GOP Closing Arguments: No More Food Stamps
Newt Gingrich tells candidates to highlight growth of the food assistance program as Democrats' fault.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesSay what you will about Newt Gingrich, but the man’s record includes the Herculean comeback of Republicans in 1994, thanks partly to the "Contract With America." That's why leading Republicans and GOP candidates are looking to Gingrich as the quarterback for the 2010 campaign. So what’s he advising they do?
Vilify food stamps. Gingrich more than most people knows that Washington tends to lock itself in intensely wonkish policy squabbles--need one say more than "budget reconciliation"?--that simply don’t resonate with the rest of the country. So to make it simple, Gingrich and his political action committee are sending a "close the deal" memo to Republican candidates, spelling it out in über-simple terms. What do you want more of: paychecks or food stamps?
It’s a bit out of left field. Most of the election cycle has centered on rich people and their tax cuts rather than poor people and their food-assistance programs. But there’s a very obvious reason why Gingrich wants to frame the issue this way: food stamp usage has historically gone up with Democrats in office, and down when Republicans were in charge. Frame it like that, and it looks as though Dems are the welfare-state-loving socialists and Republicans are the patriotic capitalists.
Never mind that targeting food stamps is a tad insensitive. It's no real surprise that with the recession, food stamp usage has spiked since 2008. The program now feeds one in eight Americans, and one in four children. In about 800 counties, even more children receive government assistance. Trying to reduce the number of people who need to take advantage of the program is a valiant goal, one worthy of, say, a congressional investigation. But turning the issue into a political point at the height of election season seems to demean the seriousness and complexity of the problem. And, since lower-income Americans are the ones who rely upon the program, pitting paychecks against food stamps is not all that different from pitting rich against poor.
Republicans have long struggled to shake the image of the party of wealthy white folks, but belittling food stamps seems a curious strategy to regain the GOP’s identity. That kind of rhetoric might play well with those Tea Partiers who can afford to jet to Washington for a political rally to restore conservativism. But those of them who can’t–the ones who receive food stamps–probably won’t be flattered by the argument.
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My thoughts:
The GOP has lost all sanity and willing to forsake the country to obtain power again. The food stamp program was started to prevent starvation of the poorest of us. Most of it goes to feeding children. It has very specific limitation on what food they can be used for, it has to be nutritional, not most junk foods or soda or beer or cigarettes.
Of course the number of people using food stamps has increased the past several years, the country is in an economic decline of the middle-class since 2001 and now the Great Recession, duh... When people are out of work and living on the small amount they might be receiving from unemployment insurance, they need food assistance.
Charitable food banks can not supply the amount of food to feed all those in need. But the hardcore right wing Republican Conservatives want to eliminate food stamps and force people to beg for food from the charitable food banks, most of which are Christian organizations that require listening to proselytizing before a family can receive the food.
With the Food Stamp program America nearly eliminated starvation as a cause of death. However, hunger is still a problem. Most children of the very poor do not get enough to eat daily and as a result have difficulty learning, thereby holding them back in breaking out of the cycle of poverty. Many of America's social programs are designed to help this group of people to overcome these barriers to become productive citizens. In the past 30 years, except in the Reagan & Bush I & II Republican administrations that robbed the programs of funds, they were making a difference and poverty was declining.
With the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, we are seeing more and more families finding themselves without a way to earn a living and support themselves, thereby needing help to buy food to feed their family.
Of course any person receiving food stamps would want a GOOD paycheck over continued food stamps. But right now there are 5 people for every job opening, so the 4 people who are not hired are in need of support until they are the lucky one to be chosen for the job.
For some reason the Republicans complain about the loss of jobs and the recession and yet they are unwilling to support those struggling to survive as the economy slowly recovers. Republicans have lost touch with reality of the shrinking middle-class and the seriousness of this recession. I guess as long as Wall Street is doing well, all is well in America. Everyone else be damned.
Vilify food stamps. Gingrich more than most people knows that Washington tends to lock itself in intensely wonkish policy squabbles--need one say more than "budget reconciliation"?--that simply don’t resonate with the rest of the country. So to make it simple, Gingrich and his political action committee are sending a "close the deal" memo to Republican candidates, spelling it out in über-simple terms. What do you want more of: paychecks or food stamps?
It’s a bit out of left field. Most of the election cycle has centered on rich people and their tax cuts rather than poor people and their food-assistance programs. But there’s a very obvious reason why Gingrich wants to frame the issue this way: food stamp usage has historically gone up with Democrats in office, and down when Republicans were in charge. Frame it like that, and it looks as though Dems are the welfare-state-loving socialists and Republicans are the patriotic capitalists.
Never mind that targeting food stamps is a tad insensitive. It's no real surprise that with the recession, food stamp usage has spiked since 2008. The program now feeds one in eight Americans, and one in four children. In about 800 counties, even more children receive government assistance. Trying to reduce the number of people who need to take advantage of the program is a valiant goal, one worthy of, say, a congressional investigation. But turning the issue into a political point at the height of election season seems to demean the seriousness and complexity of the problem. And, since lower-income Americans are the ones who rely upon the program, pitting paychecks against food stamps is not all that different from pitting rich against poor.
Republicans have long struggled to shake the image of the party of wealthy white folks, but belittling food stamps seems a curious strategy to regain the GOP’s identity. That kind of rhetoric might play well with those Tea Partiers who can afford to jet to Washington for a political rally to restore conservativism. But those of them who can’t–the ones who receive food stamps–probably won’t be flattered by the argument.
Subscribe to Newsweek for more articles and commentary you need to know.
My thoughts:
The GOP has lost all sanity and willing to forsake the country to obtain power again. The food stamp program was started to prevent starvation of the poorest of us. Most of it goes to feeding children. It has very specific limitation on what food they can be used for, it has to be nutritional, not most junk foods or soda or beer or cigarettes.
Of course the number of people using food stamps has increased the past several years, the country is in an economic decline of the middle-class since 2001 and now the Great Recession, duh... When people are out of work and living on the small amount they might be receiving from unemployment insurance, they need food assistance.
Charitable food banks can not supply the amount of food to feed all those in need. But the hardcore right wing Republican Conservatives want to eliminate food stamps and force people to beg for food from the charitable food banks, most of which are Christian organizations that require listening to proselytizing before a family can receive the food.
With the Food Stamp program America nearly eliminated starvation as a cause of death. However, hunger is still a problem. Most children of the very poor do not get enough to eat daily and as a result have difficulty learning, thereby holding them back in breaking out of the cycle of poverty. Many of America's social programs are designed to help this group of people to overcome these barriers to become productive citizens. In the past 30 years, except in the Reagan & Bush I & II Republican administrations that robbed the programs of funds, they were making a difference and poverty was declining.
With the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, we are seeing more and more families finding themselves without a way to earn a living and support themselves, thereby needing help to buy food to feed their family.
Of course any person receiving food stamps would want a GOOD paycheck over continued food stamps. But right now there are 5 people for every job opening, so the 4 people who are not hired are in need of support until they are the lucky one to be chosen for the job.
For some reason the Republicans complain about the loss of jobs and the recession and yet they are unwilling to support those struggling to survive as the economy slowly recovers. Republicans have lost touch with reality of the shrinking middle-class and the seriousness of this recession. I guess as long as Wall Street is doing well, all is well in America. Everyone else be damned.
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