Then it really is time to get the pitchforks:
The House is expected to consider a bill this week that would cut food stamps by an estimated $4 billion annually and allow states to put broad new work requirements in place for recipients.
The legislation also would end government waivers that have allowed able-bodied adults who don’t have dependents to receive food stamps indefinitely.
The vote comes after the House defeated a wide-ranging farm bill in June because many conservatives believed the cuts to the nearly $80 billion-a-year food stamp program weren’t high enough. That bill would have made around $2 billion a year in cuts.
Food stamps have for decades been part of farm legislation. But House leaders separated the food and farm programs after the bill’s June defeat and passed a farm-only bill in July. The Republican leaders, led by Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, then crafted the separate food stamp bill in an effort to appease conservatives who have been aggressively pushing for cuts to domestic food aid.
One in seven Americans use food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the cost of the program has more than doubled in the past five years.
Suzie, the people I work and live around don’t even believe that homelessness exists, or has grown a wee bit in the last decades. They absolutely don’t believe that people are going hungry. If I mentioned it, they would just consider it more proof that I’m delusional. And the folks I live/work around are the greenest, most liberal people to be found in this corner of the country. Anything I say or do just rolls right off that airtight bubble of disinformation they give every appearance of enjoying. Plus, I’m no great shakes as a communicator under the best of circumstances.
I cultivate as much detachment as possible from my immediate surroundings and keep searching for some venue where my input might have a fighting chance of doing some good. Showing up at this great website of yours is one of those things that feels constructive.
It would make a lot more sense to take $4B away from the top 1% instead of taking it from the bottom 20%. Look at the graphs at L-chart.org and you’ll see that those at the top won’t even miss it. Any one of the Walton heirs could single-handedly fund this food stamp cut. In fact, the largest block of assistance recipients in any given state are Walmart employees.
Correction: LCurve.org
Thanks for being here.