unemployment rates
decreased. So did SNAP enrollment, according to the USDA’s Economic Research
Service. Enrollment was down to 42.7 million in January 2017, when Obama left
office. As recovery continues, unemployment has also decreased, not surprisingly, and more Americans are now earning at levels above SNAP
eligibility threshold. Trump’s doing? Naah, as Bill Clinton would say, “It’s
the economy, stupid!”
So, why would
Ariana Cohen fling such a load of garbage hoping some would stick? The answer
to that lies in her well known support for a more muscular and confrontational
state of Israel and for stronger US approval of it. Her fawning Trump fan girl
reaction to the unnecessary relocation of the US Embassy to hotly contested Jerusalem
from safe, secure Tel Aviv presaged this payback in print.
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