mark nord, does usda agree?st: yes, i will talk later about research we did around the recovery act, the stimulus bill. that many other things were in that bill, increase snap benefits about 60% on average. 16% on average. the graph you have now, talk about it a little bit. it helps shed light on the snap caseload. you can see looking back a couple of business cycles -- host: this is the chart? poverty is the top line. snap participants, food stamp or participants is the blue line. unemployed is green. guest: this goes back to food insecurity, snap participation goes up following the recession as food insecurity increase. looking back over this period, it has basically followed the trend of the poverty rate and the unemployment rate. it tends to take it a while to come down after unemployment. host: we see the snap participation rate, caroline ratcliffe, going up, up to 45 million americans who use food stamps. why? does that seem extreme? guest: no, it does not. people have voiced concern about the increases in

mark nord, does usda agree?guest: yes, i will talk later about research we did around the recovery act, the stimulus bill. that many other things were in that bill, increase snap benefits about 60% on average. 16% on average. the graph you have now, talk about it a little bit. it helps shed light on the snap caseload. you can see looking back a couple of business cycles -- host: this is the chart? poverty is the top line. snap participants, food stamp or participants is the blue line. unemployed is green. guest: this goes back to food insecurity, snap participation goes up following the recession as food insecurity increase. looking back over this period, it has basically followed the trend of the poverty rate and the unemployment rate. it tends to take it a while to come down after unemployment. host: we see the snap participation rate, caroline ratcliffe, going up, up to 45 million americans who use food stamps. why? does that seem extreme? guest: no, it does not. people have voiced concern about the increases

host: caroline ratcliffe with the urban institute, mark nord economiche usda's research service. thank you both for being on the "washington journal." forttle left in our program this morning, we want to return to where we started. the fact that the republicans recently met to discuss their strategy. the democrats are meeting this week to discuss their strategy. the president speaking live in about an hour. the president declared 2014 a year of action. we want to hear your views. what do you think, what do you want from washington? is washington to bake, is washington not doing enough? -- is washington too big? think about where you see washington and your life. dial in on one of those numbers or sunday tweet, @cspanwj. we will begin taking those calls in just a minute. ♪ >> watch our program on michelle obama saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span/ monday night, we conclude our series with a special program from marshall washington to michelle obama. >> she brings financial resources, makes a mount vernon a successful operation, makes it possible for washington to be away for 8