SHOULD WELFARE reform be embraced if one of the consequences is increased hunger for millions of children and adults in this country? The question is important, given the sweeping nature of cutbacks proposed in the main welfare reform bill congressional leaders promise to vote on in the next few weeks.
No policy-maker -- governor, congressman or president -- wants to create more hunger. But increased hunger seems a certain byproduct of a welfare reform process driven more by an irresistible impulse to balance the federal budget than by a careful assessment of programs and policies.
In this election year, where taxes and defense spending are off the budget-cutting table, it is programs for the poor that are bearing the brunt of deficit reduction. Nowhere is this more true than in the Food Stamp Program, where proposed cutbacks will leave poor families short an equivalent of at least 20 billion meals for the next seven years.
Leave aside that either pending or approved actions in other areas -- cutbacks in cash assistance, housing, Medicaid, child nutrition programs and other assistance for the poor -- will cause more hunger. If one looks only at the nation's ultimate safety net against hunger, the Food Stamp Program, the dimension of proposed reductions are staggering.
Of the $44 billion in total program reductions over seven years included in the leading congressional proposal, a minimum of $26 billion (or about 60 percent) would come from reduced benefits and eligibility for food stamps. By the year 2002, this would represent about an 18 percent reduction in food stamp benefits.
The proposed cutbacks would worsen an already serious problems of child and adult hunger in the United States. Currently 13 million children under the age of 12 are hungry or at risk of being hungry; and 26 million persons a year go to soup kitchens and food pantries to meet emergency food needs.
Virtually every food stamp recipient would be affected by the proposed cuts and they can ill afford it:
Benefits already are quite meager. Food stamp benefits average 79 cents per person per meal; the maximum food stamp benefit is slightly above $1 per person per meal. Cutting food stamps $26 billion over seven years means the equivalent of more than 20 billion meals would be lost.
Of the 25.8 million Americans who currently receive food stamps, over half are children. Children and their families receive over 80 percent of all benefits. Seven percent of all food stamp recipients are elderly and 10 percent of all households include a disabled member.
