Snap Benefits Increase to Combat Inflation

• Author: William Asher
• Posted: April 29, 2022

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known by its acronym "SNAP", is the government program that came along to replace food stamps some years ago. The idea behind this was twofold.

First, many of the tens of millions of people who relied on food stamps felt as if handing those stamps over at a register was very degrading and embarrassing, and so a more modern government wanted to address that.

Though the bigger issue at hand was the fact that America's currency is all but digital now, and so it's just far easier, more efficient, and even cheaper for the government to issue a debit card that automatically reloads every month.

As of October, 2021, just north of 40 million Americans are officially on SNAP benefits, and they will be receiving an increase in the coming weeks.

Some Americans have already received their SNAP increases, but these are expected to roll out across the board in the coming weeks. The benefits will increase by 27%, which means a family of four, who received around $650 per month, will see that benefit increase by over $150.

The government realizes how weak the dollar has gotten recently, and also how high food prices are rising. People who were on maximum benefits have reported not being able to afford basic necessities. Even for single people drawing SNAP benefits, they're expected to see around a $40 increase.

Many have pointed out how odd it is that the government is just now getting around to increasing these benefits, when the beneficiaries of this program have been asking for such for nearly a year now.

Inflation? What Inflation?

This all comes on the heels of the Joe Biden administration denying the fact that inflation has affected American consumers. "Higher prices are a good thing," claims Joe Biden's Press Secretary Jen Psaki repeatedly. "It means our economy is growing."

Of course, everyone knows how crazy that statement is, but good luck finding a mainstream media source to put this sort of harmful rhetoric in its place.

The fact is that the Biden administration stood by and did nothing about America's increasing inflation for months on end, and now they're panicking that tens of millions of Americans are in an uproar over higher food costs. Even still, the administration refuses to admit that inflation is a problem in the nation.

In the past 12 months, the official number is that inflation has risen 5.6%. However, this is just base rate inflation, which is a general average of how much all things have gone up.

Because there are other things that have not risen in price, such as a lot of insurance rates, automobiles, some electronics, etc, it's hard to get an accurate reading on just how much groceries have gone up. Some economists and various reports claim that the average grocery bill is up over 30% since last year.

So while the Biden administration can tout a 5.6% universal average and claim inflation is no big deal, the fact with which they have to contend is that normal people are suffering a lot and many are unable to buy food.

It also makes sense that the grocery bills are up roughly 30% since last year, or else there would be no reason to tack on an extra 27% to the SNAP benefits.

Instead, they would have just tacked on an extra 5.6% to cover the supposed inflation numbers. Basically what you are seeing here is a government admitting that it has been lying through the tacit admission of raising SNAP benefits around five times what they claim the inflation rates actually are.

Supply Chain Issues and the Rising Tide

Unfortunately, by the time another 12 months passes, the likelihood is great that the government is going to have to add even more to the SNAP benefits.

This is because the Biden administration is doing absolutely nothing to solve the supply chain issues that are most responsible for causing grocery prices to skyrocket. It's not necessarily that much more expensive to grow produce and raise livestock.

The issue here comes in having a government that is not doing anything to lift blockades or assisting in trucking routes.

The Biden administration has been entirely hands-off with this economy, taking credit for "job creation" when individual states open their businesses back up, and just blaming former President Donald Trump if things go poorly

However this all plays out, and no matter which side of the aisle you may be on, enjoy this 27% SNAP increase while it lasts. Grocery prices will continue to rise around America.

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