Reality: More People Requested Emergency Food Assistance Than Found Jobs

Whether you believe the 7.8% unemployment statistic released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics two days after the Presidential debate last week are legitimate or not, there are several key data points that suggest our economic situation is continuing to deteriorate.

Putting the jobs report conspiracy aside for a moment,  here’s one particular achievement you can be assured President Obama will not mention in his next debate or campaign commercial:

    That data point of course was foodstamps (or the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP), and we are confident that no readers will be surprised to learn that foodstamp usage for both persons and households, has jumped to a new all time record.

    At 46,681,833 million the persons hooked on SNAP, the July number crossed the previous record posted a short month before, as the foodstamp curve continues ‘plumbing’ newer and greater heights each month.

    More disturbing is that in the same month, the number of US households reliant on foodstamps rose by a whopping 99,493 to 22,541,744. Assuming a modest 2 persons per household, the increase means that more people went on Foodstamps in the month of July than found jobs (181,000 according to the latest revised NFP data). Furthermore, it appears that buying votes has become a tad more expensive in the past month. After the benefit per household dipped to a record low in April at just $275.81, this has since retraced some of its losses and is now at an inflationary $277.92. Oh well: inflation. Read more....