From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, here.
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In response to the economic downturn, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits across the board as a way of delivering high “bang-for-the-buck” economic stimulus and easing hardship. ARRA increased SNAP maximummonthly benefits by 13.6 percent beginning in April 2009.[3] Benefits increased for all participating households and by the same amount by household size (except for those households that qualified for the minimum benefit) in 2009. For example, for a one-person household, the added benefit was $24 a month; for two persons, it was $44 a month; for three persons, it was $63 a month; and for four persons, it was $80 a month. The minimum benefit (which is available to eligible one- and two-person households that otherwise qualify for a small benefit or no benefit) rose from $14 to $16. Because households that receive less than the maximum benefit received the same fixed dollar increase, the increase to average benefits was larger in percentage terms: about 20 percent.
ARRA provided that SNAP benefit levels would continue at the new higher amount until the program’s regular annual inflation adjustments to the maximum SNAP benefit exceeded those set by ARRA. The maximum SNAP benefit levels for each household size, which are set each October 1, are equal to the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) from the preceding June scaled to each household size. The TFP is the cost of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) food plan for a family of four to purchase and prepare a bare-bones diet at home.[4] At the time ARRA was enacted, food price inflation was expected to be high and the TFP cost was expected to exceed the ARRA level in fiscal year 2014. Food price inflation, however, turned out to be lower than expected over the 2009 to 2013 period, resulting in the pushing out of the date that the TFP was expected to exceed the ARRA level.[5]
In August 2010, Congress passed and the President signed P.L. 111-226, which accelerated the sunset of the ARRA benefit increase to April 2014 and used the estimated savings for state fiscal relief through additional federal funding for school districts to maintain teachers’ jobs and maintaining a higher federal match for Medicaid costs. Four months later, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (P.L. 111-296), which reauthorized Child Nutrition programs, further accelerated the sunset date of ARRA to October 31, 2013, to offset the cost of the legislation. As a result, beginning on November 1, 2013, SNAP benefit levels will be based on the cost of the June 2013 TFP, which is lower than the ARRA levels.
On August 1, 2013 USDA published the June 2013 TFP — $632 — a $36 decrease from the current maximum monthly benefit for a family of four under ARRA. (See Table 1 for an estimate of the benefit cut by household size.) [6] This significant benefit cut will likely cause hardship for many households.[7] The total size of the cut will be approximately $5 billion in fiscal year 2014 and, based on the Congressional Budget Office’s May 2013 projections for food inflation in coming years, an additional $6 billion across fiscal years 2015 and 2016.
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I had some extra white space, so I thought I'd fill it with some other background...
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Fed lent banks nearly $8 trillion during crisis, report shows, here.
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While the nation's largest banks were publicly reassuring nervous investors of their stability during the height of the financial crisis, they were also quietly approaching the Federal Reserve, hat in hand. The total price tag: $7.77 trillion, many times the amount of the better-known TARP bailout.
The magnitude of the government's assistance to struggling banks allowed them to grow even bigger and continue paying executives billions in compensation, a report in Bloomberg Markets January issue said Monday.
A win in court against a group representing the banks and a FOIA request filed by Bloomberg LP revealed the extent of the central bank's largesse — as well as the $13 billion in profits banks earned from those bailouts. The so called "big six" — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — accounted for $4.8 billion of that total — nearly a quarter of their net income during that time.
Those borrowed trillions were a deeply-buried secret. It appears that even high-ranking Fed officials didn't know about the scale of the handouts. According to Bloomberg, then-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Gary H. Stern “wasn’t aware of the magnitude,” and unnamed sources say that even top aides to Treasury Department head Henry Paulson were kept in the dark.
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Stocks Hit Record As Fed Keeps Bond Buying At $85B A Month, here.
U.S. stocks hit record highs on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced it would continue buying bonds at a pace of $85 billion a month to stimulate the economy.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke: "We are somewhat concerned ... I don't want to overstate it ... this was a precautionary step."
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said it wanted to see more signs of sustained improvement in the economy before it started to reduce its bond buying.
The FOMC said in a statement: ‘… the committee decided to await more evidence that progress will be sustained before adjusting the pace of its purchases.
‘Accordingly, the committee decided to continue purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month.’
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Bank of America Profit Jumps Despite Drag From Mortgage Operations, here.
Bank of America BAC +0.14% edged above Street expectations with its third quarter earnings report, which they released Wednesday morning. Adjusted earnings per share were a reported 20 cents per share, a two-cent increase over consensus estimates and a 20-cent increase over EPS this time last year; excluding adjustments, third quarter EPS was 23 cents per share.Total TOT -0.71% net revenue, excluding debit valuation adjustments (DVA) and fair value option (FVO) adjustments, was $22.19 billion. This is a hair below both Street estimates of $22.2 billion in third-quarter 2013 revenue and $22.5 billion in third-quarter 2012 revenue, which the bank attributed to headwinds from reduced mortgage and capital markets activity.
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Obama to Bankers: I’m Standing ‘Between You and the Pitchforks’, here.
ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: When President Obama welcomed the chief executives from 13 of the nation’s biggest banks to the White House last Friday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs billed it as a “good, productive, and frank” conversation. Emphasis, it appears, on the frank. As first reported by Politico’s Eamon Javers, and confirmed by ABC News with industry sources, some bankers gave explanations for the industry’s high salaries, such as "competing for talent on an international market." But, President Obama cut them off. "My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks," the president told them.
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Apparently the banks had no choice but to take the money. Maybe we should threaten hungry people with more food...
= new reply since forum marked as read
