Scrooge Republicans prefer Pentagon White Elephants to Food Stamps for Poor Children

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2013/11/republicans-elephants-children.html



Scrooge Republicans prefer Pentagon White Elephants to Food Stamps for Poor Children
Posted on 11/01/2013 by Juan Cole

As of today, Republican cuts in food stamp support present a challenged nearly 23 million American households in keeping their children from hunger. Some 76% of SNAP or food stamp-receiving households include children, the elderly or a disabled person, and 83% of all SNAP assistance goes to such challenged households. The image of a single male lying on a couch drinking beer bought with food stamps is just cheap Scrooge propaganda.

~snip~

Development of the F-35 fighter jet will cost over $9 billion this year and $395.7 billion over all. It is corporate welfare of the first water, an enormous White Elephant, completely unnecessary at a time when the US military has nothing approaching a peer in the world. It is years behind schedule and 70% over budget. Canceling it would allow you to put back the $5 billion for food stamps for at least 80 years and probably more, since there will be more cost over-runs.



Then there is the SSN-774 Virginia-Class Submarine. Nothing wrong in principle with this item, but they cost $4.3 billion apiece, just about the cost of the food stamps that have just been cut. Republican standard-bearer Mitt Romney just last year ran on producing 3 of these submarines a year rather than two. In other words, he wanted to increase the budget deficit by nearly $5 bn a year for the sake of one extra submarine annually. If the GOP is willing to buy an extra submarine (which we don’t actually need– which of our enemies rules the underwater realm?) a year for that much, then it is hard to see why they are so pressed to cut $5 bn in food stamps.



The United States is spiralling down into a basic indecency and callousness not seen since the age of the Robber Barons of the late 19th century. The Koch brothers and other mean rich white people are intent on rolling back all the gains of the Progressive era and the New Deal, returning us to the jungle.




unhappycamper comments:

1. The Navy just floated its latest VERY EXPENSIVE stealth destroyer --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/11794915
2. The F-35 mess continues to produce shoddy, not-ready-for-prime-time merchandise.
2. If the Navy can build a submarine for $4.3 billion dollars, why are we spending $7+ billion dollars for Virginia-class submarines?

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Alkene]

2. "The United States is spiralling down into a basic indecency..."

"...and callousness not seen since the age of the Robber Barons of the late 19th century."

"The only good thing about it is that sooner or later the sleeping giant that is the American people will be awakened by the lashes of injustice and the selfishness of a small coterie of the super-rich. And then perhaps we’ll get a new and more robust progressivism that will change the nation and the world."

I hope Mr. Cole is correct.

[Scuba]

3. Well, yes, but we want to starve in safety, don't we?

[valerief]

4. K&R

[Enthusiast]

5. Kicked and Recommended! nt

[GoneFishin]

6. It's about creating serfs to work cheap. It's not about the budget.

It's about creating an underclass that is too desperate and too tired to argue when they are overworked, under paid and under appreciated.

It's not about morals, it's about money and power. When people have sufficient food, shelter, money, medical services and time, then they are able to educate themselves and their children, and participate in democracy.

AND THAT IS UNBEARABLE for the elite feeding at the troughs and living under special laws which never punish rich white men in suits no matter how much they steal, or how many they hurt.