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| Federal food stamps card that is used to purchase food. (Getty) |
From Denny: Over 46 million households in America depend upon the food stamp benefits program to put enough food on the table to feed their families.
If each household is a family of four then you are looking at maybe as many as 184 million Americans. That is over half to two-thirds of America in need of help to eat each day. No one said it meant three meals a day either.
It does not seem to matter to the GOP and Congress that these same Americans have contributed as taxpayers to support these programs. Now, the unthinkable for the majority of them is to draw food stamps benefits. They have no choice; the economy is that bad.
Many active duty military to retirees use $100 million in food stamps benefits. Are the Republicans just out of control crazy to do this to them and the rest of America? What is wrong with these people?
The Republicans are revealing their latest devious attempts to severely limit or slash social programs for those in deep need. Talk about nasty. This time they are hiding food stamp benefits cuts in a 1,000 page "farm bill." Get this; of the four out of five dollars in this "farm bill," $80 billion a year goes to grocery bills for one of every seven Americans taking food stamps.
Supposedly what has spurred these idiot lawmakers to slap America with this outrageous bill is because of the rise in food stamps participants. In 2007 there were 26 million Americans on benefits. By 2011 there were 44 million on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
Military were redeeming $31 million in food stamps back in 2008. By 2011 that figure grew to $101 million. Obviously, there is a need and it's growing at a rapid pace.
Republicans mistakenly believe there must be fraud or abuse involved as the explanation for the dramatic increase. What drugs are these guys on? Don't they know there is an economic world depression going on and getting worse every quarter?
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Check out this sorry sack of shit and his pious opinion of those Americans who go hungry every day, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) asserts that "maintaining such a high rate of aid to the hungry is not moral because it encourages dependency."
Let's see how well Sen. Sessions would do if we taxpayers cut his paycheck by 70 percent, took away his health care plan and pension, then charged an extra 30 to 100 percent for food and gas at the pump. I doubt he could do anything different than these Americans in deep need. And the program's need is expected to grow as the "recession" continues into 2014.
In the 2013 budget resolution the Republicans already cut the food stamps program by $134 billion over 10 years. In this idiot House "farm bill" version they are adding another $33 billion in cuts. The Senate will add another $4.5 billion at the minimum. Later in the year the House and Senate will merge these two bills. America is waiting to find out just how much they are planning to screw over the middle class and hungry children. I can see it now. People that have not voted in years will be coming out in droves to "throw the bums out."
From Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) who is trying to stop the cuts. Addressing the Sen. Sessions garbage statement she said: "It is shocking enough to hear a senator question the morality of ensuring children facing a constant struggle against hunger have access to the food assistance they so desperately need to be healthy. It is even more shocking when you face the reality of how many brave men and women who have fought honorably for our country are depending on this program to get their next meal."
The GOP is so quick to cut meals out of American's mouths. As the economy has worsened, the need has grown. There is no fraud going on here; people are desperate. They are the former middle class that has evaporated, kicked down to low income and poverty by the very Republicans and Democrats so keen on balancing the national budget off the backs of working Americans.
Here's an obvious solution for the budget. Cut the $1.3 billion foreign aid budget to Egypt's ruling military dictatorship. Neither winning candidate in the recent election is good for democracy or women or people with brains. Put that money back into the national budget for Americans. After all, it was these same Americans taking food stamps benefits right now that paid into the program.
It's only right they should be the ones to benefit, not some rabid insane and blood thirsty Islamic dictatorship in the Middle East. We should be taking care of our own first, not relegating them to the back of the line, only to see the doors close in their faces.
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