GOP prepares bill to cut food stamps by 5 percent

[The Straight Story]

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are preparing legislation that would cut food stamps by as much as $4 billion annually in an effort to downsize a program that many conservatives say has become too bloated in recent years.

A group of Republicans led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has agreed to try to advance the legislation as early as next month. The measure would reduce the $80 billion-a-year food stamp program by as much as 5 percent. House conservatives have urged major cuts as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has doubled in cost since 2008.

The bill is certain to face strong opposition from the Democratic Senate and President Barack Obama, who have opposed major cuts to the program. They say cuts could drop millions of Americans off the rolls when they are already struggling from the Great Recession.

Reps. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, two Republicans who helped design the bill, said the legislation would find the savings by tightening eligibility standards and imposing new work requirements. It would also likely try to reduce the rolls by requiring drug testing and barring convicted murderers, rapists and pedophiles from receiving food stamps.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/gop-prepares-bill-cut-food-stamps-5-percent

[Lasher]

1. Cutting food stamps to get more war money.

And more tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy. Such corruption leaves me almost speechless.

[HiPointDem]

6. +1

[MrSlayer]

2. What is what they do called?

When you create conditions that force people onto assistance programs and then attempt to eliminate those programs. What does that make you?

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

3. I wanna say

I want to say, some form of the ol' "Set-'Em-Up, Knock-'Em-Down".

My other answer would be, "Something something something, Hegelian dialectic something. Umm."

You sigline also makes me think of "Evil" as a good label, but I try to avoid that one because it has too easily gotten away from me, in the past.

At any rate, we should have a good term for this, something catchy and meme-friendly, because they use this basic technique a lot and we don't point it out frequently enough or loudly enough.

[ananda]

4. How un pro life of them...

..

[Lee-Lee]

5. I will only support cuts

If every bit of it comes from cracking down on fraud.

When I was a deputy we had the people who every month had us do a report for their "lost" or "stolen" EBT card so it could get replaced. Same people, almost every month.

They of course last saw it "a week ago or so", long enough back that whoever they sold it to used it and the video footage had long been recorded over.

And don't get me started on the greedy store owners that will exploit people by selling them tobacco or alcohol on EBT but at 2x or 3x cash price. Or they sell somebody $100 worth of groceries, then turn right around and "buy" those groceries back from them for $50.

But of course they won't do this. They will just take it from the people who need it most.

[duffyduff]

7. Yeah, right.

Lots of stereotypes there.

I don't care about your anecdotes about "fraud." There isn't much "fraud" here.

Complain about the billionaires and Wall Street crooks who are gaming the system, then you'd have a lot more credibility with me.