Samantha
Samantha's JournalThe Farmer in the Well (of Congress)
On the subject of the Farm Bill, it appears 15 Members of Congress voted for their own self-benefit while gutting 47 million of us. The word "service" to them must denote "self-serve" as opposed to serving one's constituents.
From an article dated September 2013, we learned that it was Republican Frank Lucas who introduced legislation cutting SNAP:
"House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) who introduced legislation on September 16 setting forth the House Republican leadership’s proposal to cut SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program) by at least $39 billion over ten years. This is almost double the cut in the House Agriculture Committee farm bill and about ten times the SNAP cut in the Senate-passed farm bill.[1] The proposal is expected to go to the House floor this week."
The CBO estimated that these cuts would be deleterious to the most destitute among us:
"1.7 million unemployed, childless adults in 2014 who live in areas of high unemployment — a group that has average income of only 22 percent of the poverty line ....
"2.1 million people in 2014, mostly low-income working families and low-income seniors, who have gross incomes or assets modestly above the federal SNAP limits but disposable income — the income that a family actually has available to spend on food and other needs — below the poverty line in most cases often because of high rent or child care costs....
"Other poor, unemployed parents who want to work but cannot find a job or an opening in a training program — along with their children, other than infants."
All quoted material above can be found at this Center on Budget and Policies Priorities link:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=4009
With the passage of this Farm Bill containing 8.6 billion in cuts in food stamps, 15 fortunate members of Congress potentially benefit from the subsidies to be awarded, most of whom will receive thousands of dollars. It is not surprising that each of them voted in favor of cutting the SNAP program. Personally, I would think it would be professionally embarrassing for this information to be made public knowledge, but the term "embarrassed politician" seems to be an oxymoron. Nevertheless, here is the list:
http://politix.topix.com/news/10139-these-15-congress-members-could-receive-millions-of-dollars-from-the-farm-bill-they-just-passed
And what name leaps from the page? Why, it is none other than the wife of Frank Lucas! Perhaps you might want to check out the list to see if your representative is listed.
This is the type of information we should use in campaigning against these self-serving politicians. The question we should be asking voters is if your best interests are not being served by your representatives, is it because they serve to benefit themselves? We must do better than this.
Sam
Leave No Fingerprints
Alison Lundergan Grimes scored a major political coup today. Running against Mitch McConnell, who has accused her of endorsing Obama's "war on coal", Grimes has now been endorsed by the United Mine Workers of America. I cannot quit laughing.
Thinking back to the day when we were excited to think Ashley Judd might run against Mitch, and remembering the disappointment many of us felt when we learned she had been talked into bowing out by persons within the Bill Clinton camp, this was exactly the correct move for Ashley Judd to make. On another day, in another race, in another place, she, Judd, might step out again. If she does, she will receive a political reward for her cooperation in this race.
Because this race is just too important for Dems to lose. With the difference of perhaps winning one of six strategic Senatorial seats by the Democrats, our ability to retain control of the Senate would hold by a mere slender thread.
While no fingerprints are visible as to the who or how this endorsement of the United Mine Workers of America of Alison Lundergan Grimes was obtained, it is the type of hallmark political maneuver a politician we have come to know as The Natural would quietly arrange.
Sam
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