The GOP’s Hunger Games: More Food Stamp Cuts for the Holidays?

[DonViejo]

By Eleanor Clift
November 28th 20135:45 AM

With needy families already feeling the sting of cuts to food stamps, outrage is growing over a Republican push to slash even more from the program, just in time for the holiday season.

Republican lawmakers are on the defensive as the country heads into the holiday season, with cutbacks in food stamps stressing needy families while Congress debates how much more to cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). “Which of your constituents do you think should go hungry?” asks a holiday card electronically delivered to members of Congress this week. It points out that the proposed cuts mean “less food and more hunger for millions of low income seniors, veterans, working families with children and disabled Americans.”

At the same time, assistance to farmers, traditionally coupled in the same bill with SNAP, appears to be weathering the GOP’s budget-cutting knife just fine. “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” said Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN), invoking the Bible to explain his vote earlier this year to cut food stamps while calling for increased crop subsidies for farmers. His family farm received more than $3.5 million in federal money over the years, making him the poster boy for 33 members of Congress who voted to cut food stamps, a program that helps the least among us, while having no qualms about accepting federal largesse for their farm businesses.

Twenty percent of Fincher’s constituents are on the SNAP program, says Jim Weill, president of Food Research and Action Center, which launched the website with the holiday greeting designed to trigger guilt over who is left behind during these days of plenty. Weill recalls the language of his college days to explain the easy passage of farm subsidies and the mounting resistance to SNAP. The farm part of the bill is “distributional,” he says; food stamps are “re-distributional,” a concept that is toxic in American politics.

Republicans who rail against big government have SNAP in their target sights because of the program’s growth in just the last few years. In 2006, 25 million people were on food stamps, and at the end of last year, the number was 47 million; now it’s 48 million, almost a doubling in seven years. Republicans see those numbers and assume there must be waste, fraud, and abuse. Democrats attribute the growth to the weak economy and more people needing assistance. One in four are not in the program even though they’re qualified.

Full article
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/28/the-gop-s-hunger-games-more-food-stamp-cuts-for-the-holidays.html

[Cryptoad]

1. Happy Thanksgiving GOP.

Party of "Heartless MotherF**kerism"!

[grilled onions]

2. May Karma Make Them See The Error Of Their Ways...

in the meantime I wold rather see what can be done to help feed all of those in need who keep getting food stamp dollars cut.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. The GOP, with Democratic support, will cut SNAP down to $0. Just give it a little more time.

Bipartisanship sux