凍結 天然氣 火車

Yes I guess Emperor Obama is the "Food Stamp President" as Gingrich says. But the Republicans certainly dole out as much corporate welfare to the special interest groups that help them get elected as the Democrats do.

Source

Gingrich defends calling Obama 'the food stamp president'

By James Oliphant

9:37 p.m. CST, January 16, 2012

Newt Gingrich, displaying the combativeness that helped him rocket to the top of the GOP field back in November and December, faced off against Fox News commentator Juan Williams at the debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., over his suggestion that impoverished youths take janitorial jobs to learn the value of work.

Williams asked Gingrich if his comments weren't “insulting to all Americans," particularly, he said, black Americans.

Gingrich refused to leaven his past comments, saying that for the amount of money one New York City janitor earns, 30 kids could work. “They’d learn to show up for work,” the former House speaker said. “They could do light janitorial duties.”

Sparring with Williams, he added, “Only the elites despise earning money.”

Williams, however, was not cowed, asking Gingrich if wasn’t belittling African Americans by suggesting they lacked a work ethic and wondered aloud whether he was unfairly denigrating President Obama by labeling him “the food stamp president.”

The raucous crowd at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center booed lustily at Williams’ question.

“More people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than by any president in American history,” Gingrich retorted. “Now I know among the politically correct, you’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable.”

The fact that the debate had fallen on Martin Luther King Day was a recurrent theme throughout the evening. Rick Santorum was asked how to reduce poverty in African American communities. He said that the key to avoiding poverty was finding a job, graduating from high school and marrying before having children. He said the Obama administration wasn’t doing enough to promote those goals.

“It’s a huge, huge opportunity for us,” Santorum said.

Many years ago when I worked for DES I found out that 1 out of every 10 people gets food stamps. I was rather shocked. Today it is worse. I think 1 out of every 8 people now get food stamps. Who says America ain't a socialist police state?

Next time you are getting your groceries at Fry's, Basha's or Safeway remember that for every 8th guy in line, the 7 people in front of him are being forced by the government to pay for the 8th guy's food.

"Food stamp use has soared over the last decade, and now some 44 million people receive the assistance" (That is about 14 percent of America's 300 million population)

Source

Who's getting food?

Fraud is a risk to federal safety-net programs

January 23, 2012

Newt Gingrich revels in politics by hand grenade, and he tossed one last week when he said "more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history." Gingrich implied this was evidence of a White House that wants to expand public dependency on the government.

If Gingrich hadn't been so intent on scoring lusty cheers at a South Carolina presidential primary debate, he might have clued people into an important and unsettling issue.

Food stamp use has soared over the last decade, and now some 44 million people receive the assistance. You can call this a bipartisan phenomenon: Factcheck.org reports that the number of people using food stamps jumped by 14.7 million during Republican George W. Bush's term and has risen by 14.2 million so far under Democrat Obama.

The nation's economic troubles explain much of that. Unemployment was just 4.2 percent in January, 2001. Even with three successive months of decline, it stood at 8.5 percent last month.

But joblessness doesn't explain all of what's going on with food assistance. Program costs have shot up from $16 billion in fiscal 2001 to $76 billion in the last fiscal year — far outpacing inflation, unemployment, poverty rates or any other relevant measure.

The federal government operates two-dozen food subsidy programs. The most important federal anti-hunger programs operate under the Agriculture Department, including school lunches and the biggest of them all: food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

SNAP provides money to low-income households to buy food at approved retailers. In Illinois, recipients receive their benefit electronically on plastic "LINK" cards that work like debit cards.

The freefalling economy accounted for part of the spending increase between 2007 and 2010, but a bigger share of the increase came from rule changes, a University of Chicago study shows. Relaxed eligibility standards and a boost in maximum benefits accounted for much more of the additional spending than did the poor economy, the study shows.

More people eligible for food stamps are collecting them. In a meeting last week with the Tribune editorial board, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said his agency, which runs the program jointly with state governments, has worked diligently to raise participation rates.

A healthy economy producing more jobs and better wages will be the best antidote to rising food stamp demands. But the government does need to do a better job of oversight on eligibility. The government should assist the poor … but not everyone who figures out how to claim free food. We don't see enough scrutiny to separate need from fraud in government food programs.

A recent Chicago Tribune analysis of the federal free-lunch program in Chicago Public Schools uncovered disturbing signs of fraud. Far more students receive the benefit than would be expected, based on participation rates in related anti-poverty programs.

Apparently it's common and easy to fool Uncle Sam.

In one case, the Tribune reported, when an application for the program showed a student's family made too much money to qualify for free lunch, a school clerk provided a fresh form to be resubmitted with falsified information. "Nobody checks the applications anyway," the clerk explained.

Vilsack tells us that fraud in food-subsidy programs is at a record low. But he also tells us that his agency is cutting its staff, even as the number of Americans claiming food stamps has soared. The agency relies on state administrators to weed out recipients who don't belong on the program. States are cutting back staff sharply too.

Law enforcement tends to uncover food-stamp fraud in the course of investigating other crimes. Just before Christmas, for instance, a resident of East St. Louis, Ill., was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison in a tax-fraud case. Turned out she lied to obtain food stamps as well. In fiscal 2011, states disqualified 44,483 individuals for fraud. That represents one-tenth of 1 percent of program participants.

In December, the Agriculture Department announced "new tactics" to combat fraud, but they don't inspire confidence. Among them, for instance, was a "policy clarification" saying that offering food stamps for sale on Craigslist or Facebook is a no-no. The department claims that illegal trafficking in food stamps has fallen from four cents on the dollar in 1993 to a penny on the dollar between 2006 to 2008, which it refers to as the "current level," despite the huge numbers who have qualified for benefits since 2008.

If it took the agency until the end of last year to address the trafficking potential of social media, its claims about "current" fraud levels should be viewed skeptically.

The Agriculture Department and a lot of other government agencies are going to face significant constraints on spending in the coming years. They have to justify every dollar. The government can justify spending to provide sustenance to the poor … but it has to make sure that that sustenance goes to the poor.

We've seen enough reports about forms being falsified, LINK cards being bartered for cash and subsidies going to the deceased to conclude that oversight needs improvement. Taxpayers should have assurance that their money is going to those who need it. Continued support for these important safety-net programs depends on public confidence in their integrity.

Remember that school clerk: "Nobody checks ..." Start checking, and see what turns up.

"One in seven Americans now rely on food stamps"

"36 percent of the 46 million people on food stamps are white, 22 percent are black, and 10 percent Hispanic"

Source

Gingrich's tough talk on food stamps may backfire

Reuters

By Terry Wade

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - It is one of the code phrases of the 2012 presidential campaign: "the food stamp president."

That's what Republican Newt Gingrich calls Democrat Barack Obama in casting the president's economic record as a failure, and bemoaning what Gingrich sees as a poor work ethic among those dependent on government help.

Some see hints of racism in Gingrich's words, which the former U.S. House of Representatives speaker disputes. But such tough talk did help him tap into the anti-government anger of conservative whites in South Carolina and win the presidential primary there on Saturday.

As the campaign moves forward, however, Gingrich's food-stamp imagery might not play as well, political analysts and voters say.

In a nation where millions of families are struggling to get by, most people who depend on food stamps are white, and the vast majority are working or have just lost their jobs, according to government data and program administrators.

One in seven Americans now rely on food stamps, which give low-income people - a family of four with an annual gross income of less than $29,064, for example - help to buy groceries.

In Florida, where the January 31 primary is the next contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican presidential nomination, food stamps are viewed favorably by many residents hit hard by the collapse of the real estate and construction industries.

"I'd say 80 percent of the people are working or just lost their job when they come in for food stamps," said Tom Gundersen, a supervisor for the Florida Department of Children and Families, which administers the federal program here.

"You used to hear all the comments when I was a kid about 'Welfare Cadillacs,' but that's not really something you see much," he said.

More and more food stamp recipients are like Susie, 59, who declined to give her last name at a food stamp office in Jacksonville.

"I am a Republican and a conservative ... and I had to swallow my pride today and come in and apply for benefits for the first time because I'm losing weight," Susie said.

The blonde, blue-eyed mother of grown children looks like a typical consumer at an upscale shopping mall. She said she has suffered a triple whammy since the recession began in 2007 - losing her house, business and marriage.

Susie, who described herself as an undecided voter, said the only work she has been able to find was as a part-time cashier at a Dollar Tree discount store.

Nationally, at least 36 percent of the 46 million people on food stamps are white, 22 percent are black, and 10 percent Hispanic, according to factcheck.org. The race of many participants is unknown.

Non-Hispanic whites make up about 63.7 percent of the U.S. population while blacks make up about 12.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"A RISKY GAMBIT"

Gingrich casts Obama as "the greatest food stamp president in history."

That's not quite true - yet.

During George W. Bush's eight-year presidency 14.7 million people went on the food stamp rolls, a half-million more than in Obama's three years, according to factcheck.org, a nonpartisan group.

Economic times are so tough for many people that Gingrich's strategy of casting food stamps as a negative symbol could backfire, said David Roediger, a historian at the University of Illinois who has written extensively about class and race.

"It's an old appeal but it's a risky gambit. It may work less well now because in this economy so many white people are on food stamps, or know people who are on food stamps, and so many people have difficulty getting a job," Roediger said.

Gingrich has said that "if you want your children to have a life of dependency and food stamps, you have a candidate, it's Barack Obama. If you want your children to have a life of independency and paychecks, you have a candidate, that's Newt Gingrich."

What he doesn't say is that food stamps evolved from a program created in 1939 and that spending on it normally increases when the economy sputters.

Economists say much of the government's welfare spending is countercyclical and helps lift demand in a weak economy.

Many food stamp recipients are members of the working poor stuck in low-wage jobs. They have used public assistance off and on over the years during tough times.

Andrea Chever, 51, quit her job as a housekeeper at a Hyatt hotel last month to qualify for Medicaid, the nation's government-run health program for the poor.

Chever needed a painful cyst removed from her stomach, and she didn't have health insurance at her housekeeping job because the premiums were too expensive.

"I'll go back to work as soon as I can get this surgery done," she said after signing up for benefits.

Kia Goode, 30, who supports Obama, just finished her college degree in computer science and is struggling to find a job.

"We've got to eat," she said, "until somebody can make some money."

(For graphic on food stamp recipients, please click: http://link.reuters.com/tux26s)