My FIRST thought when I saw the name McGovern.. ..
Well actually my very first thought was a bit UGLIER But i wont go there
Posted on 09/19/2013 7:12:46 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
WASHINGTON — — In a move that brought a sharp condemnation from Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, the House late Thursday — on a largely party-line vote — approved a nearly $40 billion reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
"It stinks," Mr. McGovern said at a press conference with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leading up to the vote. The House passed the measure 217-210, with 15 Republicans joining 195 Democrats in voting against it. No Democrats supported the bill.
By stiffening eligibility requirements, the legislation would cut nearly 3.8 million low-income individuals from the SNAP program in 2014.
The House legislation now will have to be reconciled with a measure approved by the Democrat-controlled Senate, which cut only $4 billion in SNAP benefits when approving its version of the farm bill. Mr. McGovern complained that the $40 billion cut, twice the amount that had been contained in a version of the farm bill that failed to clear the Republican-controlled House last summer, had never been the subject of hearings before the House Agriculture Committee, on which he serves.
"There's a misperception here in the House of Representatives that somehow it's a sweet deal for people to be able to get on food stamps — It isn't," Mr. McGovern said in a brief interview Thursday. "These cuts aren't about getting out of fraud and abuse. That's not the problem. These cuts are about trying to balance the budget by nickeling-and-diming poor people. And I think that's a rotten thing to do. "
In Worcester County, there are about 23,000 households and 42,000 individuals — approximately 5 percent of the total population — benefiting from SNAP, according to data collected a year ago by the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance.
A report recently released by the Food Research and Action Center shows that, between 2008 and 2012, 20 percent of the households in Worcester County with children could not afford sufficient food. The figure for households without children is 14.7 percent; the House SNAP bill is aimed in particular at "able-bodied" individuals with no children.
Not taking into account the legislation now before the House and Senate, SNAP benefits already have been slated for reduction because of the expiration of provisions in the 2009 economic stimulus package approved by Congress. Starting Nov. 1, every three-person household in the state receiving benefits will see a monthly cut of $29 in SNAP benefits, according to a recent report by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.
"The proposed cuts to SNAP will eviscerate this critical nutrition benefit for low-income residents of Worcester County and Massachusetts," Patricia Baker, a senior policy analyst at the institute, said in an email. "It is unconscionable that Congress is entertaining deeper, harsher cuts to SNAP and deliberately taking food off the tables of our most vulnerable residents."
The proposed SNAP cuts would also strain local food banks and pantries, according to Jean McMurray, executive director of Worcester County Food Bank, which distributes 5.4 million pounds of food annually. Her organization makes food available to 145 partner agencies to help relieve hunger in 60 towns in central Massachusetts.
Inspired by the food stamp program that then-Sens. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and George McGovern, D-S.D., successfully expanded in the 1970s, Mr. McGovern began delivering a series of speeches on "Ending Hunger Now" earlier this year.
The most recent speech, the 22nd in the series, was delivered Wednesday to a session of the House Rules Committee, on which Mr. McGovern serves.
Those relying on SNAP food benefits spend $1.50 per meal for each day, according to Mr. McGovern, who twice in the past six years has joined with other lawmakers who sought to live off food stamps for a week.
The second occasion was this past June when he spent about $30 in a Safeway market purchasing meals for an entire week.
His shopping list shows a diet of ground turkey, brown rice, pinto beans, oats, tortillas, spaghetti sauce, inexpensive pastas, peas, red onions, carrots and pantry essentials. It took him a long time to shop because of the limited budget, he recalled — even with some help from others.
Not because it shouldn't be cut. It should. But where is the necessary companion legislation to make hiring easier, or less expensive, or more safe from the litigious?
Government is a big part of the problem in hiring. The government is creating the hungry and trying to use food stamps to mask a problem they've created. If the government doesn't get out of the way of hiring, cutting food stamps is really going to hurt some people.
Poor people deserve sushi and lobster too. (well as long as someone else is paying for it)
He won what, one state in 1972?
Now there’s a legacy to hang your hat on.
Bluster on George, you flaming (out) idiot.
James P. McGovern...not George...but a McGovern nonetheless..whether by lineage or simply in terms of having both the same surname and a similar agenda
He’s dead Jim.
Well that was a stupid mistake on my part. Thanks for the mention. I should have caught that.
Too little too late... LOL
I just had to eat crow, and now you tell me. Har.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3068958/posts?page=8#8
Imagine George...as a Nun!!
"The proposed SNAP cuts would also strain local food banks and pantries, according to Jean McMurray... Her organization makes food available to 145 partner agencies to help relieve hunger in 60 towns in central Massachusetts."
I bet John Kerry will be so livid when he hears about what's happening in his home state that he will immediately sell his yacht and donate all of the proceeds to that food bank...
Didn’t McGovern have an epiphany after he was no longer around to screw up the lives of working people, and had to attempt to function under the burden of all the BS he proposed and/or voted for?
Cutting the taxpayer money given to these “poor people” is a great idea, IMHO.
At the same time, I think specific foodstuffs should be disallowed from the food stamp program: potato chips, soda with HFCS, sugary foods (cupcakes, etc.), high priced items like lobster and the finer cuts of beef, etc.
This would also reduce the fraud where people load up on high priced items and sell them around their neighborhood for $.50 on the dollar.
No more Mornings After...I never could figure it out. Was that supposed to be a song of hope, or a warning about hangovers?
I ket old george slip off my radar screen some years back but I dont doubt it.
common sense developed and enforced by encountering painful reality happens
Heh. I thought it was rather good, D1. It’s noteworthy only because you don’t make mistakes very often. I thought I was the only old fart that does that.
Well it was the theme song for “The Poseidon Adventure.”
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