Food Stamp Cuts…

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/food-stamp-cuts-house-97090.html#ixzz2fO89d200

This makes me SO incredibly mad! Sorry not sorry, asshole republicans who don’t know ANYTHING about this program but just want to legislate to be mean.

“It is terrible policy wrapped in a terrible process…It was just cooked up in the majority leader’s office as some sort of Heritage Foundation fever dream,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “It is a rotten thing to do.”

Republicans keep being quoted as saying that it only ends the waiver that let ABAWDs get SNAP for more than 3 months in a 3 year period. That’s only part of the story.

First, nearly all states extended this waiver, and FNS allowed and encouraged it, because of the recession. Jobs aren’t really coming back. What are the jobs? They are poor ass paying jobs that don’t even get people enough to get by. Also, as I saw in DC, the job training programs that SNAP offices provide are no substitute for a real job, unless they allow flexibility in what counts as work training. It’s insulting to make people who are homeless fill out resumes or apply blindly to jobs online when the people who are getting hired are probably those with college degrees or GEDs at minimum. Now if we could get behind, oh I don’t know, MORE ACCESSIBLE SCHOOL OR VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS, that would be good. But no, let’s drug test them all.  Drug testing has been proven to be a waste of money and waste of time for public benefit recipients in many states.

This bill also stops seniors and household with kids from benefiting for SNAP if their gross income is slightly higher than 130% of poverty, even if their housing costs or childcare costs put their net income afterwards below 100%). I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it costs thousands of dollars to put a kid in childcare. Under this rule, a mom making like $8/hour wouldn’t qualify for SNAP anymore even though after childcare/rent, her gross monthly income would be way less than 100% of FPL.

Also by instituting an asset rule it basically wipes out the point of saving money. Why save money if the government is going to stop helping you after you have just 2K saved.  Where’s the incentive?

I am so freaking mad that Fox News put this dumbass who buys lobster with SNAP as the poster child for this program instead of the fact that like HALF the people on SNAP are CHILDREN. I hope this dude doesn’t sleep at night anymore.

On the plus side, this Congresswoman had a great tactic. Too bad this type of talk isn’t what gets national news. Stupid Lucas and King should be ashamed. What if all of their constituents who were on SNAP decided to vote against them in the next election? Steve King’s district has a 17% Food Hardship rate. Lucas’s food hardship rate in his district is 18.9.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/democratic-congresswoman-uses-steak-vodka-and-caviar-to-hamm

Finally- something that no one else has mentioned. SO MANY of the legislators I saw walking up to talk about the evilness of SNAP cuts were representatives of color and women. Who wanted to cut SNAP? A bunch of white people. Mostly white men.

Racists.

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