President Obama’s White House spokesman dismissed as “crazy” Newt Gingrich’s claim that Obama has “put” people on food stamps, citing the ailing economy as the cause for the expanded use of welfare programs.
“Well, you know as well as I do that that’s crazy,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said when pressed on the issue. “The fact of the matter is this, country is emerging from the worst rec since the great depression,” he said initially. “When this president took the oath of office in January 2009 this economy was in free fall . . . [resulting in] a dramatic increase in the number of people who needed assistance.”
Gingrich said yesterday that “more people have been put on food stamps under Barack Obama than any other president in history.”
Carney also dismissed Gingrich’s comment that he wants to “knock [Obama] out,” politically. “The campaign trail is filled with exuberant rhetoric and I’ll just let that one pass,” Carney said.
