Republican Congressman Tells Constituent Asking About Food Stamp Cuts: ‘Let Him Not Eat’

[Purveyor]

A Facebook question from a Bismark, North Dakota resident to his congressman started off rockily yesterday, when the congressman dismissed a religious argument opposed to cuts in the federal food stamp program with a religious quote.

“2 Thessalonians 3:10 English Standard Version (ESV) 10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat,” Congressman Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) posted in reply Friday afternoon to an inquiry from Kevin Tengesdal, a Bismark-based actor and activist.

House Republicans narrowly passed deep cuts to the food stamp program Thursday, despite opposition from the Senate and a veto threat from President Obama. In a op-ed published on his office webpage Friday, Cramer railed against exemptions to the work requirement for food stamps, arguing that “We can generate $20 billion in savings by ending these waivers while encouraging able-bodied people to work … When did America become a country where working for benefits is no longer noble?”

The quote Cramer used in reply to Tengesdal is an admonition against Christians failing to plant seed and harvest food because anticipation of the imminent return of Christ might seemingly make that toil unnecessary.

Ironically, Cramer’s North Dakota district received $10.4 billion in agricultural subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2005 to 2012 — the single largest recipient of farm subsidies in the nation.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/21/republican-congressman-tells-constituent-asking-about-food-stamp-cuts-let-him-not-eat/

[liberal N proud]

1. They would rather buy bombs than feed an American.

[etherealtruth]

13. Oh hell, they would rather burn the money rather than feed needy Americans

[Jefferson23]

2. The evil party..they're worse than mobsters. n/t

[TalkingDog]

5. I thought you said: They're worse than monsters. But the other thing works too.

n/t

[yuiyoshida]

8. Republicans are Monsters ..in my book.

comtempable!

[Jack Rabbit]

10. No, Wall Street bankers are mobsters

The Republicans are just hoodlums who do what the crime bosses tell them to do.

[Thinkingabout]

3. K & R

There are lots of people working in minimal wage jobs who can not afford to feed their families. I feel sure some are using food stamps who do not and will not work but I think many more gets food stamps who are working. I would think many on SS qualify for food stamps who may be past the age in which they can work. If we ask the same people who wants to cut food stamps and wants to continue the farm subsidies along with many government welfare contractors they also need to survive on the money they make we would get a different answer. Again, we have Congressional members who don't work in the capacity they have been elected but we continue to pass their "food stamps" to them.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. this could very well be the thing that sends people over the edge. When you start starving them and

they start dying from starvation, they realize they have nothing left to lose. They become desperate and they start to fight back.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. One problem is that the other people in this country

have been convinced by all the lies that the only people getting food stamps are the nonworking, lazy welfare queens who have better shoes than they can afford.

We really need to educate the people in the middle about how it really is. We educate each other here on DU, but few of us need a lecture on reality. Somehow, we have to get through to the masses, so they get the picture.....something like a campaign where everyone who is on food stamps wears a sign or button to work saying "food stamps save me" or something to show that they are part of the people who are affected by these policies.

[They_Live]

6. Tax Breaks For Energy Corparations

forever. and no regulations. forever.


Yay!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. This is the thug that insulted Native American justice....

He claimed Tribal Councils couldn't be trusted to dispense justice. This is based on the "Violence Against Women Act". It allowed them to try ANYONE who beats up women on their land. Naturally, Cramer figured a Paleface like him couldn't get a fair trial. He then said of the Tribal Council that he wanted to "Wring their necks and throw them against the wall" thus providing a nice visual of his sweet nature.

[csziggy]

11. Interesting that they choose the same scripture that Vladimir Lenin did

But Lenin's teaching did NOT penalize the weak and old as the "Christian" Republicans want to:

According to Lenin, “He who does not work shall not eat” is a necessary principle under socialism, the preliminary phase of the evolution towards communist society. The phrase appears in his 1917 work, The State and Revolution. Through this slogan Lenin explains that in socialist states only productive individuals could be allowed access to the articles of consumption.

The socialist principle, "He who does not work shall not eat", is already realized; the other socialist principle, "An equal amount of products for an equal amount of labor", is also already realized. But this is not yet communism, and it does not yet abolish "bourgeois law", which gives unequal individuals, in return for unequal (really unequal) amounts of labor, equal amounts of products. This is a “defect”, says Marx, but it is unavoidable in the first phase of communism; for if we are not to indulge in utopianism, we must not think that having overthrown capitalism people will at once learn to work for society without any rules of law. (Chapter 5, Section 3, “The First Phase of Communist Society”)

In accordance with Lenin’s understanding of the socialist state, article twelve of the 1936 Soviet Constitution states:

In the USSR work is a duty and a matter of honor for every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principle: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat.”

In Lenin’s writing, this was not so much directed at lazy or unproductive workers,[5][6] but rather the bourgeoisie. (Marxist theory defines the bourgeoisie as the group of those who buy the labor-power of workers and engage it in the process of production, deriving profits from the surplus value thus expropriated. Once communism was realised, that is, after the abolition of property and the law of value, no-one would live off the labor of others.[7])

Neither did the principle apply to those rendered incapable of work by old age or disability. These groups would have a right to society's products because they were not at fault for their condition. The elderly, in particular, had worked during their youth, and so could not be denied life’s basic necessities. The Soviet state accordingly provided a basic level of social security.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_who_does_not_work,_neither_shall_he_eat#Soviet_Union

[The Straight Story]

12. He has an op ed on this. And look at the first sentence

Cramer Op-Ed: Food Stamp Reforms Advance the Dignity of Work
Sep 20, 2013
Press Release

The news reports of young surfers in California who use food stamps to maintain a work-free lifestyle. Serious damage is being done to a program originally designed to help those in need.

To restore the integrity and solvency of nutrition assistance, the House passed several important reforms this week as part of the Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act. They are worth explaining in detail.

First, our bill requires President Obama to finally enforce the bipartisan 1996 welfare reforms to food stamps. The law Bill Clinton advocated for and signed states if you are an able-bodied adult aged 18 to 50 without dependent children, you should have a job, be looking for a job, be training for a job, or perform community service in order to receive government benefits. The President has been handing out exemptions to this law since 2009. We can generate $20 billion in savings by ending these waivers while encouraging able-bodied people to work.

Second, we closed a loophole which automatically extends food stamp benefits to anyone who so much as receives a government brochure or calls a toll-free hotline, regardless of their income or assets. This “categorical eligibility”, allows lottery winners and millionaires to receive food stamps. Our bill doesn’t change income requirements. It simply requires people to actually meet them in order to qualify.

These reforms save a modest 5.1 percent over a ten year period in a program that has doubled in spending since Barack Obama became President by simply enforcing existing eligibility requirements for food stamps. They are critical if we are going to protect a program intended to serve our most vulnerable citizens including seniors, children, and the disabled. These individuals shouldn’t have to foot the bill just so able-bodied adults can receive benefits without work.

http://cramer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/cramer-op-ed-food-stamp-reforms-advance-the-dignity-of-work

Well, based on how some think, we should now assume that all people on food stamps are gaming the system. That logic works so well on other topics and is fully endorsed by some liberals it is no wonder the RW uses it and gets away with it as well.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. Republican world-view does not match reality+ they forget how many their voters on food stamps. nt

[LaydeeBug]

15. Holy fuck, these cretins should wake tf up. ONE is a letter written by St Paul that we can read and

the OTHER is FUCKING CARVED IN STONE, and it's not a letter either. It's a COMMANDMENT. that whole 'covet thy neighbor's goods'. And whole we're at it, these stupid asses might want to assess that whole 'bear false witness' thingy.

Fuckers. Show them this:

[Kablooie]

16. Have there been any studies as to how many people refuse to work and live off of food stamps?

I would like to know what studies back up or refute this claim?

[sulphurdunn]

17. It is an arrogant and ignorant presumption

to equate the receipt of food stamps with an unwillingness to work or to believe that unemployment is due to sloth or to assume no correlation exists between increases in the use of food stamps and unemployment.

[jwirr]

18. IMO the rethugs are the ones setting around waiting for the end of the world. They do nothing about

the problems we face in this world because THEY are the ones who think the end is nigh. Climate change, hunger issues, violence are just the beginning of the list of things they have failed to do. So Thessalonians 3:10 does apply but the them as the ones in the wrong. Get off your asses and as Ed says "Let's get to work."

[hobbit709]

19. That mofo doesn't even want to start trading Bible quotes with me.

[Paulie]

20. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

Answer: Republicans.