The Republicans' War on Food Stamps | Politics News | Rolling Stone
The House's deep slash to the food-stamp program, combined with outlandish restrictions, arose from various impulses. There was, obviously, the long-standing animus within the Republican Party toward poor people, and that's been substantially intensified as a result of the transformation of the party, whose center of gravity has moved south and west.
Moreover, a minority of the party in the House, backed by powerful and wealthy outside interest groups, has seized the reins by throwing terror into the ranks that if they don't conform to the Tea Party's agenda, they could face defeat in a primary challenge from the right in the next election. Bob Dole's and George McGovern's time is long gone. Neither the Senate, nor the House, nor American politics are anything like they were in their time. The Republican Party in the Senate contains no Jacob Javits, the late New York senator who fought to protect food stamps. Among the Democrats, there's no Edward Kennedy to champion the causes of the poor, to even enjoy doing battle for them.
One of the few unabashed liberals, Tom Harkin of Iowa, is retiring after five terms. Harkin was born into modest means, which he has never forgotten – he needed no lectures about bootstraps.
Women, Hispanics, the Poor....Where will the GOP go next with its never ending battle with anyone who is not a wealthy, white male?
The "deep slash" is merely the extra money people were getting from the stimulus bill and it's expiring. The stimulus temporarily increased the money for a time. There are many other things that were pumped up by stimulus money and once it ran out, the states scrambled to find money because we all know government programs are forever and the funding needing has reached astronomical levels.
Meanwhile, there are constant reports of people abusing the system. People are selling food stamps for cash, using their EBT cards for cigarettes, salons, casinos and other totally non-essential things.
Maybe if Dems were more willing to oversee programs they start, there would be billions less in fraud, waste and abuse and no truly deserving people would go without. As it is, the scammers are gobbling up government aid because it's so damn easy to take advantage of it. They should be able to see where EBT cards are used and hold people responsible when it's wasted on shit that doesn't help their children one iota.
Obama could put the work requirement for the able bodied back into the program.
Then we can stop sending billions each year to countries that hate our guts.
We have to make cuts. We can't keep printing or borrowing money for the big giveaways or we will crash. How many people could you help if the Obama's skipped a few vacations each year or stopped sending equipment and money to terrorists, like the Muslim Brotherhood or Syrian rebels?
Where is the common sense?
So, the extra money ran out. It was extra, not part of the original deal. Now those on welfare will have to budget even more carefully, just like the tax payers have to do.
How is it that liberals freak out if they perceive any hardship for illegals or welfare recipients, but don't give a shit that so many working families lost their insurance and can't afford the new plans because of Obamacare? Do you understand that they are having an extremely difficult time, maybe more so than some welfare families?
No liberal spoke up when military paychecks were threatened, yet the EBT money was a few days late and it caused panic.
Why do liberals assume that people who pay taxes are immune from financial hardship? Or it is that they are hoping like hell that those workers will be overwhelmed and end up as government dependents? I really think that's the plan and it's the only possible explanation for the polices that attack the middle class.
Of course....
