No Food Stamps for You!

This past Sunday the Food Stamp program, or SNAP as it is now called, turned 50.   So to celebrate half a century of fighting hunger of poor families, Congress is trying to make cuts in SNAP funding and many states are passing new laws that truly make one wonder…is there a concerted effort by these GOP Governors and Representatives to starve the lower and poorer classes?

WTF is wrong with them?

Food stamp program turns 50  – News – Charleston Daily Mail – West Virginia News and Sports –

Courtesy photo

Actual stamps are a thing of the past. The federal government stopped issuing paper stamps in 2009. Recipients now use cards that are similar to credit and debit cards to complete their transactions.

“There is no such thing as a stereotypical welfare recipient. When you look at today’s SNAP recipients, they’re just hardworking families like you and I,” Harper said. “Just because someone is working does not mean they are not eligible for SNAP benefits.”

So at a time in our history, where more people are on food stamps than ever before, the powers that be are on the prowl and want to cut funding for these very essential programs.

According to this article from Huffington Post, the top 10 States That Rely The Most On Food Stamps:

10. South Carolina

9. Maine

8. West Virginia

7. Kentucky

6. Louisiana

5. Michigan

4. New Mexico

3. Tennessee

2. Oregon

1. Mississippi

As the article states:

Recent statistics from the USDA indicate that 14.2 percent of the U.S. population was using food stamps in February 2011, or around 44.2 million total, up from 33 million just two years before in 2009.

In 2006, the year before the financial crisis, 26.5 million people participated in the program, officially titled the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The increased rate of food stamp participation has led, in turn, to a significant increase in the amount of money SNAP spends on food benefits. In 2010, the total cost of food stamp redemption in the U.S. rose 29 percent from the previous year, totaling around $64 billion, according to the USDA’s 2010 annual report.

The Wall Street Journal has an interactive map and updated numbers for March.  Share of Population on Food Stamps Grows in Most States – Real Time Economics – WSJ

Click here to see an interactive map.

After a temporary plateau in February, the number of Americans receiving food stamps ticked up again in March. Nearly 44.6 million received food stamps in March, up more than 11% from the same time a year ago, the Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.

The share of the population receiving food stamps nationwide has also risen as households struggle with high unemployment and stagnant wages. Some 14.4% of Americans relied on food stamps in March, up 1.4 percentage points from a year earlier.

All but three states reported a larger share of the population relying on food stamps compared to March 2010. And those states that saw the largest increases in recipiency were scattered across the country.

As I mentioned this week, Congress Mulls Cuts to Food Stamps Program Amid Record Number of Recipients – The Note

The Republicans’ 2012 budget plan proposes changing SNAP from an entitlement to a block-grant program that would be tailored for each individual state, much like their proposal for Medicaid. States would no longer receive open-ended subsidies and the aid would be contingent on work or job training. It would also limit funding for the program.

The president’s 2012 budget, however, goes in a completely opposite direction. It aims to make requirements less stringent by temporarily suspending for one year the time limit for certain age groups without dependents. The president also suggested restoring benefit cuts that were included in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill last year.

Hopefully the Dems will fight for the people who need a voice in Washington…because as it is, the only sound heard in swamp land is the ka-ching of big money donors and that upper one percent.

If the GOP gets what they want, their Bill would also cut off Food Stamps To Entire Families If One Member Strikes | ThinkProgress

All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers’ collective bargaining rights, which has provoked a huge Main Street Movement to fight back. Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers.

[…]

However, one section buried deep within the bill adds a startling new requirement. The bill, if passed, would actually cut off all food stamp benefits to any family where one adult member is engaging in a strike against an employer.

This Food Stamp Reform is just the latest attack in the GOP’s War on Women.

With states struggling to make ends meet and gutting basic services for the poor like health care and unemployment payments in an effort to balance budgets, to think that they might reallocate these funds as well isn’t much of a stretch.

But not as examined is the fact that reallocating food stamp funds would disproportionately harm women.

As WomensENews reports:

If nutritional programs are left to the states it’s easy to predict who’ll win and that women, in particular, will lose out.

The children who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are roughly 50-50 boys and girls–not that there’s anything to celebrate in gender-equitable child hunger. Among adults, however, women dominate: 65 percent of SNAP participants are women.

There are 9.3 million non-elderly female adults helped by SNAP, compared to 5.3 million non-elderly male adults. Fully twice as many elderly women are in the program: 1.8 million compared to 0.9 million elderly men.

Households with children receive 76 percent of all benefits, and of these 33 percent are headed by a single parent. You can guess the sex of the vast majority of them. That’s right, women.

So what states are already cutting their food stamp funding,  or passing laws that make it even more difficult to get supplements for those who need assistance?

New Mexico, which is number 4 on the list, will stop funding for the food stamp program because they have run out of money.

New Mexico ending food stamp supplement for elderly, disabled | The American Independent

The AP reports that the Human Services Department will stop the supplement on July 1 because there is no money in the state budget for the program. The program cost half a million dollars last fiscal year.

Just who will be affected by these cuts? According to this article from the Daily Journal:  Daily Journal – NM proposes to eliminate food stamp supplements for low-income elderly, disabled

About 4,000 low-income elderly and disabled New Mexicans will see their food stamp benefits drop in July due to state budget cuts.

In New Mexico those who receive food stamps from the federal government get additional food stamps from the state.

Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration plans to end a state program that supplements federal food stamp benefits for the elderly and disabled to ensure they get at least $25 a month in assistance.

Unfortunately, the state did not approve of the funding…

…the Democratic-controlled Legislature provided no money to continue the supplemental benefits in the upcoming budget year, which starts July 1. The Martinez administration had requested $600,000 from the Legislature to continue the program.

Democratic controlled Legislature…Sad isn’t it?

In Florida, it is getting worse for those in need.  As Dakinikat commented yesterday, Gov Scott is making Food Stamp recipients take drug test before receiving benefits.  And by the way, he is making these poor people pay for that drug test…

Gov. Scott’s limited vision — or none at all – Michael Putney – MiamiHerald.com

Gov. Scott just had his “Mission Accomplished” moment. It happened in The Villages, a predominantly white, conservative, well-to-do retirement community in Central Florida.

Scott went there to sign the state’s $69.2 billion budget — and to announce his veto of $615 million in projects and programs he called “short-sighted, frivolous and wasteful spending.” You know, things like buying environmentally sensitive land, distributing free food to the poor, providing hot meals to the elderly, doing cancer research, restoring an old French rail car for an exhibit to show people how Jews were shipped off to the Nazi death camps. That kind of frivolous, wasteful stuff.

If you read the link above you can see how Scott kept the audience friendly to his announcement.

The budget, need we remind you, consists of taxes paid by all Floridians to run a government for all the people, regardless of party affiliation or no party at all. And yet anyone who showed up for the budget signing ceremony with an anti-Scott sign or even a button or lapel pin that hinted at disagreement was escorted away by local sheriff’s deputies. “Private event,” explained a Scott staffer. Turns out the Florida Republican Party had rented The Villages’ town square for the ceremony and got to decide who got in and who didn’t. About a dozen Democrats and other dissenters didn’t.

(This sly move by Scott is really a topic for another post.)

Anyway, back to the issue at hand:  Fla. Gov. Scott signs welfare drug testing bill – Florida Wires – MiamiHerald.com

People applying for welfare benefits must pay for drug testing under a bill Gov. Rick Scott signed into law Tuesday.

If they pass, they’ll be reimbursed for the cost of the test. If they don’t, they won’t receive temporary government assistance.

[…]

“While there are certainly legitimate needs for public assistance, it is unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction,” Scott said in a press release issued after the signing. “This new law will encourage personal accountability and will help to prevent the misuse of tax dollars.”

So the ones who fail the drug test don’t get the assistance they need, but this new Florida Law is unconstitutional according to the ACLU:  Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs law requiring welfare recipients to take drug test, ACLU objects

“The wasteful program created by this law subjects Floridians who are impacted by the economic downturn, as well as their families, to a humiliating search of their urine and body fluids without cause or even suspicion of drug abuse,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

“Searching the bodily fluids of those in need of assistance is a scientifically, fiscally, and constitutionally unsound policy. Today, that unsound policy is Florida law.”

The law, which will be enacted July 1, is likely to be challenged. A similar bill was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in Michigan in 2003.

The latest information from CNN: Florida governor signs welfare drug-screen measure – CNN.com

Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services will be required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify. Those who fail the required drug testing may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of their children.

However, it looks like there is more to it than this blatant invasion of privacy.

Controversy over the measure was heightened by Scott’s past association with a company he co-founded that operates walk-in urgent care clinics in Florida and counts drug screening among the services it provides.

In April, Scott, who had transferred his ownership interest in Solantic Corp. to a trust in his wife’s name, said the company would not contract for state business, according to local media reports. He subsequently sold his majority stake in the company, local media reported.

At least in New Jersey, Unions are assisting workers of the Resorts Casino Hotel, who have recently experienced extreme pay cuts, sign up for Food Stamps.   Union helps Resorts workers sign up for food stamps – Atlantic City News

Members of Atlantic City’s largest casino union will rally Thursday outside Resorts Casino Hotel to protest what labor officials claim are deep pay cuts imposed by the gaming hall’s new owners.

Ben Begleiter, a spokesman for Local 54 of UNITE-HERE, said 200 to 300 casino workers from across Atlantic City will gather on the Boardwalk at 5 p.m. in a show of solidarity. The union also will help Resorts’ workers sign up for food stamps.

And in California, the recent SCOTUS ruling may affect the state’s food stamp program, as a new bill comes forward to provide food stamp assistance to those prisoners that are being released.

Sandre Swanson bill would make nonviolent drug offenders eligible for food stamps – San Jose Mercury News

“Nearly 46,000 prisoners will soon be released into our communities,” Swanson said in a news release. “Whether you are happy with this or not, the fact is that the state is about to absorb a huge population of ex-felons and we must be realistic about how to support them and their families as they attempt to transition back into society. If a person’s most critical needs are not met when they re-enter society after serving time in prison, they won’t have the tools necessary for a successful and safe return. Without basic support, such as food, many of them will return to criminal activity and drug use instead of gainful employment and sobriety.”

The bill passed the state Assembly, 46 – 30. Now it moves on to the Senate.

Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, who sponsored the bill, says the people who would benefit from the change have paid their debt to society by serving their prison sentences. The Alameda Democrat hopes the legislation will reduce California’s prison recidivism rate.

What is most disturbing about the situation is the attitude towards those receiving SNAP  by GOP politicians and right leaning media outlets. Here are a few examples. I was watching this first incident on the news when it happened live. It made me ill.

Fox News: Charles Payne Attacks Recipients of Anti-Poverty Food Programs?

In the 1960s, we had the War on Poverty. In 2011, we`re now seeing a War on People Who Live in Poverty.

One of the most callous examples of this occurred on – you guessed it – Fox News. Charles Payne, in a business segment, acknowledged that anti-poverty programs, food stamps and unemployment insurance were “good programs” but then went on to attack recipients of those programs.

“I think the real narrative here, though, is that people aren`t embarrassed by it,” Payne said. “People aren`t ashamed by it. In other words, there was a time when people were embarrassed to be on food stamps; there was a time when people were embarrassed to be on unemployment for six months, let alone demanding to be on for more than two years…No longer is the man being told to look in the mirror and cast down a judgment on himself; it`s someone else`s fault. So food stamps, unemployment, all this stuff, is something that they probably earned in some indirect way.”

Stuart Varney went on to describe food stamps as a form of ” income redistribution” as this article from Media Matters states:  Fox Business Rebukes Poor People For Not Being Ashamed Of Their Poverty | Media Matters for America

Varney bemoaned “all these people on food stamps,” Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit and unemployment insurance as “a form of welfare, income redistribution” and “entitlement mentality.”

The MM article sites a recent study that shows how important these programs are.

Varney’s attack on these programs came just as a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showed just how essential these and other government programs are to keeping tens of millions of Americans out of poverty. Arloc Sherman of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted that “public programs keep one in six Americans out of poverty — primarily the elderly, disabled, and working poor — and that the poverty rate would double without these programs.”

Of course, Varney and Payne aren’t the only ones at Fox pushing the idea that food stamp recipients are lazy.  Policy Experts Rebut Stossel’s Claim That Increased Use Of Food Stamps Is Due To Learned Dependency | Media Matters for America

Fox Business host John Stossel absurdly claimed that a recent uptick in food stamps usage “suggests that we are teaching people to be dependent.”

Stossel goes on to say…

“I mean, poor people in America have an obesity problem and yet we give more people food stamps.”

Media Matters points out that Stossel’s statements are very close to the words used by Paul Ryan in his Republican Response to Obama’s SOTU address back in January:

“This is a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency.”

According to Dottie Rosenbaum, senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) is “the nation’s most important anti-hunger program” and that it largely benefits families with children. According to Rosenbaum, “By design, enrollment expands quickly during economic downturns as poverty rises, unemployment mounts, and more people need assistance [sic] Enrollment then falls as the economy recovers and need abates.”

Seems like common sense to me. I just don’t know if common sense is really what these politicians and pundits lack, I think it is more a lack of compassion that is motivating these people.  Some sort of sadistic nature that brings them enjoyment and pleasure in hurting those in need.  Like a bug being squashed under a big shoe, the poor are being rubbed out by the ideals and family values of the GOP.  We all see it, that smile of satisfaction on their faces as they hear the sound of the crunching beneath their feet.

Cruelty is the word that comes to mind.  There is just no other way to describe it.  All it leaves me with is a feeling of hopelessness…like my feet are stuck in cement, and the GOP and DINOs are driving the steam roller towards me.  Can you hear it? Crunch. The sound of millions of Americans being systematically mushed by the soles of those sadistic shoes.