Republican governors in 15 states reject summer food money for kids

silence7@slrpnk.net to politics @lemmy.world – 357 points –
wapo.st

Moving beyond efforts to block expansion of health care for the poor and disabled, Republican governors in 15 states are now rejecting a new, federally funded summer program to give food assistance to hungry children.

The program is expected to serve 21 million youngsters starting around June, providing $2.5 billion in relief across the country.

39

It's probably no one's fault that the kids are poor but it definitely isn't the kids' fault. It's easy to have these conservative principles when it's not your kids being hungry.

But hunger saves money. And that hunger feeds character. And strong character + malnourishment = strong workforce

Why have personally motivated workers who are healthy enough to have good attendance when you can instead have people die on the job? Then you can use their bones to feed the capitalism machine!

See? Everybody wins!

Well, the poors don't win, but they're not people because the capitalism machine doesn't eat people, only bones. Greg over in printshop made a sign and everything. It says "Don't worry, I don't eat people! Keep hands and loose clothing away at all times."

Greg over in printshop made a sign and everything. It says "Don't worry, I don't eat people! Keep hands and loose clothing away at all times."

Greg better have paid for that himself or he's getting fired for misuse of company resources.

So we have to take away people's rights for the sake of unborn children, but as soon as they're born, they're on their own? Am I understanding that right? The Republican platform seems to just be '• Needless Cruelty, no matter what' and '• Make the government as dysfunctional as we tell people it is'.

as soon as they’re born, they’re on their own?

No, not at all! Just as soon as they're poor. If they'd had the strength of character to be born rich then we wouldn't need to punish them for the sin of being poor.

They think that way they'll get more cheap workers and can fill their pockets exploiting them, but it will just turn their states into absolute shitholes and people will move to better states.

Making the government as dysfunctional as possible is a major component of their strategy for governance.

Why act in good faith in service to your constituents when you can make things worse and get reelected when you point to how poorly you run things and call it "government waste"?

American voters fail to see this connection and thus continue the churn of ineffective government.

Stop voting for Republicans. Being a Republican is not okay.

If you can, do more than vote: volunteer and give money to campaigns.

I recommend picking out close races to work on. Besides president, there are a ton of house, senate, and state-level races to be involved with.

I was thinking with the fauci hearings how insane it is that we have so many folks that vote for these guys.

Abortion is murder but starving children is fine

No one cares about kids once they are outside the womans body.

Weird, innit?

Almost as if its all a big elaborate ruse to punish and control women and not about the blessed holy sanctity of life /s

1 more...

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said she saw no need to add money to a program that helps food-insecure youths “when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”

What is wrong with these people? I just can't even.

If these Republican governors were the villains in a book or movie or something, people would say they're too over the top evil and not believable.

Oklahoma of course won't join just Governor Shit is okay with 1 in 4 kids going hungry in our state. I Fucking hate Republicans.

Clearly the solution to the childhood obesity problem is to just stop feeding them!

1 more...

Let them eat magnets and AR-15s, am I right conservatives?

Hrm, as long as they don't drink water after eating the magnets.

But they can get vaccinated since the magnets will offset the vax. hardest of eye rolls

Why waste money on kids when it can be put to better uses like more tax breaks for the rich? /s, just in case...

Give that money to the corporations that need bailouts instead!

Assholes

Cut programs that help people, focus on the small upticks in crimes of subsistence, use them to demoinze, means test, spy on, and incarcerate the poor. Repeat.

The best part is the mental, physical and eventually societal cost of the stress from all this bullshit. Health declines, more meds prescribed, more medical bills, less retirement because of medical insurance... Games been rigged since before i was born.

Just bypass the states entirely and send the money directly to the qualifying families. Federal programs shouldn't need a rubber stamp from backwater states anyways. These assholes are virtue signaling while kids go hungry.

It's not a bad idea, but how do you let the people who qualify know how to apply? I ask because there are billboards about low income assistance programs for residents of Texas, but said billboards are in someplace like Maryland.

I can't figure out how to find the article, but I remember them pulling this type of shit, and reading about it a few months ago.

If the government already knows they qualify they should just send them a check. Or, even better, a regular delivery of healthy food.

surprised to see vermont on that list tbh

Just blame the computers ….

https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-01-08/vermont-opts-out-of-new-federal-food-assistance-program-due-to-administrative-costs

In Vermont, meanwhile, the organization that’s leading the charge to end childhood hunger in the state is backing the administration’s decision not to participate in Summer EBT this year.

Anore Horton, executive director of Hunger Free Vermont, said state agencies currently lack the technical infrastructure for a successful launch of Summer EBT.

“Our state agencies are eager to participate in Summer EBT, and they are committed to starting Summer EBT in summer of 2025,” Horton said. “So it’s not that they’re saying, ‘We’re not going to do this.’ They’re saying, ‘We’re not going to do this in Summer 2024.'”

Not having the administrative and technical ability to participate, but actually having a plan to fix that is at least understandable and forgivable. Some others have given some very silly reasoning.

one eight hundred no treats for tots. a s s no treats for tots....