Lawmakers vote to allow privatizing US food stamps

[Judi Lynn]

Lawmakers vote to allow privatizing US food stamps
Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:20 PM ET

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House and Senate negotiators working on a $100 billion agriculture spending bill voted on Tuesday to allow states to privatize the food stamp program, which helps 25 million people put food on the table monthly.

When they adjourned for the night, negotiators had yet to vote on a House proposal to delay for two years a requirement for foodmakers to put country-of-origin labels on red meat.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, said she believed panel leaders would use the recess to strip out language banning federal inspection of horse slaughter. Proponents say the ban would save 100,000 horses a year from being killed to provide horsemeat for diners overseas.

The so-called conference committee has the chore of writing a final, compromise version of bills passed by the House and Senate to fund the Agriculture Department and related agencies this fiscal year. The compromise bill then will be presented to each chamber for passage with no amendments allowed.
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http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-26T012032Z_01_HO604818_RTRUKOC_0_US-FOOD-CONGRESS-USDA.xml&archived=False

[MessiahRp]

1. Yes let's privatize Government programs

and let the Republican corporations get the jobs via no-bid contracts so the poor really have no recourse when they get fucked over.

As one of those Food Stamp Recipients this pisses me off.

Privatization has botched just about every major thing the Government has passed off to it. I do not trust some corporate entity concerned with profits to help those in need. Philanthropy is a foreign term to corporations. They only help usually when a tax write-off is involved.

Rp

[Solon]

2. A windfall for the Agricorps, how surprising...NOT!!!!

Monsanto and ADM must be pissing their pants in joy over this "fuck the poor some more" measure.

[Cobalt Violet]

12. It's just more Republican Robinhood in reverse policies.

:grr:

[texpatriot2004]

3. This makes me mad. Privatize this, privatize that...then give the

contracts to cronies...it's so Russian Politburo.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Privatize the Presidency

We couldn't do any worse than we are now.

[shadowknows69]

14. I think we're already there

Bush was obviously hired by Haliburton.

[cornermouse]

5. The way it seems to work.

The government contracts it out. The contractors contract it out. The contractor contractors contract it out. The contractor contractors contract it out and continue till the money is all spent on contracting it out. The poor get nothing, but hey, all those contractors are happy and its good for business so what more do you want? :sarcasm:

[Megahurtz]

18. Exactly!

The money is pocketed all the way down and the poor end up with nothing.
That's how a lot of these "Non Profit" organizations work.

[foflappy]

19. I sure hope you can back that up

I work with many non profits and have never seen this pocketing of money that never gets to the poor.

[rpannier]

6. Let's privatize subsidies to big corporations.

We'll let people making less than 20,000 dollars a year decide who gets aid and how much and who gets nothing.

[teryang]

7. Corruption 24/7

ideological tripe to cover theivery and destruction of government programs.

[Hekate]

8. No no no no no no...Just when I think they can't sicken me again...

Why do they hate America? Why? Why are they turning us into a Third World Nation? Why? :cry:

These are rhetorical questions. I know why, at least as much as I can fathom the sheer depravity of what I have come to see as truly evil men. They like to use God's name, but their actions show them to be godless, souless, bastards.

It's just that when all is said and done I still don't get it, and my "why" is a cry from the heart. :cry:

Hekate

[cassiepriam]

9. So Halliburton is doing food now too?

[A Simple Game]

15. They are feeding the troops in Iraq,

why not feed their families back home too?

[cassiepriam]

20. seems like a natural to me. Hand them the US treasury...

what's left of it.

[TomClash]

10. If they're going to privatize everything . . .

why the hell should we pay federal taxes?

I like paying taxes that help poor people but not so some profiteers can get rich on some new pseudo-capitalist business opportunity.

[DRoseDARs]

11. So when is the vote to privatize the whole damn government scheduled?

I look forward to the day I have to write my local Walmart Congressman...

[texpatriot2004]

13. So we aren't going to know where the meat comes from anymore

according to this article they won't give the country of origin for meat...am I understanding that right?

[depakid]

16. Brilliant- suck even more money out of the system

right into the hands of right wing cronies, with no accountability.

So, will the Dems do anything to stop this? Or will they let the far right run roughshod over them yet again....

I think we all know what the answer to that is. They'll roll over and let themselves (and everyone else in the country) be abused yet again.

If they took a stand on things like this based on principles- a large majority of the country would back a filibuster- and would even go along with shutting down the Senate to bring some integrity back into the process.

But that would take courage- something that the Dem "leadership" is in short supply of.

[Selteri]

17. Ironically it seems I wrote a prescient comment about this

in a story I wrote back in 95. In the story McDonalds had picked up the contract and after 20 years the poor were relegated to a type of soybean and spirulina paste with an artificial flavoring broth and the broth was suspected to be giving people problems. It was so soft on the digestion that the poor couldn't eat the dfood the rich ate which included real food including meat.

I'd meant it for background information to set how dark the world could get.