The raid on food stamps

[Forkboy]

ON TUESDAY, President Obama signed a $26 billion bill to help state and local governments cover Medicaid payments and avoid having to lay off teachers and other public employees. In what passes for high drama in Washington, the House of Representatives was called back from its summer recess to vote on the package, and the successful outcome was hailed as a major Democratic victory. “We can’t stand by and do nothing while pink slips are given to the men and women who educate our children or keep our communities safe,’’ Obama said. “That doesn’t make sense.’’

No, it doesn’t. But only by the occluded standards of contemporary Washington could this aid package be considered a victory. What began three months ago as a $50 billion emergency spending bill limped to the president’s desk at half that size and was largely paid for — “offset’’ in the clinical terminology of the budget — by cutting $12 billion from the food stamp program. In other words, a measure designed to help one group struggling in the recession came at the expense of another that is even worse off — and growing rapidly.
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The justification offered by proponents was that food prices haven’t risen as much as Congress expected them to, and therefore cutting benefits to hungry kids isn’t really so bad, especially since the cuts won’t take effect until 2014. The trouble is, forecasts aren’t very rosy. It is projected that food stamp recipients will increase to 43.3 million next year, and beyond that, who knows? “President Obama pledged to end childhood hunger by 2015,’’ McGovern pointed out. “It’s hard to see how you do that while you’re cutting food stamps.’’

Faced with imminent layoffs, Democrats had little choice but to act, and that meant cutting something. But the idea that they’ve won anything overall is hard to sustain. They sacrificed the most effective form of stimulus and capitulated to the Republican idea that deficits matter above all else. Their decision about who should bear the brunt of the offsets, and the silence that greeted it, suggests a moral capitulation as well. It may be a victory. But it’s nothing to brag about.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/08/12/the_raid_on_food_stamps/

[Hello_Kitty]

1. It's yet another transfer from the poor to the wealthy.

At least some of the money will be going to upper middle class and wealthy school districts.

[RandomThoughts]

2. I think it is the CBO that does not want deficits.

They fill in many of the bills, if not write them also. According to something Luke Russert said one day on MSNBC.

[Robeson]

3. This administration capitulate to Repugs? Surely you jest....

...Grayson said it best today. This administration has been so afraid of the right wing, they suffer from the Stockholm Syndrome. They agree with their tormentors.

[SlipperySlope]

4. It is all smoke and mirrors.

They were faced with layoffs *now*. Politics demand that whatever they do appear to be "budget neutral". So they promised to cut food-stamps in 2014.

2014 is 4 years away. Well past the next major election cycle. This is just smoke and mirrors to making saving jobs politically acceptable. Food stamps can be fixed another day.

Just another example of them kicking the can down the road instead of solving the problem.

[sandnsea]

5. It cuts a temporary stimulus increase

And doesn't cut it for years, when there is time to make permanent changes anyway.

And didn't you, personally, say the stimulus was shit and didn't do anything for anybody? So you shit on this food stamps increase when it was given, and you shit on it when it's removed, even though it isn't going to be removed for years.

And wonder why some think the left is never satisfied.

[Forkboy]

8. You have me mistaken for someone else.

[Greyhound]

12. We all look alike to her. n/t

[hfojvt]

6. 2014? Sounds like it will be President Palin's problem.

[Hardrada]

7. God Save Tsarina Sarah

Long may she gaze o'er Russian soil!

[jpak]

9. That is the shitty deal they had to cut with Snowe and Collins to get their vote

Snowe and Collins don't give a fuck about long term unemployed OR Maine folks on Food Stamps.

Those are the two who should be flamed.

and the Massholes who voted for Scott Brown.

yup

[Better Believe It]

13. We didn't need their votes. It could have been passed with 51 votes.

No more excuses for Democratic surrenders please.

[jpak]

14. FYI - Collins and Snowe and the rest of the GOP fillibustered this bill

and Ben Nelson (D-ranged) too.

They needed Collins and Snowe to end the fillibuster (60+ votes) and allow the vote to happen.

No alternate universes please

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[whistler162]

10. Also removes a tax loophole to the tune of 9.6 billion

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100809/BLOG13/100809833 but that isn't important.


Must ignore all good parts of bill and focus on bad part!:sarcasm:

[Greyhound]

11. Scooped off the bottom of the page. They don't want to talk about this latest "liberal"

victory for our corporate overlords, do they?

"Save" some prole jobs (that will not be saved from the next round of looting) by stealing food from children, how very Democratic.:eyes:

Well,:kick: & R

[Forkboy]

17. I'm at the point where I feel there has to be a better answer than politics.

I've been enmeshed in them since I was 15 (awhile ago now lol) to the point where all my friends refer to me as "The Politics Guy", and I have to say, for the most part I feel it's all been a waste of time and effort. This world is in a Hell of a mess, and politicians are in many ways the ones that have made it that way. Yes, Repubs are way worse than Dems, but both pretty much suck overall (isn't it motivating to be in the Party that can boast of sucking less?). And this holds true around the world with other politicians. Most politicians are useless, even the ones that start out meaning well.

Here in America, our politicians, almost to a person, are entirely out of touch with hurting people in this country. They have no clue whats it's like to always know the exact amount money you have, down to the change, and hope you can make it until the end of the week or the end of the month, and be able to actually eat on each of those days.

So I'm thinking, why am I still banging my head against this wall?

I'm thinking from now on I should just focus on helping people directly through volunteering in some way again, or donating (can't do much there, either money or food wise). At least then I know my efforts are actually helping. When it comes to politics, I don't feel it's helping much at all anymore, more the opposite. When my best option is deciding who hurts others the least instead of who will help others the most then there's a problem.

And when I was younger I thought politics was going to be the answer to everything! Man, was I dumb. :crazy:

[Greyhound]

18. And another generation is lost. Your story reads almost exactly like mine did,

so obviously I agree with you. The Democrats chased me out of politics with their refusal to stand up to, or even tell the truth about, Raygun.

One more :kick:

[asdjrocky]

19. Direct Activism is our only hope now.

When the media, and tptb feed us only two corporate endorsed candidates year after year, then we really don't have a choice, do we?

[ipaint]

15. Food stamps should never, ever be on the table for cuts.

Find something else. So many people need them to feed themselves it is morally indefensible to even risk the cut becoming permanent.

Not to mention how sick and depraved it is to hit the poor up in any budget cut for any reason. After bailing out wall street's mega bonuses I don't know how anyone can defend this tactic.

[ceile]

16. Robbing Peter to pay Paul

Not the best analogy, but this just makes me so fucking mad!

[inna]

20. k

[Joe Fields]

21. I posted on this several days ago, but it damned sure bears repeating!

Thanks forkboy for keeping this sacrilege uppermost in your mind and spilling out onto the DU pages...

[QC]

23. KICK!

[TheKentuckian]

24. Here is a lil kickage