6 Absurd Right-Wing Lies About Food Stamps

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/6-absurd-right-wing-lies-about-food-stamps



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Myth #1: Food stamps are “growing exponentially” because of waste and fraud.

Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) recently said, “Throughout the Obama presidency, we’ve seen the food stamp program grow exponentially because the government continues to turn a blind eye to a system fraught with abuse.”

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Myth #2: Cutting food stamps will make people get jobs because able-bodied people are getting food stamps instead of working.

Republicans call food stamps “welfare” and called the bill cutting food stamps the “Work Opportunity Act.” The idea is that after five years of recession and with 11.3 million people unemployed—4.3 million out of work for 27 weeks or more—along with 7.9 million people working part-time but looking for full-time and another 2.3 million “marginally attached” what the country needs is even more hungry people.

***SNIP

Myth #3: Food stamps make people "dependent."

Rep. Mike Cramer (R-ND) recently served up an example of right-wing mythology, saying that food stamps are responsible for “a culture of permanent dependency.”

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Myth #4: Food stamps are about politicians “buying votes” with other people’s money.

Amplifying the “dependency” argument, conservatives disparage democracy by saying that elected officials “buy votes” by providing food to hungry people—and other government services.

[B Calm]

1. How do you know when a republican is lying?

[xchrom]

2. when his lips are moving!

[Thor_MN]

4. There are times when Republicans are NOT lying?

I used to believe (when I was young) that sometimes, on occasion, that Republicans were telling the truth. I don't have those childish thoughts anymore.

[JHB]

6. Because that's what their voters want.

[janlyn]

3. I know people who are on food stamps and,

yet they are constantly harping about entitlements and freeloaders. I just can't figure out the thought processes of these people.
I don't get how they can have such diametrically opposed ideas!
My brain just won't work that way. I just want to bop them in the forehead! !

[Orrex]

9. Here's how it generally works, in my experience:

This applies to people who receive a benefit & yet criticize others for receiving it:

SNAP Recipient A identifies his own need as justified or reasonable or legitimate, because he "got a bad deal" or "couldn't catch a break" or "ran into some bad luck" or the like. SNAP Recipient B is lazy or a freeloader or a leech, so he doesn't need or deserve the benefit the way SNAP Recipient A does.

It's a culpable lack of empathy, but IMO it's not quite hypocrisy, because SNAP Recipient A accepts that people who need the benefit can get it. He's simply selective and judgmental in declaring who actually needs it.


If you have the urge to bop SNAP Receipient A on the forehead, I won't stop you.

[yuiyoshida]

5. I once heard a presumed Teabagger talking about

Food stamps. The guy he was talking to, was a War Veteran and mentioned to him about a guy on Food stamps who had lost both arms and legs during an attack. He asked the Tea bagger, wasn't this reason enough since the guy could not work, and the bagger thought about it for a second and replied... HE COULD WORK FOR THE POST OFFICE, LICKING STAMPS....


This is Republican Compassion at work... bleh.

[raccoon]

7. Some people are so uninformed they don't know you can't buy non-food items with food stamps.nt

[Heather MC]

8. One would think Repukes would love Food Stamps because

NO ONE ON FOOD STAMPS IS STASHING THE MONEY IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

Every dime of food Stamp $$$ is spent in Corporate Grocery Stores. Not Local Farmers Markets
Imagine all the Walmart employees who are on Food Stamps where do you think they purchase their food from? They give their money right back to their Opressors.

Honestly the Food Stamp Program is just another Corporate Money Grab of Government money. It's just in this case the WORKING POOR get something out of it.