America's Greatest Shame: Child Poverty Rises and Food Stamps Cut While Billionaires

[hvactec]

Why do we put up with such injustices?

November 1, 2013 |

There are 16.4 million American children living in poverty. That's nearly one quarter (22.6%) of all of our children. More alarming is that the percentage of poor children has climbed by 4.5 percent since the start of the Great Recession in 2007. And poor means poor. For a family of three with one child under 18, the poverty line is $18,400.

Meanwhile, the stock market is booming. Banks, hedge funds and private equity firms are making tens of billions of dollars again, while the luxury housing and goods markets are skyrocketing.

Most amazing of all is the fact that 95 percent of the so-called "recovery" has gone to the top 1 percent who have seen their incomes rise by 34%. For the 99 percent there's been an undeclared wage freeze: the average wage has climbed by only 0.4 percent.

To add to the misery, Washington has decided that the best way to tackle childhood poverty is to have poor kids eat less. Both parties already have agreed to cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps). Starting this November 1, payments are scheduled to drop from $668 a month to $632 for more than 47 million lower-income people -- 1 in 7 Americans, most of them children. (Three incredible graphs that visualize the issues in this story are at the bottom of this article.)

And more cuts are coming. The Tea Party House passed a bill to cut food stamps by $4 billion a year, while the Senate calls for $400 million in cuts. How humane! And since it will be part of the omnibus Farm Bill, President Obama will sign it. (I wonder how our former community organizer will explain this to the poor children he once tried to help in Chicago.)

But that's just the start. More austerity is coming in the form of cuts to Social Security as well as a host of other social programs. When times get tough, you've got to suck it up and take more from the poor.

Rewarding Billionaires Who Increase Poverty?

Read More America's Greatest Shame: Child Poverty Rises and Food Stamps Cut While Billionaires Boom | Alternet

 

[ScienceRocks]

Here is what we do.

Raise cooperate to 25% and capita gains

Give this money to a food stamp program that covers all people making less then 30k per year.

Next reform our educational system as we're Now 17th. Work on getting it to first....

 

[tyroneweaver]

amazing the efforts you libs go to to blame the gop . You've had 5-6 years to fix it.
How about the last 2 years of the bush admit you had congress. So the dems have controlled congress, what???? 4 out of the last 6 years.
but given the current climate you'll do anything to get sotoreo out of the news LOL

 

[Billy000]

Why do we put up with such injustices?

November 1, 2013 |

There are 16.4 million American children living in poverty. That's nearly one quarter (22.6%) of all of our children. More alarming is that the percentage of poor children has climbed by 4.5 percent since the start of the Great Recession in 2007. And poor means poor. For a family of three with one child under 18, the poverty line is $18,400.

Meanwhile, the stock market is booming. Banks, hedge funds and private equity firms are making tens of billions of dollars again, while the luxury housing and goods markets are skyrocketing.

Most amazing of all is the fact that 95 percent of the so-called "recovery" has gone to the top 1 percent who have seen their incomes rise by 34%. For the 99 percent there's been an undeclared wage freeze: the average wage has climbed by only 0.4 percent.

To add to the misery, Washington has decided that the best way to tackle childhood poverty is to have poor kids eat less. Both parties already have agreed to cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps). Starting this November 1, payments are scheduled to drop from $668 a month to $632 for more than 47 million lower-income people -- 1 in 7 Americans, most of them children. (Three incredible graphs that visualize the issues in this story are at the bottom of this article.)

And more cuts are coming. The Tea Party House passed a bill to cut food stamps by $4 billion a year, while the Senate calls for $400 million in cuts. How humane! And since it will be part of the omnibus Farm Bill, President Obama will sign it. (I wonder how our former community organizer will explain this to the poor children he once tried to help in Chicago.)

But that's just the start. More austerity is coming in the form of cuts to Social Security as well as a host of other social programs. When times get tough, you've got to suck it up and take more from the poor.

Rewarding Billionaires Who Increase Poverty?

Read More America's Greatest Shame: Child Poverty Rises and Food Stamps Cut While Billionaires Boom | Alternet

It also really needs to be known that welfare recipients got peanuts before this cut happened. Then the average welfare recipient received $133.00 a month with a monthly income of 744.00 a MONTH. Fraud is also rare despite what republicans like to believe.

 

[tinydancer]

How can any child be starving to death in America?

I thought the greatest threat was child obesity according to Michelle? So what is it?

Fat kids who are starving to death?

Bite me. What bullshit. Little chunkers are starving to death and need more arugala apparently

Are the kids fat? Or are the kids starving? Make up your freaking minds you maniac liberals.

 

[tinydancer]

How can you have the fattest kids on the planet and have them starving to death at the same time?

I really want to know.

 

[tinydancer]

Here is what we do.

Raise cooperate to 25% and capita gains

Give this money to a food stamp program that covers all people making less then 30k per year.

Next reform our educational system as we're Now 17th. Work on getting it to first....

Whatever drugs you are on Matthew, switch them truly. You aren't grasping the issue.

 

[The Rabbi]

It's the Democratic way. They want everyone to be equally poor and miserable.
The Obama Recovery was worse than the Bush recession. Obama's policies have cut out job opportunities for middle class and working class people.
None of this is the fault of the GOP, which has been essentially out of power for 5years.

 

[Wacky Quacky]

Food stamps weren't cut. A temporary increase ended, nothing more.

 

[The Rabbi]

How can you have the fattest kids on the planet and have them starving to death at the same time?

I really want to know.

The cuts are going to send benefits all the way back to 2007 levels. How many people were starving in 2007?
This is the Dems rolling out starving kids as an excuse to expand the welfare state. Dems love kids. Especially dead ones. It makes achieving their policy goals easier.

 

[Billy000]

How can any child be starving to death in America?

I thought the greatest threat was child obesity according to Michelle? So what is it?

Fat kids who are starving to death?

Bite me. What bullshit. Little chunkers are starving to death and need more arugala apparently

Are the kids fat? Or are the kids starving? Make up your freaking minds you maniac liberals.

It is completley stupid that you believe child obesity alone is evidence that poor children in this country are well fed. Why would you dismiss all of these statistics based on that alone?

 

[Billy000]

How can you have the fattest kids on the planet and have them starving to death at the same time?

I really want to know.

Well gee maybe its because not all fat kids are poor.

 

[Billy000]

It's the Democratic way. They want everyone to be equally poor and miserable.
The Obama Recovery was worse than the Bush recession. Obama's policies have cut out job opportunities for middle class and working class people.
None of this is the fault of the GOP, which has been essentially out of power for 5years.

Why am I not surprised you just ignored all of the statistical facts in this thread?

 

[hvactec]

How can any child be starving to death in America?

I thought the greatest threat was child obesity according to Michelle? So what is it?

Fat kids who are starving to death?

Bite me. What bullshit. Little chunkers are starving to death and need more arugala apparently

Are the kids fat? Or are the kids starving? Make up your freaking minds you maniac liberals.

Food insecurity linked to obesity in children
Across the nation, thousands of children are starting and ending their day with tummies that never seem to be filled up. These are children with one or more working parent, who live down the street and attend neighborhood schools.

And while they may have three meals a day, they often are not nutritious. Meals may consist of empty-calorie food that provides very little of the protein, vitamins and minerals needed for growing bodies. In many cases, children become overweight, even as they remain hungry.

Of the 315 million people living in the United States, nearly 50 million are food-insecure. In 2012, of those hungry, 16 million were children, according to Map the Meal Gap, an annual report from Feeding America, an anti-hunger charity that tracks food insecurity at the county level. In a report released in June, Map the Meal Gap showed that 11,200 children (17.7 percent) under the age of 18 in Larimer County struggle with hunger, which affects 23.5 percent of the county's total population.

To meet this need, the Food Bank for Larimer County last year provided more than 74,000 meals and 61,000 snacks for low-income children through its Kids Café sites. In addition, 18,000 weekend food packs were distributed and its summer program served more than 30,000 meals to food-insecure children.

read more Food insecurity linked to obesity in children - Loveland Reporter-Herald

 

[blackhawk]

Here is a idea how about coming up with programs that educate and train people to get them the skills they need to find jobs that get them out of poverty.

 

[Billy000]

Here is a idea how about coming up with programs that educate and train people to get them the skills they need to find jobs that get them out of poverty.

Obama proposed that but republicans shot it down.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/...ses-new-money-job-training-community-colleges

http://www.jobtraining.ws/stimulus.php

 

[Old Rocks]

What we have here are people that honestly believe that everyone not making $50K a year is just a lazy slob that doesn't want to work. Even when those people are holding down two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads.

Real wages have not grown in over 30 years, in spite of the vastly increased productivity of the average American Worker. The extra has gone staight to the top. And the 'Conservatives' blame the worker for this. And do their best to keep education and benefits from the workers in this nation. And then, again, blame the worker as this nation drifts further behind in education, technology, and living standard.

We have people with a totally nihilistic ideology trying to turn this nation into a third world nation. We can only compete with other nations if our technology and education is at least equal to theirs. We can only aspire to be #1 if our technology and education are better than theirs. Yet, as one can see on this board, the 'Conservatives' resent both technology and education. Are are doing their best to put this nation back into the 18th Century.

 

[Old Rocks]

Here is a idea how about coming up with programs that educate and train people to get them the skills they need to find jobs that get them out of poverty.

And just try to get such a program by the Teabaggers!

 

[Billy000]

What we have here are people that honestly believe that everyone not making $50K a year is just a lazy slob that doesn't want to work. Even when those people are holding down two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads.

Real wages have not grown in over 30 years, in spite of the vastly increased productivity of the average American Worker. The extra has gone staight to the top. And the 'Conservatives' blame the worker for this. And do their best to keep education and benefits from the workers in this nation. And then, again, blame the worker as this nation drifts further behind in education, technology, and living standard.

We have people with a totally nihilistic ideology trying to turn this nation into a third world nation. We can only compete with other nations if our technology and education is at least equal to theirs. We can only aspire to be #1 if our technology and education are better than theirs. Yet, as one can see on this board, the 'Conservatives' resent both technology and education. Are are doing their best to put this nation back into the 18th Century.

I am posting this again for everyone to see.

 

[blackhawk]

Here is a idea how about coming up with programs that educate and train people to get them the skills they need to find jobs that get them out of poverty.

And just try to get such a program by the Teabaggers!

You guys are really wearing holes in that excuse.