Without a doubt, Barry "Almighty", will go down in history as a president who achieved for himself a rather substantial number of some rather remarkable 'records'. At least remarkable in the sense that he was able to achieve them here in the United States and not somewhere in Europe or in the Third World. However, very few, if any, of them have been in anyway something that was actually good for America. For instance, we got word of Barry's latest achievement only last Friday when the United States Department of Agriculture quietly released new statistics related to the food stamps program. What the numbers reveal is that in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it's ever been, with an average of 46,609,072 people on the program every month of last year. In fact, there were 47,791,996 people on the program in the month of December 2012.
The federal government also says that in a given month in 2012, the number of households on food stamps was 22,329,713. The state with the highest average number of participants per month in 2012 was Texas, with an astonishing 4,038,440 folks drawing from the program. The second highest is California, with 3,964,221, and then Florida, at 3,353,064. Washington, D.C., with an estimated population of 617,996, had an average of 141,147 participants. Meaning, nearly one quarter of the population is on food stamps. And all of this is according to the numbers provided by the federal government. The participation rate in Texas, which has an estimated population of 26,059,203, 15.5 percent. The state with the lowest number of participants in the program was Wyoming, with 34,347 out an estimated population of 576,412.
Over the weekend we heard Sen. Jeff Sessions, top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, say that Barry's administration is encouraging growth in the food stamps program as a way to stimulate the economy. "Amazingly, the federal government says that the more people we have on food stamps, the more it grows the economy. The Department of Agriculture proudly declares: ‘Each $5 in new [food stamp] benefits generates almost twice that amount in economic activity for the community.’ Our government is running food stamp promotions at foreign embassies. One worker was given an award for overcoming ‘mountain pride’ and getting more people to sign up. So this is what we in America have now been reduced to? Whatever happened to that unique American spirit where pride, self-respect and the desire to be independent was actually valued.
Sessions also pointed out that cities like Baltimore, which he said have been "governed by liberal policies for decades," see particularly high numbers of participation in the program. "Despite this fountain of federal funds, 1 in 3 children still live in poverty in our nation’s capital. Two in three children live in single parent homes. In nearby Baltimore--another city governed by liberal policies for decades--1 in 3 residents are on food stamps and in 1 in 3 youth live in poverty. Americans are committed to helping our sisters and brothers who are struggling, but we are seeing the damaging human consequences of our broken welfare state," said Sessions. "We spend a trillion dollars each year on federal poverty programs. That’s more than the budget for Social Security or Defense. But poverty seems only to increase. Something is wrong. Compassion demands that we change."
Of course none of what Sen. Sessions said will do anything more than to fall on deaf ears. That's what always happens there in Washington. We have more of those ignoring the alarm bells than we have listening to them. And really, what does Barry care about how desperate things will be for Americans once he's left office and making substantial amounts of money for doing nothing more than giving a speech. It'll be our children and our children's children who will be made to be responsible for at least trying to deal with the consequences of all of Barry's rather unique set of records accomplished. It's difficult to argue against the fact that America will appear markedly after Barry leaves office compared to what it looked like when he first strutted into the Oval Office. And sadly we have far more 'leaders' far more interested in themselves than in saving the country.
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