For the record: George W Bush is the real "Food Stamp President"

[emulatorloo]

George W Bush was the "Food Stamp President"

http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/fact-check-shows-gingrichs-obama-food-stamp-claim-was-false/

Fact Check: Gingrich’s Obama Food Stamp Claim Was False

Written by Casey Gane-McCalla, Lead Blogger on January 20, 2012 6:46 pm

FactCheck.org has looked into Newt Gingrich’s claim that Barack Obama had put more people on Food Stamps than any President in American history and has found that it was false. More people we put on the EBT debit card program that replaced Food Stamps under George W. Bush than Obama.

Gingrich also failed to take into account that during Bush’s last year the amount of people receiving EBT tripled and the fact that while Bush inherited a $236 billion surplus from Bill Clinton, Obama inherited a $5 trillion deficit and a recession from Bush.

Fact Check.Org reports:

Newt Gingrich claims that “more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.” He’s wrong. More were added under Bush than under Obama, according to the most recent figures.

But Gingrich goes too far to say Obama has put more on the rolls than other presidents. We asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition service for month-by-month figures going back to January 2001. And they show that under President George W. Bush the number of recipients rose by nearly 14.7 million. Nothing before comes close to that.

More details at link

[Blue Owl]

1. Big K&R

I like this bringing up GWB thing -- keep it up!

[emulatorloo]

3. Honestly, it almost makes me feel a little better about BUSH.

The safety net is there for a reason, to help people who need help.

Newt's entire argument on this is repellent. And don't get me started on the dog whistle racism.

[phleshdef]

4. You are misinterpreting what it means though.

It doesn't mean that George Bush did anything to increase access to food stamps. What it means is that unemployment and poverty rose to the point where more people NEEDED access to them in the first place. Any recent jumps in the rolls of people needing food stamps was mostly caused by the recession which Bush is squarely to blame for.

[emulatorloo]

13. Yes, that is why I don't actually feel better about Bush

[PA Democrat]

2. Thanks. I had intended to research this very thing!

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Food Stamps are an excellent benefit that any decent society should offer.

Making sure people have enough to eat. Horrors.

[Trajan]

6. Why hasn't the White House and their allies trumpeted this fact ?

I cringe when I see the obviously false assertions go unanswered ..... The Democrats have a habit of shutting down when they should be speaking out ..... There is NO REASON that unsubstantiated claims, such as this 'Food Stamp President' should go unchallenged ...

EVERY such claim should be slammed down ASAP .... The Dems have been so weak on this front, for decades ...

VIGOROUSLY reject every such claim .. and don't wait until a newspaper finally reports the truth ....

[phleshdef]

9. Mainly because Obama can't campaign against all the GOP candidates at once.

There would be no point in that and he has better things to do with his time. They are all making a lot of erroneous claims about Obama. Once everyone is voted off the island, he will start campaigning against that person.

[Trajan]

10. Note the term "White House and their allies"

It is a mistake to let those extreme right wing zingers gain traction amongst the weak minded electorate, when a timely reaction from the Democrats against these false notions would provide at least some sort of firewall against their immediate acceptance as 'truth' by the electorate at large ...

The President himself does not have to say a word, but the President is surrounded by his own retinue, which includes aides and party members, ALL of whom can speak, write or blog ... When nonsense is presented as fact, then it pays to hit back ASAP, before it becomes the accepted exegesis .... Lies and BS should NOT go unanswered ....

There are enough 'helpers' to get refutations aired nationally, and to embed the rejection of such obviously false claims into the national body politic alongside such BS allegations as "Obama is the Food Stamp President" ...

Don't wait .... Stop them in their tracks with ACTIVE responses ....

[emulatorloo]

14. Agreed, Surrogates should be all over this. Let's see what happens the next few days.

[toddwv]

7. Link is dead

Here's the factcheck link:
http://www.factcheck.org/2012/01/newts-faulty-food-stamp-claim/

I would also like to point this graph out:

[img][/img]

So while Reagan and Clinton saw significant declines in food stamp use, Bush saw a significant increase that only leveled off during the bubble. More proof of the hollow economy that the 6 years of Republican policies produced.

[emulatorloo]

11. Thanks, I just fixed it

copy and paste error

Put it in above, here is again:

http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/fact-check-shows-gingrichs-obama-food-stamp-claim-was-false/

[madmom]

8. your link doesn't work

[emulatorloo]

12. Fixed now!

[underpants]

15. Guess who is making BANK on food stamps and outsourcing the customer service to boot -- JP Morgan

The More Americans That Go On Food Stamps The More Money JP Morgan Makes
In the video posted below, JP Morgan executive Christopher Paton admits that this is "a very important business to JP Morgan" and that it is doing very well.

So what happens if you have a problem with your food stamp debit card?

Well, you call up a JP Morgan service center. When you do this, there is a very good chance that you are going to be helped by a JP Morgan call center employee in India.

That's right - it turns out that JP Morgan is saving money by "outsourcing" food stamp customer service calls to India.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-more-americans-that-go-on-food-stamps-the-more-money-jp-morgan-makes

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Remember that the GOP is no longer allowed to say "Bush"

He is persona non grata to them... So they always default back to Barack Obama. There was something posted on DU where they said that during the debates, Obama's name was mentioned something like 521 times and Bush was mentioned only about 50-some (don't remember the exact figures).

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R

[nanabugg]

18. don't worry, Obama is keeping this one in reserve.

[hollatjagirl]

19. QUICK...I need a rebuttal for my debate!!

the number hasn't gone down... obama isn't done yet. unless he doesn't issue any more food stamps he will exceed bush 8 year number in half the time. Newt isn't the only one who needs to get educated. Bush was in office for 8 years. BO hasn't been there for 4 yet. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition service for month-by-month figures going back to January 2001 shows that under President George W. Bush the number of recipients rose by nearly 14.7 million. Under Obama, the increase so far has been 14.2 million. To be exact, the program has so far grown by 444,574 fewer recipients during Obama’s time in office than during Bush’s. So...14.7 million in 8 years and 14.2 million in 3.5 years. We can do better than this !!

....those were replies from Republicans of course!

[Quantess]

20. Think about why so many Americans are eligible for food stamps.

Although productivity has gone up, wages have stagnated in the past 30 years, beginning with Reagan. Minimum wage is not a living wage. Think about all those jobs that were moved to places like China and India. The wealthy have gotten astronomically wealthier, while the poor keep getting poorer. This has been a long time coming.

Also, people are getting food stamps because they need to eat, and not starve. All that food stamp money goes directly back into the community, also. I can think of a lot worse ways to spend taxpayer money.