Republican Moral Bankruptcy

Being Liberal

(M) An excellent quote from Stephen Colbert.

Posted on the Being Liberal fan page.

Food Stamp Cuts Set To Kick In, Congress Not Paying Attention

Posted: 07/29/2013 3:00 pm EDT | Updated: 07/30/2013 7:00 am EDT

 

WASHINGTON -- Regardless of whether Republicans succeed in cutting food stamps this year, the 22 million American households relying on the program will see their benefits drop in November.

The looming reduction has received little attention since lawmakers set it in motion years ago. The average household's monthly benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will drop by $20 or $25, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington think tank.

"The general public doesn't realize it," Celia Cole, CEO of the Texas Food Bank Network, told The Huffington Post on Monday. "We certainly know the low income people on SNAP don't know the cut is coming."

Cole's organization is publicizing the cut with a countdown clock. On Monday the clock indicated there are 94 days "until every SNAP (food stamps) household in America gets a little hungrier."

But Congress has little appetite for intervention, as the consensus among lawmakers is not whether food stamps should be reduced, but by how much.

The November reduction is happening separately from the debate over cutting food stamps as part of a broader farm bill. The cut is set to kick in because a 13 percent benefit boost from the 2009 stimulus bill is expiring. Initially, the plan was to let inflation catch up with the increase so that SNAP recipients would never see a month-to-month dollar decline.

But in 2010, Senate Democrats and the Obama administration needed money to offset the cost of a series of spending bills. They said at the time they would replace the money later, but they never did. Congressional attitudes toward food stamp recipients have only gotten less generous since then.

The $668 maximum monthly benefit for a family of four will fall to $643, according to the Center on Budget's Stacy Dean and Dottie Rosenbaum. (The average household's monthly benefit is $287.)

"This cut will be the equivalent of taking away 14 meals per month for a family of four, or 11 meals for a family of three," Dean and Rosenbaum wrote in a May report. The pair said that states should make sure recipients know when the cut is around the corner.

First and foremost, Cole said her mission is to get the word out in Texas. Her organization represents 21 food banks serving all parts of the state. Cole also wants members of Congress to feel some pressure.

"I want them to not be able to do it without feeling the shame that they're doing something wrong," she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/food-stamp-cuts_n_3671142.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

Rand Paul Mocks Hurricane Sandy Victims, Eliminates Any Chance at a Presidential Bid

July 30, 2013 By Allen Clifton

There are inappropriate statements, there are disgusting statements—and then there’s what Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said while responding to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s comments about Paul’s “dangerous brand of libertarianism.”

A few days ago Governor Christie made comments attacking Paul’s brand of libertarianism. Christie called it dangerous, and challenged Paul’s positions on our national security—essentially calling his positions concerning how our nation battles terrorism naive and ignorant
Well, Paul decided to respond.

While speaking at a fundraiser in Tennessee, Paul said about Christie and New York Representative Peter King, “They’re precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut  the spending, and their ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme—give me all my Sandy money now.’ Those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense.”


Apparently to Rand Paul, people who’ve lost their homes and have had their lives destroyed by a massive natural disaster are just people who want the government to, “gimme, gimme, gimme—give them all their Sandy money.” To Paul, they are a big part of the reason why we’re not leaving enough money for our national defense.

Excuse me? Our defense budget dwarfs every other nation on earth. In fact, our defense budget is bigger than that of the next 13 nations—combined.

Adequate funding is definitely not an issue when it comes to our national defense.

But even beyond his apparent ignorance as it pertains to just how much we spend on national defense, these comments by Paul are absolutely reprehensible.

Hurricane Sandy destroyed homes and ruined lives. For many who were impacted by the storm, the funding they received from our government was the difference between their children eating or starving, between shelter and homelessness—between life and death.

Yet Rand Paul has the nerve to mock those Americans who asked for help following this storm. He had the audacity to try and claim that our bloated national defense budget lacks funding because we were too busy spending money—helping Americans.

If some kind of natural disaster devastated the citizens of Kentucky, I wonder just how fast this pompous ass (excuse my language) would be calling President Obama for “expedited help” from the government.

But like with most Republicans, when it’s money they want or need—then that’s not wasteful spending. It’s “vital for the health of Americans”—and of course their political career next time they’re up for re-election.

The good news, however, for sane Republicans (yes, I’m convinced they do still exist) and of course Democrats—these comments all but eliminate Rand Paul from having any chance at ever becoming President.

He’s already had enough controversy surrounding him with how he once insinuated that the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional, and he’s proven over and over again how he subscribes to the most radical of right-wing ideologies. But mocking victims of a natural disaster — a borderline national disaster — is a line you simply cannot cross if you ever want to stand any realistic chance at becoming President.

Now while I’m sure there are still millions of his followers who would vote for him no matter what, those people don’t create Presidents. If they did, his dad Ron Paul would have been President a long time ago. But as it stands, Ron Paul couldn’t even beat Mitt Romney for the Republican Presidential nomination. Everybody remembers Romney, right? Possibly the worst Presidential candidate in the last 30 years. Yeah, Ron Paul couldn’t even beat him, and quite honestly didn’t even come close to beating him for the nomination.

However, mocking victims of a tragedy to simply try and take a cheap shot at a probable opponent for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination—that’s something the vast majority of Americans simply will not tolerate, forgive or forget.
And that’s exactly what Rand Paul did.

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/rand-paul-mocks-hurricane-sandy-victims-eliminates-any-chance-at-a-presidential-bid/