DON'T Let Them Eat Cake!

I can't help it, whenever I think of Nikki Haley (and I try not to, really) the word "brat" comes to mind.  I imagine her stuck in adolescence, flirting with the guys, saying "no" when she means "yes" just to prove she can.

I wish this was just my imagination run amok, but she has certainly carried that attitude into the Governor's office.  For example, in 2012 Haley vetoed a bill that would have provided HPV immunization to girls, with an opt out provision for parents not wanting the immunization.  This even baffled republicans, since in 2007 she had co-sponsored a bill MANDATING the immunization.  This doesn't confuse me at all.  I think it's just Nikki being Nikki, in other words, letting us know that if she can't force us to follow her rules, she's going to take her vaccine and go home.

And then we have Medicaid.  In a career where she is competing with Mark Sanford for the stupid award, she has determined that under no circumstances will she support a no-cost Medicaid expansion.  In a totally humiliating segment on The Daily Show, SC Policy Council President Ashley Landess got to play patsy for Nikki Haley.  She first attempts to explain how we can't afford "0 dollars," and then follows it up by saying government has never had a good idea.  It kind of reminded me of Miss Teen South Carolina back in 2007 trying to field a tough question about why so many American students can't find the US on a map:

  

...and also leaves me wondering where the former Miss Teen was when the Policy Council President job opened up.

When it comes to food stamps, Nikki wants to make sure poor people aren't having too much fun.  In 2013, she wanted to limit food stamp purchases to "healthy foods," in other words, no cake for you.  However, when she was informed that families on food stamps couldn't afford healthy foods, she shifted gears and now supports an initiative to make poor people prove that they are looking for jobs.

The food stamp program is fraught with conflicting messages, but Nikki brings her own stern mama attitude to the mix.  No precooked roast chickens and no birthday cake for the kids.  We're not going to support the unemployed, and we're not going to help the working poor.

The bottom line is Nikki and her pack don't like people getting something for nothing, and they are going to make sure what they've got isn't easy.  So if you were planning on pinching your food stamps so you can afford a birthday cake for your nine-year-old, expect to get dirty looks from your elected officials.  At least Marie Antoinette was willing to let the poor eat cake.

If It Worked for ACORN...

Have you heard the scandal about the surfer on Food Stamps?  If you haven't you aren't paying attention.  Crime fighters at Fox News are all over it.  They found a guy who is proud of the fact that he is cheating the government.

And James O'Keefe played a pimp in order to kill ACORN.

We have become a country far too easily duped.  This is the place where Wall Street Banks break the law and figure by the time they get caught they will have made millions (or billions).  This is the land of corporate welfare, where the Koch brothers, ExxonMobil, and Wal-Mart write the rules so that they can legally pillage and plunder.  And create a nation where the numbers of poor and hungry grow each year.

Ronald Reagan invented the welfare queen, and the tall tale worked so well for him that the republican party -- funded by corporate America -- has fed off it ever since.

Because of Reagan's dream, shared by corporate America and the right wing, hard working Americans have been seeing their dreams dashed.  Less likely these days to wish for wealth than health care, insecure Americans prove an easy target for the myth of the welfare queen.

Just as with the other battles we are fighting for what should be our rights as Americans -- the right to vote, the right to a living wage, the right to medical privacy -- as long as we are struggling just to keep from losing those battles, we are unable to focus on the real financial criminals in our society.

As long as Fox News and Markwayne Mullin can get us riled up about the Food Stamp recipient that eats steak, we won't even notice that our children's future is being stolen by the wealthy and powerful.

So we need to keep reminding people of where the real corruption lies.  Maybe surfer Jason Greenslate really exists, or maybe he's another wannabe James O'Keefe.  What he is not, is the person who is draining our economy and living high off our tax dollars.  You will need to look to our Congress and folks like Wal-Mart's Waltons to find the real guilty parties.

Let's help focus on the real problems, and get the American people back on track.

Trial By Food Stamps

A Day In the Life

I was heartened to hear that some members of Congress had taken the "food stamp challenge" in order to experience life on the federally funded supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP).  While most of the members of Congress who took this challenge affirmed that eating on $4.50 a day was difficult, Texas congressman Steve Stockman was unconvinced.

No, he did not himself try to live on that food stamp budget, but had spokesman Donny Ferguson do it for him.  Predictably, this dude said after two days that it was "a breeze."  Well, I have to say that I have been fighting a losing battle with my weight all my life, and I can diet easily for two days.

So let me just say that I believe, Mr. Ferguson, congratulations, and you are now ready for the next level of the Poverty Game.

You work 40 hours a week -- that's 8 to 5 because you don't get paid for lunch.  You are earning a lush $10.00 an hour, well above minimum wage, but with a spouse looking for work and two school-aged children your Food Stamp Challenge is exactly that.  Your spouse drops you off at work with your one car in order to get the kids to school, limiting where and how often you shop for groceries.  Nice that the big box stores are now accepting that EBT card but you can rarely make the trip.

It's also nice that there are incentives for buying fresh fruits and vegetables, but that means getting the kids to eat the fruit and finding time to make that salad and find palatable ways to cook that broccoli.

And when you get home it's 6:00 and the kids are tired and hungry, unless your spouse has bought a frozen pizza and a bag of cookies.

A glass of wine would be nice when you can budget it in, and sometimes a glass of wine just won't do the trick.

Hey, Ferguson?  How about sharing with us what you eat (and drink) when you're not making that two-day sacrifice?

And Representative Stockman?  You've argued with your wife over the need to get the car repaired, which you've been trying to budget in for a year now along with the increasing price of gas.  And you've decided that that pain in your stomach will have to wait just a little longer before you can take the time off to see a doctor (You know after the co-pays and deductibles there are just going to be more costs and time off for tests and medications, if not appointments with specialists.).

Still feeling like you're living on "easy street?"

How about those looks you get from people like you when they see you load that cart up with those frozen pizzas?  Did you know that SNAP doesn't cover the fried chicken at your supermarket's deli counter?  So if you are in the mood for a little greasy relief, you are just going to have to cook it yourself.

And that birthday cake you bought with that EBT card?  There are some including my own South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley that concur with you that life should just not be that easy for those forced to accept government dollars.  Bake that cake your own self.  Your kids may not have seen you all day, you're asleep on your feet and still have a load of laundry to do, but that bit of extra effort will make you a better person. 

You may think you've taken the Food Stamp Challenge, Mr. Ferguson, but you haven't got a clue until you've done it day in and day out, along with all the other special experiences of living at poverty level in the US.

So perhaps you can stop feeling so smug, and perhaps you can pause a moment before you judge those whose lives are not quite so cushy as yours.

And don't forget, they may not pay a lot of income tax, but the taxes they do pay support your life on "easy street."