| Tell Congress: No cuts to food stamps | ||
Petition to Congress:
"Oppose any cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or changes that would deny food aid to Americans in need, and instead focus on creating jobs and raising wages."
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At a time when billionaires in America are lavishing millions on yachts and private jets, there are children who can’t sleep because of hunger pangs.
And the reaction from Republicans in Congress? They want to slash food stamps, launching new hearings to build the case for massive cuts.1
Taking food away from hungry people isn’t smart budgeting, it’s simply immoral. That’s why we’re partnering with our friends at Faithful America to demand that Congress save food stamps.
None of the people who use food stamps today are responsible for crashing the economy in 2008. But most have never recovered from that catastrophe – losing jobs, income, and struggling to make ends meet. The average income of those receiving help is only $788 per month. Many are looking for work with few jobs to be found. As the recession tumbled families into turmoil, the ranks of those needing food assistance swelled to 46.5 million today. Despite the increase in families requiring aid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recently recorded record-low levels of fraud and error. SNAP is designed to prevent malnutrition and widespread hunger, and it works.2,3
But now, Republicans are out to snatch food stamps from the most vulnerable members of our communities. The House Agriculture Committee recently held its first hearing on SNAP. The Republican chairman of that committee, Mike Conaway, admits that he has a “personal bias” in favor of drastic cuts and has promised a “soup-to-nuts review” of the program.4 Two other Republicans recently introduced a bill forcing recipients to show photo ID when using their government-issued debit cards, even though these benefits are distributed to households, not individuals, and procuring an ID can be a significant expense.5
All of these measures come on top of attacks from Republican governors and state legislatures, which have denied aid to millions through new restrictions on eligibility.6 In 2013, the Republican House approved a $20 billion cut to the food stamp program. While that did not become law, a smaller $8.6 billion cut was agreed to in a compromise with Democrats.7
In other words, the most vulnerable among us have already sacrificed, while the largest corporations have not lost any subsidies or seen any tax increases at all. We need to show members of both parties that it would be a moral outrage to slash food stamps any further.
The number of applications for food stamps has already fallen drastically as the economy has grown.8 The reason people need food stamps is because there are no jobs or the jobs pay too little. Requirements that people work to receive food stamps make little sense, because food assistance is most needed when the economy is weak and jobs are at their scarcest.
If we want fewer people receiving food stamps, we need more jobs and higher wages, not cruel attacks on the most vulnerable among us. Click below to sign the petition.
Thank you for fighting to save food stamps.
Murshed Zaheed, Deputy Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
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"We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities." Edward R. Murrow
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Tell Congress: No cuts to food stamps
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