Yeah, screw them poor folk, they ain't worth the paper stamps used to be printed on, eh? This bit of zany logic from the same gang that said unemployment checks make people receiving them not want to find a job.
I can't understand people who can look out at hungry, broke, unemployed and scared human beings and not feel a pang of compassion and understanding. I'm even less able to figure out how some folks can look at the poor and the homeless and then consider making things worse on them. Worse yet are those cretins who think that somehow the pathetic existence entitlement programs provide for their recipients somehow makes those people less inclined to try and create something better for their lives.
Perhaps if these misguided individuals thought about using some of the money we currently spend on defense and corporate welfare, and maybe if they closed some of the tax loopholes that allow companies like ExxonMobile, GE, Google, Bank of America, Chevron, Valero Energy, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Conoco Philips, and Carnival Cruise Lines to pay not ONE DIME in taxes in their homeland, then maybe we wouldn't be in such a goddam mess in the first place.
And maybe if we stopped trying to be such imperialistic assholes in every country with a half dozen barrels of oil laying around, we'd be able to not only end the budget deficit but also begin to spend some money here at home on things that matter to those of us who are supposed to make up the system that is running roughshod, deaf and arrogant over us at the present time.
House Ag Committee: Cut Food Stamps, not Farm Aid
Posted by MICHAEL CROWLEY Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 12:27 pm
There has long been rare left-right agreement in Washington that multi-billion dollar federal farm subsidies are generally wasteful, mostly benefit agribusinesses, and should be slashed or eliminated. You'd think this would represent low-hanging fruit for Republican budget hawks looking to make quick cuts in federal spending. But the farm lobby and members of Congress representing rural states wield mighty power in Washington. So it's little surprise to see Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee urging Budget Chairman Paul Ryan not to make substantial cuts to federal farm programs.
But this time there's a twist: Lest those Republicans appear profligate, they have proposed one area for cuts--food stamps:
The only program the letter offers as a possible area for belt-tightening is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program. The panel said it might not continue the boost in monthly benefits for SNAP participants when they expire Nov. 1, 2013. SNAP, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the Agriculture Department's budget, got an across-the-board increase in monthly benefits under the 2009 stimulus (PL 111-5).
The temporary increase was slated to end fiscal 2018, but Congress already has tapped $14.4 billion of that increase to aid states with Medicaid, to help school districts avoid teacher layoffs, and to reauthorize and expand federal child-nutrition programs. As a result, the SNAP benefits increases will expire earlier than originally scheduled.
