Republican budget includes overhaul of food stamps

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Republican budget includes overhaul of food stamps
(AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans resurrected a 1990s-era fight over food stamps in their budget approved last week, arguing that any serious attempt to cut spending must include an overhaul of government programs that help needy families pay for food.

Congress already has started cutting some food programs, including reducing the Women, Infants and Children Program by $500 million as part of a deal on this year's budget. And last year, more than $2 billion in future funding for food stamps was redirected to other programs.

On Friday, the House approved a Republican proposal to overhaul the $65 billion food stamp program — known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — by replacing it with capped block grants to states, which would pay for the aid but make it contingent on work or job training. That proposal was included in a 2012 budget plan put forward by Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

His plan lays out a fiscal vision for cutting $6.2 trillion from yearly federal deficits over the coming decade and has drawn widespread attention for its call for transforming Medicare into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private health insurance. It is likely to meet strong opposition is the Senate, where Democrats still have a majority.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iajcEV-Se7nlukbUx-TMTwH_M8hQ?docId=d2e9ca1d1ea1479e81535e3e4b437521

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Jesus, between food and health insurance, don't they realize that lives are on the line

Over this?! :grr:

[appleannie1]

3. They don't care. It is only lower class people in their eyes.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. I know people who have been on food stamps.

They needed the help to survive. Anyone who can't comprehend that is truly out of touch and should not be representing anyone. ;( :grr:

[newspeak]

35. I lived in Utah , a "right to work state."

I remember a Salt Lake Tribune article that stated that there were quite a number of state employees on food stamps to make ends meet. There are people whose wages have been dramatically cut that are on food stamps to survive. Many who were once middle class are becoming the working poor.

[Rhiannon12866]

37. I agree with you, and I'm not surprised.

We have the same problem in NY. I've known working people who have qualified for food stamps and those with low paying jobs who are now making too much. Jobs are at a premium now, so folks are willing to take anything that they can get. It's a desperate situation and I just cannot imagine it getting even worse. :(

[arbusto_baboso]

23. The lower class are NOT people in their eyes.

Republicans don't see the poor as human beings. And no, I'm not exaggerating. Because of I am a white male with a certain "look", hard core repigs often assume I am one of them. I hear the nastiest possible things spewing from their hateholes. They don't see the poor as human. Period.

[eShirl]

10. that's the idea - to "let nature take its course" on people who can't fend for themselves

[freshwest]

31. Got it. They never considered what 'nature' would have done to them as babies without help.

Bunch of sociopaths.

[Occulus]

22. They know that very well.

It is, in fact, an integral part of their strategy.

[indepat]

24. Yes, they know lives are on the line, but continued/additional tax cuts for the uber-wealthy are a

much greater concern and priority. Yes, this has a pub-inspired depravity ingrained throughout and it's laid out there for all to see. :patriot:

[99th_Monkey]

2. GOP moto: "Let no good guv'ment program go unpunished" ~nt

[CottonBear]

4. I'm receiving food aid because I can't find a job and I'm a 99er (unemployment ran out)

with a 2 year child and a mortgage. There is no money for child care assistance available in my state, so even if I get a minimum wage job, I still will not be able to afford childcare and make enough to pay my bills Oh yeah, my state ran out of LIHEAP (heating and cooling assitance) funding almost immediately last fall/winter season.

edit: I don't have health insurance (anymore) either and I still owe state and federal taxes! I never thought I'd end up in this situation. I was laid off from my professional job after 16 years with the same firm due to lack of work caused by the recession. Did I mention that our state electric utility monopoly got permission from the state PSC to raise our rates about $15 a month and that gas and food prices have risen sharply?

These are cruel proposals which will harm and not help innocent children and their families.

[LibDemAlways]

18. I hope things turn around for you very soon CottonBear.

My husband was unemployed for 6 months last year, and I know all about the stress you are experiencing. And boy do I hear you on those food and gas prices. I can barely afford to get to my measly part-time job, and what I make is a joke.

It seems there are few in Washington anymore who care what happens to the ordinary person. The Dems should be shouting from the rooftops about all of the R's draconian proposals. I don't think the average American who votes for these idiots has a clue of what they are about because they aren't called out loud and often. They should have been publicly shamed for the proposal to destroy Medicare and give the elderly vouchers to help "buy" private insurance. The brainiacs behind that one should be tarred and feathered. Instead seniors will keep returning them to Congress. Voting against one's own self-interest has, unfortunately, become a national pastime.

[DesertDiamond]

5. It appears that they are quite literally aiming to kill us off.

[999998th word]

6. The embodiment of smug.Bastards.

[aquart]

13. Yet, I truly believe food stamps are all that's keeping THEM alive.

Well. We'll see, I guess.

[freshwest]

32. Got it in one. Welcome to DU.

[kickysnana]

8. THERE ARE NO JOBS sorry for shouting, n/t

[humblebum]

9. The NO JOBS issue needs to be sounded over and over and over

without ceasing. That is the source of all our problems.

[tanyev]

11. They want to require a minimum income of $1,000,000 a year in order to qualify?

[Vinca]

12. It's about time the country's quadriplegics were made to get up and work for their food.

Grandma, too. It doesn't matter she's got Alzheimer's. What a bunch of nasty, evil people and you probably will find them in the front pew every Sunday.

[LibDemAlways]

19. They want to take away Grandma's Medicare and

force her to buy private insurance. Imagine the premiums for a 90-year-old Alzheimer's patient. Probably would take every last penny of her Social Security check (and then a lot), but they would like to do away with that as well. Idiots all.

[butterfly77]

30. Exactly...

"What a bunch of nasty, evil people and you probably will find them in the front pew every Sunday."

I have been saying this to my family and friends for years. I see thousands of these people on television and going to church spouting off about how good they are.

When I go about my everyday activities through life,I often wonder where are all of these so called Christians with all of the hate I see daily..

[Odin2005]

14. I want to strangle these fuckers!

[TygrBright]

15. Obviously, not enough people in America are malnourished or starving.

Fortunately, the GOP is on the job to correct that!

bitterly,
Bright

[bergie321]

16. If you are unprofitable

To the corporate masters, die quickly.

[DallasNE]

17. SNAP Is Already Contingent On Work Or Job Training

So this has nothing to do with such issues. It is just another attempt to gut the social safety net so the uber wealthy can get another tax cut.

[totodeinhere]

20. The food stamp program should have increased spending, not the other way around.

The program already doesn't pay enough and usually the benefits don't last for the whole month and people are going hungry toward the end of the months because the benefits are too low. This proposal by the GOP will only make things worse. Food banks are already stretched to the limits as well.

[robinlynne]

29. exactly. in addition, I think the entire stimulus package could just be food stamps

for everyone. Local stores and farms would get business, stimulating local economies. Everyone except the rich would use the food stamps. Food stamps would be a BOON in any poor, working, or middle class home, and the money we saved would getwould get spent immediately on something else we need. I always thought every citizen could receive food stamps. The rich wouldn't use theirs. the rest of us would. a great way to stimulate economies locally. and help everyone.

[progressoid]

21. Golly, who could have seen this coming?

:sarcasm:

[classysassy]

25. Hello out there you poor suckers

that voted for those Republicans that love you so damn much,I see they are taking real good care of you jerks especially the over weight ones,they plan to starve all that fat off.Fools never learn.

[defendandprotect]

26. Even at it's highest levels, Welfare accounted only for a half of 1% of Federal Budget -- !!

What could it possibly be now after so many cuts -- and such huge increases in

Pentagon spending?

[Akoto]

27. '... contingent on work or job training.' I guess we disabled people are screwed. n/t

[freshwest]

33. Disabled people are not supposed to be disabled. Failing that, they are not supposed to be, period.

Thanks Ayn Rand! The stench of your rotting corpse fills the air.

[999998th word]

36. Hypocrite Rand was OK w-collecting SS and medicare...but

that must have been OK since she did it under an other name.That name was Ann O'Connor,

.Source Evva Pryror -social worker also a consultant with her law firm

Ernst, Cane,Gitlin,and Winnik.Thanks to whoever originally found this.

Yeah Rand was pretty much a :puke:

[robinlynne]

28. of course!

[No Elephants]

34. Real death panels: cuts to food stamps, OASDI, Medicare, Medicaid and fuel subsidies--and BOTH

Parties are proposing several of these things.