UPDATED, SEE BELOW
While our nation still reels from the economic crisis brought on by irresponsible Republican fiscal policies that saw millions of jobs being lost, the middle class being decimated, and a nearly unprecedented rise in poverty rates (only the Great Depression rivals it), our elected Representatives in the United States Senate are voting to reduce funding for the only source of sustenance for millions of impoverished Americans: Food Stamps.
Trimming back on eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are called, would save $4 billion over the decade. Republicans are pushing to reduce that even more. ...
"Is the benefit going to the right people? Is the money being expended wisely?" questioned Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has led efforts to change the program, during a recent Senate speech. "Is it encouraging people to look for ways to be productive and be responsible for their families? Or does it create dependency on a series of government programs?"
Senator Sessions, that question is
offensive. It's especially offensive when you recognize that a significant number of Americans who rely on Food Stamps to feed their families, are working full-time but are
not being paid enough by their employers to survive on. So of
course the benefit isn't going to "the right people," or being "spent wisely," because
it's going to line the pockets of billionaires and their billion-dollar corporations!
So we have a question for you, Senator Sessions: »
When will Republicans in Congress take up legislation that imposes severe fines on mulit-billion dollar corporations who line their pockets at the expense of taxpayers by refusing to pay their employees a 2012 wage and use government programs to supplement their payrolls?
(Click the image thumbnail for the full-size version at The Winning Words Project.)
Citizens from whom Walmart is stealing to pay their employees want our money back from WALMART, not starving children.
Here's what Walmart's intentionally low wages are costing hard-working taxpayers like us:
- Walmart's intentionally low wages force hard-working employees to need approximately $420,000 per year, per store, totalling $2.66 BILLION annually in Food Stamps and other taxpayer assistance ... to survive.
- Walmart's intentionally low wages cost the country HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars in payroll tax deductions for Federal, State, and Local taxes.
- Walmart's intentionally low wages cost our communities the ability to hire and retain important public service workers like firefighters, police officers, maintenance workers, and teachers.
- Walmart's intentionally low wages cost our communities with their increased need for those same public services they are underfunding.
- Walmart's intentionally low wages and lack of covered benefits cost taxpayers over $1.02 BILLION a year in healthcare costs.
- Walmart's intentionally low wages cost taxpayers as much as $225 MILLION in free and reduced price lunches for school-age children.
- Walmart's intentionally low wages cost taxpayers over $780 MILLION in tax deductions for low-income families.
And that's just some of the burden placed on taxpayers by Walmart's intentionally low wages.
That's not Welfare for People, That's Welfare for Walmart at The People's expense!
(N/A now, see update below) Let's all get on the phone and call our Senators NOW and tell them we will hold them accountable if they vote to reduce the SNAP program!
» » » Contacting The Congress « « «
ETA: When you call your Senator, please let us know if they're planning a 'YES' vote (there are many Democrats set to do so!) so we can ALL bombard them on the phones!
A Thousand Thanks!
ETA AGAIN: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has taken up the mantle to fight against the Amendment to the 2013 Farm Bill that this $4.5 Billion cut to SNAP is part of. Please call her office and beg her not to cave one iota and to convince every one of her colleagues in the senate that they are going after the WRONG PEOPLE on this issue. Tell them they need to address the source of the problem—Big Corporations who use taxpayer money to pad their payrolls! Thank her for her support, but be like the teapartiers and hold her to the hard line on this.
No Caving!
UPDATE JUNE 21: While the Sessions Amendment to eliminate the $1 heating bill subsidy qualification went down to defeat, in a 66-33 vote, 24 Democrats joined the Republicans to pass the part of the Farm Bill that will deprive hungry people of $4.3 BILLION in Food.
Here is a list of the Assclowns who did this:
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Franken (D-MN)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
You know what to do.
