Saturday, August 10, 2013

Food stamp cuts coming?

Oblivious to human suffering, House GOP wants to cut $40 billion in food stamps

Depression-era black and white photo of big crowd waiting in a soup line.
House Republicans plan to nearly double their proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, from the $20.5 billion that wouldn't cause enough human misery to satisfy Republican lawmakers, to $40 billion:
[House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank] Lucas told lobbyists that a Republican working group agreed on cuts expected to total $40 billion and could include steps such as mandatory drugs tests and employment rules.
Mind you, the initial $20.5 billion Republicans were trying to slash would have cut 5 million people from SNAP, increasing poverty and raising health care costs. But neither the Americans who would go hungry as a result nor the increased health care costs are the sort of thing today's Republicans care about. In a telling exchange, Sister Simone Campbell, one of the nuns on the bus, testified at a House Budget Committee hearing:
Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) indicted Campbell and the Catholic Church for not doing enough to fix poverty on their own, asking, “What is the church doing wrong that they have to come to the government to get so much help?” 
Campbell shot back, “Justice comes before charity… Everyone has a right to eat, and therefore there is a governmental responsibility to ensure everyone’s capacity to eat. Love and care makes a difference, but the issues are so big there isn’t sufficient charitable dollars there.”

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