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In reply to the discussion: Pic of The Moment: GOP Congressman Says Children, Elderly, Disabled Should Work If They Want To Eat [View all]ErikJ
(6,335 posts)Just heard this guy being interviewed by Ed Schultz.
Just Picking On the Poor: The Facts and the Faces of Cutting SNAP
by Jim Wallis 09-19-2013 | 12:22pm
Today, the House of Representatives votes on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly food stamps. The proposal would cut SNAP by nearly $40 billion over the next 10 years. These cuts would hurt millions of people, namely seniors and the poorest among us. But it will most heavily affect low-income families with children where the parent(s) work for a living but dont make enough to adequately feed their families. Working families with kids are 72 percent of all SNAP beneficiaries.
According to the Census Bureau, food stamps kept 4 million people out of poverty last year. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the House proposal would cut assistance to nearly 4 million low-income people in 2014 and an average of 3 million more each year for the next decade. Christian leaders across the evangelical, Catholic, Protestant, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American church spectrum are reacting with moral outrage at this assault on the people that Jesus specifically instructs us to protect
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Finally, for politicians to defend these SNAP cuts because of our need to cut spending in general is un-credible and incredible.
These same politicians are not willing to go to where the real money is: the Pentagon budget, which everyone knows to be the most wasteful in government spending, or the myriad subsidies to corporations, including agribusiness subsides to members of Congress who will be voting to cut SNAP for the poor.
Tea Party-elected Rep. Stephen Fincher, (R-Tenn.), who likes to bolster his anti-poor rhetoric with misused Bible verses, collected $3.5 million in farm subsidies between 1999 and 2012, according to the New York Times. Fincher is helping to lead the effort to cut food stamps to working families with children by illogically quoting: The one who is unwilling to work should not eat, all the while collecting millions of dollars in agricultural subsidies. Congressman Fincher's position is hypocritical and it's this kind of hypocrisy that makes Christians look bad and turns young people away from the church.
http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/09/19/just-picking-poor-facts-and-faces-cutting-snap