<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;"><br>A Satisfying Subsidy<br>How conservatives learned to love the federal food stamps program.<br>By Annie Lowrey<br><br>...Then there is Idaho. Enrollment in the state's program soared nearly 40 percent year-on-year, 10 percentage points more than in any other state. What gives in potato country? In one sense, the jump is expected, given the economic fundamentals. Unemployment sits at 9.1 percent—lower than the national average, but eons away from the 2.7 percent rate the state saw just before the recession hit. Idaho has also suffered a catastrophic housing bust, causing billions of dollars of wealth to evaporate.<br><br>But there's another reason for the soaring growth: Idaho has made it easier and quicker for residents to apply. The recession created an explosion in demand for
the benefits now known as SNAP, for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But that explosion in demand just happened to coincide with a decade-long sea change for the program, now seen as efficient and effective—the lean machine of the social safety net...<br><br>Whole story: <span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2277405/">http://www.slate.com/id/2277405/</a></span><br></div><br>
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