FOOD STAMPS AMONG PROGRAMS THAT COULD BE EYED FOR CUTBACKS

As the new GOP majority in Congress seeks to pare back government, a hard look at food stamps is unavoidable.

One of the fastest growing government aid programs -- and the Department of Agriculture's costliest -- is the national food and nutrition package, which includes food stamps, school lunches and WIC assistance for women, infants and children.

Those programs make up more than half of total USDA spending each year. Food stamp outlays alone far exceed $20 million annually, with about 27 million individuals participating in the program. Statewide, about 200,000 people receive food stamps, including more than 5,400 in Cape Girardeau County. In this county, as in counties throughout the nation, the number of people on food stamps is rising rapidly.

Why the increase, particularly when unemployment locally and nationally remains low? A recent USDA study shows that among the rising ranks of food stamp recipients, more than half are children living in poverty. With an average monthly benefit of $170 per household, food stamps typically represent about a fourth of a family's total income. The study also found that one-fifth of all families receiving food stamps were working but not earning enough to rise above the poverty line, which is about $12,000 in annual gross income for a family of three. A household's income must be within about 100 percent of the poverty level to qualify for food stamps. The closer a household is to the threshold, the lower the value of its food stamp coupons.

In other words, the program supplements the food budget of the working poor and provides a safety net for households who make little if any cash income. Very few persons live "high on the hog" off their food stamp coupons.

That doesn't mean, however, that the program shouldn't be subject to Republican efforts to trim government spending. Under the GOP's Contract With America, spending on nutrition assistance would be capped, and low-income families would no longer be automatically entitled to receive benefits.

Costs would be cut by consolidating several nutrition programs for the poor, including food stamps, school lunches and the WIC program. The money saved would be sent back to the state in a lump sum, which gives the states greater flexibility to distribute food aid to poor families while saving taxpayers $11 billion over five years.

Critics of the GOP plan say it could lead to increased hunger and homelessness among poor families put in waiting lines for benefits or kicked off welfare rolls altogether.

But as the recent election made clear, American taxpayers demand dramatic change in a welfare system that discourages work. It is their money, after all, the government spends on these programs.

It is time to change the incentives in the system and to look for new ways -- in the private sector -- to help families in need. Food stamps is only part of a burgeoning welfare system that appears to create, rather than end, dependency.