Senate committee slashes food aid, again

[ProSense]

8. Is this

Certainly we can count on Obama to veto this....

Right?

And I am SURE that if and when he signs it, you will be right here posting again to draw the same attention to it....won't you, ProSense.

...speculative outrage? The bill just came out of committee. I mean, try calling your members of Congress (especially if he or she is on the committee) regarding this issue.

"We are played like fools. We are bought and sold."

Sounds more like wasting time.

President Obama’s FY2014 Budget Supports Nutrition Programs; Includes Continued ARRA Boost

Washington, D.C. – April 10, 2013 – With nearly one in five Americans saying they struggle to afford enough food for their households, President Barack Obama’s FY2014 budget, released today, protects and proposes to further strengthen federal nutrition programs. He proposes to restore a cut to monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) benefits made in 2010 and scheduled to take place this November.

“President Obama’s budget recognizes the crucial role the federal nutrition programs play in helping low-income people afford and access healthy food. By proposing to restore the SNAP benefit cuts, and in his budget for nutrition generally, he is assuring that the programs continue their successes in reducing hunger and poverty, boosting health and learning, and providing a base for early childhood developments,” said FRAC President Jim Weill.

“As Congress takes up the Farm Bill, it also must ensure that struggling Americans don’t suffer from mindless deficit reduction. Cutting SNAP benefits and eligibility means less food for low-income people – children, seniors, and working families,” continued Weill. “Fifty million Americans struggle with hunger, and it is time for Members of Congress—a handful from both parties—to stop recycling bad ideas like benefit cuts or structural changes to SNAP. The nation needs to address hunger with the urgency the situation demands. Passing a good Farm Bill that strengthens SNAP is the first step.”

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=11029

FRAC’s analysis of President Obama’s FY2014 budget
http://frac.org/pdf/fy2014_obama_budget_summary.pdf

In Obama’s Budget, Poverty Initiatives Face an Uphill Battle

by Deborah Weinstein

We’re proud to collaborate with The Nation in sharing insightful journalism related to income inequality in America. The following is an excerpt from The Nation’s “This Week in Poverty” blog.

There are certain facts of life reflected by the FY 2014 Obama budget proposal: first, anything really worth having is going to be hard to get; and, the regrettable corollary — some things you don’t want are a lot closer to reality.

There are new and even historic anti-poverty proposals in this budget. But the better they are, the more they fall into the “hard to get” category. On the other hand, Social Security cuts in the form of smaller cost-of-living adjustments could far more easily become real...President Obama includes thoughtful plans to reduce poverty: targeting job development in the poorest communities; preserving tax credits and food assistance for low-income families; carrying forward health insurance expansions, and promoting the healthy development of children from infancy on...His commitment to improving education for children from birth to five. “Preschool for All” — a $75 billion, 10-year proposal — would ensure that every low- and moderate-income four-year-old has access to a pre-kindergarten education. The money would come from an increase in the tobacco tax. The budget also allocates $1.4 billion next year for Early Head Start and child care partnerships that would increase high-quality early learning programs for infants and toddlers through age three.

The president’s budget attempts a comprehensive approach — using resources from multiple government agencies — to attack both the causes and toxic by-products of poverty. It would create 20 Promise Zones, coordinating housing, education, anti-violence and other economic development initiatives. It would more than triple funds for The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative to improve distressed HUD-assisted housing in very poor communities. It increases Homelessness Assistance Grants by about $350 million, not counting the extra across-the-board cuts now being made. The current sequestration cuts that could end rental housing vouchers for 140,000 low-income families would be reversed.

The president’s $12.5 billion Pathways Back to Work proposal would provide summer and year-round jobs and training for low-income youth and subsidized jobs and training for the long-term unemployed. There are initiatives to improve high schools and to invest in community colleges. The budget would stop cuts in food stamps scheduled to start in November...Obama budget makes the current levels permanent for the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit — lifting more than 9 million low-wage workers and their children above the poverty line and creating greater opportunity for low- and middle-income students to attend college.

- more -

http://billmoyers.com/2013/04/14/in-the-obama-budget-poverty-initiatives-face-an-uphill-battle/

E.J. Dionne and Robert Borosage agree: push the President's best initiatives.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022807040