BARACK OBAMA LIED ABOUT THE WAR!!!!111

[Telly Savalas]

Alright. Maybe he didn't.

Anyway, the House Agricultural Committe has proposed a plan that would eliminate food stamps for up to 300,000 people. As far as I know, there have only been a couple of posts on this at DU and they've both sank like rocks, so spread the word.

If we're not going to champion the cause of the less fortunate, who is?

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051029/BUSINESS01/510290305/1029/BUSINESS

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051101/OPINION/51101006/1006&theme=MYTURN

[Bjornsdotter]

1. Spreading n/t

[faithnotgreed]

2. kick for love

[mucifer]

3. clever post! I like your style.

I'm a nurse and many of my patients are on public aid and food stamps and I am very worried. I live in Chicago and all my congresspeople are gonna fight against this one.

[Telly Savalas]

6. Thanks.

The Democrats seem pretty unified against this, but aren't really doing a lot to draw attention to it. With any luck, if the GOP has the audacity to try to enact this plan, a big stink will be raised.

[ducque]

4. I wrote about it ...

and my letter (really a short article) will be in the Chicago Sun-Times tomorrow.

[Telly Savalas]

7. Right on!

Thank you! It makes me feel really to good read that.

:toast:

[ultraist]

16. Welcome to DU ducque

:hi:

Congrats on your article getting published. Please post it tomorrow.

[OzarkDem]

5. A disaster

Many of the cancer patients I help can't get more than $97 a month now in food stamps. One went to a food pantry the other day where they got a loaf of bread and a bag of rice to last them for 2 weeks.

[Aimah]

8. They would rather have people loot..

so they can shoot them.

[countryjake]

27. Exactly!

Drive people to desperation, then cut them down!

Sounds a bit like the occupation of Iraq, doesn't it?

[wakemewhenitsover]

9. Kick

[Just Me]

10. I just don't fucking GET this "leave Americans behind" crap!!!

Where the hell is the compassion and pro-Americanism in advancing poverty?

HUH!!!! :grr:

I am sick to death of the abusers exploiting "compassion" and "freedom" and "democracy",...in order to serve self interests rather than OUR interests.

FUCK THEM!!!

[fearnobush]

11. Nice teaser - Any way, I wish food stamp dependants could afford

to get a PC and join our discussion. I'm sure some do. I 'd like to hear there voice since the media pretends only rich people live in this country.

[nashville_brook]

19. i've been on food stamps before

lots of people i know have. lots of people who are fine, upstanding, gainfully-employed citizens who at one time needed a little help.

[fearnobush]

21. I know may parents did for a short while in the early 1980's.

I was too young to know what was going on other than the fact that Raygun had doped fiend them in to believing pro-life, trickle down economic policy was better than the real livings they had in the 1970's.

[Telly Savalas]

35. Open any economics textbook

and it'll tell you that the natural state of a market economy includes having a certain level of unemployment.

This isn't about class warfare. It's about doing the right thing. It's simply inhumane for there not to be an adequate social safety net.

Compassionate conservative, my ass.

[anitar1]

26. I know a couple of seniors who use food stamps.

They were able to obtain free, rebuilt computers from the senior center. A volunteer set them up and helped them get ISP for low rates, to seniors. Now, these ladies are busy writing their reps and signing petitions. They both keep exploring and have really jumped into a new way of living.It is great to see them becoming activists. They also attend demonstrations now.

[vickitulsa]

38. I depend on food stamps every month and will for the rest

of my life. I live far beneath the poverty level, with an income of $688/month from SSDI (disability). I'm 56 and with only this income I qualify for Medicaid and food stamps through DHS.

I can tell you that it was VERY HARD for me to accept the food stamps in the beginning. I enrolled at DHS specifically for the Medicaid benefits because I have many medical problems and require nine prescription meds monthly.

People like me -- and there are SO MANY OF US! -- live in constant fear and dread whenever the government makes changes in the programs we depend on simply to survive. Ever since GWB and the neocons took the White House and congress, we have worried far more than ever before that what little we now receive in assistance may be cut or done away with, and it's a constant nightmare of anxiety.

Whenever I hear of cuts to these programs, a sense of pure dread grips me, and it's very hard to just keep going.

As for why many food stamps are not claimed, I think a lot of people who are truly poor simply do not understand what they could receive or have no way to meet the documentation requirements or transportation to keep appointments, and so on. If you think the income tax code is complicated, you should see the paperwork maze they put us through to receive SSI, SSDI, and all DHS assistance that is purportedly "available"! You don't just have to "qualify" for assistance -- you have to PROVE you qualify. That's something many people just find it hard to do. I believe they MAKE it hard on purpose so fewer people will GET their benefits....

I recently received a letter saying my food stamp amount is being changed from $65/month to $80/month due to "a change in federal rules" I think it said. That happened this month, and man did it HELP ME! It's probably only a matter of time, however, before I receive another letter saying I no longer qualify for food stamps at all for some obscure reason and thanks to changes the neocons are pushing through right now....

Oh, and one other thing. Routinely, when I receive a small cost-of-living increase in my Disability check, I also get a similar CUT in my food stamp allowance. I guess they figure I've got so much more income now, ya know?

Life on the edge is very VERY difficult. But before GWB and his gang of criminals took over my country, it was at least bearable and possible.

[helderheid]

12. well fucking done!

:applause:

[CornField]

13. Hmmm... saving the tax breaks for big hog lots

That's not going to make the Iowans very happy. Many, many people are pissed about the large hog lots and their environmental impact in Iowa.

From the Des Moines Register article:

The House plan also spares the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which is popular with hog farms and cattle feedlots because it helps them pay for installing pollution controls.

"The results from an Iowa perspective are is as good as we could have asked for and still gotten the job done," said Rep. Steve King, R-Ia.


(King really needs a spot on the Conservative Idiots lists, if he doesn't already have one.)

Edited to add one more bit of trivia, the average food stamp disbursement in the state of Iowa is $72 per month. What greedy bastards, eh?

[wookie294]

14. The war on poverty reduced poverty by 50 percent !!

:thumbsup:

[mikelewis]

15. Kojak lied about this post....

Nice job!
Kicked and nominated.

[ultraist]

17. 40, 000 children will be cut off of free lunches

I don't understand how they can not feed the kids who show up at school with no lunch money. It's abusive to let children go hungry.

37 million Americans live in poverty and that's a low estimate.

Many more, who are close to the edge, recieve food stamps. Starving our own people, our CHILDREN is shameful.

[peekaloo]

18. kick nt

[Richard D]

20. Ok, what's the significance of 111?

[progressivebydesign]

25. It's a joke on the freepers for the infamous THIS IS HUGH!!111 n/t

[flygal]

22. K&R - thank you.

[Withywindle]

23. HAHAH. Bloody brilliant!

Fucking bastards.

I've been on food stamps briefly - see that huge spike in the poverty rate around 1992 on that graph? I was in that. Just out of college - I had a job and it still was just not enough to get by. I was already living in a 2BR apartment with four or five other people (none of whom were romantic partners, but sometimes we had to share a bed anyway, platonically) and walking half an hour to work every day: there were literally no more corners to cut. So I got them. It was still store-brand tuna fish and ramen noodles and rice and beans, but at least I could usually count on having that. No more fainting at work because I hadn't eaten.

I was so privileged too - I had a college degree after all and I knew I'd get out of it eventually. I didn't have dependents and my health was passable. I'll never forget what it's like, and I'll never ever let myself think I'm in any way better than the people relying on public aid now, because it could happen to anyone.

My heart goes out to those in truly desperate situations for so much longer.

[dutchdemocrat]

24. Chris Floyd wrote about this....

The Unsung Triumph of George W. Bush

You know, George W. Bush gets a lot of guff these days about his "incompetence" as a war leader, with critics harping on and on about the bloodsoaked spiral of chaos, death, ruin and atrocity that continues to gush from the open wound that he has made of Iraq. But strangely enough, you never hear these nabobs of negativity talk about the indisputable success of the larger conflict that Bush has directed since his first day in office: the War on the Poor. From his smashing victory in the first Battle of the Elitist Tax Cuts to the scorching blitzkrieg triumph of the Bankruptcy Bill, Commander Bush has gone from strength to strength in his relentless crusade to grind the poor, the sick, the weak and the millions of hard-working people living on the margins into the dirt beneath his thousand-dollar boot-heel.

We here at Empire Burlesque pledge to redouble our efforts to bring President Bush's masterful leadership in the War on the Poor to the general public, breaking through the liberal media "filter" that won't tell the truth about the Leader's devastating prowess. So below are a few bulletins from the front-line (all courtesy of the indispensible Buzzflash), where you can see the Great Commander tearing through the rabble like a column of crack German Panzers.

Texas Leads Nation in Household Hunger (AP)
Congress Weighs Big Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare (NYT)
Rich Senators Defeat Minimum-Wage Hike (Helen Thomas/Hearst)
and
House Panel Votes $844 Million Cut in Food Stamps (Reuters)

(Excerpt) On a party-line vote, a Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives committee voted to cut food stamps by $844 million on Friday, just hours after a new government report showed more Americans are struggling to put food on the table.

About 300,000 Americans would lose benefits due to tighter eligibility rules for food stamps, the major U.S. antihunger program, under the House plan. The cuts would be part of $3.7 billion pared from Agriculture Department programs over five years as part of government-wide spending reductions...

SNIP

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=1

[ngGale]

28. LOVE, the lead in....

getting and keeping attention on poverty, is a hard job!

All the sh** is going to hit the fan in January, the Medicare Rx plan. It's a freaking disaster when you have been covered by both programs. I call it, selective genocide - NOLA - cutting Medicaid, heat relief...oh, hell - there is nothing left. Why do they hate the poor, down trodden, disabled and children?:cry:

So much for, compassion.:sarcasm:

[Griffy]

29. most of us are chopping at the root of evil...

we care.. there is a better way to do all of this, and if we can ever get the corperations out and the people in.. we will!

[Paradise]

30. kick. n/t

[usregimechange]

31. kick

[chat_noir]

32. Our View — Cut pork, not food for the hungry

The proposed cuts to food stamps come at a time when a government report says the number of people who can’t afford to buy food has grown to 38.2 million, an increase of 7 million in the last five years.

...

Providing food for the hungry is not only the right thing to do, it’s a good investment. Studies show kids who have a good breakfast and lunch are able to learn more in school. So investments in school lunches actually leverage our investments in education.

...


Food stamps should be the last place to look for cuts, not the first place.

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/editorials/local_story_307004355.html?keyword=topstory

[qanda]

33. Kick

Because I remember what it was like to have to depend on food stamps. As a child, it was embarrassing but I somehow knew that if we didn't have food stamps we would not have had much to eat.

[davepc]

34. Millions in food stamps go unclaimed

Twenty thousand people who live in the metro New Orleans area were eligible for food stamps in 1999 but never claimed the benefit, leaving more than $30 million worth of the stamps on the table, a study has found.

But the region still ranked third in the country in terms of the percentage of those taking advantage of the help.

Each year, billions of dollars in food stamps go unclaimed by the working poor and the places they call home, according to the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan independent think tank in Washington.

The study found that, nationally, half of those eligible for food stamps in 1999 received them. That year, 9.8 million people in 97 cities lived in households that received a total $9.1 billion in food stamps.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1116397716189440.xml


According to the GAO, the food stamp program is efficient in terms of eliminating fraud and abuse.

Dateline: May 2005

A report released by the General Accounting Office (GAO) shows that efficiency in management of the federal Food Stamp program has reached its best level in history, and that continued improvements are expected when new data is released by USDA. In addition, the GAO report showed a significant reduction in the number of ineligible families receiving food stamps.

The report would seem to contradict recent criticism claiming high rates of “fraud, waste, and abuse” in the Food Stamp Program.

Among the findings of the GAO report were the following:

The rate of non-qualified food stamp recipients being granted benefits due to either administrative error or applicant fraud has declined by almost one-third over the past five years from 9.86 percent in 1999 to a record low of 6.63 percent in 2003.
Sponsored Links

98 percent of households receiving food stamps were eligible for the program.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/healthcare/a/foodstampgao.htm

So if almost everybody who's getting food stamps is eligible, but there are millions of dollars worth of food stamps going unclaimed...shouldent there be something done to fix the discrepancy?

Maybe the solution isn't cutting stamps but getting more people to claim them, but I think it's knee jerk to claim that somebody wants some one else to go hungry.

[Little Star]

36. My God!!!

To all christians. NOT IN OUR NAME!!!
One question.
Is this what Jesus taught us?
Not in my faith or name it is not.
What is wrong with this society???
Never mind I know GREED!
What a hypocritical place!

[Little Star]

37. Kick n/t