NorthStar Briefs

Analyst Sees Flaws in Gingrich Claims on “Food Stamp President”

Newt Gingrich's charge that President Barack Obama is the “Food Stamp President” because many Americans have had to go on food stamps during his first term in office ignores a key fact, like the Great Recession, says Algernon Austin, director of the Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy Program at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank.

The statements by Gingrich, who won Saturday's Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, fail to acknowledge the greatest economic downturn in the country's history since the Great Depression, said Austin, a sociologist for the institute, which was founded to broaden the discussion about the economy to include low-and middle-class workers.
 
“Once we acknowledge the existence of the Great Recession, Gingrich''s ideas stop making sense,” Austin said. “The recession began in December 2007, and President Obama took office in January 2009, more than a year later. During this period of extreme economic hardship when the rate of hunger in America is high, our leaders should want the needy to turn to SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps]. Would a President Gingrich eliminate SNAP or prevent the number of SNAP recipients from rising during a recession?”

The promise by the former Speaker of House to cut taxes and Food Stamp assistance would not help the economy, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. He said that tax cuts are among the weakest things we could do to simulate the economy and that increased SNAP spending is among the best, and Austin at the race and economics program agreed.

“The reason is simple,” Austin explained. “People on SNAP are experiencing economic hardship. They spend their benefits, circulating those dollars in the economy. Most of the added income produced by tax cuts to people who are well-off is saved and not spent.”

Federal Jobs Continue to Disappear, But State and Local Job Losses Are Moderating
Federal jobs are rapidly disappearing, but cuts in state and local-government jobs is moderating, according to Gallup's Job Creation Index, which was released on Jan. 14.
In December, 23 percent of federal employees said their areas were hiring, but 43 percent of employees polled said employees were getting pink slips.

“This, by far, is the most negative condition Gallup has found since it began tracking federal government job creation in August 2008,” wrote Dennis Jacobe, Gallup's chief economist. “State job creation began declining in December 2008 and local government job creation began its decline the following month,” Jacobe said.  In late 2011, the job situation moderated at the state and local level, he added.

Joint Center to Host Webinar on Social Security Reform
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank for black elected officials, will host a webinar later this month on why African Americans and Hispanics should become active in Social Security reform.

The webinar is scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday, Jan. 31.  The webinar is one of a series the Joint Center is sponsoring to raise African Americans' awareness of the effects of pending changes to Social Security.

Webinar participants must register to participate. 

National Urban League to Host Black-Population Forum
The National Urban League and the U.S. Census Bureau will host a forum on the nation's black population at Black Entertainment Television's Washington, D.C. headquarters. The event, which will highlight statistics from the 2010 census, is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Feb. 1. A panel discussion will follow the presentation.