Earlier this week, the Minnesota Senate handed a invoice offering free breakfast and lunch to all schoolchildren within the state. Clearly, that was excellent news, however it didn’t come with out resistance from the state’s Republican senators, 26 of whom voted in opposition to the invoice and one in every of whom argued that as a result of he has by no means personally met anybody who doesn’t have sufficient meals to eat, they need to not exist. Was this a surprising show of cruelty? Sure. Is such cruelty of pervasive characteristic of the Republican Get together? Additionally sure.
HuffPost experiences that congressional Republicans have just lately “signaled they wish to lower federal packages that assist low-income People purchase meals and go to the physician.” On Tuesday, Consultant Dusty Johnson launched laws to develop “work necessities” for eligibility for the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program, a.ok.a. SNAP, a.ok.a. meals stamps. The federal program helps greater than 20 million low-income households purchase meals, however apparently Johnson doesn’t suppose low-income households are working exhausting sufficient to deserve that meals. Whereas this system presently requires able-bodied adults underneath 50 with out dependents to work not less than 20 hours every week, the congressman desires folks to need to work till their early 60s (to have the ability to eat). He additionally desires to cut back states’ skills to make exceptions as they see match. “Work is the very best pathway out of poverty,” Johnson declared in a press launch. “With greater than 11 million open jobs, there are many alternatives for SNAP recipients to flee poverty and construct a greater life.”
In the meantime, Consultant Chip Roy has stated the Home Freedom Caucus—a particularly conservative faction of Home Republicans that Speaker Kevin McCarthy is presently beholden to—would additionally prefer to see work necessities for Medicaid, the federal program that gives well being look after low-income households.
As HuffPost notes, all of this comes as Republicans are in a battle with Joe Biden over spending, with the GOP threatening to carry up a rise to the federal government’s borrowing restrict if the president doesn‘t bow to its calls for. Ought to the federal government be unable to borrow cash, it will not be capable to pay its payments, and a default would doubtless lead to an enormous monetary disaster. So Biden is in a not-great spot.
As for the cuts Republicans are calling for, HuffPost additionally factors out that tightening “eligibility for a comparatively small variety of SNAP recipients wouldn’t have a lot impact on the federal funds, because the total SNAP program quantities to about 2% of U.S. annual spending.” And but, who it will have an enormous impact on? The individuals who would abruptly be unable to eat.
