40% Say Food Stamps Too Easy to Get
The federal government recently reported than 14% of the U.S. population or a record 42.9 million people received food stamps in September, with up to 20% getting them in some states.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Adults say it's too hard to qualify for food stamps. Forty percent (40%) of Americans think it's too easy to get food stamps in this country, while 26% say the level of eligibility is about right. Another 18% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Twenty-seven percent (27%) say they or someone in their family has received food stamps at some point. Seventy percent (70%) have not received them personally or had a family member who was on food stamps.
The food stamp program was established by the federal government in 1939, and in May of this year, the average per person monthly benefit was $134.
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The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on December 14-15, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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