Economy - #4372 - More People on Food Stamps than Populations of 24 States Combined - Townhall (2) Here Comes the Regulatory Flood Costly Rules Held Up for the Election are About to Roll Over the Economy - Wall Street Journal (3) The Obamacare Battle is Far From Over - Forbes

More People on Food Stamps than Populations of 24 States Combined - Under President Obama the participation rate in the food stamp program has skyrocketed—one in seven Americans now receives food stamps. To keep up with the demands of the burgeoning program, spending has thus “doubled from roughly $39 billion in 2008 to an estimated $85 billion in 2012,” and nearly quadrupled since 2000. According to Heritage, “Today, the food stamps program is one of the largest and the fastest growing of the roughly 80 welfare programs funded by the federal government.” With that said, brace yourself for Breitbart’s findings: “The number of individuals on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of 24 states and the District of Columbia.” Wow. In November, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that a record 47,102,780 individuals receive food stamps. According to US. Census Bureau data, that figure exceeds the combined populations of: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Read more....... Article contributed by Steve Peters.

Here Comes the Regulatory Flood of  Costly Rules Held up for the Election are About to Roll Over the Economy - Wall Street Journal - President Obama's hyperactive regulators went on hiatus in 2011 to get through Election Day. Now with his second term secure, they're about to make up for lost time and then some. The government defines "economically significant" rules as those that impose annual costs of $100 million or more, and the Bush, Clinton and Bush Administrations each ended up finalizing about 45 major rules per year. The average over Mr. Obama's first two years was 63 but then plunged to 44 for 2011 and 2012 so far. The bureaucracies didn't slow down. They merely postponed and built up a backlog that is about to hit the Federal Register. We'd report the costs of the major-rule pipeline if we had current data. But the White House budget office document known as the unified agenda that reveals the regulations under development hasn't been published since fall 2011. The delay violates multiple federal laws and executive orders that require an agenda every six months, so we thought readers might like a rough guide to the regulatory flood that is about to roll through the economy.  Read more....... Article contributed by Steve Peters.

The Obamacare Battle is Far from Over - Forbes - With the defeat of Mitt Romney, Obamacare dodged a presidential repeal bullet, but serious threats to the sweeping reform of healthcare remain. In fact, given that the most important piece of domestic legislation in nearly fifty years was enacted on a party-line vote, it should not be surprising that as the bill approaches implementation, many difficult challenges are only now appearing. And, with repeal of the measure still leading in public opinion polls 50%-44%, proponents are hard-pressed to claim that the recent election answered all the questions. In fact, as the extensive reforms and regulations—13,000 pages and growing—sink into government, business and private lives, challenges will come from dozens of angles. For starters, the success of Obamacare depends heavily on state governments, since health and welfare is constitutionally a state matter. And right now, many states are not ready to play ball. Republicans dominate the statehouses, with 30 Republican governors and, as Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia has said, “Where there are unfunded mandates on the states or there is trampling of the 10th Amendment or undermining of federalism that hurts the state or costs us money, then we’ll fight it.  Read more......  Article contributed by Steve Peters.