Over the course of human history, several holy men, humanitarians, and even a philosopher noted that “
The measure of a society is how it treats its weakest members,”
and it is likely that Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, Aristotle, and
Dietrich Bonhoeffer were not referring to the richest country on Earth;
the United States of America. Although polling reveals that a majority
of Americans decry the foul treatment of this country’s weakest
members, children and senior citizens, it is still a sad fact of life
that this country’s government treats its most vulnerable citizens with
gross disregard and utter contempt; apparently just because they exist. A
better measure of the richest nation on Earth is the federal budget and
how it reflects the government’s priorities that place preservation of
oil industry, defense industry, corporate, and religious organizations’
profits over the survival of its most vulnerable citizens.
In yet another damning report on the plight of children, seniors, and the poor due to repugican’s austerity, a new
Pew Research report reveals that the recent food stamp cuts that went into effect on November 1
st
mean that 47.7 million children, senior citizens, working Americans,
and nearly a million veterans will have to get by on one less meal a day
and tragically, repugicans and their supporters clamor for deeper
cuts. It should be glaringly obvious that next to persecuting women and
gays, repugicans have made malnutrition of the poor one of its highest
priorities. Although they attempt to portray food stamps cuts as an
abstract dollar amount on the government’s balance sheet, their cuts are
having devastating results in human terms.
Mahatma Gandhi once said “
the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
If America’s poorest citizens ever needed protection from repugican
cruelty, it is now when the true measure of repugican inhumanity is on
the rise and tragically, many of their victims are their staunchest
supporters. Some Americans believe cutting spending on food stamps is a
legitimate means to rein in government spending, but if they were aware
of the hard numbers adversely affected by withholding food, it likely
would humanize the problem and put debt reduction in a different
perspective.
It is important to understand that the food stamp cuts on November 1
st
that mean one meal-a-day less for the poorest Americans amounted to $5
billion for fiscal 2013-2014, and includes an additional $6 billion next
year. Add to that stark reality the fact that House repugicans voted
an additional $39 billion in cuts in September that ballooned to $90
billion as repugicans head into bicameral budget negotiations to
prevent another government shutdown in January. The repugicans still yearn
for $135 billion in cuts according to the so-called “Ryan budget” they
have passed in the House for three straight years.
Although the poor across the nation will have one meal less each day
due to the $5 billion in cuts, it is in deep-red repugican states,
particularly Southern states, where the poor are slated to feel the
effects of the food stamp cuts most. In Pew Research’s Stateline
interactive map,
states with the highest percentage of residents dependent on food
assistance are repugican strongholds. For example, in Mississippi, 22%
of the population is reliant on food stamps including 307,000 children
and 119,000 senior citizens, and $5 billion in cuts means 426,000
poverty-level, working poor, disabled, and senior residents will have to
get by on one less meal each day. That does not include sequester cuts repugicans refuse to end that cut Head Start, Meals On Wheels, or free
and reduced school lunches that are part of the SNAP cuts. The sad irony
is that those most likely to go hungry every day are probably poor
white people voting for repugicans who cannot wait to impose more
hunger on them.
It is also ironic that those same red-state repugicans overwhelming support harsher food stamp cuts according to a
new poll.
Although Americans as a whole object to the November food stamp cuts,
an overwhelming majority of repugican voters (67%) strongly approved of
47-million Americans going without one meal a day. It is likely that repugican voters are under the delusion that if their repugican
representatives in Congress slash more SNAP funding, they will be
withholding food from people of color, but as has been stated ad nauseum
there are more
poor white
children, seniors, and disabled Americans nationwide receiving
nutrition assistance than African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans
combined. Still, repugicans portray food stamp recipients as
minorities to garner support to cut even more and increase hunger among
their white repugican supporters; particularly in southern states.
There are 47.7 million Americans who will have to survive with one
less meal a day due to the $5 billion cuts in SNAP funding, and a little
over 30% are working families, 32% are seniors and disabled, and 27%
are children. According to the Veterans Administration, nearly
one million Veterans receive food assistance in any given month, and that does not include over
5,000 active duty
military personnel whose families will have to make do with one less
meal every day. The idea that nearly 48 million Americans will lose one
meal a day is not lost on repugicans who could not care less what
damage their cuts, or inaction, are wreaking on the poor. In fact, last
week when two immigrant children approached Speaker John Boehner while
eating breakfast asked him, “
How would you feel if you had to tell your kids at the age of 10 that you were never coming home?” He replied “
That wouldn’t be good.”
Boehner, and his repugican House caucus, know precisely what their
food stamp cuts mean to 48 million Americans and they knew “
it wouldn’t be good.”
It is time for Americans to ask repugicans dying to cut more food
stamp funding ‘how they would feel if they had to tell their kids they
would have to go without one meal a day,’ but it is likely they would
have them arrested and escorted to jail where they would not have to
make do with one less meal a day. This nation is the richest country in
the history of the world, and the notion that even one child, senior
citizen, Veteran, or working American has to make do without one meal a
day is an abomination of epic proportion.
Sadly, losing one meal daily is predicated on $5 billion in food
stamp cuts, and if repugicans have their way the figure will be well
over $100 billion that means the 48 million Americans dependent on food
assistance will likely starve to death. Nearly a quarter of America’s
children are living in dire poverty, seniors are barely staving off
perpetual hunger, and millions of Americans have no idea where their
next meal is coming from, and if America was measured by how it treats
its most vulnerable citizens, or how its federal budget reflects it
priorities, it would be found to be exceptional in its rank brutality
and cruel treatment of it weakest citizens.
Today is -World Hello Day
Bats harbor more deadly viruses
Sometimes
I think that I have my errands mapped out to the utmost efficiency, and
then I'll have to backtrack across town because a kid needs a ride. But
even without that, I probably could have found a more efficient route
to all the places I needed to go -if I were as smart as a bumblebee.
They do this every day, as a natural part of their lives.
