SNAP benefits to be cut- House says yes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-passes-gop-plan-to-slash-food-stamp-funding/2013/09/19/090e9534-214b-11e3-b73c-aab60bf735d0_story.html

Week 3 Article 1

1. Ed O’Keefe. (19, Sept 2013) House passes GOP plan to slash food stamp funding. The Washington Post.

2. Issue: SNAP benefits

3. Level: National

4. About: The House just voted to reduce the food stamps budget over the next ten years. All democrats and 15 republicans voted against the plan. All Republicans were for it so it passed in the House.

5. Who this affects?

As the article states, this would affect four million Americans currently receiving SNAP benefits. Most of the people in poverty are single women and their children and senior citizens. Women are already at a disadvantage since men still make more money than women so this will exasperate the problem even more. The article says it aims to reduce the amount of money given to able bodied people ages 18-50 unless they are working or in a job training program. This will also burden the food banks since those no longer recieving SNAP benefits will have to go somewhere else for food.

6. What are my thoughts?

There are people that abuse the system. There’s always going to be people that will take advantage if they can. Why is the burden on the middle class? Why can’t it be on the ridiculous 400 people that own half of Americans wealth? When will they have enough money? This just adds to the pot. If the government stuck with the original food stamps plan and let all the surplus crops get sold at a reduced rate to the people that need it, this would be less of an issue. Also, we wouldn’t be putting high fructose corn syrup in everything since that’s what the government chooses to subsidize. I digress; we should not let the few people that abuse the system be the reason that people in poverty go hungry.  They don’t even get $150 a person a month. That’s not much at all. The same people that say we don’t have the budget to support the needy are the same people that eat steak for lunch. (I actually typed this part before I read that one congressman was munching on caviar and steak-point proven). The fact that they budget $6500 for a week of food and lodging for a congressman is absurd.