David Rogers
Politico
7/10/2012
Food stamps are fast becoming a flash point for the House farm bill this week — but also an increasingly partisan, even racially tinged debate in Congress over the future of the social safety net in these hard economic times.
The politics are explosive enough that Republican farm bill proponents are working now to tamp down any further nutrition cuts demanded by conservatives on the House Agriculture Committee, which will take up the bill on Wednesday. At the same time, Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn stepped into the fray Tuesday, warning that the $16.5 billion in food stamp savings are already an “abomination,” but “I stand ready to do whatever I can to assist in this discussion.”…
…But Republicans see a new form of welfare. Enrollment in food stamps — also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — has jumped by close to 20 million since 2007. Discussions are peppered with derisive asides about encounters with SNAP recipients in grocery stores. Obama has been labeled the “food stamp president,” and the call to repeal “cat-el” — what the farm bill promises — is a rallying cry for the right…
Read the entire article at Politico.
Meanwhile…
Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick vetoes ban on purchasing tattoos, manicures, porn with EBT
Updated
