Victimizing food stamp recipients

A NEW round of class warfare has emerged under the rhetoric of "food stamp fraud," as Congress and pundits in the media are labeling it. It is similar to the portrayal conveyed under the Reagan Administration in the 1980s of the "welfare queen"--the single mother on welfare driving around in an expensive Cadillac. The portrayal was false, and so too is "food stamp fraud"--and it is perpetrated by the same racist ideology.

Sadly, this rhetoric has shameful consequences. Recently, in Utah, elementary school children who owed for past school lunches had their school lunches seized and thrown out.

Statistics show very few documented cases of the food stamp system being misused. (Congress should look at the Pentagon if they really want to investigate actual fraud. There is no limit to the amount of money given to the Pentagon to develop new weapons of mass destruction and to conjure up new wars.) In order to receive food stamps, your bank account needs to be quite low or even close to empty. You are required to have very little or no savings. You must earn less than $300 per week to be eligible at all for food stamps, and you must always remember to update your financial situation when it changes or be at risk of temporarily or even permanently losing your food stamps.

Contrary to what some people say, food stamps are not simply "handed out." However, there are an increasing number of people who rely on food stamps because there are many more people who have gone into relatively serious poverty since the financial crash in 2008. As of now, approximately 49 million Americans are "food insecure" and about 15 percent of the American population receives food stamps.

Many food stamp recipients people hold low-wage jobs at hugely profitable corporations such as Walmart and Mcdonald's. About 21 percent of those on food stamps have attended college at some point.

Many households receiving food stamps include children and the most vulnerable populations of society such as single mothers, the elderly and the disabled. On average, a family of four receives $396.00 per month in food stamps. This rounds out to about $1.10 per meal. Therefore, it is common for a monthly food stamp allotment to be used up before month's end.

The result is that many people have the humiliating task of relying on a food pantry in order to have enough food. However, food pantries are being affected by the endless economic down turn and austerity--right when their need becomes greater. Sadly, this is a normal aspect of capitalism. More teachers and schools worry that far too many kids are going to school hungry and to bed hungry. The biggest tragedy of all is that this is happening in the world's wealthiest country, with more than enough food to feed everyone.

POLITICIANS AND pundits are dedicating a lot of rhetoric to conjuring up ideas that everyone who is receiving food stamps is a lazy person who is unwilling to take care of themselves and expects handouts. The Republican Party uses racist rhetoric to attack many people of color in particular who rely on food stamps. A classic example is when Mitt Romney condescendingly referred to Barak Obama as the "food stamp president," while running for the nation's highest office.

Sadly, the attack on food stamps is thoroughly bipartisan. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate Agricultural Committee, has recently agreed with Republicans to cut more than $8 billion from the food stamp program on top of the $5 billion cut in November. It is certain that President Obama will sign this legislation when it reaches his desk.

The farm bill, which is where these cuts are coming from, gives very generous subsidies to "Big Agra" corporations like Monsanto. Monsanto came up with the great idea to inject dairy cows with Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone--which is like a steroid for cows to artificially produce more milk. They also have successfully sued, with the help of the U.S. Supreme Court, individual small farmers who did not use their genetically modified seeds on their crops.

At the state level, food stamps are also under attack. Different states impose different rules or restrictions. In my home state of Rhode Island, a bill is being written up that would require food stamp recipients be forced to show an ID to purchase food. Obviously, this is designed to humiliate those using food stamps.

In Florida, the governor and legislature decided people receiving food stamps would need to be drug tested, in the name of being "cost effective." Very few of the people tested actually test positive. In Colorado, a bill is being written to forbid anyone using their food stamps to purchase marijuana from the newly regulated market that sells marijuana.

It is a waste of time used as rhetoric to make stereotypes about poor people. The program has always made it explicit that food stamps can only be used towards food and nothing else. (Excluding hot and prepared foods).

There is also a lot of talk about restrictions on what people should be allowed to buy with food stamps. Many complain that you shouldn't be allowed to buy steak because it's too expensive, or not be allowed to buy soda because it has no nutritional value. It is important to realize people with very little money to buy food tend to buy the cheapest food options. This means that they often buy cheap quality food, such as soda, chips, candy and other heavily processed junk sold at gas stations. Sadly, this over-reliance on junk food leads people with low incomes more susceptible to serious health problems including diabetes, obesity, congestive heart failure and other diseases that decrease their health and quality of life. Just the same, many poor people lack quality health insurance--if they even have it at all.

For these reasons, food stamps should be increased and not reduced. People should be able to adequately afford a healthy and balanced diet with plenty of foods such as vegetables and fruits to make themselves healthy and not have to rely on processed junk such as soda and instant noodles.

It is great to see nutritionists, pediatricians and other concerned professionals speak out against the proposed cuts in food stamps. But individual people need to speak up, speak out and rally against it.

Many doctors arguing reducing food stamps will increase health care costs are not connecting the large picture as to how and why capitalism is a dysfunctional system. Congress, pundits, and CEOs are all telling the least among us who need food stamps to "eat cake." More funding needs to be spent on school lunch (and breakfast) programs, that include healthy and fresh options, instead of the usual processed garbage. Schools should offer numerous vegan options for kids who choose that kind of diet. These programs should get full government funding instead of schools getting subsidies from corporations like Coca Cola or Pepsi in order for their vending machines to be in schools.

It is time to change the conversation about food in general. Nobody should ever go hungry or be malnourished in the world's wealthiest country.
Greg Morse, Providence, R.I.