http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100500777.html
WASHINGTON – Under orders to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion, Republicans in Congress have proposed reducing food programs for the poor by $574 million and conservation programs by $1 billion, The Associated Press has learned…The $574 million cut in food stamps would come from restricting access to this benefit for certain families that receive other government assistance. The restriction would shut an estimated 300,000 people out of the program.
How can it possibly be a good idea PR wise to cut food aid to poor people to save half a billion dollars a year? If you do a poll how many americans do you think would say cutting food aid for poor people to save 0.002% of the federal budget is a good idea? Even if (which I doubt is true) those poor people already get enough assistance to purchase food via other programs why would anything think this is a good idea?
This isn’t meant to be a pit thread either. But if you ask 100 people the question “Are you in favor of saving $1.50 a year in federal tax money but cutting food aid for the poor” I doubt more than 10-20% would say yes.
Cutting conservation isn’t a good idea either but food aid is ever worse.
Can’t completely agree. Conservation and Environmental protection is the key to long-term national health and I would hate to see a return of 60’s and 70’s level pollution. I would say both are equally bad. It sometimes looks like the Right wing portion of the Republican Party has launch an assault on the poor and the environment.
No, no, no. They’ve launched a way to get more money for them selves and their corporate “campaign contributors” without a thought about anyone else. :wally
Silly me, upon reflection I think you are right. It only looks like they have declared war on the poor and earth. They really just don’t care about anything but making even more money.
For the last 35 years, there has been a major turnaround in the control of the media by the wealthy and corporations. Remember how Reagan fired the air traffic controllers (“unions are evil”!) and no effective protest was made? (All that had to happen was pilots and mechanics have a sympathy strike and it would have been cleaned up in days.)
So the poor, minorities, immigrants and so on have been demonized in the press for so long that the majority of Americans don’t really care. So we get tax breaks for corporations and rich people. Steal $100 go to jail. Steal $100M and you’re the best friend of the President.
Add the complete stranglehold of the neo-cons to the mix and nothing evil coming out of Washingon DC surprises me. All they have to do is “create a new reality” (i.e., lie a lot) and they’re home clean. Katrina was a reality that blindsided them, but they have already made great strides in “cleaning up the mess” PR-wise. Note how W put Karl Rove in charge. (I guess it has to do with his experience in “leaks”.) The blame is quickly being shifted to the local officials.
As to specifics in the OP, Americans are unbelievably bad at Math. Cutting welfare and such has zip effect on the budget. It sounds like a lot but it won’t pay for Iraq.
Food stamps are a funny item to cut. The reason they are in Dept of Agriculture instead of Health, Edu & Welfare is because of who gets the money.
Food stamps are only good for American-produced foods (no imports, booze, some other restrictions). So the poor family gets some food, but the dollars end up with the retailer, wholesaler, and farmers.
Given the big Federal subsidies to corn, which shows up in our diets as soda pop (corn syrup), beef, chicken, and pork (animal feed), maybe they could cut the billion out of that…except that some of the Congressmen from the big corn-growing states might object, especially the ones that are big farm-owners themselves. (Cite: Article in Harper’s Magazine.)