Pat Buchanan Calls Obama ‘Drug Dealer of Welfare’

Renowned Republican commentator Pat Buchanan defended GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and had some choice words for President Barack Obama in an interview with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News.

The remarks by Buchanan, a former presidential candidate himself, came amid the controversy surrounding Romney’s remarks that 47 percent of Americans are “dependent on government.”

As for Obama, he is “a drug dealer of welfare,” Buchanan said. “He wants permanent dependency, in my judgment, of all these folks somehow getting benefits, benefits, benefits, and paying no taxes.”

Rather than leading to criticism of Romney, Obama's remarks should lead to a discussion about government’s role in society and why the economy pushes people to government dependency, Buchanan said in the show that aired Tuesday.

“We used to have FDR talking about relief being a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. We've got to get off this welfare, is what he said. And in that sense it’s a narcotic.”

Romney wants to avoid turning welfare into a narcotic, Buchanan says. “We believe in temporary help for anybody that’s in trouble. You should have a floor of decency under every family. Unemployment should be temporary. Unemployment benefits should be temporary. Food stamps should be temporary. What are we doing with 47 million people who permanently have to be fed by the government?”