Barbra Streisand: 'Barack Obama Has Not Put Anyone on Food Stamps'

February 4th, 2012 3:25 PM

"Barack Obama has not put anyone on food stamps."

So hysterically wrote Barbra Streisand at the Huffington Post Friday evening:

[R]ecently in a debate moderated by Fox News analyst, Juan Williams, Gingrich was questioned about controversial remarks he had made about poverty and African Americans. Gingrich had previously said black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps. Juan Williams attempted to coax Gingrich into acknowledging that he was playing racial politics. To which Gingrich responded untruthfully that, "more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history." And there ended that portion of the debate with Gingrich receiving deafening applause from the audience, looking strong and principled. What Juan Williams failed to point out in that moment is that Barack Obama has not put anyone on food stamps. The grossly irresponsible and greedy practices of those on Wall Street, which led to the subsequent crash of the housing market, created the most severe recession our country has experienced since the Great Depression (which Obama inherited from George W. Bush when he entered office). These events, along with the continuous deregulation of our financial sector, conspired to make a record number of people eligible for government food assistance. Juan Williams completely missed this important opportunity to reveal the real truth behind Gingrich's racist assertions.

In Streisand's warped view, the unprecedented rise in food stamp recipients the past three years is all Bush's fault.

Yet, job gains the past 23 months are because of Obama's policies:

The truth is, President Obama's leadership on the stimulus, bringing the auto industry back from the brink of collapse, adding nearly 3.7 million private sector jobs in 23 consecutive months of job growth proves that our country is moving in the right direction. Because of the President's policies, our economy is on the road to recovery and it's time we start celebrating the truth.


So let's assume it took thirteen months for Obama's policies to take hold, and that he should only be judged on what's happened since the job market bottomed. Shouldn't that apply to people on food stamps as well?

As the United States Department of Agriculture reports, there were 39.6 million people on food stamps in February 2010. As of November 2011, there were 46.1 million, an increase of 6.5 million.

Are these Bush's fault too? If Obama gets credit for the rise in private sector jobs in the past 23 months, shouldn't he be blamed for the increase in food stamps recipients during the same period?

I doubt such logic would meet with Streisand's acceptance.

On a related noted, the actress that played Funny Girl showed that she still has a sense of humor writing, "Journalists need to stand strong and do their job, which is to challenge candidates immediately when they are purposefully misleading the public."

I guess she doesn't realize that if journalists did this, a Democrat would never be elected to public office anywhere in the country.

That goes doubly for her loves Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who would never have gotten near the White House except as part of a guided tour if America's press did their job.

But thanks for the laugh, Fanny.

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