Welfare and Food Stamps Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Welfare and Food Stamps - Research Paper Example The program has tried to reduce hunger and improve food security among low-income Americans. This paper will discuss the high administration costs, alleged fraud cases in the program, and the negative effect on the labor market make it a failure. There is a need for urgent reforms in the food program to reduce enrolment and government spending, and localize it to the state level. The history of food stamps dates back to the 1930s. The Food Stamp program was both a farm price support program as an anti-poverty one. This has been the case since the early days of the program in the 1930s. The depletion of food surpluses and mismanagement saw the phase out of the program. It took several years to re-establish the program and congress passed legislation to provide food stamps to low-income Americans. However, only pilot programs took shape. It was only after President Lyndon Johnson directed congress to pass the Food Stamp Act of 1964 that saw the initiation of the modern food stamp program. The main aim of the program was to boost the agricultural economy and improve nutritional levels of Americans. Presently, it faces several challenges, especially after the 2002 farm bill, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, and Energy Act of 2008 under the Obama administration, allowed noncitizens to register. This, coupled with easier claiming of benefits, in creased the trend of registration to the program. After the change of name from ‘food stamps’ to the ‘Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’, President Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill further stretched the program by increasing benefits by 13.6 percent (Tanner 2). Consequently, roughly 48 million Americans receive SNAP benefits today, and in so doing, this gives taxpayers a yearly cost of more than $78 billion (Tanner 2). Because of this surge, critics suggest that food stamps and the farm bill should be two separate entities