Food Stamp Cuts Part Of Government Shutdown House Debate
Food Stamp cuts are part of the ongoing debate over government shutdown threatened by the Republican-controlled House.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, food stamps cuts have been on the GOP agenda for a long time.
Tactics for the Food Stamp cuts usually include tacking the desired bill onto a completely unrelated bill, but even that has failed to produce the desired cuts as seen this past July. Republicans continue to encourage a government shutdown if Obamacare de-funding is not part of the debt ceiling deal. The goal of the government shutdown is to hold government money hostage in exchange for the desired votes to de-fund Obamacare, officially known as the the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
A recent poll shows that 51 percent of Americans blame the GOP for a government shutdown although other polls show Americans also believe the debt ceiling shouldn’t be raised.
The current House Food Stamp cuts proposed would cut $39 billion, allowing 3.8 million Americans to lose their only opportunity to feed their families on the average, very meager budget of $133 a month. Despite opinions that food stamp fraud is pervasive, most beneficiaries of food stamps are children, the elderly, and disabled. Although it’s supposed to be impossible to buy anything but food with the SNAP card, some people will trade their food stamp money for cash so they can make other purchases, which is illegal.
The bottom line is, for most people on SNAP, if they did not receive the food benefits, they would not eat, with some estimating the Food Stamp cuts could cause 3.8 Million to go hungry. For example, the Panera Bread CEO tried to live on a food stamp budget and found this to be difficult. Both Republicans and Democrats understand this reality yet both parties desire the Food Stamp cuts. The major disagreement lies in how large the Food Stamp cuts should be, not whether they should happen.
What do you think of the proposed Food Stamp cuts and the government shutdown debate?
