Let them eat… nothing!
There is currently a record number of Americans—14%—relying on federal food stamp assistance programs and that number is probably not going to shrink, but grow, in the near term, as more and more desperate Americans exhaust their unemployment benefit extensions. The number of recipients has risen 11% since last year and over 61% since 2007. At present there are an incredible 45 million people (21 million families) who depend on this assistance to put food in their bellies. So that they and their children do not go to bed hungry. (My parents run a food kitchen for the poor out of their church basement in West Virginia, the stories I've heard are sad and pitiful.)
If the evil Republicans get their way, these poor families, school-age children, veterans of foreign wars and disabled people can just… starve… Via ABC News:
The Republicans' 2012 budget plan proposes changing SNAP ["Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program"] from an entitlement to a block-grant program that would be tailored for each individual state, much like their proposal for Medicaid. States would no longer receive open-ended subsidies and the aid would be contingent on work or job training. It would also limit funding for the program.
"Limit funding"? In certain states (see New Mexico, Florida, Michigan) they'd just eliminate it entirely.
Why should poor people think they have some kind of a right to eat?
Rand Paul would tell you this himself: Food, like healthcare, is not a right! If some Americans have to starve to death, this is what it takes to preserve our freedom!
It amazes me that Republicans think stirring up these kinds of vicious class resentments somehow helps them politically. I mean, sure, the very, very poorest people tend not to vote, but this stuff is just so nasty that I can't help wondering what is really going to happen if/when these sorts of cuts go into effect. Do they really expect that these folks will simply STOP EATING AND DIE?
Well, judging from the GOP's behavior, maybe they do! How else do you explain away this particular aspect of "compassionate conservatism"? Well… now that you mention if, it would certainly help balance the budget if a ton of poor people died. Why just think of the tax cuts for the rich!
Will the Republicans finally be happy when we're all living in a country that resembles Mad Max far more than it does Leave it to Beaver? Is this what the Republicans want? It sure seems that way to me. If not that, then what? What am I missing???
But the thing is, right, is it actually good for them, too? Think of the shitty karma the Republicans unleash by skull-fucking the poor and indigent?
It's a very black and white situation: Vote a certain way and millions of people go hungry. Vote a certain way and INSURE an increase in misery for the weakest members of society (just like Jesus would want!).
Would you want that stain on your karma? There is a special place in Hell for someone so cruel and ugly.
It's not really any kind of grand "thought experiment" to imagine another member of Congress being shot—a Republican this time—not by some lunatic like Jared Lee Loughner, but by a broken man who's completely lost his shit because he can no longer feed his family. Some sad guy, completely depressed walks into a town hall meeting or a political appearance with a gun and decides to confront the cold-hearted bastard who he blames for fucking his life up and shoots him. It's not difficult to imagine at all. But again, it won't be a professional lunatic next time, it's going to be a destitute, desperate John Q type-situation. It's gonna happen, it's just a matter or when.
For the record, I'm not a big fan of violence, but it does have its place, historically, in the class war that's raged since human society began. Admittedly the image of say, Rep. Paul Ryan, being forced to fellate a Colt .45 in front of news cameras and having to beg for his life by a once-proud middle-class father reduced to moving his family into a car is something I'd really enjoy seeing. (I think whoever did that would go down in history as folk hero and at least THEY FEED YOU IN JAIL)
The Republicans think that they can cut entitlements for the poor with impunity because the poor don't vote. But they are not immune from the laws of karma: What if a new front in the class war opens up that doesn't involve the ballot box?
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