Food Stamp President?
Immediately after former Speaker Newt Gingrich called President Obama “the food stamp President,” the Left went characteristically apoplectic. Regarding the President’s comment, James Clyburn, the third ranking Democrat and highest-ranking black Congressman likened it to Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy. To author Walter Mosley, it was a “shout-out to racism”. “Divisive” and “inaccurate” said the NAACP.
Ok. Let me get these two things out of the way.
First, there are more White families on food stamps than Black families. About 34 percent of food-stamp recipients are White, while 22 percent are Black and 16 percent Hispanic, with the rest being Asian, Native American or those who chose not to identify their race, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Second, more Americans were put on food stamps during the Bush years. Records show food stamps recipients rose by nearly 14.7 million under President George W. Bush, compared to 14.2 million so far under President Obama. Mind you, Obama will undoubtedly surpass Bush by the end of his term.
If the admission of those two facts makes the Left feel better, fine. But it doesn’t change the fact.
Obama is the “food stamp president”.
A record 44.7 million people – or 1 in 7 Americans -- were on food stamps last year. Every single day more Americans are put on food stamps than find a job. “Every single day more than one-thousand five hundred of our jobs have been lost. Every single day, another two thousand seven hundred of us have realized it’s been six months since we last had a job. Every single day, more than six thousand of us have begun living below poverty, while thirteen thousand more have been put on food stamps and more than eight hundred have become uninsured.”
What’s more, food stamps are just the tip of a more pressing problem. Food stamps symbolize how perilously close we’re sliding into becoming an entitlement society. According to Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, “spending on income-based programs, such as food stamps, has increased by one-third to $900 billion under President Obama”. There are 70 such federal aid programs.
Since 2001, the Heritage Foundation has maintained an Index of Dependence on Government that documents the ever-growing number of federal aid programs and the ever-growing number of Americans who rely on government subsidies for their existence. Year after year, the index shows that more and more Americans are being supported by subsidies paid for by fewer and fewer taxpayers.
That’s a real threat to our Republic and the American way of life. Accepting hard truths may not be easy. But it is necessary.
