Despite a complete lack of supporting evidence, there remains a
sizable contingent of Republicans who are convinced that most poor people are mooches who choose to be poor just so they can live the luxury life on food stamps. (Average national SNAP/EBT benefit is $133 a month. Party time!) This is the sad legacy of Reagan's zombie lie about the Welfare Queen with a Cadillac.
It's a paranoid and punitive mindset, and it's crystal clear in the recent White House budget request, which, among other insults, slashes SNAP benefits by $193 billion over ten years, a cut of over 25%.
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| Noted nutrition expert |
Yesterday, NPR's Scott Simon asked Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb) if "every American is entitled to eat." Smith refused to say, trying to slide onto some B.S. tangent about "nutrition." Simon was having none of it, saying,
"Let me ask you this bluntly: Is every American entitled to eat, and is food stamps something that ought to be that ultimate guarantor?"
Smith replied,
"I think we know that given the necessity of nutrition, there could be a number of ways that we could address that."
What happy horseshit!
"For example, for purposes of federal benefits, we could address it by redefining 'nutrition' and expressing it in its most basic form. In such a reclassification, air would be defined the core element of nutrition -- if you don't have air, all the rest doesn't matter much. Therefore, anyone breathing the air would be deemed to have sufficient, basic nutrition and would not be entitled to any federal nutrition assistance. It's brilliant! We'd save tons on the SNAP program!"
