Category: GOP Shutdown (Page 2 of 5)
A group of recalcitrant Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates have blocked Medicaid expansion at every opportunity. They are so determined to keep poor people from getting health care that they are preventing passage of a two-year budget for the state for the fiscal year beginning July 1. If an agreement isn’t reached by then, they seem fully prepared to let the state government shut down, furloughing employees and shuttering services just as their counterparts in Washington did last fall.
Robert B. Reich: What are they really after? Connect these seven dots. Number one, they’re against extending unemployment benefits to people who have been out of work for more than six months, even though there is still only one job for every three unemployed. Number two, they don’t want to raise the minimum wage, even though today’s federal minimum is twenty-five percent below what it was in 1968, adjusted for inflation. Number three, they’re against extending Medicaid benefits to millions of low wage workers. Number four, they want to cut food stamps. Number five, they refuse to invest in education or job training. Number six, they don’t want to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure or have any other jobs program. And number seven, they’re out to bust unions.
Do you see a pattern here? They’re waging a war against the poor and the working class in order to keep people down because when you’re unemployed, without any support, without any bargaining power, you have to feed your family. You’re desperate. And when you’re desperate, you’ll take whatever they are willing to pay you, even if it’s next to nothing. And you won’t dare make a fuss. You won’t complain about unsafe work conditions or toxic chemicals leaking out of storage tanks or anything else. You won’t run the risk of trying to form a union. You won’t get involved in politics. You won’t make a ruckus or rock the boat in any way. You’ll take whatever they choose to give you because you are sinking.
Make no mistake, this war against the poor and working class is designed to make sure Americans who’ve been losing ground for thirty years don’t dare do anything about it. Without extended unemployment benefits, a declining real minimum wage, no Medicaid, no food stamps, no education, job training, or jobs program and no union, you’ll do exactly as they tell you, and that’s fine with them. But it’s bad for America. As the first step to stopping this war on the poor and working class, call your senator and demand the senate pass extended emergency unemployment benefits.
Any questions?
“Ken Cuccinelli may want Virginians to forget the detrimental impacts of the shutdown and his support for shutdown architect Ted Cruz, but voters won’t soon forget that Cuccinelli sided with the Tea Party against Virginia families,” said DPVA Spokesperson Brian Coy. “The choice for Virginians on Tuesday is clear: vote for Terry McAuliffe and the mainstream Democratic ticket and make sure Virginia always comes first.”
New York’s River Fund Food Pantry’s new clients are diverse—working people, seniors, single mothers—but many of them share something in common: they represent the millions of Americans who fell victim to food insecurity when the Great Recession hit in 2009, but didn’t benefit from the economic recovery.
And the worst may be yet to come..
“I believe we have a hunger crisis,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, who sits on a House committee responsible for the food stamp program. “When 50 million people in the richest country on the planet are hungry, that’s a crisis.”
There’s little sign that McGovern’s colleagues in Congress will step in to stave off the crisis. In fact, some Republicans in Congress are pushing further cuts to the food stamp program as part of broader budget negotiations that could bump an additional 4 million people off of the food stamps rolls by the end of next year.
Welcome to the Hunger Games.
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