House Republicans Vote to Slash Food Stamps
Yesterday, in a party line vote, 217 House Republicans voted to cut $40 billion from the food stamps program. The vote represents the latest example of the party’s increasingly out of touch, immoral, and economically backward positions that favor the rich at the expense of the poor and the middle class.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that Thursday’s cuts will bump 3.8 million off the program next year, with an additional 2.8 million losing them each year on average over the next decade. Additionally, an estimated 210,000 children will lose access to free school lunch programs and 55,000 jobs will be lost in the first year of cuts alone.
But this isn’t just about numbers. Here are three quotes from Proverbs that House Republicans clearly ignored yesterday:
Proverbs 14:31 – “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Proverbs 22:16 – “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich – both come to poverty.”
Proverbs 29:7 – “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”
For more on how food stamps benefit Americans, check out this Center for American Progress and Half in Ten infographic:
BOTTOM LINE: With over one in five children living in households that run short on food, it is time to stop playing politics with hunger and work to pass a Farm Bill that does not increase poverty and hardship.