Welfare

CNN Hypes Gwyneth Paltrow's 'Food Stamp Challenge' Participation — And Its Bogus Benchmark
By Tom Blumer | April 12, 2015 | 4:50 PM EDT

On Saturday, CNN hyped actress and self-appointed "lifestyle guru" Gwyneth Paltrow's participation in the "Food Stamp Challenge." This is the fundamentally dishonest campaign which has been working for at least eight years to convince Americans that benefits provided under the federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are inadequate.

As usual, Paltrow has taken up the challenge to get by for a week on a drastically understated amount which does not reflect the program's real provisions. As has almost always been the case with journalists covering politicians, celebrities and others who have taken up the "challenge," CNN's Jareen Imam didn't question the correctness of the weekly amount involved:

Former WashPost Reporter at the Fiscal Times Falsely Claims Food Stamp Caseload Is Down 11 Percent
By Tom Blumer | February 27, 2015 | 9:01 PM EST

The Fiscal Times is a generally strong and informative online publication. That said, it has occasionally exhibits symptoms of what could be seen as either serious leftist bias, quite disappointing ignorance, or both.

One such example arrived in my email box early this morning. It contained the following headline and opening tease for a story about the food stamp program:

Recovery Watch: Homeless Problem in LA Is Growing
By Tom Blumer | January 25, 2015 | 11:55 PM EST

As President Barack Obama and Governor Jerry Brown continue to extol the wonders of the alleged economic recovery of nation and the Golden State, respectively, stories of significant growth in homelessness continue to rain on their parades. The latest example comes on the heels of reports on Seattle's burgeoning problem and the city's apparent willingness to allow officially sanctioned outdoor encampments to serve as a "temporary" (yeah, sure) solution.

In a Saturday item in the Los Angeles Times about the expansion of "homeless camps" outside of what had been known as the LA's "skid row," Times reporter Gale Holland apparently learned not to repeat a revealing disclosure she made in a December Times report covering the situation in San Jose. Her coverage was remarkably vague, failing to provide specifics I believe she could have relayed with little effort, especially given that homelessness and poverty is her assigned beat. Excerpts follow the jump.

Lafayette, Indiana Reporter Who Thinks He Flunked the 'Food Stamp Challenge' Really Didn't
By Tom Blumer | January 15, 2015 | 12:31 AM EST

At the Lafayette, Indiana Courier Journal, reporter Mikel Livingston, that paper's social policiy reporter, set out to try to pass the Food Stamp Challenge.

The idea, in his words, was to "survive for one week on $29.69," because, he says, that is "what the average recipient of SNAP benefits, commonly called food stamps, receives each week in Indiana." By Day 6, he claimed, "faced with the possibility that eating all my remaining food on the final day would net me just 619 calories, I realized I had failed." What he really proved is that he was well on his way to succeeding with room to spare.

Atlantic Columnist: Progressives 'Have Every Reason to Be Celebrating'
By Tom Blumer | November 11, 2014 | 8:50 PM EST

Far be it from me to talk a leftist columnist out of an ignorant, self-satisfied position which might, if anything, cause his fellow travelers to hit the accelerator a little less aggressively in future political campaigns.

At the Atlantic on Monday afternoon, Richard Reeves, policy director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, claimed that the left shouldn't be so glum after Tuesday's election results, because "progressive policies are working." His very first graph makes a mockery of his claim:

Will Weighs in on How Poorly Obamanomics Has Worked in Illinois
By Tom Blumer | October 5, 2014 | 2:09 PM EDT

On Thursday, President Barack Obama did something Republicans have inexplicably been reluctant to do. He nationalized the impending midterm elections by telling a friendly audience at Northwestern University that "I am not on the ballot this fall ... But make no mistake: These policies (of my administration) are on the ballot -- every single one of them."

That evening on Fox News's Special Report hosted by Bret Baier, in video seen after the jump (HT Real Clear Politics), George Will was ready with some facts and a deadly redistributionist riposte on how Obama's policies have worked out in the real world, including in the President's home state, during the past six years:

Slate Writer: ‘Fake Problems’ an Excuse For ‘Harmful…Draconian’ Republican Agenda
By Tom Johnson | September 17, 2014 | 9:12 PM EDT

The GOP wildly exaggerates problems like voter fraud because its solutions would move the country to the right.

WashPost Headline Betrays Its Tilt Against Nevada's 'Biggest Corporate Tax Giveaway'
By Tim Graham | September 11, 2014 | 1:13 PM EDT

In today’s Biased Headlines department, see today’s Reid Wilson report on the Washington Post website from Wednesday: “Nevada is about to pass the biggest corporate tax giveaway in its history.”

But has the Post recently described welfare programs or food stamps as a "giveaway"? It doesn't look like it.

In 4-1/2 Years, 10 Million Private-Sector Jobs — and 7 Million More on Food Stamps
By Tom Blumer | September 9, 2014 | 2:11 PM EDT

The press is good at putting the most positive spin possible on the monthly job-market news. But at the same time, many of its members still claim that food stamp enrollment remains as high as it is because of the lingering effects of the (Bush did it) recession.

On Friday, following the release of August's employment numbers, Obama administration Labor Secretary Tom Perez celebrated how "businesses have added more than 10 million jobs over the last four and a half years," and have done so for "54 consecutive months of private-sector job growth, the longest streak on record." All true, though average job growth during that time has resembled an underperforming baseball player who somehow manages to go 1-for-5 or barely better every day. Meanwhile, food stamp enrollment has increased by 6.8 million.

Cincy Enquirer Keeps Michelle Obama's Name Out of Story on District Ending Federal School Lunches
By Tom Blumer | August 11, 2014 | 1:30 AM EDT

Fort Thomas Independent Schools in Northern Kentucky have decided to get out of the federal school lunch program, specifically because of the requirements imposed in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by First Lady Michelle Obama. Simply put, the district is tired of being forced to give kids food they won't eat.

Until it ran into problems, HHFA was seen as Mrs. Obama's signature achievement, and the press fawned over its alleged awesomeness. Now that the program has encountered fierce real-world resistance, her association with it seems to have vanished from many press reports. One such report was filed by the Associated Press last month from the School Nutrition Association's annual convention in Boston. A local example appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer Saturday evening. Excerpts from that report by Jessica Brown follow the jump (bolds are mine):

David Gregory Suggests Paul Ryan Doesn’t Have ‘A Lot of Sympathy’ For Poor People
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 27, 2014 | 1:37 PM EDT

Meet the Press moderator David Gregory did his best to condemn Congressman Paul Ryan’s new anti-poverty proposal during an interview on Sunday, July 27. 

The NBC host played a clip of Ryan from 2013 in which he criticized a “dependency culture” in America which Gregory interpreted as not sounding “like there’s a lot of sympathy for people you think need the government's help. What you seem to be saying is that people have a problem with their own dependency here the government is only furthering.” [See video below.]  

MSNBC’s Schultz Slams Ryan’s Anti-Poverty Plan; ‘Out There Selling The Turd in the Punch Bowl’
By Curtis Houck | July 24, 2014 | 9:25 PM EDT

Ed Schultz spent a portion of his opening monologue on his MSNBC show Thursday attacking Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his latest policy proposal to reform government welfare programs, declaring that Ryan is “more radical than ever” and he’s “out there selling turd in the punch bowl.”

After trumpeting the long-standing liberal policy of increasing the minimum wage (which never works), Schultz moved to attack Ryan and a speech he made Thursday in which he offered, among many topics, plans to consolidate government welfare programs and reform federal education spending. [MP3 audio here; Video below]