Swordsmyth
04-28-2018, 02:20 PM
Welfare: Earlier this month, the government reported that enrollment in food stamps plunged by nearly 600,000 in one month. Is this part of a broader trend toward greater self-reliance?
XThe Department of Agriculture, which runs the food stamp program — officially called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — reports that enrollment in January was 40.7 million, the lowest it's been since May 2010.
In the months since President Trump has been in office, the number of people collecting food stamps plunged by nearly 2 million.
The same is true for welfare. Enrollment in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program dropped 12% last year, to reach 2.3 million.
Better still, the number of workers on Social Security Disability Insurance was down to 8.6 million in March — a decline of more than 100,000 since January 2017, and the lowest level since February 2012.
So far this year, disability applications have averaged 179,000 a month, compared with more than 193,000 a month in 2016. And the number of people dropping off disability rolls is up.
Medicaid Enrollment Drops Even enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP — the health care program for the poor and children — dropped by almost a million in 2017, to 74 million. In contrast, enrollment surged by more than 2 million in 2016. (Medicaid's rolls could climb gain if additional states decide to expand the program under ObamaCare (https://www.investors.com/tag/obamacare/).)
In other words, millions of people are now free from at least some of their dependence on federal benefit programs.
Except for Medicaid, these trends have been in place for years, as the growing economy produced the jobs and added income needed to move people toward greater self-sufficiency.
This is obviously good news.
More at: https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/food-stamps-disability-welfare-medicaid-enrollment/
XThe Department of Agriculture, which runs the food stamp program — officially called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — reports that enrollment in January was 40.7 million, the lowest it's been since May 2010.
In the months since President Trump has been in office, the number of people collecting food stamps plunged by nearly 2 million.
The same is true for welfare. Enrollment in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program dropped 12% last year, to reach 2.3 million.
Better still, the number of workers on Social Security Disability Insurance was down to 8.6 million in March — a decline of more than 100,000 since January 2017, and the lowest level since February 2012.
So far this year, disability applications have averaged 179,000 a month, compared with more than 193,000 a month in 2016. And the number of people dropping off disability rolls is up.
Medicaid Enrollment Drops Even enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP — the health care program for the poor and children — dropped by almost a million in 2017, to 74 million. In contrast, enrollment surged by more than 2 million in 2016. (Medicaid's rolls could climb gain if additional states decide to expand the program under ObamaCare (https://www.investors.com/tag/obamacare/).)
In other words, millions of people are now free from at least some of their dependence on federal benefit programs.
Except for Medicaid, these trends have been in place for years, as the growing economy produced the jobs and added income needed to move people toward greater self-sufficiency.
This is obviously good news.
More at: https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/food-stamps-disability-welfare-medicaid-enrollment/