Food Stamps Among The Most Effective Economic Stimulus & Right-wing Christians in Congress forget Jesus' rule of feeding the hungry 23&19SEP13

IT makes me furious that so many politicians, especially Christian politicians, are so quick to spread deception and misinformation about social programs that serve those in need, the least among us, and go after the federal funding for these programs as a way to punish those who do cheat the system and so end up hurting those who really need the help. It is especially disgusting how these politicians will go after the weak and vulnerable but never even consider the same action against government contractor programs when fraud, waste and abuse is discovered. There is waste, fraud and abuse in government aid to farmers and through the government contract handling crop insurance for farmers but there is no legislation to cut funding to that program on the scale some want to cut SNAP. No, the solution is to find the additional money to cover the increased cost. Just more proof that our government is controlled by the plutocrats, those who have bought and paid for so many of our elected government officials, especially republicans and tea-baggers. These from The Real News and Daily Kos....

Transcript

http://youtu.be/1Ou2cLy4Nqk

JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: On Thursday, in a narrow 217 to 210 vote, House Republicans passed a bill cutting the food stamps program known as SNAP by $40 billion. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, this could leave 4 million Americans without benefits next year.

Largely voted on party lines with no Democrats voting for the bill, it doesn't look like it will make much progress. Both the Democratically controlled Senate and President Obama have been against the bill.

But regardless, the current $80 billion a year program often falls victim to myths and misinformation.

And in a round of Real News myth-busting, let's take a look at what's been said about SNAP on Capitol Hill.

Myth 1: SNAP recipients don't want to work.

TIM HUELSKAMP, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE (R-KA): You ought to earn the benefits you receive. Look for work. Start job training to improve your skills or do community service. But you can no longer sit on your couch or ride a surfboard like Jason in California and expect the federal taxpayer to feed you.

DESVARIEUX: So who's getting fed on this proverbial couch? If you at look at food stamp recipients, more than three-fourths of the households receiving SNAP have at least one child, elderly, and/or disabled person living there.

Unemployed childless adults who do not have disabilities are limited to three months of SNAP benefits every three years in most parts of the country. But due to the high unemployment, this requirement has been waived in most states.

If the House bill were to become law, one of the House proposals would be to get rid of "categorical eligibility", meaning citizens would no longer automatically qualify for food stamps if they are enrolled in another low-income assistance program. But that would mean 200,000 children who currently receive free school lunches would be kicked out of the program.

Often depicted as a drain on the economy--studies have shown that those on food stamps actually helped create an economic stimulus. A USDA study found that for "Every $5 in new SNAP benefits generates a total of $9.20 in community spending."

STACEY BORASKY, ST. EDWARD'S UNIVERSITY: The program has always had the intention of being an economic stimulus. It started under the Great Depression, at a time when not only did consumers not have money to be able to purchase a variety of things that they needed, but the farmers didn't have a way to sell the goods that they were producing. So eggs, cheese, vegetables, fruits, all those things that farmers were still continuing to try to grow couldn't be sold. So the government decided to create this program not just to help people get food, but to help to be able to sell their goods. So it's always had that effect. So I think it's kind of a--it's just a misconception that people have about its intent from the very beginning.

Myth 2: SNAP is riddled with waste, fraud and abuse.

ANDREW P. HARRIS, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE (R-MD): What we want to do is take out some waste, fraud, and abuse, and we want to decrease the program by 5 percent. But, you know, as you have just heard, waste, fraud, and abuse occurs in the program. Ten-point-five percent of the stores that participate in food stamps are engaged in trafficking. So we think that if we just eliminate the waste, fraud, and abuse, we'll actually have more money to get to the people who need it.

DESVARIEUX: Yes, Congressman Harris is right that abuse happens in 10 percent of businesses that accept food stamps. But what's really important here? Where the fraud happens or how often?

By the USDA count, only 3 percent of all SNAP benefits represented overpayments, meaning they either went to ineligible households or went to eligible households but in excessive amounts. USDA says it has a zero tolerance policy on fraud and has come out with additional methods to fight abuse.

But in the grand scheme of things, SNAP actually has one of the lowest rates of fraud of any federal program.

MIGUEL FERGUSON, SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK, UNIV. OF TEXAS: It's actually a rigorous process to get food stamps, and it can take quite some time, and people aren't going to go through that unless they really need the assistance. And I think that's what explains why something like 30 percent of Americans who are eligible to receive stamps don't do it. Some of them don't know about the program, but many of them just don't want to go through the hassle.

Myth 3: SNAP creates dependency.

ERIC CANTOR, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE (R-VA): If somebody is abusing the system or if somebody somehow gets used to a life of dependency, how is it fair for the working middle class of this country to have overtime, to work two jobs to help pay for that?

DESVARIEUX: A life of dependency is what both sides of the debate want to avoid. SNAP was created to be a temporary system, and for the most part it has been, with the average participant staying on SNAP between eight to ten months. And those on the program are barely making it with $4.50 a day to spend on food, which comes out to about $1.50 a meal.

But it does seem to make a difference. A Census Bureau report released Tuesday found that food stamps have helped lift about 4 million people above the poverty line and have kept tens of millions more from becoming poorer.

But the truth behind the numbers is that the number of participants has actually increased. In 2000, the number of Americans on food stamps was 17.2 million, but in 2011 there were 44.7 million people on food stamps.

Obviously, a major factor for the jump is the recession. Unemployed people increased by 94 percent from 2007 to 2011. There was a 70 percent increase in the take-up rate for SNAP during the same period.

FERGUSON: So the take-up rate has gone up during the Great Recession. But also, people haven't been leaving the program as fast as they have in the past. So those two things have contributed to this increase to 70 percent.

Now, there's huge variation among the states, which is kind of a very peculiar thing related to U.S. social policy. You really wouldn't find this in any other industrialized country. So, for example, California, it's just over 50 percent of eligible people receive food stamps. But Maine, obviously a smaller state, etc., it's almost 100 percent. So almost everyone in Maine who is eligible to receive food stamps receives benefits.

DESVARIEUX: A point that neither side of the aisle wants to take responsibility for.

Experts point to a higher cost of living and stagnant wages as being the main catalysts for a growing number of people becoming eligible for the program.

BORASKY: People are working more and more hours, becoming more productive than we ever have in the last 20, 25 years, but wages have been stagnant. So you see people working really hard, sometimes two and three jobs, trying to make ends meet. Their wages have not kept up with the cost of living.

And so while it was intended to be temporary, it's really not in effect that people are abusing the system, are staying on the system when they're not eligible. They still don't make enough money. There are significant numbers of employers in this country who pay so little that they tell their employees how to apply for SNAP. They actually give them where to go, how to do it, because they know their employees are going to qualify for SNAP. So that speaks to me that we're supplementing businesses, we're actually subsidizing their ability to pay low wages.

DESVARIEUX: There's no mention of wages in the House bill. But regardless, it looks like it won't be making much progress with both the Democratically controlled Senate and President Obama speaking out against the bill.

But is there a real threat to food stamps in the future? The Senate-approved farm bill cuts food stamps by $4 billion. Democratic New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand proposed to restore the $4 billion in cuts with a limitation on crop insurance reimbursements.

The current system has the government pay insurance companies to run the program, then the government pays farmers to buy coverage, and then Uncle Sam fronts the bill if losses exceed predetermined limits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture last year spent about $14 billion insuring farmers against the loss of crop or income. This system was meant to help farmers during the Depression, but many argue that at the end of the day taxpayers are the ones feeling the hit.

Senator Gilliband's proposal didn't go far. It failed with a 26-70 vote. Not even a majority of Democrats voted for it.

SNAP is already slated for cuts in November, when previous approved legislation goes into action.

Now Americans will have less than $1.40 to spend on each meal. And that's a hard fact.

For The Real News Network, Jessica Desvarieux, Washington.

Bio

Jessica Desvarieux is a multimedia journalist who serves as the Capitol Hill correspondent for the Real News Network. Most recently, Jessica worked as a producer for the ABC Sunday morning program, This Week with Christianne Amanpour. Before moving to Washington DC, Jessica served as the Haiti corespondent for TIME Magazine and TIME.com. Previously, she was as an on-air reporter for New York tri-state cable outlet Regional News Network, where she worked before the 2010 earthquake struck her native country of Haiti. From March 2008 - September 2009, she lived in Egypt, where her work appeared in various media outlets like the Associated Press, Voice of America, and the International Herald Tribune - Daily News Egypt. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a Master of Science degree in journalism. She is proficient in French, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and has a working knowledge of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Follow her @Jessica_Reports.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10765

THU SEP 19, 2013 AT 08:21 PM PDT

Right-wing Christians in Congress forget Jesus' rule of feeding the hungry

byEgberto Willies

The right-wing 'Christians' in the House finally did it. They voted to cut $39 billion from the food stamp program. Where is the church? Why have they not engaged the evil that is encompassing this new thinking within the right wing of the Congress? In a country with one of the worst income and wealth disparities in the world, do they really believe it is abuse and not circumstance that has most of those using the program on food stamps?

The House approved legislation Thursday that would cut $39 billion in funds over the next decade for food stamp programs.

Members approved H.R. 3102, the Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act, in a close 217-210 vote. No Democrats voted for the bill, and 15 Republicans voted against GOP leaders.

The bill would authorize food stamp programs for three years. The legislation, part of which was developed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), passed in the face of fierce opposition from House Democrats, a White House veto threat, and warnings that it is already dead on arrival in the Democratic Senate.

Several Democrats warned today that cutting $39 billion from the program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is a cruel step that would only hurt people in need.

Many in the Republican Party have falsely claimed that food stamps create a welfare dependency. The problem with that analysis is that all parameters in the economy point to a middle class that is stressed. It points to a growing poor. It points to a system where wages are falling or at best stagnant.

Newt Gingrich even had the audacity to call President Obama "the food stamp president." What is ironic is that all the Republican fears of creating a welfare state have been realized. Unfortunately it is the rich that benefit from the welfare they feared.

Keep reading below the fold for more on this.

The unnecessary purchase of military hardware is welfare for corporate shareholders. The use of private contractors provides lucrative profits for corporate owners and shareholders. The privatization of government services transfers profits (an inefficiency when a government service is provided by a private entity for no reason) to the corporate shareholders. Farm subsidies that go to corporate farms is a transfer of tax receipts to a few shareholders. Even the food stamp program that feeds many is a boon for corporate shareholders given that a percentage of food stamps provide ample profits. Personal welfare is a pittance when welfare is redefined to include all those sourcing their revenues from the government.

Sadly this is pure evil. Because Republican policies have not been excoriated with the appropriate graphic words they continue to push the envelope. Criminals have been heard to say that their first murder was difficult. As they continued with their murders it became easier. The Right Wing Republican analogy cannot be missed.

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO PROGRESSIVELIBERAL ON THU SEP 19, 2013 AT 08:21 PM PDT.

ALSO REPUBLISHED BY STREET PROPHETS , HUNGER IN AMERICA, AND DAILY KOS.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/19/1240097/-Right-Wing-Christians-In-Congress-Forget-Jesus-Rule-Of-Feeding-The-Hungry-VIDEO?detail=email