Image uploaded from a quicklink (Image by Unknown Owner) Details DMCA | Food stamps are fast becoming a flash point for the House farm bill this week -- but also an increasingly partisan, even racially tinged debate in Congress over the future of the social safety net in these hard economic times. Republicans see a new form of welfare. Enrollment in food stamps -- also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- has jumped by close to 20 million since 2007. Discussions are peppered with derisive asides about encounters with SNAP recipients in grocery stores. Obama has been labeled the "food stamp president," and the call to repeal "cat-el" -- what the farm bill promises -- is a rallying cry for the right. |