Fifteen states — all but one run by Republican governors — skipped the deadline to apply for a new federally-funded program that will provide $120 per child for groceries during the summer months to families of children who already qualify for free or reduced-price lunch at school.
They include: Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming.
In a better world we’d have some kind of test for empathy for those running for office.
“Thanks for coming in, we have your test results back and it turns out you’re an irredemable cunt and therefore you can’t run, try being less Republican. All the best.”
Could you imagine the uproar if the federal government forced these states to participate in programs like this? Having them volunteer seems better in the long run. I mean, if a place like Ohio feels that strongly about not taking money from the government, why stop them? Speaking as someone who lives there, it’s on us to vote out the people too stupid/stubborn to take free money.
What would a federal school meal program that operates without the support of the state/local government look like? If schools were federally run then that would be one thing, but they are not.
(I’m really sick of people making absolutely horrible things done by the GOP into a criticism of Biden/Democrats for not doing something extraordinary or impossible to keep it from happening. Especially when the GOP deliberately and cynically does the horrible thing to harm the Democrats’ election chances.)
forgot to add only republicans bad you have to vote democrat and everyone has the right to vote here so it is the people not voting and voting republican ruining the country not the corporate owned politicians
we already pay taxes as citizens and businesses pay too it should go somewhere not just to our neighboring states because the citizens unfortunately lost the geographic lottery or not allowed to vote or whatever in the state they are in
it would look like less funding for the military industrial complex and more school funding for nutrition and education
making everything into a state by state geographic lottery game is too hunger games to accept
states should have to comply with federal law and programs especially when it comes to our future as a nation
biden campaigned on such promises with making the police a federal thing not a state by state wild wild west do whatever unless you are in that other state kind of thing
it would look like our taxes went somewhere and we could see the results
the federal government passes something to do with funding vital human services and states should have to comply
should the states not have to do anything the government decides on?
and without state support? the citizens do not support eating food?
I get that you don’t think things should be this way. But you’re singling out Biden for criticism. All I am asking you is just some hypothetical course of action that the president could have been doing to make the school lunch thing happen in this situation.
The law was created by Congress (not the president) and it’s set up as a federally funded, state-administered program. Without some sort of explanation for how Biden should have solved this problem, I have to assume that you are speaking out of ignorance of how our government works. And the thing that frustrates me is that the GOP did this cynical move knowing that people like you will just put the blame on the president. They get what they want from their evil, bullshit political stunts.
And meanwhile, you direct your anger and energy in the wrong place, so that even if you got what you want — a president you think is awesome — you’d find that the problems aren’t solved at all because the government is so much more than the president.
Imagine withholding funding for food that would keep children healthy, while denying people medical care when they get sick.
This is sickening. How does this not bother them? (Rhetorical, it’s because they try not to think about it. Then they try even harder to find a way to blame others)
One of the oddballs for the rejection is perhaps South Dakota who indicated that they both lacked the ability to actually administer the program without running afoul of the regulations and lacked the fund to even get it started in the first place.
Or as I took it. We're too incompetent and poor to do this.
They reject the plans saying it doesn’t address quality nutrition or do anything to combat childhood obesity etc…gee I guess fuck those kids and let them starve is a better plan (/s). It’s absolutely out-of-touch and disgusting rhetoric. Of all the groups of people we should care for collectively, kids should be top priority (parent or not, doesn’t matter).
When I was a child I was a part of one of these free and reduced lunch programs. I probably would have gone hungry if it weren’t for those programs. I find it incredibly difficult to comprehend how you can look in the mirror every morning after making decisions like this.
When I was in 5th grade I was on that. Because of that, I wasn’t able to have the upgraded items, which was basically chocolate milk vs regular milk. Since pretty much everyone wanted chocolate milk, I had to say I didn’t like chocolate to avoid the shame of being poor… which turned into a huge thing (to kids) about me being the only one who didn’t like chocolate, and because I had to stick to the lie, I was always given “alternate” treats in class—which always sucked.
That really stinks, I remember the feeling of not wanting the thrifted Hollister or other big name branded clothes my mom would try to get because I knew the other kids would think I had money and treat me differently (poor rural town). It was kind of surreal to be poor, but my parents were fighting the image of poor, only making it harder for us to blend in with the poor community around us. She insisted that they were nice clothes and her children would go to school in nice clothes. To be fair, those clothes were uncomfortable and had print/designs that made it too warm for sweaty pig me. I also had a stutter and an accent from another part of the country, so it wasn’t doing me any favors.
I’m glad your parents were able to take advantage of a program that helped them, but man does poverty leave such weird marks on every age involved.
How else could this play out when the people making those decisions are so far removed from the people they’re hurting? They think it’s a game to be played for points in the polls, never mind the collateral damage.
Add comment