Mississippi quits child food program amid Republican ‘welfare state’ attack

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 503 points – Mississippi quits child food program amid Republican ‘welfare state’ attack
theguardian.com

Critics condemn ‘cruelty’ of state opting out of federal problem to feed children from low-income families during summer break

Mississippi is withdrawing from a federal program to feed children during their summer break from school, the governor there announced, characterizing the decision as a way to reject “attempts to expand the welfare state”.

Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, declined to participate in the federal program that would give electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards to low-income families to supplement food costs when academic classes are out of session, Mississippi Today reported.

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“The cruelty of being the poorest state in America and choosing – choosing – to turn down federal aid for poor children to eat,” Hannah-Jones said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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“Mississippi gave millions of dollars of welfare funds to former NFL quarterback Brett Favre to build a volleyball facility for his daughter’s school, but they won’t take federal funds to feed hungry children. Because helping poor kids is the kind of welfare that Republicans hate,” Boykin said on X.

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Pro-life party my fucking ass.

They are pro-birth, not pro-life.

They're not even pro-birth. Abortions are an important aspect of maternal care. They're anti-women and that's literally all there is to it. Misogyny is all there is to it.

That and they want more poor babies being born to feed the system and maintain the class gap

Oh for sure. I figure it's an immature way to take our their anger at anybody, anywhere, who dares oppose an "abstinence only" approach to sex ed, as well as a way to openly threaten the safety of women in general, of course. Pair this with their disgusting views on things like consent and no fault divorce and the pattern is kinda blatantly obvious.

Also, how do they know Jaye-sus won't wave a magic finger and move the ectopic pregnancy / correct the genetic defect that guarantees (+/-) a stillbirth / etc. just in time to save the day? Supporting healthcare that includes access to abortions would be too close to admitting that miracles don't happen and that's bad for the brand.

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Meanwhile Brett Favre gets to steal from poor people. What a stand up sit down piece of shit. Favre's daughter, the welfarest queen of them all!

I think she ended up not even going to that school

Can we not shit on the kids? His daughter didn't ask him to steal state funds, I assume.

To be fair, both of his daughters are adults, and more than capable of speaking out against their father's abhorrent behavior. Additionally, they stand to benefit, directly or indirectly from their father's actions. They are also likely to be among the very small group of people that Brett Farve would listen to and could be shamed by. I would not consider them innocent bystandards.

Bystanders?

How well formed were your morals when you were college aged? How much of your morals were formed by your parents? It seems like it could be difficult for some kids to call their parents out on their bullshit at that age. That might be especially true for the daughter of someone who is put up on a pedistal like Farve.

I agree that it's a shame if Farve's daughter didn't call him out for what he was doing but I think it probably reflects more in Farve than on his daughter. When I was 18 I wouldn't have questioned my parents on something like this. I would have assumed they were doing their best for me and being moral people while doing it. I didn't develop my own ability to assess my parents actions, beyond how they impacted me directly, until I was out of the house for a few years.

...you are saying college kids are incapable of recognizing and understanding crime. You do get that right?

I'm pretty sure most 18 year olds are moral enough to know that stealing a couple million dollars from poor people is fucking wrong. Good god.

I do not understand how Republicans are so evil.

I don't understand how poor people buy into their bullshit. Like, I understand it when explained, I just don't get how people don't see right through it.

For some people it's because it's garbage in and garbage out. I have relatives that consume only conservative news and claim they don't believe in facts.

Sometimes I wonder if their subtle misuse of language is intentional, or a subconscious indication of how they view the world.

Facts are not like religion, which depends entirely on belief. Facts are true whether you “believe in” them or not. You can refuse to accept facts, but they still exist.

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

Conservation of traditional hierarchies, in this case Rich over Poor. Probably a bit of men over women, and white over black as well. But it always goes back to this core philosophy.

The irony of not accepting children's food money, but taking oil, farm, and tax break money, funded by Blue counties and states, and saying "we aren't welfare queens" sure, you're still on welfare but now your kids are going hungry. Good job American South.

It's truly amazing how many ways right wingers will find to be shitty to people.

That's right! I'm a Protect The Children Republican and I think Tax Dollars should ONLY be used to give rich people like Brett Favre money! Protecting The Children DOES NOT mean FEEDING them! As long as Brett Favre gets a new mansion I don't care how many of those brats die!

These ghouls hate children. They have rolled back most of the child labor laws and refuse to feed them. Politicians doing these type of actions should not be allowed to feel safe or comfortable in public.

If you give kids free lunches, they will have no incentive to get jobs cleaning slaughterhouses! Without this opressive welfare program, the kids will be free to choose whether to continue on to middle school or leave their studies behind for a lucrative career in an abattoir.

They've got the wrong idea. Mississippi is picked on for being a poor state which is a shitty place to live. Calling it a "welfare state" is just a short and convenient descriptor. Taking less federal funding will not change anyone's opinion of Mississippi.

Know what could change people's opinion about Mississippi? Maybe a generation of better nutrition and education.

I don't understand why these federal programs are optional for states. Doesn't make sense why you wouldn't want free money for your state.

Scoring political points is more important than feeding children is why.