So, Newt's going to teach 'poor people' how to get a job?
Newt Gingrich at last night's republican debate:
"I’m going to continue to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and someday learn how to own the job.”
I know disadvantaged Americans were just waiting for someone to teach them how to get a job. They cheered this statement at the South Carolina debate last night, so, I guess those folks there who think Gingrich is the bee's knees will be voting for a chance to be 'taught' how to get a job."
Of course, most of the folks in that audience probably didn't realize that there's naturally a majority of individuals who look a lot like them who are struggling with the effects of poverty. It's the 'other' folks that Gingrich has been talking about; those are the folks the debate audience was likely thinking of when they applauded his inference that those poor had something to learn that only he could teach them; that their predicament was somehow their own doing and he was primed to free them from the burden of misunderstanding their need for federal assistance.
Remember when Gingrich told an audience in January that "the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." That was the equivalent of telling Americans struggling in this fractured economy to just get a clue and shape up -- maybe emulate him and become a millionaire 'historian'; taking Greek cruises and maintaining a $500,000 credit line at Tiffany's.
It was bewildering hearing those folks cheer their own belittlement. If those 'other' folks Gingrich and they believe are so bereft of wisdom and ambition, then what do they believe is holding the rest of them back? The majority of them?
Gingrich repeated his charge against President Obama:
“The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps under Barack Obama than any other president in American history,” he said.
Gingrich left off quite a bit from that observation; hoping, I guess, that his own 'facts' would obscure more important and relevant ones.
from an article at CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/17/politics/truth-squad-gingrich-food-stamps/
. . . 22% of SNAP recipients are black, compared to 36% for whites, 10% for Latinos and 18% from unknown racial backgrounds.
The number of people on food stamps is indeed up sharply under the Obama administration. But that's largely the result of the economic crisis that began before Obama took office, though the administration pushed Congress to allow more people onto the program during the crunch.
-- Upon taking office in January 2009, the Obama administration increased benefits and expanded eligibility for food stamps as part of its economic stimulus act. Agriculture Department officials estimated the moves would boost the economy by generating more spending as well as keeping people fed.
-- The trend was up in the years before the recession, however, as reforms enacted in 1998 and 2002 allowed more children, the disabled and elderly and even some immigrants to receive food stamps. Between the 2001 and 2007 recessions, the number of people receiving food stamps grew by more than 8 million, according to the USDA.
from The Annie E. Casey Foundation: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Default.aspx?cat=20#
140,000 children in South Carolina are in families with one or both parents unemployed.
11 percent of children (113,000) in South Carolina had at least one unemployed parent during 2010.
South Carolina had the 2nd highest percentage in the nation (6.6%) of children with all resident parents unemployed and the 3rd highest percentage in the nation (13.6%) with at least one resident parent unemployed in 2009.
3 percent (53,000) of children were affected by foreclosure during 2007 through 2009, ranking South Carolina tied for 14th in the U.S.
You have to wonder how the people of South Carolina will feel about this tough-love Gingrich is selling when they realize that government benefits like food stamps, aren't allocated along racial or ethnic lines. How are they going to feel when they realize Gingrich was actually threatening all of their state's citizens who are unfortunate to be out of work and impoverished as a result with his rhetorical assault on the federal aid and assistance they desperately need?
= new reply since forum marked as read
