Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is fighting to stop Food Stamps from being cut almost in half

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is fighting to stop Food Stamps from being cut almost in half Tens of millions of children and senior citizens, mostly sick and disabled, will go very, very hungry and get sick or sicker. It's such needless cruelty and suffering as for every dollar spent by people on Food Stamps $1.75 goes back into the economy. Google that if you don't believe me. Will you please go to the link below and call or email Senator Gillibrand and tell her thank for fighting and to keep fighting to stop this suffering so very rich corporate farms can become even richer. BTW, NYS's Senator Schumer is all for cutting the Food Stamps, that miserable bastard Republican in Democrats clothes. From the NYT: "The version of the farm bill that emerged from the Senate Agriculture Committee contains $4.5 billion in cuts to the food stamps program over 10 years. Related News Senate Advances Farm Bill (June 8, 2012) Times Topic: U.S. Farm Bill Connect With Us on Twitter For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT. . That amount is a small fraction of the nation’s spending on food stamps, currently nearly $80 billion a year, but would, nevertheless, be devastating for nearly half-a-million households that would have their benefits sliced by an average of $90 per month, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Such a cutback in food benefits for struggling families and children is unconscionable in a bill containing plenty of unnecessary giveaways for corporate farming interests. With the Senate poised to take up the bill, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, is waging a tough fight to restore the food-stamp cut. She has offered an amendment that would make a humane and sensible change — lowering the subsidies to highly profitable crop insurance companies to avoid any trims in the food-stamp program. It is not yet clear which of the hundreds of pending farm bill amendments will receive a vote. Senator Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, should make sure that the Gillibrand amendment gets one, and then he must rally Senate Democrats to pass it. Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee have already voted to cut food stamps by $33 billion over the next decade. A vote for Senator Gillibrand’s proposal would send an important message about priorities. For the Democratic-led Senate to allow any reduction to food stamps is no way to open negotiations with the House."

http://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/



• OP, NYC has more pressing concerns...like regular soda and smoking in parks. Those things are, like, totes disgusting!

  Ms.%20Michaela%20%22Let%20them%20eat%20sugar-free%20cake%22%20Bloomberg

• America the starving....that's what the Rethugs want.

• Ironic but true R1. It's also ironic because the suffering and illness the Food Stamp cuts will cause will only hurt and not help the economy. I hope people will let the Senate know they are against the cut, if for no other reason then they want the economy to stay strong for themselves.

  op

• It is exactly what they want R2, to make people more desperate and more likely to be slaves to the rich. In this case all that suffering for what, as I said, a cut in Food Stamps will only hurt and not help the economy. Please, if you have a chance, speak up against this by letting your senators know to vote against the Food Stamp cuts.

  op

• R2 is correct. Big business wants to create a fiefdom in the United States. Keep us just smart enough to do the job, just hungry enough to tolerate abuse, and poor enough that we'll never rebel. The issue is, a lot of us are aware of what they are trying to do. And it isn't going to fly.

  LuciferTheLightBringer

• Republicans want genocide of the poor. How stupid are the people not to see that?

• So R5 and R6, do we do nothing and let them get away with it or fight? Once they take all from the poor and get rid of them who do you think they'll come after next? The ones who are on the next rung of the ladder, that's who. Please choose to fight.

  op

• LOVE Gillibrand. So glad she's my senator.

• Me too R8. I've called her, tweeted her and emailed her telling her I'm so happy I voted for her and why.

  op

• It's amazing what we put up with in this country. Wall Street decimates middle-class savings and we do nothing. The banksters crash housing values and we do nothing. Politicians take away lifelines from the poor and we do nothing. There would be rioting in the streets in other countries. We just cluck our tongues and lower our expectations.

• OP, can you link to a story? I need to find it stat.

• Sorry it took so long for me to get back here R11. I hope it's not too late for you.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/opinion/food-stamps-and-the-farm-bill.html

  op

• Here's another

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/kirsten-gillibrand-food-stamps-farm-bill_n_1573876.html

  op

• And another

  http://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/gillibrand-top-chef-star-tom-colicchio-and-leading-anti-hunger-advocates-urge-congress-to-restore-food-stamp-cuts-not-tighten-its-belt-on-backs-of-hungry-children-as-farm-bill-heads-for-full-senate-v

  op

• I had great hope for the Occupy movement, R10. That hope was short-lived. But it really doesn't take that many to start fighting back. If everyone here started to fight back and was able to get some of their friends, family, co-workers, etc. to start spreading the truth about what's going on with this and everything before you know it those who have or even seek little information, the kind more likely to believe Romney and Paul Ryan and others like them, might also start to fight for fairness, justice and to just do the right damn thing in this country. Those of us who know the truth need to of course vote, but before that we need to educate. We need to put the fight in others.

  op

• don't give up on Occupy, op. I have heard members on KTLK, throughout the winter, talking about making plans for '12 from their makeshift indoor offices and meeting places. Thanks for the links, btw. I'm usually not so helpless but I'm sneaking this in at work.

• Thank you for letting me know R16. That does make me feel better. I really had my hopes pinned on Occupy, that after 30 years of Americans all but being in coma some were starting to wake up. Don't worry about it. I know posters might not be able to Google any time they want. I hope I got links to you on time.

  op

• Oh and Sen. Gillibrand will be on Politics Nation talking about this tonight, MSNBC 6pm EST. If you miss it Google Politics Nation later tonight and the video should be up. Also there is this group of nuns (fighting the Vatican along with the Paul Ryan plan) that are going around the country on a bus tour fighting for the poor, workers, and the middle class. I'll link the info on the nuns.

  http://nunsonthebus.com/map/

  op

• My great aunt was a nun, and quite the lefty. That would be just thing she would have loved. Are the grocery chains fighting the cuts? Because they'll suffer from this as well. If we had one big business fighting another, this might have a chance.

• That is a great question R19. I don't know. I will call the managers of all my local big supermarkets tomorrow and ask. Thank you for thinking of that. I'll also call Gillibrand's office and ask if there is some way to encourage that. Your question really should be asked beyond the supermarkets. The cut will hurt food manufactures and farmers as well. I will also call some big companies like General Mills. I will look at some of the products I have and see who makes them and for the 800 number for the company most products have on their labels. I sure hope other people will too along with contacting their senators.

  op

• Video of Gillibrand on tonight's Politics Nation.

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#47822422

  op

• [bold] Senators Vote Not to Cut Food Assistance [/bold] Yesterday the Senate rejected an effort by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to drastically cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Approximately 49 million Americans—one in seven—rely on food aid, but Paul wanted the program cut by $322 billion. In a 65-33 bipartisan vote that included 13 Republicans, Paul’s amendment (part of the Farm Bill) was tabled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and effectively killed. SNAP (previously known as food stamps) takes up $80 billion of the $100 billion annual Farm Bill funding. Three out of four SNAP households include a child, a person over the age of 60, or a disabled person. Paul argued the program was wasteful and riddled with fraud. “We need to remember that recently a woman in Chicago faked the birth of triplets in order to receive $21,000 in food stamps,” he told Talking Points Memo. “We need to remember the millionaires, including Larry Ficke, who won $2 million, are still receiving food stamps because he says he has got no income. He has got $2 million, but no income.” Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) called Paul’s suggested cuts outrageous, and is quoted by Politico saying waste and fraud are being addressed. “But for somebody in this great country who’s paid taxes all their lives and worked all their lives and now needs help to put food on the table…they need to know that we’re going to be able to provide a little bit of temporary help.” In April the Congressional Budget Office released a report detailing the SNAP program, that found that participation in the SNAP program was the highest it’s ever been, in part, because of the country’s Great Recession. Another study by the Food Research and Action Center found that the SNAP program creates $1.73 in economic activity for every dollar spent. The Senate plans to continue to whittle down the approximately 200 amendments attached to the Farm Bill, which include items like buying more pulse crop products for school lunches; providing emergency loans for fishermen; and eliminating subsidies for mohair and popcorn.

  http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/06/14/farm-bill-snap

• Fucking Rand Paul. I hate it when all they have are these far-out anecdotes, it's the Welfare Queen syndrome all over again. He's as stupid as his dad and probably more dangerous. Unless he's tipping his cra-cra hand too soon.

• I hate going to the Walmart and seeing all these ladies in fur coats whip out their Food Stamp cards and buy hundreds of dollars of brand name junk food. They wouldn't buy the generic Hostess would they. Then they get into their caddies and head home to their $25 a month section 8 houses with four bedrooms and baths.

• If you cut a food stamp in half isn't it voided?

• R22, thank you for that post. I detest Paul. How easy it is for those who've been so wealthy their entire lives to take even food away from the poor, even the sickest, most elderly and disabled poor and kids who go to bed hungry and wake up to no food. Is there more than one bill in the Senate trying to cut food stamps? I ask because as of near 7pm EST tonight when Gillibrand was on Politics Nation she was talking about it still possibly happening with so far only 14 senators on her side not to cut Food Stamps. The bill she's talking about is a farm bill with billions going to corporate farmers. She wants to give them a little less and keep the cuts to FS from happening. So I think the bill Gillibrand is fighting is still ongoing and has not been voted on yet.

  op

• FACT: The Bottom 50% of Americans pay MORE of their income in taxes than the richest 1%.

  http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3505

  op

• R19 Sr. Simone, the spokeswoman for Nuns on the bus, (@NetworkLobby on Twitter) will be on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell tonight 10pm EST.

  http://www.networklobby.org/news-media/nunsonbus

  op

• Bump.

• Thank you for the bump R29. Here is an article about the misconception over who really pays taxes at the link below.

  http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3505

  op

• R30/OP, that deserves it's own thread.

• its*

  R31

• Just so long as they don't increase Donald Trump's taxes.

• What I love about this is that the politicians that are the first to cut food stamps are also the first to have their children going to college to apply for food stamps. I get so tired of this double standard. The wealthy and most politicians believe that if there is a potential source of money, you must go after it. Whether or not you need it is irrelevant.

• I've worked as a cashier at a megastore ( NOT Wallyworld) and the abuse of the SNAP ( food stamp) program is out of control. The people who use this program ARE NOT buying healthy, nutritious food for their families. They are buying Mountain Dew, Cheetos, Lunchables, Hamburger Helper, Little Debbies cakes, frozen pizzas and other junk. The SNAP program should be implemented like WIC ( Women, infant and children) You receive vouchers that enable you to purchase fresh fruits & veggies, pure juice, protein ( such as meat ) and other items to ensure proper nutrition. I don't know how many times--particularly the first of the month-- I had to hold my tongue as fat sows and their eight children from eight different fathers clogged up my line as baby mama unloaded bags of Snickers and packages of crab legs onto the belt. Oh---when people use their SNAP card, the cashier can see the balance of the account on the register screen. Some of these people have $700, $800 $1000 in their account. That buys a lot of Bugles and YooHoo.

  Yeah--like%20your%20fat%20welfare%20%20ass%20NEEDS%20more%20Funyuns

• Cheesus! There is one certifiable nut from her office posting to himself. Let it marinade, you freak. If people care, they will post. However, nobody is going to donate money to the campaign. Sorry

• R35, the balance is so high because they are getting their money and assistance off the grid - i.e., working under the table cleaning, bartending, watching children, drug dealing, etc. I had the same problem with bitches coming in with elaborate hair and nails and telling me they couldn't work and had zero income. Zero. Babies in tow, but couldn't explain to me how she bought diapers. But here's the kicker - if someone is on Section 8, you can't make them work. Not even as a cashier. And if they get a job, it is up to THEM to self-disclose so we can raise their portion of the rent. If they don't, oh well. The best part? If they self-disclose and their portion of the rent goes up from, say $35 a month to $50 a month? They are allowed to quit their jobs, lower the rent, and no penalties. But I'm evil for wanting HUD banished. It's a slush fund beast.

• r35 here. Ok. I DO sound bitter, but r 37 is right. My partner's mom used to be a social worker ( key phrase here USED TO BE ) and had to quit that profession because of people scamming the system. I've heard horror stories about working class people ( mostly single moms working 2 jobs to provide for their children) who were denied assistance because they made SEVEN FUCKING DOLLARS TOO MUCH to qualify. And here's some fatass, lazy trailer park bitch and her 10,000,000 kids getting Section 8, food stamps, HEAP, etc yet she somehow comes up with money for a neck tattoo and a 60" plasma TV as she gorges on Fritos and Dr. Pepper whilst watching "Jersey Whore". The welfare system needs a COMPLETE overhaul. Don't give the argument "there aren't any jobs". The WPA programs from the 1930's should be revived and if you are physically and mentally able to work, THEN YOU WILL! Scrape roadkill from the highways. Baby sit children of working women. Do farm work, FUCKING DO SOMETHING instead of just breeding.

• I understand the frustrations of R35 & R37, and I don't want to diminish their comments. However, part of the problem is that if these were wealthy people doing the same thing, they would be getting multi million dollar bonuses. What is a scam if one is on welfare, is a complex financial instrument if you are rich. There needs to be one set of rules for everyone. And the rules need to be that one plays by the rules.

• Wow that sucks. Bitch needs her T-bones and Cheetos...Damn

• Not that I don't believe those who are scamming should be brought to justice, but this is precisely why the country is fucked up. Priorities. We magnify the crimes of people buying junk food and minimize the crimes of the Halliburtons and Wall Streets. A woman buying soda and chips is not hurting you as much as the above, but because you're more likely to see this woman ripping off the system, while only reading about Halliburton/Wall St. fucking over the taxpayers to the tune of billions, we get more pissed at the former. We have no "visual" on the latter, so we can't truly get angry. It's all behind closed doors. If there were youtube clips of the latter, you would see the pitchforks and torches.

• agreed, r41 and r39. Rich and Poor people are corrupt. Bottom line: the rich have stolen from this country billions of dollars, the poor, let's just say in reality it's petty theft. If this corrupt and bad capitalistic system is to be fixed, it needs to start with the corruption at the top, the real root of the problem.

• It's such an obvious attack maneuver from the Republicans and the wealthy to point the light at the maybe 10 to 15 % abuse that occurs in matters like Planned Parenthood, Healthcare, Food Stamps, Student loans, Gay Adoptions etc. and push all the good that these programs do and provide aside in the process to highlight the damage they supposedly cause even more. But then you have issues like gun control where it doesn't matter that there is the occasional deadly killing and shooting spree since they are so very rare that they shouldn't be used to bring up a discussion about limiting gun control rights. Are there really people out there who still fall for that silly rethoric where you are asked to focus on the little bad and ignore the overwhelmingly good of an issue? And as a previous poster righfully pointed out. What about the billions and billions of fraud that occurs with the military budget and what's going on at Wall Street? Every other issue looks like pocket change compared to that but nobody in a public office dares to touch those because that would be (career) suicide. So this is typically high school bullying where the bullies go for the weak instead of someone who's bigger than them.

• How come nobody ever questions the $1 trillion going to the military/industrial complex? Cutting THAT by just 20% could give us national health care, and the Pentagon would still have more than enough $$$.

• Cool. Let's justify ripping off the welfare system but comparing it to a bunch of bullshit you guys no nothing about. I would love to see your reaction when and if your home or car are ever burglarized. "that's ok...they needed my shit more than I did. LOL

• [quote]Let's justify ripping off the welfare system but comparing it to a bunch of bullshit you guys [bold]no [/bold]nothing about. Yeah, you no so much.

• R46 never said I did, bitch!

• R47, its "know" not "no". As in, we now "know" that you have "no" credibility.

• OK, "its" should be "it's".

  R48

• R41, your deflection bullshit is a major problem. Focus on the problem at hand - wasteful government spending on social programs. Everyone is scamming the system, and the politicians want to continue to feed the best so demand remains high and more money is dumped into the system. Fuck that. Start your own thread on Halliburton. Don't try and deflect from theft by the "neediest" in this thread. Here's another good one: mom and baby load up cart and use food stamps. Baby daddy, in his work clothes, buys the rest of the food in the second cart. He is illegally living with her in the Section 8 house, but we have to give notice before coming to check it out. Like enough notice for him to move his clothes into a locked closet.

• Go occupy a social services agency for a year and come back and tell us your story, Mary.

• Since you're such an expert, r50, please offer us some statistics on large a problem SNAP fraud is. Do you have any hard data?

• Oh, yes, pumpkin. Every agency does. And when the fraud numbers get too big, you no longer enforce it. You no longer throw people off the programs because your budgets will shrink. Again. Do something besides arguing your silly point on gay BB because you can't justify the viewpoint.

• [quote]Do something besides arguing your silly point on gay BB because you can't justify the viewpoint. Talk about projection. [italic]You're[/italic] the one who cannot justify his viewpoint. AFAIK, you pulled your examples from some freeper e-mail that's making the rounds.

• R50? I wasn't deflecting, I was putting the *reaction* into perspective. People like you get much angrier about something like this (to the point that you go on a long diatribe) than you do about Halliburton, Wall Street, oil subsidies, farm subsidies, etc. Let me explain something to you: If there's going to be government waste, I would rather it be on section 8 housing and food than invading a country. I'm sick and tired of many people in this country (many of whom live in red states feeding at the federal trough) bitching about welfare mothers or planned parenthood, yet expect blue staters like me -who tend to be anti-war, pro-choice, pro-universal healthcare- to just hand over my tax money to fund everything red states are "pro." Fucking idiots in bumfuck screaming about their pittance of a contribution paying for welfare mothers, yet I'm supposed to pay for that bullshit Iraq war and all of the other things I DON'T support. I don't even want to pay for tornadoes or wildfires in red states. Let them pay for it themselves. When red states put their money where their mouth is (since they worship money so much), then they should be allowed to have this much control over social programs. As it stands, they don't pay enough, so fuck 'em. They don't even pay equal to what they get back, so as far I'm concerned, until they do, silence every last one of them. Isn't that how the Republicans think? People with money should rule the world. Let's give them a dose of reality.

• Well R50, if you weren't a slumlord maybe you wouldn't have to worry about renting to those section 8 peoples.

• R54, projection princess, what Freeper email? I'm not the only one with this data. I know it bums you out, but it is true, as many people on this thread can attest.

• Roland boring everyone again. So much for reasoned discourse.

• R56, I work for HUD, asshat.

• [quote]I'm not the only one with this data. What data? I asked for statistics and hard data back at R52. Still waiting.

• Bump.

• when does this vote take place?

• That's what I like to know, r62.

• It took place last week. The vote including many Democrats along with all Republicans, voted against Gillibrand's bill to restore funding to Food Stamps. Early next year Food Stamp amounts to most who receive them will go down to 95 cents a meal or $2.85 a day to eat. On top of that Paul Ryan and Romney and the entire GOP want to cut another 134 billion from Food Stamps. I guess people will have about a dime a day to eat. These are the Democrats in the Senate, including fake progressive Al Franken, who voted to take about half the amount of Food Stamps away from very sick and disabled elderly people and children. The big case of "fraud" turned out to be 1 Lotto winner who didn't let the government know about the win and that 1 person is facing Federal charges. If you are disgusted by this genocide of the poor and one of these Senators is yours, please let them know how cruel and immoral you think their vote was. Each one of these monsters should have website with contact info. Baucus (D-MT) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Carper (D-DE) Conrad (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Franken (D-MN) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Manchin (D-WV) McCaskill (D-MO) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Udall (D-CO) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA)

• someone needs to fight for us they are alot of poor people feeding there children on foodstamps if they want to cut peoples foodstamps i think they should look more into people that trade or sell there stamps for other stuff like a bunch of drug heads that waste there stamps and let there children strave too if it wasnt for my stamps it would be hard to feed my kids .......so good luck kirsten ......

• This is the female senator Martina Navratilova is always raving about on twitter. I'm sure they're fucking.

• R66, Martina has the hots for her because she reminds her of Chris Evert.

• I love how some people become so enraged at the prospect of a dirt poor, marginalized and stigmatized woman possibly getting over on the system yet NO self righteous indignation over the criminals on Wall Street who have fleeced the entire country and continue to get million dollar bonuses.