Iowa governor says it's 'not sustainable' to give $40 per month to kids from low-income families for food
Iowa will not participate this summer in a federal program that gives $40 per month to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs while school is out, state officials have announced.
The state has notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it will not participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children — or Summer EBT — program, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education said in a Friday news release.
“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said in the news release.
She says it costs $2.2 million to feed them kids, with the federal government covering the other $2.2 million.
Let's set aside that Iowa has an FY24 spending budget of $8.5 billion, out of which $2.2 million is basically nothing....
Rather, let's make this a 🅲🆄🅻🆃🆄🆁🅴 🆆🅰🆁 🅸🆂🆂🆄🅴! Parental rights, right? That thing where parents can uncritically direct "the care, custody, and control of their minor children." It sanctifies the views of parents, elevating them over government intrusion. If a federal program provides $40 a month to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs via an EBT card, then, presumably, those parents are making the best choices for their children.
Right?
Not so! says Kim Reynolds. Low-income families are too stupid, she implies, not to give their kids nutritious foods when childhood obesity has become an epidemic. By not participating the federal program then, Reynolds is ostensibly protecting children. But really, her non-participation undermines sanctified parental choices in Iowa to provide for their kids.
And who is she to supersede parental rights? A Republican governor.
Yeah... but if you feed those kids they'll just expect government handouts for the rest of their life. What do you just expect the government to give them money when they're old or something? You have to save for retirement!
Now where's my social security check?
I guess she'd rather they just starve...
Of course, what this is really all about is a refusal to pay taxes.
I wish the media wouldn't give politicians that say 'x costs too much' a free pass. Often, not doing x can cost more than doing it and rhetorically hiding behind 'it costs something' leaves the reader to assume it's reasonable to not do x because of cost.
For example, it costs something to put a homeless person in an apartment and give them time with a social worker- and the alternative to doing that (which involves paying cops to move them around and destroy their stuff, to investigate the crimes homeless people are perpetrators and victims of, to process them in and out of local emergency rooms, etc) costs substantially more than putting them in housing.
If feeding kids at a rate of $40/month is too expensive, what is the cost of not feeding them? (There's the expenses of being sick, of acting out and involving disciplinary action or just taking class time, and let's not forget that opportunity cost from not developing kids to their potential if they aren't getting proper nutrition) It's well-understood that nutritional poverty involves foregoing brain development to a child's full potential, and that in turn costs society whatever capacity that kid doesn't get to fulfill as a consequence. Not feeding kids is a way to keep your country under-performing and given the GOP's politics I honestly think they need that in their voters.
it aligns with the republican way of governing.. "not my problem. let the next person/generation deal with it"
I agree with you, but the elite capitalist counterpoint is that they want to keep many people poor and uneducated. They are then less powerful fighting for more rights and demanding more, and because they’re desperate they’re willing to work for less money. See also restricting abortion = a bigger cheap labor pool. Your point of view is caring for people, theirs is caring for profits.
This is a summer program, so specifying costed month is probably misleading
So... In order to score cheap political points and attack the Biden administration, she's blocking food for hungry kids that her state doesn't even have to pay for.
What a disgusting creature
States now do bear an amount of the cost of EBT programs, but it's pretty negligible. I think I saw on another thread that she's basically only saving $2.2m doing this, when IA is already ending the year with an enormous budget surplus (because she and the GOP have cut everything to the bone and then started sawing).
Fuck her. What an absolute joke. I know I'm not adding anything of value to this conversation, but I'm just so mad.
Iowa forces women to have children against their will, then denies them the resources needed to raise them. This means unwanted, unafforded children, born to suffer. They pretend this is a good deed. Monsters.
The idea is to make people who have sex suffer. That way they can point to them as an example of why you shouldn't "sin".
They claim it's the will of their lord and savior who literally preaches the opposite and the brainless just eat that shit up without a second thought.
Nebraskan gov is a piece of shit too. Only wants to help the children if they get sent to indoctrination camps. Fucking trash. They're not even pretending to be human.
All those examples are non-government, and do not last the entire summer
Exactly. The whole Conservative ethos is "government bad"(unless is our government). They want kids in programs that are almost all religious indoctrination programs.
paying a salary to the Iowa governor is not sustainable.
Letting billionaires live is not sustainable
Oh but it's sustainable to give billionaires and corporations tax cuts? It's sustainable to own multiple million dollar plus homes? Allowing private jets is sustainable? An entire economy devoted to weapons manufacturing in a country of starving, struggling workers is sustainable?
These fucking boomers never progressed beyond their teenage years. I can't help but see our leadership as highschool students that need to grow the fuck up, abandon their awful, failed special interest policies, and start doing their fucking job; which is providing the average person with the means to live a fulfilled life. Every. Single. Politician. Is an abject failure that should have been cast to the wolves decades ago.
Billionaires and corporations have value because they can afford to bribe politicians. Poor, starving children don't. Simple as that in their eyes.
An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition because the prices of food are skewed towards making low income families only afford junk food. The government has the power to fix this with subsidies and other things I'm aware of but forget the names of but they choose not to.
That would be a perfect solution to the whiners that lament the people using EBT for like steaks. Healthy stuff could have a discount applied if using EBT that is reimbursed to the store so they get the same amount.
If ever it seems like there's not enough to go around, blame the people who have too much.
The issue is more complex than what is printed. There are shortages of workers at restaurants/bars and slaughter facilities. We need these children to get to work. /$
Damned freeloaders
But I'm sure she tried to get bezos to open Amazons corp office through massive tax breaks.
GOP say silly things non stop.
Sure is sustainable to receive bribes- I mean… donations in the tens of thousands though, isn’t it?
She wants donations from big Agriculture firms and Nabisco. You may not know this but food stamps are corporate welfare for all the companies that make the cheap food poor people spend it on.
This is basic eugenism. What she says is that poor should not have kids as they can't afford them.
Worse. They're rejecting free federal money of $40 PER KID. For no reason at all except 'the money won't be there forever'
Republicans are literally starving children. For no reason.
Torturing children to own the libs
But also making it difficult to obtain birth control and abortions. Something doesn't add up here.
But they need the poor to have kids for the next generation of military service... Gotta keep them starving so MRE's look gourmet!
She's right all those small subsidies aren't going to fix anything it's just going to complicate the system. Minimum wage should be raised
UBI would be great for those who are working or not.
Yeah but all these small subsidizing plans that require people to fill in forms are a giant waste of time. Both on the governments side and the people demanding them.
It's sticking band aids on an open wound.
Just a generic UBI for everyone would indeed fix a lot of these issues but it would take a century to get there so raising minimum wage is a lot more realistic.
In the meantime though…
These clowns better be happy i am not a billionaire. I’d be sending a check to every damn household with kids in the state.
Billionaires don't spend their money. If they did, they wouldn't be billionaires.
They spend their money on investing in oil and gas companies, then buying lawmakers to write subsidies for oil and gas companies.
with all that going on, not surprising they find it impossible to care about the well-being of citizens.
Yeah right
$120m is all you need to give that same $40 to literally everyone in her state each month.
Article says that the program is estimated to cost Iowa $2,2 million, the rest covered on a federal level.
They can't find 2,2 million.
That's fuckin sad.
https://governor.iowa.gov/contact-office-governor
Oh, but it is. It's proven in the 12th economy of the world, why one state of the first economy of the world couldn't sustain it?
she simply wants to hurt poor people.
it's not a 'covid-era' thing anymore, it's a permanent program now--one paid for by the feds, who will also reimburse states for half of their expenses to distribute those funds to those eligible.. which really isn't that much seeing how that most of the recipients probably already applied-for or are receiving other benefits for low-income households.
Loading them up on a bunch of HFCS from those Iowa corn fields will be great for them though I'm sure...
Another example of "once they're out of the womb, fuck 'em". Disgusting.
Okay, how about UBI, then? That's been proven over and over to be an effective soluti—
No? Something something bootstraps? Oh, then go fuck yourself with a cactus!
Ok, so should the Federal Government slash Iowa's emergency response fund by the same amount? Iowa, bootstraps, etc.
The Federal Government should just fund the other $2.2M and shame them. "Okay Iowa, if you can't feed your state's children, we'll pick up the slack for you. Please remember who cared about you in November."
If they dems had ANY testicles at all they would, call it "Feds Feed Iowa," and rub it in their citizens faces that they can get free money from a democrat program, but they won't, because they are equally spineless.
You know what else does nothing for kids? Kim Reynolds. She’s, an arrogant, hypocritical, and ignorant douche baby.
Quick, somebody call "Moms for Liberty" and get this fixed!
oh....
I see. Right. OK then, never mind.
This is because the GOP is purposefully garbage at actually governing.
Too bad those kids aren't Fetuses. Then Republicans might actually CARE about them!
What a poverty state, I’d he embarrassed if I lived in a place that had so many poors or so little money that that’s not affordable
Yeah, okay and just what are these supposed "long term solutions then you evil cunt? I'm sure she's spent every day in office trying really hard to tackle the problems of childhood obesity and low income families looking for this long term solution. Get wrecked you shithead
Her fucking salary and expenses are not sustainable.
Beau of the fifth column made an excellent video on this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1AZfOfBHps
if you're a Conservative, little kids just don't work hard enough to deserve food
cue up sound bite in 6 months of her blaming federal democrats for not providing for hungry kids
She even looks evil.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Iowa will not participate this summer in a federal program that gives $40 per month to each child in a low-income family to help with food costs while school is out, state officials have announced.
“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families.
An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic,” Iowa Republican Gov.
Some state lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Izaah Knox of Des Moines, quickly voiced their opposition to the decision.
“It’s extremely disappointing that the Reynolds administration is planning to reject federal money that could put food on the table for hungry Iowa kids,” Knox said in a statement.
States, territories and eligible tribal nations have until Jan. 1 to notify the Department of Agriculture of their intent to participate in the program this summer.
The original article contains 520 words, the summary contains 149 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Honestly, I don't get this. Call a spade a spade. Use words like "absolutely unconscionable". Use "inexcusable". Use words that get the gravity across of just how asinine and ABSOLUTELY deadly this will be. Mark my words, despite whatever safety nets exist in the state of IA, kids will starve to death because of this. Make a statement saying EXACTLY that, and point out that the blood will be on Governor Reynolds' hands.
It actually is extremely sustainable to provide stimulus to your economy that is 100% matched by the federal government. Her problem is that it helps the poor.
If that’s not sustainable for Iowa then Iowa shouldn’t exist.
What a dumb slut.
Why is that your stance, Governor? Are there a lot of food-insecure children from low income families in your state?