SubscribeWas Obama’s Mother A PhD ‘Welfare Queen’?
As everyone has surely heard by now, Mr. Obama has just added to his stump speech a claim that his mother was on food stamps. And even his wife Michelle is shouting his latest qualification for the Presidency from the rooftops.
But if Mrs. Obama (who, according to Barack, may or may not have married his father) was on food stamps, when exactly would that have been?
As S&L reader Retire05 noted in a comment posted to another thread:
Now we learn that Obama’s destitute mother was on food stamps. But I would like to know when.
There is a possibility that if she was, she was scamming the system.
[Barack Obama] was born in 1961 but his mother could not get food stamps then because a) she was married and b) they were not available then.
Then [Barack Senior] moved to a foreign country. I don’t think that we were sending food stamps to foreign nations.
When she moved back in 1965, food stamps were not available in Hawaii in 1965.
In 1967, she married the second time and moved to Jakarta. Nope, no food stamps then.
By the time she moved back once again, he was living with his grandparents who had jobs and food stamps were not being handed out like Halloween candy in those years.
It would be interesting if someone did a FOI request to see if his mother ever collected food stamps. Since she is deceased, it should be no problem. But my guess? It is all bull crap.
Going by the history of the food stamp program, Retire05 seems to be correct.
Of course the Food Stamp Act of 1964 (pdf file) was in effect in 1965. But the US Department of Health And Human Resources says only 22 states participated at that time:
After a pilot program that began in 1961, the Food Stamp Act of 1964 established the Food Stamp program with 22 States participating.
So the question is whether Hawaii was among those states.
Any and all further elucidation would be greatly appreciated.
Update!
S&L reader JacksonianDemocrat has pointed out in the comments below that during an interview with Joe Klein that appeared in the October 15, 2006 edition of Time Magazine Obama claimed:
I was going to a fancy prep school, and my mother was on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D.
As JacksonianDemocrat notes, this would be circa 1974-1977, which when the young Barack was attending one of Hawaii’s most elite private schools and in fact living full time with his grandparents.
And, as we have previously noted, his (racist) grandmother was the vice-president of the Bank Of Hawaii.
So, even if this is true, it greatly undercuts Mr. Obama’s claim to know firsthand what it is like to struggle.
For Barack was not living with his mother at the time she was on food stamps, but with his upper middle class, embarrassingly white and well-off grandparents.
Update!
And here is this somewhat ironic piece from the archives of the Chicago Tribune:
Obama urges fathers to be responsible
By Mike Dorning
June 16, 2007SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Two days before Father’s Day, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama presented a plan Friday for lifting up poor families that included searing criticism of fathers who abandon their responsibilities to raise children. …
The Illinois senator, who as a child had little contact with his African father except occasional letters, drew on his own life story as he spoke, describing the difficulties of growing up without a father. He noted that, without support from his father, he and his mother at times turned to food stamps to make ends meet…
Note that here Mr. Obama claims “he and his mother turned to food stamps.”
He also says “at times.” So we can safely assume it happened more than once.
So his mother was collecting food stamps and who knows what other government benefits while she was attending college and her parents were raising her child?
It looks like mom was what we used to call a “welfare queen.”
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40 Responses to “Was Obama’s Mother A PhD ‘Welfare Queen’?”
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April 16th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hey retire05. Do you think Obama’s having a “Hillary sniper fire” moment with the food stamp blather?
April 16th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I read Retires comments in the other thread, Unimpeachable.
Great job retire!!!!
April 16th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Retire05
Same here, great job!
I’ve been watching the debates and trying to scramble around SG’s USDA link at the same time. It looks like you landed a blow.
From what I’ve read, there was a pilot program in 1961 but it wasn’t until 1964 that it had expanded to 22 states. I can’t find which states made up that 22 but, is one of them likely to be a noncontiguous state like Hawaii? It wasn’t until 1974 that the Food Stamp Program expanded to all States.
Here’s another useful site:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/rn/Rn13.htm
April 16th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
1964 in Hawaii? Possibly…
http://hawaii.gov/dhs/self-suf...../FNS#Start
April 16th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Abe Lincoln wrote with charcoal on a shovel to do his homework, or not. HONEST Abe freed some slaves. Obama has no American slave background. Therefor it is reasonable to conclude that Obama is an elitist. Food stamps or not he is an evil liberal person.
Smerconish came out of the closet today for Obama.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
>>> Smerconish came out of the closet today for Obama.
I’m not sure how this relates to the thread, but . . .
As a Philly talk junkie, let me just say this: I am not thrilled with the directions that Michael’s (Smerconish) political views have taken in the past couple of years, but I have to defend him on this point, at least a bit:
He is not FOR Obama. The “support” to which you refer has been part of a recent series of discussions he’s been having: Question - If he was voting in the Democrat primary, who would he vote for. It’s as simple as that.
In the general election, there is no question that he’s voting Republican.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Stamps and all other B.S. aside . What Son would let his Mother suffer ? What Son would not step up and provide ? See the hardship and lend a hand . Oops , Mom is white . She seems to fit every other category that obama-nanny caters to . It’s just the white thing ? HELP !
How is his Mother-in-law doing ? Jeesh . ” Son ” in this post = P.O.S. . True or false .
April 16th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
“>>> Smerconish came out of the closet today for Obama.
I’m not sure how this relates to the thread, but . . .”
It doesn’t, just keeping youse on edge.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I was watching michelle obama on the podium the other day and realized she reminded me of robot chicken, and I am not trying to be funny here.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
“I am not trying to be funny here.”
Damn, I cant wait till you are if thats not even trying.;-)
Bawack Obama, Bawack!, Bawaack Bawaaaaack.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Regular or Extra liberal chicken ? Yes , I’m trying to be funny .
April 16th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
I will have the Obama fun meal please.
” You want lies with that? ”
Yeah, super size em.
“One Democratic Bucket of BS coming up sir, Please pull up to the window”
April 16th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Then, you get to the drive up window, and there’s unhinged michelle obama with jeremiah wright yelling at you and throwing gizzards at your car.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Gizzards, Yuk, Bet they hold a donation tray out the window.
Pay em with food stamps and watch them really GO, INSANE.
Plus, Have a 2 for 1 coupon.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
“Regular or Extra liberal chicken ? Yes , I’m trying to be funny .”
Whats that equate to? A left wing or a far left wing? ;-)
April 16th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Obama’s claim of growing up on food stamps is misleading.
In an interview with Joe Klein in 2006, Obama said the following:
“I was going to a fancy prep school, and my mother was on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D.”
http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....02,00.html
In his book on Obama (Obama: From Promise to Power, see page 36-38) Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell gives the following description of the elite prep school:
“Barry was sent to live with his grandparents back in Hawaii, where he was enrolled in the private Punahou School. Founded in 1841 by missionaries, Punahou had evolved into a prestigious college preparatory academy that served Hawaii’s upper crust…. Obama’s grandparents maneuvered him into Punahou; his grandfather’s boss, an alumnus, intervened to have Obama accepted. And Madelyn’s job at the bank helped pay the steep tuition. … The campus itself was an island on an island, a fenced-in tract of several scenic acres largely hidden from public view. Under the silvery morning sunshine, Maya gave me a tour of her alma mater. A misty rain sprinkled on us from the lone cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky, giving the day a perfect tropical feel. On his first visit to Punahou, Obama’s grandfather described the school campus as ‘heaven’, and it would be hard to disagree with that assessment. The school featured elegant theaters and stately buildings set amid shady palm trees, verdant fields and neatly sculpted walking paths. High, tree-covered hills served as backdrop to the campus. The scene was so idyllic that it resembled a Hollywood set. That landscape, in conjunction with the surrounding fence, provided visitors and others with a feeling of safe insularity. And after a long day of hectic travel, it provided me with a sense of calm. … As the tour concluded and we headed to our domestic rental cars, which were parked amid Saabs and Volvos and Lexuses, Obama’s introduction to his memoir flashed to my mind. I realized that the Manhattan publisher who turned down Obama’s book idea was correct on one account—Obama certainly had not come from an underprivileged background.”
Someone writing into the history channel pointed out:
http://boards.historychannel.c.....8230431637
“Obama was born in 1961 and lived with both his mother and father until they divorced in 1965. So no food stamps during that period as they were not available then. She then moved back in with her parents until she remarried in 1967 but the food stamp program was not available in Hawaii during those years. In 1967, after her second marriage she moved to Jakarta and there were no food stamps available to her in Jakarta. In 1971, Obama moved in with his grandparents so his mother was absent, remaining in Jakarta, and he was being raised by his grandparents who sent him to a private prep school that was quite expensive. She did not move back to Hawaii until 1974 but by then she was employed. And she returned to Indonesia in 1977 and stayed until long after Obama had graduated and so she would have not been eligible for food stamps at any period during that time.”
Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, returned to Hawaii in 1974 to pursue a PhD.
All of this fits with what Obama said back in 2006. If his mother actually did receive food stamps, it would only have been while she was getting her PhD (1974-1977), and while the family was sending Obama to an expensive private prep school (Madelyn Dunham, Obama’s grandmother, was during this time Vice-President at the Bank of Hawaii).
April 16th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Even if she was on food stamps it would be her own fault for mating with a bunch of third-world muslim uglies. Any decent woman would be put off by the flies buzzing around Obama Sr.’s eyes……..
April 16th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
now, I think I’ll go somewhere and laugh myself to sleep-big green flies at that.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Dez , double up on mis-spoke sundaes and surrender fries .
April 17th, 2008 at 12:02 am
“Any decent woman would be put off by the flies buzzing around Obama Sr.’s eyes……..’
Da-amn, Thats nasty.
LMAO!
April 17th, 2008 at 12:02 am
hey, didn’t you hear about michelle obama’s car that runs suspiciously like a french tank? It has 5 gears, 1 in forward and 4 in RETREAT!
April 17th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Thanks for taking the time to post all of that, JacksonianDemocrat.
Good stuff.
I had heard the “on food stamps while getting her PhD” remark before and couldn’t place it.
This still undercuts the import of Obama’s claim. Since he did not personally experience the hardships of his mother being on food stamps, since they were not living together at the time.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:07 am
“Dez , double up on mis-spoke sundaes and surrender fries .”
Surrender fries are for now still called french fries, I think.
Mis- spoke sundaes always come with a banana, a cigar and a bib for the blue dress, plus flying ashtrays, ghostly sniper rounds and denials.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:17 am
“…….Obama certainly had not come from an underprivileged background.”
No kidding. Just what is BO’s real story. The pieces of the puzzle never fit together. (I wonder if he had to circle around and serpentine under gun fire to get to school every day?) LOL….. this election gets more entertaining everyday.
Great post retire…see what you started? :-)
April 17th, 2008 at 12:18 am
DEZ , Whats the difference between a liberal ? Neither . Both legs are the same . Haw ! Just winging it .
IMHO , regular or otherwise . When it comes to libtards it’s the same old same old .
April 17th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Maybe he meant her PICTURE was on the food stamps. By tomorrow morning they will have spun this six ways from Sunday. I guess that’s what he means by change. Words have meanings….we just keep changing the meanings.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Jacksonian D , Thanks for the additional ammunition for our war on lies. I’d type faster if I wasn’t clinging to my guns or my religion at the same time . Got to go , somebody that doesn’t look like ” me ” just drove by . Keep posting the truth .
April 17th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Hawaii had food stamps as of Jan 1971 - http://digital.library.unt.edu.....crs-8143:1
In late 1970, Congress enacted the first major amendments to the Food Stamp Act, after an Administration request for new legislation. The 1970 amendments (P.L. 91-671, signed in January 1971) accepted the administrative changes made in late 1969 (uniform and higher allotment schedules and lower purchase requirements, thus larger benefits) and made other substantial changes in the law that significantly liberalized the program. Food stamp allotments were to be annually indexed to the rate of food-price inflation. This automatically increased benefits annually since purchase requirement levels were left untouched and, because income eligiblity standards were increased as food stamp allotments rose, eligibility standards were also automatically escalated with food-price inflation. Eligibility standards were taken out of State hands and required to be federally established and
——————————————————————————–
Page 11
nationally uniform, with variations allowed only f o r ceoh welfare r e c i p i e n t # ,and participants i n Alaska, Hawaii, and the outlying t e r r i t o r i e s .And, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands were allowed t o e n t e r t h e program i f they chose to.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:58 am
JacksonianDemocrat, you have found my other haunting place where I fend off the liberals with the courage of Alexander.
But there is a problem with Obama’s claim that his mother received food stamps while she was seeking her Ph.D.
Wikipedia states that Ann Dunham went back to Hawaii in 1974 to study for her Ph.D., but she left to return to Indonesia in 1977. It then goes on to say that she recieved her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Hawai’i in 1992 when Obama would have been 31 years old. I have read that she worked on her thesis in Indonesia studying (I think) primitive blacksmiths.
There is some major disconnect going on here. Did she get her Ph.D. in 1992 as reported and was she on food stamps then when Obama was a grown man? Even the three years she lived with her parents (between ‘74-’77) I have my doubts that she would have been eligible for food stamps with her parents supporting her AND her son and his being able to attend a prestigious prep school. Remember, by 1992, Obama was in Chicago doing his Saul Alinsky community “organization” thing or working for the law firm that represented the crook, Tony Rezko.
I think this is just another “I never head Rev. Wright say those things” moment. He joined Trinity to gain street cred with a community that was, by his own accounts, suspecious of outsiders. I think we can probably chaulk the “food stamp” claim off as Obama wanting to gain national street cred. This would make him “one of the people” with those who are fawning all over him and discount his snobbery.
But the dates, and conflicting stories, just don’t add up. Sorry, I’m not buying any of it.
Oh, and thanks for the compliments, gang.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:27 am
A correction is in order. If the following article is correct, the Hawaii Food Stamp pilot project started in 1961. So, it’s possible Ann Dunham received food stamps prior to marrying Lolo.
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com.....ocal01.txt
So my interpretation would be that she received food stamps during the PhD program (she started in 1974, and left Hawaii in 1977, but it took a long time for her to complete the PhD), and possibly while Obama was very young (prior to 1967).
April 17th, 2008 at 1:52 am
it’s hard to believe…Ive only been studying Obam for a month+ but he hardly appears to have spent much time with momma. he was basicaly raised either over seas - no food stamps- or with grandma who had a good enuff payin job to get him into and pay for a ritzy private school.
Mom took obam to jakarta in 1967 - he stayed until 1971- whereupon he went to proverty stricken Grams house in paradise.
bama born in August 1961 - when Obama was almost 1, his father left for Harvard to get a Ph.D. in economics.
so around August 1962… presume not on food stamps during this period of 1961-62?
1964 moms divorces absent father.
When her son was almost 2, (August 1963) Ann returned to college. Money was tight. She collected food stamps and relied on her parents to help take care of young Barack. She would get her bachelor’s degree four years later.(so around 1967 - which is also when lolo proposes and off they go to Jakarta)
so it would appear that the food stamp help came when Obam was almost two… 1963
You know i think my mom was on unemplyment once when i was 19 months old - can i tell u how depressed, oppressed, and, for that brief period, how totaly devistated i was? i spent my first 2 years in therapy. Must have worked cause I can’t seem to remember any of it. well at least no one can accuse me of elitism cause i got me a story by gum.
so moms collected food stamps while getting a bachlor degree- while grams watched obam - and grams probably has lotsah food in the house; un less that mean ole bum at the bus stop got it all cause gramps wouldn’t get outtah his chair and drive her to the store.
playing with keywords in google i finaly used some words that brought up this:
http://www.google.com/search?h.....tnG=Search
throwing in the word ‘operations’ I got this: (the link won’t work without sign up/or bugmenot/)
West Hawaii Today - from archives > Local > Hawaii Food Stamp …Dec 2, 2007 … The first record the Human Services has is that a Plan of Operations was submitted and approved in 1966 to administer a food stamp program …
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com.....ocal01.txt - Similar pages
so was a food stamp program was not even administered in hawaii til 3 years after obams moms was recieving stamps?
unfortunately maybe not:
I had to see what the rest of article said:
History
The earliest origins of the Hawaii Food Stamp Program began as a pilot project in 1961. It was then authorized as a permanent program in 1964. Expansion of the program occurred most dramatically after 1974, when Congress required all states to offer food stamps to low-income households, said Lillian Koller, director of the state Department of Human Services.
so answering the question- perhaps obams mom was aware of a ‘pilot program’ as early as 1961…
I hardly think Obama missed any meals though at granmas house, or that moms [utlizing] the system so she could go to school caused Obammy any nightmares or personal hardship .
The guys a fraud.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Hmmm…. from that photograph of Barak’s Mom she is kind of pretty. From the other photograph of Barak’s Dad I guess I know where the “stinky, snorry” part of him comes from according to Michelle and his daughters. ROFLMAO
April 17th, 2008 at 7:03 am
At this point, it is undeniable that the Democrats have found an even better liar than Bill Clinton–an amazing accomplishment! Snobama’s perfidy almost makes Hillary look “sincere”.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:57 am
I might also add that Federal food stamp guidelines are that a college student living with his/her parents can not collect benefits on thier own - they need to include thier parent(s) - I’m an income maintenance case worker at the PA DPW. This means that in order for them to collect food stamps, they’d have to be under the poverty index for a family of four. Even taking into consideration that Gramps was a failed insurance salesman who took little Obama to black bars (possibly strip clubs too - his autobiography is coy on that point) Toots’ income as the VP of the Bank of Hawaii would easily exceed the FPIG.
As such, even if the Hawaii was a pilot state, that means one of the two lied - either Obama now or his mom when she got herself onto the program.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Wow! We have a real bunch of sleuths here. Outing the claims of the politically elite who would be POTUS. Good work.
As I said before, Obama seeks street cred, be it on a local level at Trinity United Church of Christ or trying to relate to the “little” folk who struggle daily to put food on the table and raise their children to have a better life than they have. Sadly, he doesn’t realize that in the day of modern electronics his claims are researchable.
He said last night that he had “disowned” Rev. Wright and when Steph said “disowned?” he corrected himself by saying he had disowned Wrights words. Perhaps Obama has gotten his own message that words do have meaning.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Would Hawaii be part of a pilot program within 2 years of statehood?
Hawaii became a United State in August of 1959. The first food stamp recipients, in West Virginia, received their allotment on May 29, 1961.
It’s possible. But is it probable?
April 17th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
JacksonianDemocrat
April 16th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Obama’s claim of growing up on food stamps is misleading.
In an interview with Joe Klein in 2006, Obama said the following:
“I was going to a fancy prep school, and my mother was on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D.”
http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....02,00.html
************************************************************************************
greybeard post:
by Amanda Ripley/Honnolulu
“When her son was almost 2, Ann returned to college. Money was tight. She collected food stamps and relied on her parents to help take care of young Barack. She would get her bachelor’s degree four years later.”
http://www.time.com/time/natio.....-4,00.html
**********************************************************************************
I just read (slap me) JacksonianDemocrat post - could have saved alot of digging if I had…at least his post is in Obams ‘own words’ … what in world was mama doing on food stamps while getting a PHd and Obama living with granma - scammin the system i’d say.
the question I have now tho is did Obama tell a different ’story’ to this Amanda Ripley who reports mama is on food stamps when Obama is TWO years old; and mama is on food stamps while getting her Bachelors .
How come TIME has two versions?
anyway sg maybe it answers–> He noted that, without support from his father, he and his mother at times turned to food stamps to make ends meet…(at least til 1967 when Lolo came into the picture)
in any case, this pictorial Obama draws seems bogus while living with grandparents. Mama seems to have scammed the system because she surely didn’t fill out the forms correctly to qualify - doesnt seem possible.
April 17th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
^^last post there. I agree it seems not likely.[cheeflow post]
I suppose first we need to establish
a. Did Hawaiin’s receive Food Stamps in the sixties
b. If so beginning when exactly?
c. Where is the record of Federal Dollars to Hawaii for Food Stamps[I cant find it]
d. As SG points out…if not in the 60’s then what were the requirements during the 70’s
e. How would a young kid recall this? Born in ‘61? Sounds like family “lore” v fact.[my father walked 8 miles to school thru 5' of snow]
JimZ
April 17th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Obama’s bio says that him and mom lived with grandparents after dad skipped out on them - it would be illegal for her to collect FS while living with her parents while going to college and her parents made too much money for her to qualify, meaning that either Obama lied or his mom was scamming the system.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
cigarskunk; Obama’s biography is consistent with the way he views the U.S. Constitution–a living document that is to be interpreted with the changing times and the expediency of the moment. Another fine example of the “change” he espouses. In other words “How should I present myself today?” dovetails quite comfortably with his need to be all things to all people. Thus, ‘Which Obama will we hear/see today?’ is a legitimate question. Answer: The same old slick, elitist, condescending, political animal he wishes to distinguish himself from–in a plain brown wrapper.