As Hunger Swells, Food Stamps Become a Partisan Flash Point

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON — As a padlocked economy leaves millions of Americans without paychecks, lines outside food banks have stretched for miles, prompting some of the overwhelmed charities to seek help from the National Guard.

New research shows a rise in food insecurity without modern precedent. Among mothers with young children, nearly one-fifth say their children are not getting enough to eat, according to a survey by the Brookings Institution, a rate three times as high as in 2008, during the worst of the Great Recession.

The reality of so many Americans running out of food is an alarming reminder of the economic hardship the pandemic has inflicted. But despite their support for spending trillions on other programs to mitigate those hardships, Republicans have balked at a long-term expansion of food stamps — a core feature of the safety net that once enjoyed broad support but is now a source of a highly partisan divide.

Democrats want to raise food stamp benefits by 15 percent for the duration of the economic crisis, arguing that a similar move during the Great Recession reduced hunger and helped the economy. But Republicans have fought for years to shrink the program, saying that the earlier liberalization led to enduring caseload growth and a backdoor expansion of the welfare state.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/as-hunger-swells-food-stamps-become-a-partisan-flash-point/ar-BB13HWSR?li=BBnb7Kz

[Newest Reality]

1. This rhetoric...

This rhetoric just has to go:

Representative K. Michael Conaway of Texas, said:

Rejecting what he called the Democrats’ narrative of “hardhearted Republicans,” he warned against tempting people to become dependent on government aid. “I don’t want to create a moral hazard for people to be on welfare.”

Do you see what he is doing there? People starving is immoral and he is shaming people and implying helping them, (tempting them) is a moral hazard. That's just distortion and cruelty for the sake of his corporate masters. Who votes for clowns like that again? SNAP is not a cash handout and it is by definition not even a full food allowance: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It is very difficult for on adult to eat well on $6-per-day at the full amount, especially now.

Let's talk about the Republican states that are taking welfare from the Federal Government every single year to supplement the failures of Republican leadership who don't seem to mind the welfare in that case. Instead, the bite the hand that feeds them, i.e., the blue states.

[crickets]

2. "backdoor expansion of the welfare state"

Is that what they're calling it these days? You know, the part where people aren't being paid enough to feed their kids, and clothe them, and pay the rent, the car payment, the insurance bills.

The people who can barely make it living paycheck are not the ones receiving the real welfare stakes -- the big money handouts go to corporations. But Republicans already know that. They are the ones making sure where the big money goes after all.