Today's
WaPo has a story about the House Republicans wanting to use food stamps and foster care as areas to cut from the federal budget, saving $50 billion while they then go ahead and cut taxes
$70 billion, therefore
adding $20 billion to the federal deficit while once again attacking the most vulnerable in our society.
Among those affected will be people who take in family members for foster care when their parents have died or are otherwise unable to care for them. These people will lose their federal support for the additional costs such a move creates, as they would reduce the payments to only 4,000 families a month, in a nation of 300,000,000 people. It makes legal immigrants wait seven years instead of five years to be eligible for food stamps and free school lunches. Keep in mind, they can become citizens in five years, but not qualify for the benefits of a citizen.
More after the jump...
40,000 children would be affected by the cuts in the school programs, and 300,000 people would lose food stamp coverage because of this. Of course, the Republicans are folding eight different measures into one giant bill, trying to trap Democrats on this, but some Republicans have huge issues with this bill, worried it'll hurt their reelection bids.
Adding to this fun, they have yet to define what their new eligibility requirements would be. My family recieves these benefits. We're living around the poverty line. My fiancee will have finished school next month and start a good-paying job, while I'm struggling to find one myself. I graduated in May and still can't get a better job than my retail job. This bill is another example of Republicans taking from the poor and giving to the rich. They are the reverse Robin Hoods. They have no sympathy for struggling working families. Most of them probably don't know what the term means.
They always demonize any welfare, food stamp, any social program for the poor because they think it's a bunch of slackers, but dammit, we work, and we work hard, and we do the best we can, not getting much rest or free time, but their economy has caused this. Their supply-side crap is the reason things are this tough. This economy is growing at the top only. CEO's are growing, but not us at the bottom. Go ask Wal-Mart employees how they're doing right now.
What really gets me is that Wal-Mart is huge in the red states, and those people get this federal assistance. They are voting for people who may be on their "God, guns and gays" stance, but do nothing to help their everyday life. It's great to believe in God (I do), but at the end of the day, school prayer isn't going to put food on the table and clothes on your back. These are people who need assistance, who can't get better work on their own because it got shipped overseas, and their elected representatives are voting against their interests and for the interests of their campaign donors. If Democrats can get away from the tag of anti-God, the Republicans will become a fringe party. It's up to people like us to speak up on this issue, and spread the word that Republicans are trying to take your help away for the sake of more money in the pockets of the Waltons. Remember, $50 billion in offsets versus $70 billion in tax cuts. It doesn't bring down deficits, it just lines the pockets of donors.