White House: Gingrich Food Stamp Claims About President Obama Are "Crazy"

Historic levels of SNAP enrollment are not due to Obama economic policy, says Carney...
Press Secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday tagged GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's ongoing assertion that President Obama is "the Food Stamp President" as "crazy." Former House Speaker Gingrich once again trotted out this idea, a central part of his 2012 campaign strategy, on Monday during a candidates' debate in South Carolina.

"The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history," Gingrich said.

More than 46.3 million people received a total of $75.3 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as Food Stamps in fiscal year 2011, the highest levels in US history, according to the USDA. That's about 1 in 7 Americans using Food Stamps. There were 31.9 million Americans on Food Stamps when President Obama was sworn into office in January of 2009, and the number of Americans using SNAP benefits has risen each month but one since December of 2008.

"You know as well as I do that that's crazy," Carney said about Gingrich's assertions, during today's daily White House press briefing. Carney credited the uptick in enrollment to an economic situation that President Obama inherited.

"When this President took the oath of office in January of 2009, our economy was in freefall," Carney said. "We were hemorrhaging jobs at the rate of nearly 800,000 a month...The result of that terrible recession was a dramatic increase in unemployment and a dramatic increase -- or an increase, rather, in the number of people who need assistance -- needed assistance."

Enrollment in the SNAP program has become easier during the Obama Administration, due to program changes. USDA credits part of the uptick in enrollment to citizens using Food Stamps following natural disasters in 2011. Let's Move Faith and Communities, a subcomponent of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign, encourages faith and community groups to help those in need of food assistance enroll in the SNAP program.

The transcript of Carney's Food Stamp remarks:

Q Jay, is Newt Gingrich correct in calling our President "the food stamp President"?

MR. CARNEY: The fact of the matter is this country is emerging from the worst recession since the Great Depression, the greatest economic and financial crisis of our lifetimes. When this President took the oath of office in January of 2009, our economy was in freefall. We were hemorrhaging jobs at the rate of nearly 800,000 a month. The economy was contracting -- or had contracted in the previous quarter, the last quarter of President Bush's term in office, by nearly 9 percent. The result of that terrible recession was a dramatic increase in unemployment and a dramatic increase -- or an increase, rather, in the number of people who need assistance -- needed assistance.

I would simply say that those are the facts, and the economic policies that helped create that situation are ones that, in the case of the candidate you just mentioned, he supported and they're the kinds of policies that he advocates to this day. This President takes a different approach.

Q But the language that the speaker uses is that these are people that President Obama put on the food stamps.

MR. CARNEY: Well, you know as well as I do that that's crazy.

Q -- more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any President in history. It is true that since Barack Obama has been President it’s gone up 45 percent -- the number of people on food stamps. So what is inaccurate about what Speaker Gingrich said?

MR. CARNEY: Well, I answered this question already, Norah. I think everyone understands that this economy took a body blow in 2007, 2008, from which we are still recovering, and that that resulted in an economy that was contracting, that was shrinking at an historic pace, an economy --

Q -- 2131 that the number of people has gone up more than any other President. You’re just saying it’s not the President’s fault?

MR. CARNEY: Well, I’m saying that it was the result of the worst recession since the Great Depression that was brought on by economic policies that certainly predate this President, and that this President has been working very hard with his team to try to fix, and working with Congress to try to fix and correct, so that we can grow, as we have been growing on his watch, so that we can create private sector jobs, as we have been doing -- 3.2 million private sector jobs in the last many months.

And that's the direction that we need to be going in. Not the direction that we were headed into when he took office three years ago almost to the day, when the economy was in freefall, when there was talk of another Great Depression, there was talk of unemployment as high as 25 percent potentially. Because of the actions that this President took working with Congress, we averted that absolute calamity. But the impact of the recession has been severe, and it’s been severe on the most vulnerable Americans, and it’s been severe on middle-class Americans who have had to struggle to make ends meet as a result of it.

And that's why this President’s focus is so keenly on helping those Americans deal with this economy, emerge from the recession on sounder economic footing, and why he believes that the folks who benefitted the most from the previous 10 years, who saw their share of the nation’s wealth increase dramatically while middle-class Americans saw their incomes shrink or stagnate, that they need to pay their fair share -- which goes back to the Buffett rule, and the idea that someone making millions of dollars should not pay a lower effective tax rate than somebody making 50 grand or 75 grand.
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