Don't cut food stamps

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Peninsula readers' letters: June 23



From Daily News Group readers mercurynews.com

Posted:   06/22/2012 02:16:47 PM PDT

June 23, 2012 6:50 AM GMT
Updated:   06/22/2012 11:50:07 PM PDT



Don't cut food stamps

Dear Editor: Too many Americans are still out of work to justify cuts to the food stamp program. Democrats and Republicans banded together in the Senate to defeat an amendment by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, to slash spending on the program nearly in half. Still, a version of the 2012 Farm Bill passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee and being debated by the Senate floor contains a $4.5 billion reduction over the next decade to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program budget. The cuts aren't as steep as Paul's proposal and they represent a fraction of the federal program's $80 billion a year spending. But it would nonetheless be a devastating blow to poor families. An amendment restoring cuts, offered by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is the best solution. Her amendment would not add to the deficit. Restoring cuts to the food stamp program would be paid for by capping subsidies to the highly profitable crop insurance companies.They even made the poor people fight these wars for them, when all the poor really wanted was peace and enough to eat and wear, and a place to sleep. They refuse to fight these wars and rebelled against letting the rich rob them.

Ted Rudow III, MA

Palo Alto, CA