If you're hungry, are you free?
If you're hungry, are you free? According to Republicans, over 17
million more Americans are free because of 30 years of Reaganomics. You
need to know this: The US Department of Agriculture is reporting that
17.4 million households in the country had trouble finding enough food
to eat last year. In fact - in one out of every eight homes - someone
went hungry at some point throughout the year. Children in single parent
households were most affected by a food shortage - along with African
Americans and Hispanics. All in all - 14% of the households in our
country - the richest nation in the world - suffered from what
economists call food insecurity and the rest of us call hunger. And
these numbers could have been much higher. The Department of Agriculture
reports that though the number of hungry families spiked much higher in
2007 when the recession began - it has held steady since - thanks in
large part to federal assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program and free and reduced school lunches. On top of that -
economists have proven that federal food assistance programs actually
have a stimulative effect on the economy - with every dollar given out
in food stamps producing $1.73 in economic activity as it circulates
from the hungry person to the retail store to the wholesaler to the
farmer. Unfortunately Republicans - didn't get that memo. They still
insist a 3% tax cut for millionaires and billionaires so they can put
more money in Swiss banks is a better stimulus for America, and they're
willing to cut federal food assistance programs to pay for it. There you
have it - the Republican Party is literally taking food off the table
of hungry Americans - so fat cat banksters can get a million dollar
tax-giveaway bonus, borrowed from China and handed to billionaires
courtesy of Uncle Sam.
