Have Republicans in Congress offered an opening for reforming the nation's food-stamp program? Slate's Matthew Yglesias thinks so.
The House has on various occasions proposed a) cutting the program by $40 billion during the next decade, or b) separating food stamps from the farm subsidies they traditionally have been paired with to ensure support from rural Republicans and urban Democrats.
So Yglesias says that since Republicans have reneged on their side of that longstanding deal, Democrats should do the same by demanding that the poor and hungry receive cash rather than vouchers. Cash support, he says, would also be "simpler, easier, cheaper." Many economists, including Harvard's Edward Glaeser and Princeton's Uwe Reinhardt have made similar arguments over the years.
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