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Fox News host Greta Van Susteren recently said that she was disappointed that nothing was done for the poor but has repeatedly hosted guests that attacked the food stamp program, which is known for helping to keep millions of individuals out of poverty and limit the effects of poverty and unemployment. This weekend, Van Susteren called attention to the lack of focus on impoverished Americans, mentioning “The thing that disturbs me is that the economy I see is a three legged stool: the rich, the middle class, and the poor. And all three have to be winning and surviving, and we do nothing about the poor. You know, we play with all these numbers and look at all the unemployment but we still aren’t digging into the inner city and going into the poverty, the huge poverty at the bottom in this city.”

However, some feel that her concern for the poor isn’t very consistent because she has had multiple guests on her show which were attacking the use of the food stamp program. Last year, she hosted guest Allen West who suggested that the use of food stamps prevented people in poverty from being able to handle situations on their own. West stated, “And as you know, since the president been in office, we’ve seen a 45 percent increase in food stamp recipients. So I think when you look at the economic policies, we’re going in the wrong direction in that we’re growing the amount of people that are being on government subsistence or government dependency instead of getting people off of that with the right type of economic policies to help them to stand up on their own.”

Earlier this year, she also hosted former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who also had some attacks to offer about the food stamp program. Cain stated, “The reason we have such a high percentage is because of the ideological reasoning behind wanting more people on the program, as well as other programs, and that is class warfare. When you have an administration and you have liberals and you have Democrats constantly promoting the fact that maybe the rich are not paying enough, even though the top 50 percent of taxpayers paid nearly 98 percent of the taxes — they continue to promote this class warfare ideology, so it makes some people who find a way to game the system not feel guilty about it. That’s part of the problem, and it’s this whole class warfare ideology.”

Ironically, a CBPP report shows information contrary to what both West and Cain suggested. The increase in the SNAP caseloads was actually the result of the recession. This can be seen more noticeably when the report cites, “The number of people eligible for SNAP increased because of the recession and lagging recovery. The number of people with income below 130 percent of poverty (the SNAP income limit) increased substantially, from 54 million in 2007, before the recession, to 60 million in 2009 and 64 million in 2011, allowing more households to qualify for help from the program.”

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