As the February jobs numbers were released, U.S. Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX), Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, challenged President Obama’s re-election claim of ‘an economy built to last’.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) reported today that the economy added 246,000 private sector payroll jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7%.

“The number of Americans forced to subsist on food stamps to avoid hunger has grown faster than those finding jobs under President Obama. That’s not an economy built to last. That’s an economy that is struggling,” said Brady.

The White House frequently boasts that the U.S. economy has created 6.4 million private sector jobs since jobs bottomed out in February 2010. But more than 8 million American families were added to the food stamp rolls through November 2012 (latest data). That’s a ratio of 1.4 new people on food stamps for every new private sector job created from the jobs bottom through November 2012.

“When President Clinton left office only one in 16 Americans needed food stamps. Under President Obama, it’s grown to nearly one in six. That’s the pain that families endure under the weakest economic recovery in modern times,” said Brady.

President Clinton, working with Republicans in Congress, shrunk the size of government and balanced the budget, while reducing the number of food stamp recipients by 10 million, Brady noted.

“President Obama could learn a thing or two from the last Democratic president. Growing the government isn’t growing the middle class in America,” said Brady. “The sign of a compassionate government isn’t more Americans needing food stamps. It is more Americans working in well-paying jobs so they no longer need assistance.”