3:55pm September 22, 2013

➸ Who voted for and against the food stamp bill?

complexfashion-simpleman:

wilwheaton:

The House narrowly approved a measure Thursday evening that would cut about $39 billion in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — better known as food stamps — over the next decade.

Because it’s REALLY REALLY REALLY FUCKING IMPORTANT that we continue to hurt the poor so that the rich can have juuuuuuuuuusssst a little more change in the cushions of their couch.

Fuck every piece of shit who voted for this.

I’m getting very tired of the attitude prevalent in this country which believes the only people getting government assistance are lazy bastards who spend all their “real money” on new shoes, cars, and technology instead of food. My first memories involve being in a family on foodstamps. My mother needed the assistance because my father had just left and she was trying to go to community college so that she could have a better job to support her 2 children.

Could she have just said no to college and raised us on a crap salary? Sure. Would we have slowly made that climb out from poverty into lower middle class? Probably not.

The underlying assumption behind the movement to cut government assistance is that the playing field is level and all that’s missing in some people’s lives is some good old-fashioned hard work. This assumption speaks from so much privilege that other types of privilege call it snobby.

But what’s worse is how so many people on the low end of the playing field, sitting at the bottom of the hill trying to climb up, still agree with conservatives. It’s like we’re all ashamed to get help. Fed on a diet of motivational movies and athletic shoe commercials, we think that getting any form of assistance means we’re just not good enough.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE. No one accomplishes anything alone. Even if you’ve struggled up from poverty without the government, you’ve had friends and family helping you along the way. Programs like Food Stamps exist for those out there without a support network (or for those whose network is suffering as much as they are). Have a little goddamn empathy.

[Added bolding because, holy shit, yes]