More Food Stamps For Thought

Continuing the discussion on SNAP from yesterday and food assistance programs in general, Newt Gingrich is embarrassing himself calling the Dems "the party of food stamps" and the Republicans "the party of paychecks".

With a month to go before the election, Gingrich brought his branding effort to Minnesota on Wednesday. He raised money for Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer and the state GOP during a private fundraiser.

He told reporters later that Republicans can campaign as the party of opportunity.

"Most Americans would like to get a paycheck," Gingrich said. "Most Americans would not like to be forced to have food stamps handed out by liberal Democrats."

Gingrich is considering a run for president in 2012 and is about to head off on a 12-city "Jobs Here, Jobs Now" tour with stops in South Carolina, Georgia, Iowa and Wisconsin, among other places.

Gingrich this week distributed a memo to Republican hopefuls saying they should use the final month to stress tax and spending cuts as a way to spur job growth while attacking Democratic policies as detrimental that effort.

Yay!  Tax and spending cuts to stimulate job growth!  Let's talk about job growth under Republicans since 1980, shall we?



So, if you total up the jobs created/lost since 1980, Democrats and Republicans are about even.  The thing is under Clinton we created those jobs in just eight years, while under an additional 12 years after Reagan of Bush and son, just 4 million jobs were created.  Also, you can see the job loss early in Obama's term was from Bush's policies, but even being generous to the Republicans, it took them 20 years to create the jobs that Democrats did in 10.

So honestly and objectively, which party would you want in charge of job creation?  Both sides created 18 million net jobs, the Dems did it twice as fast however.

Newt says the answer should be the Republicans.  Really?

Math doesn't exactly bear that out.  Want to get Americans off SNAP?  We need jobs.  The policies of Bush 43?  Not exactly heavy on the job creation.

Additionally, that article I commented on yesterday from the NY Times and this map showing numbers from last year, which I would expect would be higher now, shows that yes, food stamp usage is up substantially.  But it's the rural eastern counties along Appalachia where the highest percentage of country residents are on assistance.  Some 49% of residents in Owsley County, Kentucky were on SNAP as of June 2009.  I'm sure that number is above 50% now.  Another dozen plus counties have numbers above 25%, and given Kentucky's low African-American population, the overwhelming majority of total residents on SNAP are white.

That's a far cry from the counties of Northern Kentucky near Cincy, where Boone, Kenton, and Campbell Counties have SNAP rates of 7%, 12%, and 11%.  And yes, there are a higher percentage of blacks on that but still the total population is low.  Even in urban Hamilton County, Ohio where Cincinnati proper is, the rate is only 12%.

Grocers in these rural Kentucky counties absolutely count on the business from SNAP.  These dollars go right into community stores.

"I think with the economy the way it is today and the high unemployment rate, with the increasing cost of college and people getting an education to get better jobs, I really think we're going to see an increase in the program," said Jennifer Adkins of the Health and Family Services.

Adkins says the numbers in eastern Kentucky haven't jumped significantly, even though the total number of households using SNAP, or Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, have increased by more than ten percent.

"It has a big impact. The first ten days of the month, we'll do probably one hundred and eighty to two hundred and thirty transactions a day, on the cards. It's a big part of our business," said Mike Ritchie of Slone's Market in Jackson.

So yes, not only is it effective direct stimulus, but it benefits both people on the program and local merchants.  Times are tough and this program is one of the more effective and targeted ones, especially since transactions can be monitored electronically.

Why Newtie wants to attack rural, white Kentucky voters, I don't know.  Of course these people want paychecks, but after ten years of seeing their jobs vanish and Bush doing nothing for them, the GOP wants to cut their lifeline because these folks are somehow lazy parasites?

Try telling that to the people of Owsley County, Newt.