Barack Obama: the ‘food-stamp president’? (Fact Checker)

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“We are going to have the candidate of food stamps, the finest food stamp president in American history, in Barack Obama, and we are going to have a candidate of paychecks.”

— Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Dec. 6, 2011, on CNBC

As speaker, Gingrich helped push through the signature welfare overhaul that then President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996. When Clinton, after two vetoes, agreed to accept the legislation, he shrewdly noted that he was eliminating the welfare system forever more as a campaign issue.

“After I sign my name to this bill, welfare will no longer be a political issue,” Clinton said. “The two parties cannot attack each other over it.”

Having eliminated welfare as a campaign issue, Gingrich now appears to be trying to breath life into “son of welfare” by attacking President Obama as the “finest food stamp president.” But he has explicitly rejected the idea that this is a no-so-subtle form of racial imagery.

(As is usual, Gingrich’s rhetoric excess got the better of him last month when he also declared people can use food stamps “to go to Hawaii,” a claim that our colleagues at PolitiFact correctly labeled “Pants on Fire.”)

In any case, how accurate is the claim that Obama is “the food-stamp president”?

Officially, the food stamp program is now formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is broadly available to almost all households with low incomes, though most of the benefits go to families with children. (It also has massive support from the farm lobby, which is why GOP efforts to cut it back have often failed.)

Gingrich is correct that the number of people on food stamps has reached an all-time high. Of course, the economic aftershocks of the Great Recession, which was in full force before Obama took office, has a lot to do with that fact. There often is a time lag between when economic disaster strikes and when people begin to apply for food-stamp assistance.

The mostly recent monthly U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics show that the number of food stamp recipients has topped 46 million, an increase of 65 percent since 2008.

But this increase started in part because of changes in the food stamp program under President George W. Bush, when Congress overrode his veto of the 2008 Farm Bill. That law boosted the purchasing power of food stamps by indexing key elements to inflation.

At the same time, however, Obama’s stimulus bill also temporarily boosted benefits even more. The Obama administration also announced that it was pushing to expand eligibility, in part on the theory that expanding the food stamp program is also good for the economy because the money is quickly spent.

Calling Obama the “finest food stamp president” in history is an example of taking a fact — an all-time high for food stamp recipients — and taking it out of context.

The president is struggling with the aftermath of an economic situation he inherited, while building on food stamp changes that preceded his tenure. We’d almost say this was worth two Pinocchios, but because the Obama administration has pushed to expand enrollment (for apparently sound reasons) we will keep this as a one.

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Larry Summers: More jobs are coming

See the full interview with Larry Summers on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, airing Sunday, January 16 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET. By Annalyn Censky, staff reporterJanuary 14, 2011: 3:20 PM ET

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — While the economy is still reeling from 8.5 million jobs lost in the recession, the outlook for job growth in America is looking up, former White House economic advisor Larry Summers said in an exclusive interview airing on CNN Sunday.

“I think the prospects for starting to see significant employment growth and reductions in unemployment right now are better than they’ve been in the United States in a number of years,” he told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

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Until two weeks ago, Summers was President Obama’s chief economic advisor. A high-profile figure in business circles, he also served stints as the president of Harvard University and the Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton.

In the interview with Zakaria, he discusses the job market, friction between President Obama and big business, and his outlook for the recovery.

Summers is somewhat optimistic about the economy, expecting it to grow at a rate of 3% to 4% over the next few years.

But most economists say that’s still not enough to make for significant job gains.

Summers pointed to the construction industry specifically, to highlight how the housing crash will continue to reverberate through the job market for years to come.

“Now, because we have an overhang of houses that are vacant, malls that are vacant, of office buildings that are vacant, we have this tremendous drop in the demand for construction workers,” he said. “…For a certain class of men who haven’t gone to college, that’s a substantial part of employment.”

Health care and the IT industry, however, are likely to see job growth ahead, he said.

“Some of the jobs that were lost aren’t going to come back, but some of the jobs are going to come in new places,” he said.

0:00 /3:34Summers: jobs need economic growth

Summers hailed the tax compromise signed by Obama last month as a key step toward raising domestic demand. The $800 billion deal includes a payroll tax holiday that will help many Americans, and hopefully spur employment, he said.

At the same time, Summers also pushed Obama’s goal of doubling exports over the next five years, and argued for cutting the national deficit. He also suggested infrastructure projects as a way to boost construction jobs.

As for corporate America’s friction with Obama — Summers pointed to corporate profits rising 60% over the last two years as a sign of progress in the private sector.

Obama’s economic team has seen a wave of departures in recent months, with Summers leaving to return to Harvard. Gene Sperling, formerly a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was named Summers’ successor.

See the full interview with Larry Summers on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, airing Sunday, January 16 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET. 

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State Department Daily Snapshot

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Ever wonder what goes on day-to-day at the US Department of State?

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Public Schedule for January 3, 2011

 

Public Schedule

Washington, DC

January 3, 2011

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SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON:
9:15 a.m.  Secretary Clinton meets with the Assistant Secretaries, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE JIM STEINBERG:
1:30 p.m.  Deputy Secretary Steinberg attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

3:30 p.m.  Deputy Secretary Steinberg attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

UNDER SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC, ENERGY AND AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS ROBERT HORMATS:
3:30 p.m.  Under Secretary Hormats attends a meeting at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

Special Representative for North Korea Policy Ambassador Stephen Bosworth:
Ambassador Bosworth travels to the Republic of Korea, China and Japan through January 7.

DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER:
9:15 a.m.  Dr. Slaughter joins Secretary Clinton’s meeting with the Assistant Secretaries, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

PRESS BRIEFING SCHEDULE:
1:15 p.m.  There will be a daily press briefing with Assistant Secretary Philip J. Crowley

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