With a record number of people on food stamps, it just makes good fiscal sense that Congress keeps cutting that program to pay for other aid programs.
For some reason, this little snippet from a Lindsey Graham interview seems relevant:
We have been in Korea for, you know, since the end of the Korean War. We’ve been in Europe since World War II, nobody cares.
Michael
OT, but after listening to fats some yesterday, I’m getting spooked.
He opened the show with a tirade against the Prop 8 decision. His tirade was absurdly based on the notion that “we’re {presumably conservatives} minding our own business and not bothering anybody and are getting trampled by a liberal regime.”
What the hell? “Minding our own business and not bothering anybody?”
He then apparently lurched into a pro-secession bloviation.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201008050028
Waterboard his fat ass.
PeakVT
This afternoon, the Senate passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, providing $4.5 billion to school lunch and other federal child-nutrition programs
That’s about two weeks of spending in Iraq/Afghanistan, right?
We have some effed-up priorities in this country.
DFS
Whatcha need for a tag is “Kill the Poor.”
Kill kill kill kill kill the poor, kill kill kill kill kill the poor, kill kill kill kill kill the poor toniiiiiiiiiight…
Son of Dunn County
Lindsey never asked me if I wanted my tax dollar in Korea or Europe defending those countries from the ” Red Menace”. Oh wait, didn’t those guys exit stage left?
Asshole
I like the tag. Good “History of the World, Part I” reference.
“It’s Good To Be The King” should also be a tag.
El Cid
Well, remember that as one Republican said, they learned from their folks that if you keep giving food to stray animals then they hang around.
kay
mistermix, I think you’re wrong about this.
From your link:
They increased per person benefits by 13.6% (about 20 dollars a week) because food stamps are an incredibly effective economic stimulus.
It was intended to expire. It’s not a cut. It’s a return to the last level, and it won’t have any effect on how many people can get food stamps.
PurpleGirl
I am outraged by this. I have a friend who is eligible for food stamps but nothing else. Without food stamps he wouldn’t eat. They are his sole income. (He’s “lucky” I guess that his state does give them to handicapped single adults (many states don’t).) I hate the repigs and pseudo-dems. I really do.
And to respond to Graham… I do care, I care very much.
El Cid
O/T: Medical studies conclude that Fallujah residents after the US assault are experiencing a higher rate of illnesses related to toxic exposure than was experienced by the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after atomic bombing.
Might be worth a thread. Seemed to get pretty much zero press attention.
Maybe that’s because as we know all real problems in Iraq went away once we did the SUUUUUUUURGE.
Comrade Javamanphil
@DFS: I was singing that too. Saw Jello do a spoken word performance once. One bit was him rattling off new laws for America “Anyone caught out after 10pm, will be shot.” He did this enough that eventually he had the entire crowd of anti-establishment punkers chanting “…will be shot!” at appropriate places. He then stopped and said “See how easy that was?”
kay
@PurpleGirl:
Well, he’ll still be eligible, as I understand it. He just won’t get the 20 a week stimulus portion, eventually, which he didn’t get prior to April of 2009 anyway.
djork
And that’s why I love Jello.
Gina
Great. Well, here in NY State, Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino says he wants to start putting welfare recipients in “work camps” to fill up underused upstate prisons. Several state funded prisons are slated for closure, as they are not so full anymore. These prisons are often the major employers in their locales and closing them would put some local economies completely in the toilet. So Paladino’s figured angry upstate voters get to be all hatey to the poor and other bogeymen who get “their” tax dollars while still getting jobs and benefits provided from taxpayer dollars for themselves! Isn’t that a neat trick?
Of course, many of these same upstate voters ignore the amount of local welfare recipients, thinking that the only ones in the “camps” would be the brown people from NYC. As the de facto Tea Party candidate, Paladino’s nailed the whole “Keep government out of my Medicare” mindset.
Paladino is running against Rick Lazio for the Republican line. He made his megabucks from real estate in western NY, with one of his major tenants being NY State government. Lazio is the Republican party pick, but isn’t polling as well as had been expected. Neither are considered a threat in the general against Cuomo, but it’s depressing to hear all the supporters locally and in my family go on about how Paladino’s got so many good ideas.
PurpleGirl
There is another article which says that food stamp benefits are being cut to pay for the jobs bill.
http://washingtonindependent.com/93628/senate-makes-further-cuts-to-food-stamps-to-pay-for-medicai
Cat Lady
I hope the rich understand that when they eat the seed corn, the only thing left to eat will be the rich. jeffreyw and TaMara, get your recipe skillz ready.
gelfling545
Have read in several places that the cuts from food stamps were from a program not to go into effect until 2014. Is this true? Also, will the child nutrition bill just passed fill the gap on any of this?
mistermix
@kay: You’re right, the new cut is more of a rollback. But the last cut was a real cut, right?
I guess my overall point is that we shouldn’t be cutting, rolling back, etc. with 9.5% unemployment. Even if the people getting food stamps are “not worthy” they’re probably spending every penny they have, which stimulates the economy.
wilfred
@El Cid:
a) It’s time to look forward, not backward.
b) Arab Muslims have a higher incidence rate from cancer anyway, because of all of Saddam’s WMD in the water.
c) Damn you, Assange.
d) But they are FREE, goddamit.
e) All of the above.
kay
@PurpleGirl:
That article is wrong too.
They increased the individual allotment with stimulus funds. That was due to expire in 2014, which is when the article announces there will be a 50 dollar month loss.
That’s only a “loss” in terms of the increased allotment. There was never any intention to increase the individual allotment of food stamps on a permanent basis. It was a stimulus measure.
It’s like saying, when the stimulus road funding runs out “Congress cuts road funding”. That isn’t really true.
bemused
Graham finally sighed and dusted off his one-page pamphlet “How to Speak Teapartyese” and set out to dazzle the wingnuts.
kay
@mistermix:
No. They’re the same.
I agree with you about “rolling back” a very effective stimulus. However, I think that a school lunch program is also a very effective stimulus, and school lunches really do suck. We’re feeding them garbage.
In addition, mistermix, as a practical matter, kids are going back to school. Poor kids here really do rely on school lunches, so the timing makes sense. They’ll eat two meals in school (they all eat breakfast there now: our local breakfast program is packed).
Svensker
@El Cid:
Yes, but would you rather be sick and dying or living under Saddam? I think we all know the answer to THAT.
Ooops, I see wilfred beat me to the punch bowl.
kay
@mistermix:
For what it’s worth, if my community is any indication, food stamps are now solidly middle class. When wages went down, over time, people became eligible.
Most popular voucher program ever, if Ryan is looking for one to emulate.
They are never, ever going to get rid of food stamps. The much-ballyhooed “food rioting” would actually begin, and Big Ag love food stamps very much, so the Blue Dogs are all for them.
James Hare
Lindsey Graham can go suck an egg. North Korea just recently committed an act of war against one of our closest allies. For folks that go on and on about protecting Israel, that’s a really strange comment to make.
mclaren
Fixed.
evinfuilt
Well that’ just frickin genius. So we starve the kids at home more to pay for being fed at school. No wonder the whole senate was behind it, they accomplished nothing.
Its further proof that anything with full Bipartisan support is the worst choice for the country. The Broder way is the road to disaster.
Mark S.
Sort of related: James Taranto (middle of the page) takes on school lunches. I’ll paraphrase:
fasteddie9318
I really do wish that the secession brigade would stop flapping their fat yaps about it and either shit or get off the pot. All they’re doing now is trying to puff their chests out about what manly secessionists they are when in reality they’re too pants-pissing scared to actually go through with it.
Southern Beale
Let’s also not forget that the FMAP extension only narrowly passed the Senate when Presidents Snowe and Collins forced the Dems to pay for it by … you guessed it … cutting $12 billion from food stamps.
Who needs to eat? Clap louder, people! We saved some teachers from losing their jobs.
Ruckus
@mistermix:
The only way to use food stamps is to spend them. Supposedly when they still used paper you could sell some for cash. But now they are on debt cards, which if I remember correctly people pay to use, the only way is to purchase food. There is no change, the account is just debited the correct amount. And where I live I have never seen someone use the card without putting some cash in as well. So yes I think they are spending every food stamp penny and maybe then some.
DPirate
We need our AMP comfort women and we need to keep our boot on the German neck. Obviously! Hell, the entire economy of Rhode Island will collapse if we don’t import massage workers.
Arclite
Great tag, Mr.Mix