Congress Cut $8.7 Billion in Food Stamps in Same Year We’ll Spend $22 Billion to Fight Islamic State

[J_J_]

It’s official: 850,000 households across the country are set to lose an average of $90 per month in food stamp benefits.

The Senate on Tuesday voted 68-32 to send the 2014 Farm Bill – which includes an $8.7 billion cut to food stamps – to President Obama’s desk. Nine Democrats opposed the bill, and 46 members of the Democratic caucus voted for it, joining 22 Republicans.”

The GOP Congress’s assault on the American working class has been waged with the pretext that the Federal government has no money (what with being in debt and all). This despite the money being owed to the American people on the whole, and despite the long tradition of deficits in government budgets, which have seldom in history been balanced. But note that when there was a Republican president in the zeroes, the same voices did not demand austerity, but ran up the deficit with obvious glee.

In contrast, Congress has no problem with the war on ISIL in Iraq and Syria, which could cost from $18 bn to $22 bn a year. Admittedly, in military terms this expense is relatively small. The point is that the same people who have trouble justifying a safety net for the working poor and find it urgent to cut billions from the programs that keep us a civilized society rather than a predatory jungle– the same people have no difficulty authorizing billions for vague bombing campaigns that are unlikely to be successful on any genuine metric.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/congress_cut_87_billion_food_stamps_same_year_22bn_islamic_state_20141001#.VC1u0oVXMTo.reddit

[valerief]

1. Cuz that's money going to war profiteers, not hungy kids. nt

[J_J_]

2. Juan Cole Reading Democratic Underground?

New War 22 Billion yr, meanwhile $8.7 B Cut in Food Stamps causes Families to Lose $90 per month
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025598708

[ZombieHorde]

3. We're an extremely violent country.

Even our "good" leaders, like Sanders, are violent mother fuckers. Lots of us on DU want blood to be spilled. People wanted a shootout at the Bundy ranch, people want child molesters to be raped and beaten, people want war, people want more in prison. It's fucking scary.

[FSogol]

4. You keep promoting this supposed outrage, but the "cuts" aren't connected to the war in any way and

aren't really cuts. To steal some writing from DUer, okaawhatever:

"The bill the Senate passed closes a loophole in the way some states calculate the heat and eat program. From what I understand, a person who qualifies for the heat and eat program qualifies for more food stamps. What some states did was give families $1 in heat and eat money so they would qualify for more food stamps. The cost to the individual state was $1 but the federal food stamp program ended up paying more than it would if the people resided in another state. I think many people found this unfair and that is why some Democrats signed off on the "cut".

I also saw an article that said if people can prove the cost of their heating bills the cut may not affect them anyway. That is why many of the articles said "it could affect up to 850k families" instead of "it would..." "

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4427722

Here's what the NCSL said about the Heat and Eat Program and a diagram of what States were affected:
http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/-heat-and-eat-and-snap-changes-in-the-2014-farm-bill.aspx