Plus, Ramirez on hope and change and the food-stamp economy.

Via Daniel Halper at The Weekly Standard, CNBC’s Jim Cramer dimly sees that today’s jobs report isn’t about the sequester or the end of the payroll tax cut. “Look, I’m struggling here,” said Cramer. “I’m struggling to find anything good about it. I’m trying to figure out exactly how worried we were three, four weeks [...]

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Failure.

Enrollment in social safety-net benefits is supposed to move in sync with expansions and contractions in the economy; in other words, more people will join the rolls when times are tougher and unemployment is on the rise, but the numbers will fall again when the economy corrects and wealth-and-job creation is in full swing. Under [...]

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Indicators.

After last week’s big February-unemployment reveal, we were treated to a whole heap of ostensible reasons about why the ever-so-slightly eased official unemployment rate of 7.7 percent means the economy is really getting on the right track, and somehow indicates real material improvement in the labor market. Delving into the reports’ numbers a little more [...]

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Oh, good.

During President Obama’s first term in office, participation in the federal food stamp program increased from about 32 million Americans in 2009 to approximately 48 million by October of 2012 — an average growth rate of just over 11,000 recipients per day, CNS News reports. In dollars, that translates into $55 billion spent on the [...]

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Unexpectedly.

At first glance, last week’s release of the monthly jobs report may have appeared to be good news — the unemployment rate technically fell to a recent low of 7.7 percent. Upon closer inspection, however, labor force participation also dropped as Americans continued to exit the work force, and that’s not the only economic indicator [...]

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The food-stamp president.

Marco Rubio said something the other day that made me want to jump up and cheer: “The way to turn our economy around is not by making rich people poorer, it’s by making poor people richer.” Whoomp, there it is! That, right there, is a masterfully simple and succinct way to take the Democrats’ constant [...]

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Outcomes.

Debate continues over whether Barack Obama’s command to waive the work requirement of the 1996 welfare reform is legal, and if it offers states a way out of effectively enforcing the Able-bodied Adults Without Dependents rule that required those recipients to start working at some job in order to receive benefits.  A new report from [...]

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Real talk.

Mia Love, a Republican mayor from Utah running against a Democratic incumbent for the U.S. House of Representatives, made quite the breakout appearance with her brief but fiery speech towards the start of the Republican National Convention last week — she’s got a strong voice, a compelling story, and a simple message, and I have [...]

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"Why do you assume food stamp refers to black? What kind of racist thinking do you have?"

Via News Busters, you’ll enjoy watching Matthews being given a taste of his own medicine but this clip is more useful as a demonstration of why it’s pointless for the two sides to talk to each other. The problem isn’t that Tingles is willing to presume racism; the problem is that his presumption is irrebuttable, [...]

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Costs have quadrupled in 10 years

Getting food-stamp benefits can now be as easy as picking up an informational brochure or calling a toll-free number, according to a new report out this week from the Government Accountability Office. More than 40 states have lowered eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, resulting in a vast expansion of the welfare state [...]

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Wreckovery Summer III: Food Stamp Explosion.

And it’s not as if it was all that terrific before now, either. Gallup’s weekly survey of consumer confidence shows a steep 10-point drop from -16 at the end of May to -26 today: Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index was -26 for the week ending June 24, down slightly from -24 the week before. Americans’ confidence [...]

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It's a party, and everyone's invited.

Once upon a time, I believe the case for food stamps was centered on the argument that, as decent human beings, we have a social obligation to come together and offer a lifeline to the absolute poorest among us and ensure that nobody is going hungry — at least while people get back on their [...]

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The social safety hammock.

Flaunting food stamps almost seems to be a trend. First, Mr. EBT released his now-infamous rap. Shortly thereafter, girls followed suit with their own version. Now, a night club in Montgomery, Ala., is hosting its very own “Food Stamp Friday” party. On April 6, the Rose Supper Club in North Montgomery will offer a discounted [...]

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“I feel that it’s okay because, I mean, I have no income and I have bills to pay.”

Via the Daily Caller, a snifter of civilizational decline at the end of a long day. Granted, $700,000 sounds like a lot of money, but by the time the Democrats are done with their messaging on contraception they’ll have you convinced that that’ll cover maybe five years of birth control. (In fact, thanks to O’s [...]

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Reclaiming the narrative.

Pretty much from the minute Newt Gingrich branded President Barack Obama “the best food-stamp president in American history,” I’ve wondered why liberals didn’t immediately tout that statement as a compliment. Government spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has doubled just since 2008 and more than 10 million people have been added to the food [...]

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Aid.

Like other candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, Rick Santorum does not have kind words for food stamps: Santorum told the group [in Le Mars, IA] he would cut the food stamp program, describing it as one of the fastest growing programs in Washington, D.C. Forty-eight million people are on food stamps in a country [...]

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Great.

President Barack Obama has proved his adeptness at exploiting the vote pump: Dependence on government has increased by 23 percent under his administration, according to the Heritage Foundation 2012 Index of Dependence on Government. More people than ever before — 67.3 million Americans — depend on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid [...]

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And race has nothing to do with it.

Why Newt Gingrich naming Barack Obama “the food stamp president” ever generated controversy is more than a little perplexing — and how race was ever brought into the issue is even more perplexing. As Gingrich has repeatedly pointed out, the food stamp rolls have dramatically increased under Obama’s tenure as president. Strictly speaking, the term [...]

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Divisions.

“For months, Mr. Gingrich has made racial resentment an integral part of his platform as a conservative challenger to Mitt Romney. He has traversed the country calling President Obama “the greatest food-stamp president in American history” and presenting African-Americans with the great revelation that they should prefer paychecks to federal handouts. When he was called [...]

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What else could it be?

In a recent lengthy piece in praise of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, The Nation’s Lizzy Ratner selects a series of sympathetic examples to demonstrate the successful way in which SNAP acts as a true social safety net, a source-of-last-resort for the most desperate among us. Food stamps, Ratner tells us, are the saving grace of [...]

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Luxury.

Ever read a personal finance advice column with regularity? It’s usually just a matter of time before the columnist posts a piece headlined something along the lines of “Five Easy Ways to Save Money This Season.” Inevitably, the first of the “five easy ways” is to forego the specialty Starbucks drinks. Save $3 a day [...]

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"It's free. Swipe yo' EBT."

A new report posted today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows a record 45.8 million Americans received assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in August — 1.1. percent more than in July and 8.1 percent more than in August 2010. That new record is not surprising: The number of Americans receiving food stamps has [...]

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