Thanks to the Obama administration’s drive to get more citizens enrolled, more Americans are receiving food stamps now than ever before. On Friday, the United States Department of Agriculture (usda) released new statistics showing that throughout 2012, the program averaged 46,609,072 people each month, with a record-breaking 47,791,996 drawing benefits in December.

The usda’s website says “food stamps make America stronger.” For four months last summer, the department spent between $2.5 million and $3 million for advertisements like this one encouraging Americans to enroll in the program. Friday’s data and the general upward trend show that the drive to boost the numbers is working.

Over the weekend, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady voiced his concern about those growing numbers, saying, “When President Clinton left office only one in 16 Americans needed food stamps. Under President Obama, it’s grown to nearly one in six. … The number of Americans forced to subsist on food stamps to avoid hunger has grown faster than those finding jobs under President Obama. That’s not an economy built to last.”

Some of the program’s critics disagree with Brady’s assessment that the growing number of recipients are “forced to subsist” on the handouts. Sen. Jeff Sessions pointed out during the weekly Republican address that the Obama administration is actively encouraging more Americans to sign onto the program:

Amazingly, the federal government says that the more people we have on food stamps, the more it grows the economy. The Department of Agriculture proudly declares: “Each $5 in new [food stamp] benefits generates almost twice that amount in economic activity for the community.” Our government is running food stamp promotions at foreign embassies.

Sessions called attention to one aspect of the trend that he finds especially concerning: “One worker was given an award for overcoming ‘mountain pride’ and getting more people to sign up. Where I grew up in Alabama, all honest work, even the hardest, was honored. And pride, self-respect and a desire to be independent was valued, not a thing to be overcome.”

In some cases, an individual’s decision to receive food stamps is driven by genuine need, and the program may contribute to his well-being. But an increasing number of able-bodied recipients enroll because the idea of getting “something for nothing” appeals to an unambitious part of them. They take the handouts simply because they can, and because it is easier than working—especially during this time of economic downturn. In such cases, the program erodes recipients’ work ethic and self-worth. The policy of pushing handouts on capable people panders to weaknesses, and exacerbates them. Such policies do not make America stronger, but contribute to the deterioration of its moral fabric.

These policies also help to create government dependency by effectively ensuring that recipients keep on voting for those leaders who keep their refrigerators stocked.

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