Midday Open Thread
- This is the best explained GOP War on the poor.
Republicans in leadership positions try to modulate their language a bit, but it’s a matter more of tone than substance. They’re still clearly passionate about making sure that the poor and unlucky get as little help as possible, that — as Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, put it — the safety net is becoming “a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency.” And Mr. Ryan’s budget proposals involve savage cuts in safety-net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.
- $5 Billion in food stamp cuts occurred on Friday, yet it got at best marginal coverage.
Given the likelihood of billions in cuts no matter which side wins, progressive Democrats seem limited to simply trying to blunt the damage. The only alternative would be to block the passage of a new Farm Bill, forcing Congress to pass another extension of the 2008 version of the legislation—a move which the White House’s Secretary of Agriculture firmly opposes.
- Chris Hayes shows the reality of the hungry in this great rich country.
- The plight of those affected by austerity has been ignored by the media. This article details that suffering by many.
But sequestration—a series of across-the-board spending cuts that many Tea Party Republicans have come to embrace—and other austerity measures have accelerated the economic free fall. Unemployment benefits to laid-off miners are shrinking; fewer meals are getting delivered to homebound seniors; and there’s less money to help workers retool for new jobs. Beginning Friday, food stamps will be cut by an average of $36 per month for a family of four.
- While sequestration has not been on the front page or the airwaves as it should. Here is a list of articles with the actual effects. While it affects the poor disproportionately, it affects us all now and will affect us in the future.
- This week’s attack on the poor at the same time that their real plight is ignored makes this prescient.
I saw the article that follows below and it got me thinking. Folks, it is not about class envy. It is about the survival of the country. We have been programmed to believe that any commentary about the wealthy’s disproportionate share of our nation’s income, wealth, or political power is either class envy or class warfare. Fox News constantly pushes that line as well as Right Wing radio and practically every Right Wing Republican. This is a well-designed and poll tested attempt to give you pause.
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Senator Bernie Sanders: The War on the Poor http://t.co/HGz03BhYdY
— Crooks and Liars (@crooksandliars) November 3, 2013
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Schumer gives Clinton early endorsement for 2016 http://t.co/AS7PANvnBA
— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) November 3, 2013
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Great article from the LA Times that helps debunk issues around the Affordable Care Act. http://t.co/IVICpiTfCj
— CGHealthcare CO-OP (@CGHealthcare) November 1, 2013
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