House GOP Wants Poor to Eat Cat Food

[99th_Monkey]

Republicans Eye Changes to Food-Stamp Program
House Lawmakers Want Revision After Plan’s Sharp Expansion During Recession
By TENNILLE TRACY * Feb. 11, 2015 5:28 p.m. ET * Wall St. Journal

House Republicans are laying the groundwork for a revision of the food-stamps program after its sharp expansion during the recession.

The effort kicks off Feb. 25 when the House Agriculture Committee holds the first of several hearings scheduled this year on food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R., Texas), who is leading the charge, said he wants to stay away from the type of party politics that can doom reforms before they are proposed. But as the son of a roughneck on oil rigs, he said he favors the kind of hard work that “built America,” suggesting any changes will lead to a smaller program and fewer recipients.

“A family that depends on their own work is more secure,” he said in an interview. “There’s a dignity in taking care of yourself.”

Some 46.5 million people—about 15% of the U.S. population—receive benefits, double the number from a decade ago. The costs, meanwhile, have nearly tripled in that time, going from $27 billion in fiscal year 2004 to $74 billion in 2014.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-eye-changes-to-food-stamp-program-1423692057

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Cat food is kind of expensive. This SOB would rather the poor ate nothing at all.

[yuiyoshida]

14. I was gonna say...

I have to buy wet and dry Cat food each month. Its expensive and I suppose if you want the good stuff, you have to pay for it. My animal would rather eat People food ("ALL SHRIMPS R MINE!!)...but I have to get him Cat food because I was told there are certain things in the foods that help Cats grow and be healthy.

I don't like the look of the Tuna my cat eats.. and would rather starve to death, than eat it! (And I love Tuna.. but its gotta be Sashimi!)

[yellowcanine]

17. At least if the cats eat tuna the mercury kills off the fungal infections.

Look on the bright side.

[yuiyoshida]

18. I don't know

whether to laugh or cry on that one!

[Skittles]

20. I wonder why there is no rat-flavored and bug-flavored cat food

ya know?

[yuiyoshida]

22. I am not sure about rat flavored...

My cat loves Mice and Birds. But, I don't let him out any longer, because Fleas and ticks would love him, and He doesn't need that, nor do it...

But hey.. I can always entertain him with pure 100% fresh off the vine (it probably doesn't come off the vine) CATNIP! Still around my house hold there is One main CAT RULE...


All shrimps R Mine!

[randys1]

2. We need to be honest with ourselves. Republicans want poor people to starve to death

or die from exposure.

Same reason Koch Bros dont want them to have health care, takes away from the health care they can get.

So one political party wants to kill millions of Americans, one does not.

Hmm

[hifiguy]

9. That TPTB have been planning a passive cull of the herd

has been obvious ever since war criminal (and BFF of Hillary) Henry Kissinger observed that something had to be done about all the "useless eaters." Letting them die off one at a time in this fashion is much cheaper and easier than building extermination camps, though it doesn't make the Kochs' hearts go pitty-pat like extermination camps would.

[Newest Reality]

3. Bull!

Well, we must avoid the phrase: "A corporation that relies on its own revenue, rather than government handouts and tax rebates, is more secure. Paying taxes to support infrastructure and government services is a sensible and dignified way of taking care of your shareholders."

Those are the gigantic and real welfare Queens we need off of our backs. They are just playing the big Oz Head. Pay no attention to those clowns behind the curtain!

[we can do it]

4. This explains the rise in cat food prices the past year.

[BlueJazz]

5. “A family that depends on their own work is more secure,” ..said the anti-minimum wage person.

[hifiguy]

6. If work is so "dignified" how come it's taxed at a much higher rate

than money that makes money - capital gains - with no effort at all.

Oh, that's right, the RICH make their money that way.

Fuck these royalist assholes with a pitchfork.

[MADem]

7. Perhaps they were inspired by Omar Sharif's stunning performance as the grocer

who sells a young lad cat food to feed to his grouchy father as pate in Monsieur Ibrahim...?

I highly recommend the film...the GOP's stance on social programs, though--that blows. You'd think they'd understand that a rising tide--and a rising minimum wage--lifts all boats. Alas they are not rocket scientists, so these simple things elude them...

[guillaumeb]

8. So a Texas congressperson wants to wean the poor off of food stamps?

Texas receives $1.43 of Federal revenue for every dollar of tax money sent to Washington. That makes Texas, like most southern and western states, a welfare queen.

By comparison, I live in Illinois, where the state receives .56 for every dollar sent to Washington. We support Texas with our tax dollars.

Check out the link for more info: http://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/

Face it Republican states, you are subsidized by the Democratic states. Like your big business models, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and the rest of the minimum wage McJob creators, you are all welfare queens existing on Federal gravy.

The sheer stupidity, arrogance, and phoniness of these Republican thieves is astounding.

[Newest Reality]

10. Thanks!

That information is important.

In a way, this focus on SNAP might be diversionary, as well. For instance, what would part of their real constituency, the major food store chains, say about the loss of income from cutting the program? It seems like their lobbyists would be pounding on the door to assure that the revenue continues, even if the executives hold similar views about the poor and downwardly mobile "middle" class.

[fredamae]

11. Ahhh, Cat Food Commission...

Good times
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/obamas-cat-food-committee-alan-greenspan-and-dancing-grannies-medicare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101787647?fb_action_ids=4989397900521&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B135634519927364%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

[procon]

12. As if demanding sick people should hurry up and die wasn't bad enough, now

they want to add even more pain and suffering to those who have nothing... starvation.

Where are all these mystery jobs that Republicans think are just waiting to be filled by people on welfare?

[JHB]

13. I think they want the poor to eat what cat food is after the cat is done with it n/t

[hifiguy]

15. They won't be happy until the starving people eat the cat.

"Poor people shouldn't be having pets they can't afford!!!"

[yellowcanine]

19. Cats are usually smart enough to leave when the people start eating their food.

Dogs, not so much. Let them eat Rover!

[yellowcanine]

16. “There’s a dignity in taking care of yourself.” Another clueless congressman who thinks poor

people are slackers. He has no idea. I get a little tired of congressmen (and they are mostly men) who blather on about how hard their daddies worked to put a roof over their head and food on the table for their families. They really have no idea. If you are working for $10 an hour for 40 hours a week that is $400 a week or $1600 a month. If it is a family of four and there is only one wage earner you get $296 in food stamp benefits a month. That is $2.50 a day for each person in the household. (Okay, if the kids are in school they maybe get a free or reduced price lunch and breakfast - no thanks to this congressman I am sure. So you only have to pay for the dinner for five days a week when school is in session). You have to pay rent and utilities, buy clothes, etc, run your car and buy food when the $296 is gone on that $1600 (minus SS and medicare taxes). Maybe you get some earned income credit if your kids are under 19 but that probably is gone before you even see it in your bank account. Is the congressman proposing to cut that amount based on the "dignity of work?" I would venture to say that this hypothetical person (and millions more like him/her) has more dignity in their work than the "HONORABLE" gentleman from Texas.

[99th_Monkey]

23. Rough translation: "I got mine, so the rest of you poor saps can just fuck off and die" nt

[haele]

21. Roughnecks on oil rigs made good money when they worked.

Hard work and good money. Again, when they worked. If daddy was a roughneck, they probably moved around from oil field to oil field, or he spent a lot of time away from the family.
I suppose the good Congressman is also supportive of raising taxes on those who can afford it to support massive infrastructure and conservation projects that are also hard work and good pay? Of supporting affordable housing and community development initiatives?
Of funding green energy and research; of supporting small businesses with subsidies or more low intrest rate loans?
Of funding apprenticeship and skilled labor programs? Of supporting unions, so that if there are only service or retail jobs, people can still support their families on one income, like apparently good old roughneck dad could?

What, you say his answer to all these questions will probably be "No"?

Haele

[n2doc]

24. I seem to remember the last cut was targeted at blue states

At some point if they continue they will be hitting their own. I suppose it will be ok with their base, they can blame Obama.