If there’s anything that makes me furious, it’s when wingnuts start insisting that small children who face ordeals like this do not need any help from anyone to thrive. Instead, we get lectures about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps — when some people don’t even have boots.
Obstacles
It absolves them of the thing they fear most: feeling empathy.
Sen. Kristen Gillebrand was on The Brian Lehrer Show this morning — startlingly liberal, but, of course, she does represent NY. I’m giving the link for the entire show as Joe Nocera is up next to talk about the huge DOW heights and also the 4000th gun death, which might be interesting.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2013/may/17/
She is aghast that the House Repubs want to cut $200M from food stamp funding. The Senate right now is trying to cut $4M. She stressed that it is hitting the half of those on food stamps who are children. Also that many of our military families are on food stamps. She is furious that we ask so much of so many and then turn around and try to stiff them on life’s necessities.