The House of Representatives just passed a farm bill that removes further funding from SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Let’s snap to it and tell it like it is: The Republican-led House is cutting welfare funding for food stamps. Like many government initiatives, this originally was intended to assist down and out persons who cannot feed themselves.
Under the Obama administration, an unprecedented 46.6 million are living on food stamps. Because of high taxes, sclerotic regulations (ObamaCare), and excessive spending, businesses are not hiring, people are barely getting by. Impoverished and dependent, they show no sign of getting off the government dole. The Senate immigration bill, which passed with sixty-eight votes, is full of gimmicks . They clever calculations give birth to more massive dependency, a culture expanding in our country, and an outcome that should prove government assistance does not assist the people in need. Instead, it feeds the greed of politicians and bureaucrats for easy jobs, assured pensions, and generous benefits.
Handouts are keeping people from getting their own hands out to prosper. Government profligacy has ruined families, especially minorities. The government has stepped in with subsidies, coercing charity from taxpayers. This has turned into a broader subsidy of dependence, crime, family dysfunction, gang-related tyranny, and death for minors growing up in single-parent homes. Welfare-dependency has become a generational curse in Rhode Island and ghetto regions of Los Angeles.
Let Me Tell You When
Despite the loud blasts of the consequences of government dependence, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City) last week boomed against House passage of the bill:
“The House GOP stooped to a new low by forcing through a farm bill that does not include SNAP benefits to help feed struggling families and children across the United States. When and where will this madness end?
”
When the maddening federal government ceases to foist its fulsome size into struggling private sectors, healthcare, higher education, the auto industry. A president who envisioned an individual mandate, plus healthcare exchanges for those who could not afford insurance, has made healthcare more costly, along with diminishing access and higher taxes on hard-working meager-earning families. Federal subsidies have increased the cost of college while imposing crippling fees on struggling students who cannot find a job. The G.M. auto bailouts only benefited politically connected unions while robbing retired teachers and police officers in Indiana, and taxpayers across the country.
Not the Republicans, but the Democratic-Progressive juggernaut has sunk to the new low.
In her invective against the reformed farm bill, Ms. Bass continued:
“How much more do they want low-income and middle-class Americans to suffer while they do nothing to pass a fair and balanced budget that asks the wealthiest Americans and corporations to pay their fair share so that we can grow our economy in a responsible way?”
Growing Tiresome
“Pay their fair share” is a poetic treacle, political trash filled with icky, sticky, feel-good, soak-the-rich stupidity. Higher taxes means less wealth invested, which means fewer people being employed, more people dependent. Of course, Ms. Bass and her Democratic colleagues decry the reform farm bill. I have an question: When will Ms. Bass and her liberal colleagues start paying their fair share? Is it fair that she and her colleagues receive Cadillac health insurance, while private citizens go without? Is it fair that she spends business people’s wealth on government health while the private sector fails? Is it fair for her to draw a six-figure salary telling other people to pay more?
Why doesn’t she define “fair” for constituents? Democrats have resisted school choice, vouchers, real educational reforms so they never would bother to ask critical questions. Instead, a growing class of dependents had accepted that their representatives will demonize one class of people to enrich another (the politicians) while claiming to help a third (low-income and middle class Americans).
Pretending to care about deficit reduction, Ms. Bass countered:
“Yes, but it is just foolish to think this can be done on the backs of the poorest Americans. Enough is enough, and this vote shows just how out of touch the Republican Party remains from the struggles of everyday Americans working hard to put food on the table and feed their families.”
Ms. Bass’s statement reminded me of President George W. Bush saying: “I know how hard it is to put food on your family.” While Mr. Bush’s message was mixed, the Democratic party sends a mixed message of “We want to help you.” This is followed by policies making it harder to get a job, amended with promises like “We will give you free healthcare.” This ends with repetitious pleas for the rich to pay more.
Instead of railing against the madness of Republicans, when will Ms. Bass demand that the government stop the insane cycle of government dependence?
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong Southern California resident, he currently lives in Torrance.
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