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I am REALLY angry with Newt Gingrich for calling Barack Obama the food stamp president. REALLY ANGRY. So angry that I am seeing RED. I am not so much angry at the name calling as I am about his insensitivity. Look at the man; just step back and look at him. He does not appear hungry and he probably never has been or will be hungry. Here is a man who can afford breakfast at Tiffany’s, lunch at Tiffany’s and dinner at Tiffany’s.
Before he repeats that charge one more time, I would like him to read Nickel and Dimed, On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. Then I would like him to try living on the minimum wage as she did to actually experience how difficult it is in America to live on less than a living wage let alone a minimum wage or less. You could consider that life a free, weight-loss diet plan, the minimum wage diet.
According to a recent article in the local paper by AP reporter, Jesse Washington, 49% of food stamp recipients are white, 26% are black and 20% are Hispanic. The number of people receiving food stamps is up about 50% in the last three years, principally because of unemployment in the Great Recession. By age the largest single group is the elderly living on a fixed income or Social Security. The next largest group by age is children and the disabled. I suppose that Newt would prescribe that they work to feed themselves, probably at a wage below the minimum wage.
Please see Hunger | Love thy neighbor | Jack Abramoff | Newt Gingrich | My advice to Newt
Related articles
- “The Food Stamp Speaker” (economistsview.typepad.com)
- Is Obama the ‘food stamp president?’ (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
- Such Thing as Racially Coded Language? (candidobservation.wordpress.com)
- Was Bush the Best Food Stamp President? (theroot.com)
