For the first time, a majority of Americans on food stamps are working age

Barack Obama's most lasting legacy won't be in the foreign policy arena. Yes, his handling of the Middle East has been disastrous, but eventually his failures will be lost in the regions constantly-shifting political sands. ObamaCare won't be his legacy either. It's a big deal now, but five years after he leaves office it will probably be a distant memory - either repealed or replaced with something even worse. No, Obama's real legacy will be similar to that of Jimmy Carter. He will have presided over a widespread economic malaise - coupled with a nonexistent "recovery" - and his tenure will be viewed as a fiscal low point for the country.

Sunday morning, the AP reminded us just how bad things have gotten.

In a first, working-age people now make up the majority in U.S. households that rely on food stamps — a switch from a few years ago, when children and the elderly were the main recipients. Some of the change is due to demographics, such as the trend toward having fewer children. But a slow economic recovery with high unemployment, stagnant wages and an increasing gulf between low-wage and high-skill jobs also plays a big role. It suggests that government spending on the $80 billion-a-year food stamp program — twice what it cost five years ago — may not subside significantly anytime soon.

---

Food stamp participation since 1980 has grown the fastest among workers with some college training, a sign that the safety net has stretched further to cover America's former middle class, according to an analysis of government data for The Associated Press by economists at the University of Kentucky. Formally called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, or SNAP, the program now covers 1 in 7 Americans.

This all but obliterates the left-wing argument that food stamp participation is ballooning because the number of elderly people in the United States has jumped. It's also an ugly reminder that the President and party who have been in charge for the last five years have done absolutely nothing to improve conditions for working Americans. Our already unsustainable $40 billion dollar welfare program has doubled in size since Obama took office, and well paying jobs - particularly for young people - are almost impossible to come by.

"A low-wage job supplemented with food stamps is becoming more common for the working poor," said Timothy Smeeding, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in income inequality. "Many of the U.S. jobs now being created are low- or minimum-wage — part-time or in areas such as retail or fast food — which means food stamp use will stay high for some time, even after unemployment improves."

Now, we're well aware that so-called progressives will use this information to prop up their 2014 hopes - all of which rely on the American people buying into their bogus "income inequality" canard. In fact, the AP piece even makes the point that evil corporations are still enjoying the ugly sins of profit. The implication is that companies are making too much while their workers are having a hard time getting by. Of course, their workers are struggling because of the onerous taxation, economic over regulation, wealth redistribution, and anti-free market policies that are the Democrats legislative bread-and-butter. But let's not allow facts to get in the way. Some people are making money, and others are not. If you're a good little statist, something has to be done. Unfortunately, the only thing that will turn this situation around is unbridled, unfiltered, capitalism. Less welfare, more work. Since that's not something in which the current leadership believes, expect tomorrow night's State of the Union speech to be a laundry list of empty programs and promises designed to maintain the federal-dependence status quo. Remember: a dependent voter is a Democrat voter!