The Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius once said “in a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.”  Someone should have told former President Obama because under his administration, the overall poverty rate is up; the number of children in poverty is up; the number of both people and households on food stamps is up; and the income gap in the country is growing ever wider.  Quite a record for a President who falsely claims that “by almost every economic measure, we are significantly better off” as a result of his administration.  This is the third post in this series looking at this statement and the overall economic record of the Obama administration.

First, the overall poverty rate has risen from 13.2 percent in the year before he took office, to 14.7 percent in 2015 (the last year for which data is available.)  That represents an increase of more than 7 million people in poverty.  That is 41% of the total population growth the country experienced during the same period.  But for children, the Obama administration was a complete disaster.   The number of children (persons 18 and under) in the country actually declined between 2008 and 2015.  However, the number of children in poverty went UP by 1.8 million!

Not surprisingly, as poverty rose during the Obama administration, so did the number of people on food stamps.  The number of people on food stamps in 2015 is up 56% since 2008 to more than 45 million people.  That means that 1 out of every 7 people in the country is on food stamps.  That number was 1 out of 10 when Obama came into office.  The number of households on food stamp assistance is up 70 percent over the same period.  And the cost?  The country spent $5.7 BILLION in 2015 on food stamps…85 percent more than was spent the year Obama was elected. The political satirist, P.J. O’Rourke wrote that “you can’t get rid of poverty by giving people money.”  Well, the Obama administration sure tried.

Finally, despite his socialist leanings, under the Obama administration, the rich got richer and the poor became poorer.  When Obama was elected, the lowest quintile represented 3.4% of aggregate income and the top quintile represented 50.4%.  The ratio between the two was 14.8.  By 2015 (the last year for which data is available) the lowest quintile had dropped to 3.16% while the top quintile was up to 51.5% − a ratio of 16.31.  The income gap widened significantly under the Obama administration.

Mahatma Gandhi said “poverty is the worst form of violence.”  Over the past eight years, this violence was perpetrated by a man on the very population he purported to care for – and many of his disillusioned disciples still love him despite the damage he brought them. When Obama said that “by almost every economic measure, we are significantly better off,” he clearly didn’t mean for the 7.1 million additional people that fell into poverty under his watch.  Charles Darwin wrote “if the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.”  Obama’s sin is great indeed.