Early in April, Illinois food stamp enrollees saw a 13.5 percent increase in their benefits under the Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. According to Gov. Pat Quinn, about 600,000 low-income Illinoisans have been impacted, and the hike will be supported by the federal government for five years.
The assistance couldn't come at a better time. According to data released in late April by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, almost 150,000 more Illinoisans are now enrolled in the program than in February 2008, an 11.4 percent increase. And that number is surely going to rise over the next year.
As we repeatedly noted during the congressional fight over the stimulus bill -- and as Rep. Dan Lipinski and the entire GOP delegation continually denied -- spending on food stamps is one of the most stimulative short-term expenditures government can make.
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