The liberal media went wild over a video of Mitt Romney saying people who pay no taxes and live off government handouts have no reason to vote for him. Left unsaid is that Barack Obama has been running on exactly that platform. When it comes to the culture of dependency, President Obama built that.
Mr. Obama views government as a bottomless well of free handouts. Every idea, every proposal, every promise Mr. Obama makes involves the government giving something to somebody. His urgent focus is to expand and strengthen government’s role in everyone’s daily life. This was illustrated in the Obama campaign slideshow “The Life of Julia,” a detailed roadmap for cradle-to-grave dependence on government. Every slide began with, “Under President Obama” — which the White House believes is the proper place for Americans.
Mr. Obama said he wanted to spread the wealth around and fundamentally transform America. Unfortunately, he has. There are more Americans in poverty now than when President Lyndon Johnson declared war on it in 1964. Mr. Obama is called the “food-stamp president” for good reason. A record 47 million Americans per month — almost one in six — are on food stamps, which is practically double the number from when Mr. Obama took office. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack posited that food stamps are an “economic stimulus” that actually creates wealth. “Every dollar of [food stamps] generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity,” he claimed in 2011.
The White House also believes in the miraculous effects of unemployment benefits. In 2011, White House spokesman Jay Carney said handouts to the jobless were critical to the economy because “every place that, that money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring.” So unemployment creates jobs — such political doublespeak would make George Orwell blush.
