Fox Accuses Obama Of Creating Dependency With Bush-Era Program

Written by Thomas Bishop

Published

Fox News accused President Obama of promoting dependency and illegal immigration with a food stamp program that started under the Bush administration.

On the April 26 edition of Your World, Cavuto attacked a partnership that educates Spanish-speaking populations about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility. Wright claimed that “the Obama administration wants to encourage government dependency and, it looks like, illegal immigration” with the program. Cavuto agreed with Wright and added “it looks like we are doing a beeline to help folks who should not be here in the first place.”


But the partnership was created under President George W. Bush in 2004. Salon reported that it “doesn't actually provide food stamps to immigrants,” only information on benefits that are already available to those who had been in the country legally for five years:

Indeed, official USDA guidance notes, “SNAP eligibility has never been extended to undocumented non-citizens.” An immigrant hoping to take advantage of American food stamps would have to get a green card, move here, wait five years, and then cash in. It's not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme. 

There are some exceptions for children and the infirm, but fewer than 4 percent of food stamp users are non-citizen legal immigrants.

Why would the U.S. want to educate Mexican-Americans about nutrition assistance? Because Latinos have disproportionately high hunger rates. 

ObamaFox News continues to falsely claim that Obama is creating a “culture of dependency” for anti-poverty programs put in place before his presidency and exacerbated by the recession.  In reality many SNAP recipients work and only stay on the program a short time. The Center for Budget Policy Priorities reported that “in 2010 more than three times as many SNAP households worked as relied solely on welfare benefits for their income.” CBPP also explained that contrary to the dependency myth, SNAP and other safety net programs have helped to keep nearly five million people out of poverty, two million of whom are children.