Ironically, just as we approach Thanksgiving, every single day seems to bring another sobering, depressing piece of news about the economic hardship that is hammering millions of Americans.

Yesterday I highlighted Goldman Sachs’ forecast of how many million additional Americans will slide into poverty by the end of 2009. Today, it’s how the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to set an all-time record:

Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
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“We soon will have the most food stamps recipients in the history of our country,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based anti-hunger policy organization. “If the economic forecasts come true, we’re likely to see the most hunger that we’ve seen since the 1981 recession and maybe since the 1960s, when these programs were established.”

May no American president ever practice such heartless voodoonomics again.

And let’s not forget that this wasn’t just Bush and his team of economic mischief-makers ramming through economic policies that no one else supported (or do I mean condoned?). As George Bush systematically did to the economy — and to millions of Americans — what he should be doing only to Laura Bush, let’s not forget that he continued to have the full-throated support of most Republicans (many of whom continue to approve of and justify everything that Bush did to the economy). Let’s not forget that practically every serious and half-serious Republican candidate for President this year wholeheartedly embraced Bush’s economic “policies” and fervently vowed to continue them.