Biden boosted the need for food stamps — and calls that a ‘success’

Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden each view their respective records on food stamps as grand successes, even thoughඣ they pro﷽duced directly opposite results.

Welfare rolls fell during Trump’s tenure, while more people rely on government ܫunder Biden.

Apparently, one man’sꦜ succe🐭ss is another man’s failure.

Under Trump, the combination of 🌸low inflation and a booming economy meant mo🧔re people with jobs and growing paychecks that weren’t simply negated by higher prices.

People ge📖nuinely became wealthier and incomes൲ rose, even after adjusting for inflation.

Consequently, fewer people needed to rely on welfare programs like the Supplemental Nutritional Assi𓆉stance Program, more💛 commonly called food stamps.

In the first three years of his presidency, Trump presided over a 19% decline in food stamp rolls, or 8.5 m💦illion people — a fe⛄deral savings of $11 billion.

Tha🌊t brought the total cost to the taxpayer for the food stamp program down to $60 billion, the lౠowest level since 2009.

While the government-imposed lockdowns and resultant unemployment in 2020 caused some people to return to food sꦺtamps, the number of recipients remained below 2018 levels, which was still marked progress from the time of Trump’s inauguration.

Yet that progress reversed under Biden, who greatly e𓆉xpanded the food-stamp program early in his administration.

While the number of p🌃eople on food stam🦹ps has risen 3% since Biden took office, costs have exploded, with beneౠfits rising a whopping 54% in just two years.

Administrative costs for food stamps have also ballooned, rising over $500 million since Bide🐓n took office, bringing the program’s total cost to the taxpayer to $120 billion a year.

That’s twice what the program cost ꦬin 2019 under Trump.

If Biden had managed to achieve the same downward trend in welfare reliance that his predecessor had, food-stamp rolls wouldn’t have increased the last two years, but declined.

And the number of people on f🎉ood stamps would be 5 million less today, nearly back to their 2019 level.

Indeed, the increased dependency on government for millions of Americans flies in the face of the Bidenomics narrative, that this administration resജcued an economy on the brink and transformed it 𒁏into a powerhouse with tens of millions more jobs.

If so many more people are working, after all, why are t🍒hey all going on food stamps?

O⭕ne reason is the 40-year-high inflation caused by the government spending, borrowing and printing trillions of dollars over the last several years.

Consider: The average American worker pays markedly less than $4 an hour in federal income tax, but on top of that, inflation has reduced what that worker’s pay can actually purchase by more than $4 an♔ hour.

In other words, by increasing the money supply to spend more, the government created more “wealth” for itself, but it also imposed a hidden tax (inflation) on American workers that decreased their wealth.

Indeed, it was, in effect, a transfer of wealth eꦆquivalent to more than doubling the amount of federal income tax paid by the average American worker.

Pushing up the cost of living at the fastest pace in decades has made i🦩t impossible for millions to leave government assistance.

Am♔azingly, the Biden administration views this dependency as ♎a success, not a failure — often boasting of how it has expanded government assistance.

This speaks to the diffeꦺrence between a conservative and liberal worldview, which impacts how we meas♛ure success or failure on the part of the government.

Conservatives view success as people getting jobs🐎, becoming self-sufficient and leaving the welfare rolls.

Fewer people on food stamps are a sign 🌟of prosperity.

But liberals like Biden view burgeoning welfare rolls — and bigger government in general — as a success, in part because they think the government can so♓lve any problem.

Ironically, the greater need for food stamps today has largely been cre📖ated by Bidenomics itself, and the runaway government spending that underpins it.

Higher prices (especially for groceries), high interest rates, lower wages adjusted forꦆ inflation, and unaffordable housing are just a few of the bitter fruits from the tree of Bidenomics — and you’re forced to eat these fruits whether you use food stamps or not.

E. J. Antoni is a public-finance economist at The Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at Committee to Unleash Prosperity.