George W. Bush Jr. The most Successful Food Stamp President

Earlier tonight Newt Gingrich swept through South Carolina primary polling places, mopping the floor with all the other candidates with a 12% ahead of Mitt Romney, 23% ahead of Santorum and 27% ahead of Ron Paul.  This is particularly amazing considering he was trailing Mitt Romney after New Hampshire by quite a bit.  The dramatic change can be attributed heavily to a series of gaffs Romney has made as well as a good debate showing by Gingrich earlier this week.  As it is, I am starting to get a little tired of the talking points continually regurgitated by Gingrich in every clip I hear.  He is constantly calling the President "the most successful food stamp president in the history of the country."  This statement drives me absolutely batty because of the simultaneous bald faced lying as well as the mud wrestling style of oration that is so well known with the disgraced former Speaker of the House so it is time to clear up some facts.

After analyzing the numbers, it is actually former President Bush that should hold such a title.   When you take into account the situation each president inherited, the situation is even bleaker for the GOP former vacationer in chief. President Bush inherited a $230 billion surplus and left office with a $5 trillion deficit, two wars an economy hemorrhaging jobs and a record 14.7 million new recipients of food stamps.  Conversely, President Obama via his stimulus package and other programs righted the ship and has 21 straight months of job growth, gotten us out of one war, averted another war, Libya, without setting a single soldier on the ground, killed Osama Bin Laden and countless other Al Qaeda leaders, is on track to double American exports in 5 years, a claim he made during one of his State of the Union addresses and most importantly, at least for this posting, has decreased the number of recipients on Food Stamps.  While the numbers are relatively close, 14.7 million for Bush and 14.2 million for Obama, when you consider the starting point of each administration and what they inherited, it is pretty clear who the most successful food stamp president is, and it is not our current Commander in Chief.

I really hope Newt Gingrich gets the nomination.  While he is thriving in conservative polls right now, if you look at the national polls, the man has huge name recognition compared to all the other candidates and also has the highest disapproval ratings, around 60%.   Any incumbent would kill to face numbers like that.