House GOP Fails To Take Your Food Stamps Away. Better Luck Next Time, House GOP!
A typical food stamp/SNAP beneficiary, according to YouTube.
Funny, the video actually debunks myths about people getting delivery pizza and beer with SNAP
House Republicans failed to pass a farm bill today, so they won't be able to impose fun new work requirements on food stamp recipients, because rightwing jerks in the Freedom Caucus wanted to force a hardline anti-immigration measure into the bill as well. Of course, the annual farm bill is the usual vehicle for reauthorizing the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is the fancy name for food stamps. We'd normally point out here that SNAP recipients shouldn't worry, since the current authorization doesn't expire until September and the Senate is working on a farm bill, but last year, Congress blithely let the Children's Health Insurance Program lapse, so let's not get too optimistic about congressional renewal of anything except military spending, ever.
Here's why the Freedom Cockers killed the farm bill, which also covers school lunch programs and agricultural programs like anti-erosion measures, crop insurance and farm subsidies: About 20 "moderate" Republicans in swing districts, fearing a wipeout in the midterm elections, have been trying to force a vote on a completely unrelated measure to protect young people in the DACA program and give them a path to citizenship. But instead of fighting that effort on its own, the Freedom Dicks took the farm bill hostage by folding in a proposal by Rep. Bob Goodlatte that would have renewed current DACA recipients' protection from deportation, but would include no path to citizenship -- and would also sharply restrict legal immigration, hire 10,000 more ICE and Border Patrol agents, AND fully fund Trump's border wall. It was pretty much the same Trump-approved anti-immigrant wet dream the Senate overwhelmingly rejected back in February, and a farm bill including that mess never would have passed the Senate. A stand-alone vote on Goodlatte's bill is planned for June, and it's unlikely even to pass the House.
A it was, the bill was opposed by all the Democrats in the House, who objected to the tightening of SNAP rules, as well as 30 Republicans, most of them Freedom Penises. Some may also have gone along with the Koch brothers' call to defeat the bill because it includes farm subsidies and crop insurance, which are sins against the Free Market.
So now it's up to the Senate to pass its own farm bill. Since it'll have to get 60 votes, the Senate version is unlikely to include SNAP restrictions or work requirements, but this is after all the Worst Possible Universe, so maybe the final version will, plus maybe some prosperity-creating repeals of child labor laws.
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