This is what good and decent politicians are concerned about

The idea of children being hungry, in the wealthiest nation on the planet is unconscionable.

As I work with my colleagues to write the 2023 Farm Bill, know that I'm laser-focused on making sure we fulfill our promise to protect vital nutrition benefits for our kids & families.

— Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (@SenatorWarnock) February 24, 2023

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Taking food out of the mouths of babies

The Senate passed the Food Stamp Slashing Bill today, with only nine, count 'em fucking NINE, Democrats voting against the cuts.  If you live in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut, you can be proud of your Democratic Senators--just about anywhere else, well, your Senator decided that giving government money to agribusiness trumped feeding children.  Over 1.7 million people will see a cut averaging about $90 month, thereby forcing children to go hungry.

Noted Liberal stalwarts like Bernie Sanders, Barbara Boxer, Al Franken, Jeff Merkley, Tom Harkin, and my state's own Carl Levin voted for the cuts.  It's not surprising when lame-ass Democrats like Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, and my state's own Debbie Stabenow fuck over the poor--you always knew that while they are marginally better than republicans, they were really only in it for the money.  But people that we've been asked to help again and again because they were really the good guys, and stood up for what Paul Wellstone famously called the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party?

I know days like today really pump me up for the elections in November.  Unfortunately for Democrats running for the Senate this year, what little money I have will be going to food banks.

At least I know that they give a shit about the poor.

Peace,
emaycee

The same sad echo

Democrats in the Senate, which we control 55-45, are on the verge of "compromising" on cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to the tune of $9 billion.

Un-fucking-believable.

I know it's the same sad echo, but we live in a time when one in six Americans--in the wealthiest nation in the world--live in poverty, when one in five Americans are food insecure, when there are three unemployed Americans for every job opening, and Democrats, led by my home state's own Debbie Stabenow, are for the first time in our party's history willing to concede to steep food stamp cuts in order to prove they are as callous as republicans.

We're talking children going hungry here.  Children.

Frankly, this is simply unacceptable.  Helping those in need is a core principle of the Democratic Party, and if abandoned, makes our party's leaders no better than let them eat cake republicans.

Bill Clinton's compromise on welfare reform has had harsh consequences for poverty in America, and this one will do the same for hunger in America.

Peace,
emaycee

Thirty pieces of silver

Twenty-four Democrats saw fit to thumb their nose at everything our party stands for when they voted for a Farm Bill that not only cut $21 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program at a time when the economy is still reeling, but also handed out billions of dollars in corporate welfare.  Two of those Democrats, Dave Loebsack of Iowa and Cheri Bustos saw fit today to whine about the inability of the Farm Bill to pass.

While both said they didn't care for the cuts to SNAP (what the fuck? what could be worth voting for the bill then?) and Loebsack tried to give himself cover by reporting that he'd co-sponsored an amendment to restore the amount of the SNAP cuts (Loebsack isn't an idiot and knows that his amendment had about as much chance of passing the republican House as I do of whistling "Dixie" out my ass), they said they were doing it in the best interests of their constituents.

Which is complete and total horseshit. 

Loebsack makes mention that he considers it inexcusable that the Farm Bill didn't pass--no, what is inexcusable is that either he or Bustos as Democrats voted for it at all (Christ, I watched MSNBC last night and they were breaking out the champagne and party hats over its failure to pass) when the bill showed such a complete and total disregard for those in need, which is a core principle of all that our party stands for.

The plain truth is that what Loebsack and Bustos are both bemoaning is not the loss of the best interests of their constituents, but the best interests of their corporate benefactors in Agribusiness.

We can do better than both of them.

Peace,
emaycee

Lies republicans tell us

Someday some scientific researcher should do a study as to exactly what gene it is that republicans are missing that gives them about half the I.Q. of your average ass pimple.

Seriously.

Donny Ferguson, some dim-witted numbnuts who works for Congressman Steve Stockman (R-where else?-Texas) decided he was going to "prove" that eating on $31.50 was easily done (much like the 26 Democrats who took the same challenge but for far more altruistic purposes than degrading hungry people).  He sent out a list of what he bought (seen here), said he actually only spent $27 and some change on it, and reported at the end of the week that he felt fine and dandy.

Accepting as fact that he actually did eat only what he purchased (I have doubts that there is any republican has the moral courage to follow through on such a challenge, and would not be surprised at all if he ate as normal and claimed to have eaten only what was on the list), exactly how stupid do you have to be to realize that a) what he purchased was hardly nutritional and certainly not something anyone who loved their child would also feel good about feeding them regularly, and b) there is a fucking world of difference between eating like that for one week and eating like that for months on end.

In the end, all that Ferguson proves is that it takes a special kind of asshole to mock people who are going hungry, and apparently the republican party is full of them.

Peace,
emaycee

Hallelujah, I love it so

One piece of good news:  the republican version of the farm bill, with its $21 billion cut to the Food Stamp program, went down to an ignominious defeat today, as 62 republicans joined 174 Democrats to vote it down.  (Although republicans who voted against it did so because they believed the bill didn't cut enough--no small bit of irony there).

Good bye and good riddance to another republican effort to make the hungry go hungrier and the poor get poorer so corporate America can suck even more on the teat of our taxpayer dollars.

Peace,
emaycee