In 2007, a staggering 26-million Americans were dependent on food stamps to stave off hunger. Today, as the richest of the rich grow ever richer, faster than ever before, 47-million Americans have become dependent on food stamps.
Even as government legislated inequality squeezes the middle class into the lower class and what had been the lower class into penury, they're not nearly done beating up on the weakest and most vulnerable. Tomorrow, congressionally-mandated cuts trim $5-billion from the food stamp programme with more cuts to follow.
The cuts were supposed to be implemented when blue collar America had recovered from the 2008 meltdown. The only snag is that hasn't happened.
Conservatives like to say “Those who do not work shall not eat, misquoting and misusing the Bible to justify cutting food stamps, and implying that Americans who rely on food stamps are so lazy they’d rather rely on the government to feed them.
The truth is that sometimes those who work still can’t eat. Many food stamp recipients have jobs. They are the working poor, whose wages are not enough to lift them out of poverty. They are low-wage workers for highly profitable companies that refuse to pay living wages. They rely on food stamps to stave off hunger. Some employers, like McDonald’s tell workers to apply for food stamps if their wages aren’t enough to put food on the table.
These are the people who will be going over the “Hunger Cliff” while members of Congress negotiate even more cuts to food stamps.
The program is back on the chopping block this week as Congress begins negotiations over the Farm Bill. Last month, House Republicans passed a bill that could cut nearly $40 billion from the food stamp program over the next decade. (Not to mention eliminating free school meals for over 200,000 children.) The Senate bill cuts just a tenth of that amount. It’s likely that final farm include cuts to food stamp benefits that fall somewhere between the House and Senate bills.
Some day the American people may come to the realization that the greatest threat to their security and wellbeing isn't some bunch of Islamic extremists but the radicals within their own government who have abandoned the welfare of the public to bolster the welfare of the most privileged. The United States military is already preparing to put down the unrest that will follow.
disgusting. Walmart too...terrible precedent is set...where the cons set an agenda...and their corporate overlords have their cake and eat it too...tax breaks for them, while they pay low wages. They dont have a trickle down policy...as workers arent getting enough and then the working poor have to depend on tax benefits.
ReplyDeleteI haven't set foot in a WalMart, Deb, for over 20-years. I won't patronize a place where people go to shop themselves out of their own jobs. I've just ditched Amazon for similar reasons.
ReplyDeletePretty much anything I buy now at least comes from a retailer on the island and as much as reasonably possible locally made or grown.
I can't control whether money trickles down but I can do a lot to regulate how my money goes up.
And now Amazon wants to sell me groceries. If cyber grocery shopping catches on it could devastate yet another industry. We are rapidly creating a permanent slave underclass that will only grow.
ReplyDeleteChris Hedges nailed it when he said that corporations only know one word, more.
yep....its the way to go Mound. I try to shop local and when that doesnt fly ( im on an island so its makes a tad easier and big box stores are across the water) I will shop at costco...they pay their staff decent wages and try to bring in items that dont exploit too many folks.
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