Hunger at home

by | Jan 13, 2016 | NC House, NC Politics, NCGOP | 8 comments

Nothing Republicans do is likely to exceed the moral debasement of voter suppression. But they certainly seem determined to try. Consider the case of food stamps.

Hoping to hide their heartlessness, Republicans attached new SNAP policies to a nationally controversial immigration bill. Starting now, people so desperate that they’re willing to go on a highly stigmatized program are on notice: Get a job (somehow), study, or live in hunger. And it’s not enough to apply for jobs, as in TANF. You must find some way to work or train for a full twenty hours per week—or else. A couple dollars a day for food, apparently, is too much to ask.

The policy is an insult. It is also clumsily designed and likely to create ugly consequences. As the director of Orange County Human Services explained, it will be a challenge even to inform recipients of the changes. That Republicans refuse to budge on human-services cuts will worsen matters. It’s also very far from clear whether recipients in depressed counties will be able to find work—particularly so since the poorest are “last hired, first fired” even in good times. So, many will probably find themselves in food banks despite heroic efforts.

I don’t know about you, but this policy shocks my conscience. Everyone expressed horror at the sight of starving Syrians. In the context of those events, jeopardizing access to food seems almost grisly. NCGOPers seem untroubled by fellow citizens skipping meals so the children can eat the last Ramen noodles. And make no mistake, it happens. I don’t understand how anyone of good will could watch such misery unfold—and fail to blink.

It’s telling that Norman Sanderson drove this foul initiative. Sanderson represents a place where conservative politics is racially polarized in the extreme. The revanchists who run their GOP view SNAP as helping equalize the social power of whites and blacks. Letting fellow citizens go hungry is a means of vengeance.

Whether or not legislators share an affinity with you, one should always be able to eat. One’s children deserve this basic human justice as well. If the NCGOP disagrees, well, that’s not actually surprising. They don’t believe everyone deserves to vote, either.

8 Comments

  1. Charles Hogan

    the Truly sad part is these dim wits lack the mental capacity to connect the dot between their social welfare cuts and the astronomical spike in violent crime. It is as if they are intentionally trying to provoke civil disobedience which well be there long term game plan.

  2. Craig Austin

    I am waiting for the day when those who make these repressive laws meet their maker. Christian I think not. Spawns of the Devil ,I am sure he would welcome them into hell. I am not a religious person,but if there is a God. Then I hope his punishment renders them homeless and hungry.

  3. JC Honeycutt

    Well, maybe they can sell their current food stamps (if they have them) to pay for community-college classes–oh, wait: I guess they’d have to already be receiving food stamps, and selling them is a crime. Maybe the “pistol” option mentioned above is more realistic: not to mention more just, if it were applied to the supporters of this policy (which I imagine is unlikely to be the case)–and doubly so if they brag on having “reduced unemployment” or “moving people out of poverty” by it.

    I challenge every “representative” who voted for this atrocity to go through the food-stamp approval application process and then get a real-world non-executive job (as opposed to the GA and/or taking bribes for their votes) and work it for at least 90 days in order to qualify to re-apply for their GA seats. I’ll volunteer to provide a copy of Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” to any of them who complete the process.

    BTW, I’ve been on food stamps myself: my husband and I had worked for an non-profit (apparently a sin, if not a crime), so we didn’t qualify for unemployment compensation. I used the food stamps to buy big packages of dried beans and neck-bones, which is what we lived on until one of us got a job (my husband, naturally, since we’re white: potential employers didn’t think I was “feminine” enough to work for them because I didn’t wear makeup. Those were the days, eh?). Living on neck-bones and beans is no picnic, but at least we weren’t prey to predatory Republican demagogues.

  4. Ebrun

    Food from Food Banks is free to the needy. No need for money or a pistol.

    • Craig Austin

      If you have ever worked in a Food Bank and saw how they struggle to feed people then you might want to understand the problem. Food banks do not get it for free either. The actually have to buy some food. Meat ,Milk , Poultry. Nothing is free in this world. I pray you never have to see hungry people in your home. No one should go hungry in this country. Not while Exxon collects 3 billion a year in our money. We are building planes that will never see flight. Remember when your people are starving it is a great time for a armed revolution. Fools don’t see that, but they will.

      • Ebrun

        The Food Bank in my county is strongly supported by the community and is generally cited as doing an excellent job. But you’re right, there is no such thing as a free lunch. I am not sure how much Exxon donates to Food Banks, but many corporations and local businesses contribute time and money to Food Banks and similar charitable activities and many local citizens volunteer.

  5. Troy

    This new policy only serves to promote something Richard Pryor said years ago. “if you’ve got some money or a pistol, you can get something to eat.”

    Maslow would be proud.

  6. Randolph Voller

    Why be so cold hearted?

    Food stamps circulate money directly into the economy and provide a real and direct benefit to its recipients.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!