It can be rightly presumed that extremely severe and unusually cruel
conduct that is mutinous to the rules of right or virtuous conduct is
considered Draconian, or in 2012 terminology, Republican. It seems that
every budget proposal or new legislation submitted by the GOP is another
opportunity for them to show their lack of compassion for the American
people and apparently there is no end to the depth of depravity they are
willing to go to cause suffering in the populace to reward corporate
America. This week, Republicans in the House maintained their reputation
as Draconian stewards of America’s purse strings and crafted a “
compromise” farm bill that
cuts billions
of dollars from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP)
or informally, food stamps, and increases farm subsidies to the
corporate agriculture industry.
At a time when 46 million Americans (one half are children) depend on
food stamps to avoid dire poverty and daily hunger, Republicans who
created this sluggish economy decided that several million poor
Americans should lose their eligibility to qualify for assistance
because it is the fiscally responsible thing to do. The Republican plan
eliminates “categorical eligibility” which means that a family living at
or below the poverty line that owns a dependable car will be cut off of
food assistance. According to Republicans, a dependable automobile will
be figured in to the family’s income and when they are near the
eligibility cut-off point, even a moderately-priced used car sends them
over the limit. The plan also means that several hundred thousand
low-income children will lose access to free or reduced-priced school
meals based on the elimination of categorical eligibility. It is the
perfect method for Republicans to punish poor Americans by not only
cutting off food assistance at home, but completes the hunger cycle by
keeping children hungry throughout the school day.
The GOP plan forces low-income families to choose between owning a
dependable car to commute to their jobs and feeding their families and
it may be a new low for Republicans, but as the past year-and-a-half has
shown, they can always exceed their current Draconian spending habits,
especially where the poor are concerned. In fact, since they took
control of the House in 2011, Republicans have
worked diligently to portray any social safety net spending as wasteful regardless that, at its peak, the SNAP program was
only .52% of GDP and it kept
5 million Americans from sinking into abject poverty in 2011, and cut the number of children living in
extreme poverty by 50%. However, Republicans are unfazed by a
UNICEF report that ranked the United States in
second place
for the percentage of children living in poverty at 23.1% behind
Latvia, and above 33 of the world’s richest countries of which America
is the richest, so achieving number one status is within their reach.
Republicans have attempted to perpetuate the myth that African
Americans and Latinos make up the lion’s share of SNAP recipients, but
the truth is that out of 46-million Americans living in poverty, 31
million are white, ten million are African American, and the remainder
were Hispanic and Asian. During the Republican presidential primary
race, a common
theme was that Republicans
did not “
want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money” and it plays on the racism rampant in American society. Presidential candidate Willard Romney
said “
I’m not concerned about the very poor” because there are safety nets, but
he plans on throwing 13-million low-income Americans off of food stamps. It is a common theme for Republicans and informs a
recent poll that found only 40% of Republicans agree that “
it is the responsibility of the government to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves”
and it demonstrates a growing lack of compassion for those struggling
in the Republican-caused economic malaise. As a contrast, 75% of
Democrats say the government should help those who cannot sustain
themselves and their position is more in line with public sentiment.
This moral depravity on the part of Republicans is not a matter of fiscal responsibility, because every
food dollar
spent generates $1.80 in economic activity that creates jobs, increases
tax revenue, and keeps millions of Americans and their children out of
extreme poverty. Each food dollar spent also gives farmers $.21 besides
their subsidies, and with high crop and land prices, and a record $136.3
billion in farm exports in 2011, it is egregious to cut food stamps
while increasing subsidies. In fact, for the first time in 2011, farm
income exceeded $100 billion and so far this year it is forecast to
reach $91.7 billion, the second-highest on record. Still, it is not good
enough for the agri-corp industry and Republicans who are duty-bound to
give as much taxpayer dollars to corporations at the expense of
working-poor, elderly, and children to create a population of peasants
barely subsisting to bolster the wealthy’s profits.
Republicans claim they are being fiscally responsible and doing the
will of the American people, but a recent poll by the Food Research and
Action Center (FRAC)
disclosed
that 74% of Americans say the SNAP program is very important and 71%
say cutting SNAP is the wrong way for Congress to reduce spending. The
GOP thinks otherwise and the Paul Ryan and Willard Romney budgets make
more drastic cuts to SNAP and increase the deficit by $4 – $6.7 trillion
with incredible tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. The FRAC
poll also found support for SNAP and ending hunger is strong among all
demographics and political groups with 91% of Democrats, 70% of
Independents, and 56% of “strong” Republicans believing SNAP is a very
important program. Obviously, Republicans in Congress and aspiring to
the White House are out of touch with Americans who have a strong moral
compass and not tied to enriching the wealthy at the expense of the poor
whether they are white, Black, or Hispanic, and especially children.
There are many Republicans who claim there is widespread fraud among
SNAP recipients, and the Republican financial guru Paul Ryan said, “
you
know we get all these reports about how the SNAP program is rife with
fraud, how it’s not getting the assistance to the people who need it,” but the truth is the “errors” in administering SNAP payments are within the 1% range and they are
not fraud,
but mistakes within the program’s administration; the only fraud is
from vendors who double-bill and cheat the government with
unsubstantiated receipts. The eligibility requirements to receive SNAP
are so stringent that it is all but impossible for program participants
to qualify much less cheat.
The Republicans’ drastic cuts to SNAP are not for fiscal
responsibility, to staunch fraudulent claims, or to teach low-income
children the value of work. Their cuts are to make room for more
subsidies for corporate agriculture and to create higher poverty
numbers, and possibly to reach number one in industrial nations with the
most children living in poverty. With their version of the farm bill,
they will approach Romania’s 25% of children in poverty and create
another 3 million Americans going to bed hungry every night, and
eliminating categorical eligibility means a family head gets to choose
between feeding their family or selling their used car and walking to
work. It is possible that Republicans think SNAP recipients are proud to
take government assistance, but the stigma attached to using food
stamps creates psychological stress and embarrassment to people who
would rather have a living wage job that Republicans will not help
create.
Republicans are just cruel and unusually severe in their treatment of
Americans whose only crime is living in an economy created by
Republicans for the wealthy and their corporations, and are ill-inclined
to pass President Obama’s jobs bills when they can fight for more tax
cuts for the wealthy and subsidies for corporate agriculture. It has
been nearly a year since the President proposed jobs bills the
Republicans will not even bring up for discussion, much less a vote, and
their big plans before the election are extending Bush-era tax cuts for
the wealthy, casting symbolic votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act,
and now, cutting millions of low-income Americans’ eligibility for food
stamps. There are few words to describe the Republicans in Congress,
except that they are evil incarnate and the scourge of this country for
sending millions of elderly,
disabled, and children off the SNAP program
to make room for more corporate entitlements in the form of subsidies
to an industry that is awash in cash, making record profits, and getting
free taxpayer money the American people would rather see go to feed the
poor; something entirely alien to Republican monsters who are devoid of
compassion, unusually severe, lacking a moral compass, and mutinous to
the rules of right and virtuous conduct. In other words, they are the
scum of the Earth.
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