House panel votes $844 mln cut in food stamps

[cosmicone]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051028/pl_nm/food_congress_cuts_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On a party-line vote, a Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives committee voted to cut food stamps by $844 million on Friday, just hours after a new U.S. Agriculture Department report showed more Americans are struggling to put food on the table.


About 300,000 Americans would lose benefits due to tighter eligibility rules for food stamps, the major U.S. antihunger program, under the House plan. The cuts would be part of $3.7 billion pared from Agriculture Department programs over five years as part of government-wide spending reductions.

Agriculture Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte defended the decision, saying only a sliver of food stamp spending was affected and, for the most part, the cuts would eliminate people not truly eligible.

"This is not a giveaway program that results in windfall profits," said North Carolina Republican G.K. Butterfield in opposing the cuts. "That is not moral. That is not American."

[bertha katzenengel]

1. Ach, see, in the article's lead? There's the problem right there:

"just hours after a new U.S. Agriculture Department report showed more Americans are struggling to put food on the table."

The Ag should've reported that "more Americans are struggling to put food on their families."

[hatrack]

32. It was just some report put out by the bureaucracy

Why should they bother their beautiful minds with stuff like that? :puke:

[bertha katzenengel]

39. "The bureaucracy" has a very bad name and it's largely undeserved.

I'm tired of hearing shit about "bureaucrats." Anyone who works for a federal agency is termed a "bureaucrat" and frequently automatically labeled an idiot who is just doing time to collect pay provided by the taxpayers.

This is bullshit and it has to stop.

[Rose Siding]

2. No more lunches for 40 THOUSAND school children

Thank God ALL the Democrats voted against this.

North Dakota Democrat Earl Pomeroy complained that 40,000 children would lose free meals at school because of that provision.

"You have not even come clean that kids are going to lose school breakfast and school lunch under this," he said.

[ultraist]

13. So what will they do with the kids who show up at school w/no lunch money?

Have them sit and watch the other kids eat in the cafeteria and let them go hungry?

That's cruel and abusive. It should be illegal to allow any child, for any reason, go without lunch at school. For some kids, that is their only meal of the day!

[Tatiana]

3. This is immoral.

I hate these Republican bastards. All those who voted for this should rot in hell.

[CountAllVotes]

5. the will rot in hell

and they are evil bastards and criminals! :grr:

:kick:

[jwirr]

27. Including the preacher's who pushed for their election!

[Tatiana]

31. What happened to feeding the poor? Caring for the sick?

Providing shelter to the homeless?

These wingnuts should truly ask themselves what Jesus would do. It certainly wouldn't be starving children.

I despise these people.

[jwirr]

40. Put don't you see - that would cost money. In the 70s

my family lived in a religious college town. The profs were mostly ministers and our national church system provided them with health care, their children went to the college free. My dad overheard one of them saying we did not want a national health care system because it would raise the taxes 10%. Dad was furious, having sat on the church council he knew that it was those 10% tithes that paid for that preachers health care. Such selfishness is a sin.

[moondust]

4. Attempted murder.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Easy Solution: Put Food on your Family. D'oh

Bush himself recommended it in one of the most famous Bushisms of all time: he encouraged all red-blooded American consumer units/citizens to prudently "put food on your family."

So there's the solution right there. Just sit down, shut up, and put some frikkin food on your family.

[sarcasmo]

21. That statement shows MR Dangers true stupidity.

[daleo]

7. They spend that much on the war in Iraq every day.

Maybe two days, I can't recall the exact figures.

[Deja Q]

8. laissez-faire, folks.

And that system didn't work in the days of cavemen when laissez-faire was at ats all-time popularity... despite having far fewer people around to give a flyin' fuck...

[0007]

9. Watch the homeless count go up, watch the crime number go up.

What is wrong with these stupid idiots?

[IndyOp]

24. Watch the test scores go down --

Kids who are hungry don't focus well on math and English. We spend $$$ paying for buildings and teachers and books - and then skip fueling the kids so they can learn. Want to improve test scores? Provide free breakfast and lunch to all children everyday.

But, hey, I bet more schools will put junk food machines in so that kids who can't afford a $3 lunch will be able to buy 75-cent M&M's -- that'll do wonders for their ability to concentrate in class.

:grr:

[Joanne98]

10. They waited till everyone was looking the other way. MAGGOTS!

[superconnected]

11. Robbing the poor and giving to the rich.

Figures.

It's only food they are taking out of the mouths of the poor children, sick and disabled.

If that's not evil, what is.

[usregimechange]

12. Katrina evacuees wait in line for food stamps:

Hurricane Katrina evacuees wait in line for food stamps at Camp Edwards in Bourne, Massachusetts September 12, 2005. On a party-line vote, a Republican-run House of Representatives committee voted to cut food stamps by $844 million on Friday, just hours after a new Agriculture Department report showed more Americans are struggling to put food on the table. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

[NuttyFluffers]

14. i support drawn and quartering for such people.

by very slow and tired donkeys...

fucking evil GOP

[slay]

15. We have BILLIONAIRES in this country, and they want to cut FOOD STAMPS!?

Bush's other war - The War on the Poor. Evil. Heartless. Bastards. :( :( :(

[jwirr]

28. Just like grandpa was a part of the "War Against the Weak"

Read Edwin Black's book by that name.

[Megahurtz]

16. Oh yeah, REAL GOOD program to cut!

:sarcasm:

Food for hungry, desperate people!

What idiots. :crazy:

[quinnox]

17. Compassionate conservatism in action

Sure, the republicans in power have compassion, but it is only for the super-rich.

[truthisfreedom]

18. F*&^ing idiots. they're creating criminals and impoverishing our nation.

if they don't repeal the tax cut, the thugs are toast.

[UrbScotty]

19. Guess they're not 'pro-life'

As if there was any doubt

[Vinca]

20. This is shameful and obscene. It would never happen if

the Democrats had the majority. We have to win everything in 2006.

[Mika]

22. Time for the pitchforks and torches yet?

The repukes keep pushin', but not enough yet.

[area51]

23. disgusting.

And this from the nazi party, the party of "don't you dare abort that fetus", but after it's born, the child can die of malnutrition or of a disease for all nazis care. Basically, once again, the nazi party has shown that they're for post-birth abortions. :mad:

[Shallah Kali]

38. Post-Birth Abortion is a good way to put this

They want every sex act ot result in a pregnancy with jail time and death penalty for birth control and abortion, calling people who won't have kids immoral - but don't want to do even a little bit to help people actually take care of the resulting child. They are Pro-fetus not pro-life.

[bleedingheart]

25. This is compassion? This is moral?

[jwirr]

26. Remember what happened to Marie when she said

let them eat cake? Election day is coming in 2006.

[CornField]

29. $72

That's the average food stamp disbursement in Iowa. Man, those folks are living high on the hog, ain't they?

[Nothing Without Hope]

30. Put alongside the cut for heating aid - they dont' have to decide whether

to eat or stay warm this winter - they won't be able to do either one.

Here's one of the threads on the shameless cut of home heating aid for the poor:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1879809
thread title: Senate votes against increased spending for heating aid program (AGAIN)

The GOP-dominated Congress and executive branch already demonstrated with their hurricane preparation and in the aftermaths of the storms that they'd prefer that the poor people simply die anyway. They're just following through. If drowning or dehydration didn't get the job done, why, there's always starvation and freezing.

[BattyDem]

33. I wonder if it would be possible for ...

poor people to file a discrimination suit against the government? After all, Congress seems to have no problem giving money to the rich and to corporations, so why is it that they can never come up with a dime for the poor? :shrug:

[undergroundpanther]

34. Because they are rich

the rich don't care if the poor suffer because they want a 'strict fatherhood model which is (themselves) to"discipline(abuse)the poor because the rich believe they are entitled to kill the poor because the rich delude themselves that they themselves made it by their own efforts,,which is (i.e. inheritance).
The rich are bullies because they think they are superior people. The rich really need a pop in the wallet, to knock them off their haughty greedy horses and we the people need to rub their pampered face in the shit they have dumped on this country by stealing the hopes dreams and sustenance of millions for their own profits. WE the poor need to be a "strict father" and discipline the idle rich with taxes and unions and strikes,lawsuits,regulations,accountability,transparency,laws, and property confiscation and put an end to corporate person hood lest the wealthy become out of control tyrannical thieving despots robbing from the masses like they are now.

[BattyDem]

35. The rich seem to forget that ...

they are far out-numbered by the poor and eventually, people will decide they have had enough. It won't be pretty.

[sonias]

36. Heartless bastards

So much for being pro-life. Hey idiots, you need food to live.

Who determines who are "truly eligible people". Will it be someone like FEMA's Michael Brown?

Sonia

[TexasLawyer]

37. Massive tax cuts don't come cheap

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=36286

Conservatives Hurt Working Poor; Reward Wealthy

The Republican budget cuts domestic spending by $113 billion over the next five years to pay for permanent tax cuts for the wealthy. Massive tax cuts don't come cheap, and millions of Americans will be forced to deal with cuts in education, health care, veterans benefits, housing, environmental protection, and child care all to pay for substantial handouts to the rich.