You and I don’t use SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (used to be called Food Stamps), but 42 million Americans do. About 67% are in families with children, the remainder being oler adults or disabled persons. Right now the program is 100% federally funded, but that could change with the proposed budget.
Conservatives complain that SNAP is a free lunch for people who don’t work, but over 37% are working adults; they just work at low, really low-income jobs. Many live in places that you wouldn’t put your dog in. Income inequality has continued to climb out of proportion, the rich getting rich and the number of poor increasing.
We live in a tale of two countries, and the proposed budget will only increase that. We are being fed a host of lies about what will happen if this budget goes through. Our priorities are skewed, really skewed, and future generations will inherit the whirlwind. In the end our Nation will face judgment and we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
Prayer for the Day
Searching for the light, O God, often we find only the shadows,
Failing to do the good we mean to do we acquiesce to evil;
Knowing we fall short of our goals and your promise,
We come to you in contrition and ask forgiveness.
Move us from hopelessness to determination
So we live life more fully as you intended.
In the name of the One who did not keep silence,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Unlike health care programs and Social Security, SNAP doesn’t face demographic or programmatic pressures that would cause its costs to grow faster than the economy over the long term. SNAP thus doesn’t contribute to the nation’s long-term fiscal problems.
Center on Budget and Priorities Report, November 2024
This means more seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and children will go to bed hungry. It means farmers, who are already operating on razor-thin margins, will see billions in lost revenue. It will mean job losses and lost wages for everyone who is a part of the food system – from truck drivers to local grocers
Amy Klocbuchar, U.S. Senator (D-Minn.)
Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent,
Who plan evil things in their mind and stir up wars continually.
They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s, and under their lips the venom of vipers.
Psalm 140: 1-3