GOP Wants To Punish The Poor By Cutting Food Stamp Funding By $40 Billion

There is no doubt that a record number of people are now receiving help to buy food through the federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called Food Stamps). The 2013 level is just over 47.6 million people -- up from 43.2 million in 2010. And it may grow even higher, since Congress has done absolutely nothing to create jobs or get our economy back on track.

There is no doubt that the number receiving food stamps is too many, and the government needs to do something to bring that number down -- way down. The question is how to do it. Democrats want to do it by pumping more money into the economy (which would create more demand and thus more job creation) and by rebuilding our infrastructure (also putting more money in the economy, raising demand and job creation).

The Republicans have a different method. They simply want to cut funding. They recently failed in their effort to cut $20 billion from SNAP -- because the Democrats thought that was too deep a cut, and the teabagger Republicans in the House thought it wasn't deep enough. They are now proposing to cut the program by $40 billion (over 10 years).

I doubt if any House Democrat will support that. It's just too mean-spirited, since it would mean either dropping people from the program or lowering the benefit provided for a family (already at a measly $131 a month average). If this passes, it will have to do so with only Republican votes -- and that is not a sure thing, since the teabaggers may think the $40 billion cut is still too small. And if it does pass, it is dead on arrival in the Senate.

Once again, the House Republicans are not being realistic. You simply don't fix an economy by taking food from the mouths of poor people, or increasing the poverty level (which this cut would do). The way to do it is by putting more money into the economy, not less, and creating jobs. Austerity has never fixed a failing economy, and won't do it now.