Republicans introduce "Improving child nutrition" bill that takes food from 3.4 million kids

[cali]

Republican Representative Todd Rokita (IN-4) is probably best known for despising humanity. Specifically, he despises the kind of humanity that isn’t white and doesn’t have a considerable amount of wealth. He made a tiny dent of a name a couple of years ago by looking like an out-of-touch and heartless jackass during Paul Ryan’s infamous War on Poverty hearings. At those hearings he questioned the validity of a single mother who had pulled herself up from homelessness to get work and take care of her family with the help of public assistance. Yes, it was as abhorrent as it sounds. Not one to let go of trying to kick people when they are down, Todd Rokita has introduced H.R. 5003, the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016.

A child nutrition reauthorization bill (H.R. 5003) introduced on April 20 by Rep. Todd Rokita, chair of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, includes a provision that would severely restrict schools’ eligibility for community eligibility, an option within the national school lunch and breakfast programs allowing high-poverty schools to provide meals at no charge to all students.[1] If this bill becomes law, 7,022 schools now using community eligibility to simplify their meal programs and improve access for low-income students could have to reinstate applications and return to monitoring eligibility in the lunch line within two years.[2] These schools serve nearly 3.4 million students. Another 11,647, schools that qualify for community eligibility but have not yet adopted it could lose eligibility.

The law would raise the Community Eligibility Provision of the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act from a 40 percent threshold up to a 60 percent threshold. What this means is that communities would need to have 60 percent of its population living at or below the poverty line in order for their school to be able to apply. The provision is used to simplify the process of getting children who need free lunch.

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/5/5/1523543/-Republicans-introduce-improving-child-nutrition-bill-that-would-take-food-away-from-3-4-mil-kids

[raging moderate]

1. Teaching children how to watch clocks.

"Now it's only 1 hour and 30 minutes until I get to eat my mayonnaise sandwich....now it's only 1 hour and 20 minutes until I get to eat my mayonnaise sandwich....now it's only 1 hour and 10 minutes until I get to eat my mayonnaise sandwich...."

[DetlefK]

2. Republicans pondered that scientists have to provide arguments why their research is needed...

What would happen if politicians had to provide arguments why their bills are needed?

And what would happen if it turned out that the politician made factually incorrect statements during this argument?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Republicans can't provide valid arguments for getting paid to not review SCOTUS nomination. nt

[NCTraveler]

3. The exact opposite direction we need to be going in society. Nt

[Hortensis]

13. Despicable. I have noticed that people around here

have been invoking the name of Jesus less in public, and even longer than that not talking about patriotism or "our boys over there." They haven't changed their religion or ideology, I'm sure, and my best guess is that awareness of a gross hypocrisy they can't completely justify out of existence keeps defying compartmentalization.

[NCTraveler]

22. "a gross hypocrisy they can't completely justify out of existence"

[sarge43]

4. Naturally

Those kids aren't fetiuses anymore; so they don't matter.

[meow2u3]

5. What is it with repukes and Orwellian names to hide heartless legislation?

If the repunks were honest, they'd name HR 5003 the "No Hungry Child Left Alive Act."

[cali]

7. Easier to sell cruel shit.

[pinboy3niner]

8. 'Destroying Child Nutrition' didn't focus group very well. nt

[dembotoz]

9. should always be remembered that the school lunch program was started by truman in 46

because research showed the reason this country had a higher than expected rate of military draft physical exemptions(4f) was due to issues as a result of nutrition.

healthy children makes healthy soldiers....and it has worked

look it up easy enuf to find

[TBF]

25. Here's a link for anyone interested -

http://www.educationbug.org/a/the-history-of-the-school-lunch-program.html

Now it makes a lot more sense.

[MisterP]

29. heck, maybe two-thirds of the surge in life expectancy after 1950 was from better food

for those aged -1 to 5: medicine was maybe a fifth of that, and think of how far we've come in spreading that worldwide!

[Hotler]

10. Selfishness is a cornerstone of the Republician party. n/t

[allan01]

11. aMErica at its worst . then why is this pecie of trash in office ? please tell me?

[meow2u3]

18. Because teabaggers like him put the CON in conservative

This piece of human waste and his ilk run on a platform of saving jobs and improving the economy to get people to vote for them, but once elected, he pushes disasters like passing a bill that alleviates hunger by making kids even hungrier.

[Bettie]

12. Family Values in action

well, if your idea of family values is taking food from children.

[Initech]

14. Well they can't eat if they don't have food do they?

[bemildred]

15. That's our Congress. nt

[OregonBlue]

16. I can't imagine that this will even save any real money. It's just an attempt

to appear cruel for his right-wing supporters.

[Hestia]

17. Week after week they are dismantling successful New Deal programs

We've got to get these "people" out of there. They've done way too much damage. Plus, we have to put pressure on our side to go through each and every bill of the last 20 years and undo the damaging ones.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. I can't wait for them to introduce the Testicle Protection Act. Which will

of course require poor and working class men to stand in line once a month so a billionaire can walk by and kick them in the balls one by one. Better yet a billionaire will hire someone else to do the sack kicking for them.

[Tsiyu]

20. Oh, those good Catholic people elected by good Christian people!

Don't you know that "Feed my sheep" really means, "Feed the wolves?"

Republicans need to funnel more money to their rich buddies and corporations! How dare a poverty-ridden child want breakfast or lunch when the good Catholic Todd "Chipmunk Cheeks" Rokita (R-Ind.) needs some thick donations to his campaign fund.

Pesky kids. We'll starve em out, make 'em turn to crime to eat and then keep our private prison buddies happy too. Win win for Republicans.

Go Jesus. You really change hearts and minds. You go on with Your bad selfs Roman Catholics. Take food from students' mouths because some goddamned corporation somewhere needs some more digits on a spreadsheet.

Although I have to say, Italy just ruled that stealing food when you're starving is not a crime. So maybe US Catholics practice a different version of Christianity than Europeans? Stealing food here will get you a long prison term if not summarily executed by the Good Christians.

It's pretty sad when a bunch of Good Christian, pasty-faced, overweight millionaires want to steal poor kids' lunch.

Yeah. Go Jesus. Go God. Or something..

[trof]

21. People in our town donate food to our elementary school kids.

The poor kids get two meals a day at school, but maybe little or nothing on week ends at home. Every Friday teachers stuff their backpacks with enough to get them through the week end, knowing it will be shared with the family.

My state hates poor people, especially if they're not lily white.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. but let's keep peddling the line, that there is no big difference between Republicans and Democrats

[cali]

24. I certainly don't peddle anything so silly and simplistic.

Nor do I peddle the simplistic nonsense that you shovel

[La Lioness Priyanka]

26. Not saying you do. Don't take it so personally

[Shrike47]

27. They say the parents should feed them. Meanwhile, the child is hungry but they don't care.

I have actually heard argument that it's the parents' obligation to provide lunch and if the child goes hungry, prosecute the parent. So either the parent gets fined (less money for food) or put in jail (foster care at huge expense to the system and the child). Either way, wasting money that could be spent on feeding the child in the first place and actually accomplishing something.

[kimbutgar]

28. I can just see the ad against these republicans sponsoring this bill

A man dressed like Jesus quoting the bible saying, "I believe we should feed the poor and take care of the less fortunate" ( with the actual bible quote underneath) and then an ominous background voice says rep Todd Rokita wants to take away school lunches from poor hungry children, then Jesus saying "Todd why do you want to take food away from poor children" "you are not a Christian if you deny food to the poor"

This ad could be run in every congressional house district race who votes for this bill.