On last week’s Your World, Neil Cavuto discussed the record number of people on food stamps  - not by noting how many Americans suffer from food insecurity nor how so many Americans have been left out of the recovery – while those at the top, like Cavuto, have gotten richer. No, Cavuto teamed up with a guest to suggest that Americans are gaming the system. Which just so happens to complement Republican efforts to cut $40 billion from the SNAP program, commonly referred to as “food stamps.”

In their September 10^th discussion, Cavuto “asked” Hadley Heath, of the Independent Women’s Forum, “It is out of control though, now, Hadley, to the point now that this many are getting some sort of food assistance. No one begrudges helping the poor, but it can’t be one out of five Americans who qualify as poor.”

Yes, it can be. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported earlier this year, the caseload grew because of the recession, with long-term unemployment as a significant factor. Furthermore, despite Cavuto’s suggestion, the error rate is at an all-time low of 3%.

Heath went right along with the GOP-friendly meme. She said, “The latest data from the Dept. of Agriculture indicates in the month of June, we added 125,000 new enrollees to the food stamp program. That brings the total number of Americans in the non-institutional population to about 48 million enrollees in the food stamp program.”

Cavuto added, “Yet when anyone tries to rein that back, of course they look heartless, (as though) they’re starving people. So Republicans and even some moderate Democrats have been trying to rein the growth of all of this program, food-related programs in. The don’t want to touch it because they end up saying it boomerangs on them, and they don’t want to look like they’re callous.”

Heath agreed. She said, “Right, and no one - I don’t believe Democrat, Republican, or Independent wants to see our fellow Americans face a material need like hunger or homelessness. Our hearts go out to people who are struggling to make ends meet. But we know that 48 million enrollees, there are more people receiving food stamps then there are people who are truly incapable of caring for themselves, and that’s the issue.”

That’s very touching. Yet Heath’s assumption that food stamp money is being wasted is less than sympathetic - especially given that she offered no facts to back it up. Meanwhile, neither her heart nor Cavuto’s heart went out to the 4-6 million that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor would like to push off the SNAP rolls with his budget cuts.

Video below via Media Matters.