Ted Kennedy's Big, Fat Lie: '36 Million Americans Go To Bed Hungry Every Night'

Fox News Sunday/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Chris Wallace had Ted Kennedy cornered. The Fox News Sunday host displayed Kennedy's 1995 bitter condemnation of welfare reform: "legislative child abuse . . . let them eat cake." It should be noted that as Wallace began to reference the statement, Kennedy objected, blustering that "this is 2006" - as if his past misjudgments are irrelevant even though he would he has apparently learned nothing from them.

Wallace went on to make the point that the employment rate among unmarried women has soared and the child poverty rate has dropped. He put it to Kennedy: "hasn't welfare reform worked?" Fighting back, the senior senator from Massachusetts claimed that Wallace's numbers on child poverty "are absolutely wrong," asserting there has been an increase in the number of children living in poverty in the United States. He then dropped this bomb:

"We have 36 million Americans that are going to bed hungry every night. 36 million Americans! And 12 million of those are children!"

View video of Kennedy's 36-million claim here.

Kennedy's claim is flatly false. According to the USDA, 13 million households, containing 36 million people, reported that at least one household member was food insecure in a recent year. “Food insecure” means that “, such households at some time during the year were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food for all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources."

Yet Kennedy counted every person who might have been "uncertain" of having enough money to get food - at any time during the year - as "going to bed hungry every night."

As has been widely noted, the major food-related problem for poor children isn't hunger - it's obesity.Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation is an expert on these issues. Here's what he recently wrote on the subject:

"While hunger due to a lack of financial re-sources does occur in the United States, it is limited in scope and duration. According to the USDA, on a typical day, fewer than one American in 200 will experience hunger due to a lack of money to buy food."

In a country of 300 million, that means something less than 1.5 million people.

It's a shame Chris Wallace didn't have these facts handy. But on thing is clear: Kennedy's claim that 36 million go to bed hungry every night is nothing short of . . .a big, fat lie.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[fish hawk]

Maybe there are 36 million dieters??

[oldbill]

Guess this means the obesity problem that was in the headlines all month is solved.

[He Rides A White Horse]

and at least 64 million Americans would SAVE A DROWNING WOMAN!!!!!!!

Slam dunk.

[Old Lady]

Ted probably has enough food in his back pocket to feed then all...

[docman57]

Well then you feed them you big, fat, bloviating, rich bastard!

[dcrider182]

agreed.. 100%

~D

[Fido969]

haha They're going hungry because Ted ate their food...

[marsh2]

Since the Northwest Forest Plan (Northern spotted owl) closed our timber mills, average unemployment in my California county has been 12.3%. It is currently as high as 19% in some of my post-timber communities like Happy Camp. Between 1990 and 2002, poverty rose 32.9% to 18.6% of the population. It is higher among children - 22.7%.

Several farming communities have higher poverty rates: 34.6% in Tulelake; 26% in Fort Jones; and 24.2% in Montague. Hornbrook has 99% of its elementary school children elligible for free or reduced cost meals at school. Median income for the county in 1999 was $29,530 – compared to the California median of $47,493.

There are, indeed, children and adults who go to bed hungry in my county. I would hazard a guess that most suburban folks just never see the poverty that exists - particularly in rural areas, so the possibility of large numbers of hungry people in America seems noncredible. It isn't.

http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/jtf/JTF_PovertyJTF.pdf

[JCEccles]

Never in the history of mankind has so much food been made available so cheaply for more people than in the USA circa 2006.

Investigations into demographics and obesity have demonstrated many times that lower income people are more likely to suffer from obesity than higher income people.

That doesn't mean that there aren't some non-dieting people including children who do go without adequate nourishment day to day but they are very much the exception, not the rule. And even they could receive more than adequate nourishment if they knew how and where to seek or ask for it.

[holden]

With the make-up technology available today, the cartoon could be enacted in reality. I'm sure there are plenty of republican women who might be up for it.

HF

[Dianna]

Maybe Teddy ought to take some of the Kennedy money and feed people. I like the thought of him in a Homeless shelter handing out dinner but it might make some people lose their appetites.

Truly, I wonder how many liberals have actually fed a hungry person? I don't tend to come across adults who tell me they are starving, but I have fed a few children who I knew didn't have much food in their homes.

Just last week, I fed a kid at school breakfast. Mom hasn't bothered filling out the free breakfast/lunch forms.

[Seaplaner]

From the cited article...While work and marriage are steady ladders out of poverty, the welfare system perversely remains hostile to both. Major programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid continue to reward idleness and penalize marriage. If welfare could be turned around to encourage work and marriage, remaining poverty would drop quickly.

And, Edward (I refuse to use the familiar "Ted" for someone whom I suspect is, to some degree, a murderer) Kennedy knows all this.

The Dems cynically use the system to keep "poor" peeps poor, or as I view it, serfs on Hillary's "plantation".

What is it about letting people succeed on their own, and joining a vibrant middle class that is so abhorrent to Democrats and Stalinists?

.

[Fido969]

I heard that for every bottle of Scotch that is sold in this country, the Kennedys receive a percentage of the price.

Uh... yes... that is mostly true, almost every bottle.

And that's because Teddy gets a nickel back every time he returns one of his empty Scotch bottles to the recycling center.

[VOA]

But does any Kennedy ever go to bed thirsty?

Thirsty by dehydration.
By too many adult beverages.

[hosepipe]

[ "We have 36 million Americans that are going to bed hungry every night. 36 million Americans! And 12 million of those are children!" ]

TRUE... Its a conspiracy by that damned Jenny Craig..
And that Dr. Atkins is down right UNAmerican TOO..

[Dianna]

There are, indeed, children and adults who go to bed hungry in my county. I would hazard a guess that most suburban folks just never see the poverty that exists - particularly in rural areas, so the possibility of large numbers of hungry people in America seems noncredible. It isn't.

The problem isn't that we simply deny it exists. We acknowledge that some people don't have enough money to buy food. That is why we provide free breakfast/lunch for children at school, food stamps, etc.

The people you speak of do have resources offered to them, do they not? So, how many people are out there, hungry, AND truly unable to access the resources? Those are the people I would be concerned about. I would imagine getting to a food pantry could be difficult for poor, rural people.

[pleikumud]

And the moronic majority in Massasschusetts keep re-electing their drunken demagogue.

[oldenuff2no]

I'm very good friends with one of our country licensed clinical counselors and I have asked her about these hungry people. I asked because I do not see any at all.
Her answer is that a few do exist but that their parents have been provided the means to feed them but have chosen to spend that income on other things.

[Popman]

Since the Northwest Forest Plan (Northern spotted owl) closed our timber mills, average unemployment in my California county has been 12.3%.

Liberal polices have hurt more people than any conservative ever thought about in this country.

But, I have to ask why these people who continue to live in this area where opportunities have dried up and the specter of poverty hangs over their heads.

They can't move to other areas of the country to start again?

As far as I am concerned long term poverty is a self made thing unless you are disabled in some way

At 45 years old, I had to start again, it was tough and it took some difficult decision, but I wasn't waiting around to go to bed hungry.

[MHT]

Yeah--fat slobs like him who did not get enough junk food while watching the late show on tv.

We boast the fattest poor people in the world. He would be alot better off losing weight and leading a campaign for better nutrition than moaning about non-existent poverty.