For the Record: George W. Bush is the Real ‘Food Stamp President’

[BigLouie]

At a Republican debate last Monday, former speaker Newt Gingrich claimed that “more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.” The Gingrich campaign quickly released a commercial the next day touting the same claim but it turns out that’s not true, according to research by the Annernberg Public Policy Center’s FactCheck.org.

“Gingrich would have been correct to say the number now on food aid is historically high,” according to the most recent figures looked at by FactCheck.org. More details below:

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.

And 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.

Other GOP candidates have made claims that African-Americans (or “blah” people) are the majority on public assistance in the United States. That’s also not true.

36 percent of those receiving food stamps are white, 22 percent were African American and 10 percent were Latino, according to the most recent Department of Agriculture report on the general characteristics of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or “food stamp” program.

[gnadfly]

Another linkless cut 'n paster by BL. Why can't BL give credit to the original author? Seems intellectually dishonest.

More dishonesty: Republican have long conceded that most food stamp recipients are white. Although its strange that the article's breakdown by race adds up to 68%.

I get what Newt said. Think the article is splitting hairs. This graph from the article I believe is most telling.

[Whirlaway]

Assuming BL's facts are correct (dubious); then Whites who make up 72% of the US population make less use of food stamps than Blacks who represent 13% of the population but make up 22% of food stamp receipients.

And the Hispanic participation rate is signficantly lower than Blacks !

And Ganadfly's chart clearly shows how Obama has accelerated food stamp dependence in 3 years vs. Bush's 8.



http://www.eccie.net/showthread.php?t=367715

[JD Barleycorn]

Mark Twain said there were lies, damned lies, and statistics. What we have here with Big Louie are all three. The lies; that George Bush put more people on food stamps that Obama (how did that happen?), damned lies; that GOP candidates were saying that more food stamp recipients were black! (The exact opposite is true. The GOP has been making the rounds reminding the commentators that most of the people on food stamps are white.), and statistics; I'll just say this (which doesn't mean I believe Louie's numbers) Bush was in office for eight years and Obama has been in office for three years. If you want to compare straight numbers Louie like you did, you just fucked yourself. (not something I wanted to see).

[CJ7]

makes no difference what party followed Bush. Had McCain won he would have faced the same aftermath of the longest, deepest recession since the Depression. Would Fox News touted those figures then? ... Nah.

We're just lucky those food stamps arent bread and cheese lines.

[wellendowed1911]

Originally Posted by CJ7

makes no difference what party followed Bush. Had McCain won he would have faced the same aftermath of the longest, deepest recession since the Depression. Would Fox News touted those figures then? ... Nah.

We're just lucky those food stamps arent bread and cheese lines.

Thank you!!! These Fuctards act as if McCain was in office our UE rate would be down to 4% and the deficit cut in half. Say what you want about Obama but the fact of the matter that WhirlWay, Rush Hannity or Faux news can't deny is that he DIDN'T put us in a depression and it would have been very easy for him to fuck up and have us in a full blown depression- he saved the auto industry while Faux news, Rush and Hannity said they should have failed- oh by the way GM is back on top as the Worldwide seller of cars- thank you Mr. President.

[CuteOldGuy]

McCain would have been at least as bad, or worse. There was no good choice in 2008.