Missouri has decided to turn down millions in federal food aid for low-income children

rdeets@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 658 points –
Missouri has decided to turn down millions in federal food aid for low-income children
stltoday.com
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The problem here is that the federal government didn't provide the framework and services for states to use this federal aid - it's up to the states to each create the new infrastructure and data collection/reporting services themselves. That's a backwards arse way of doing it. The federal government should have created the necessary services and given the states access.

We give states way too much power when it comes to these types of policies. I grew up on the free lunch program and a lot of times it was the best meal I can get. I could never in good conscience suggest that kids don't deserve to have free lunch and breakfast. Especially if they have to be there.

Yep, this should not have been a state decision, nor should the states have to have been the ones to try and implement it, because as this shows many can't and/or won't.

If the federal government was serious about providing food aid for low income children, they would do it at a federal level.

You mean like the federal government offering millions of dollars to a state to feed hungry kids? That kind of federal level? Oh wait...

No, I mean like the federal government actually making the service that is required to give the millions of dollars to a state to feed hungry kids.

The difference is huge, and not hard to understand.

The difference is huge, and not hard to understand.

Apparently it is, for you.

The federal agency is called USDA, and it's the one that runs the P-EBT program. The service is there, ready to dole out the cash, they just need the info to best disburse the funds. The onus is on MO to work with the federal gov to communicate information about its own citizens to those services.

There's about zero chance in hell that red states are going to allow the feds to roll in to town and pull school district information that it would need to disburse the funds. The states already have those records, and they best know how to aggregate them. They just need to <gulp> swallow their hangups about gov bureaucracy and actual spend some tax money to serve their citizens.

Again, the federal agency makes the program available but doesn’t actually build the infrastructure required for the states to use it. This very article we’re commenting on points that out a number of times.

You can shout “Republicans hate kids!” as much as you want, but aren’t republicans the ones encouraging people to have more kids and less abortions? How does that logic work?

But that would be "communism"!

No it wouldn’t, and no one would say that.

No, of course it wouldn’t, but you really haven’t been paying attention to American politics if you think the Republicans wouldn’t say that immediately.