GOP Proposes Budget Cuts To Domestic, Foreign Food Aid

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are targeting domestic nutrition programs and international food assistance as they try to control spending in next year's budget.
In a bill released Monday, Republicans proposed cutting $832 million – or 12 percent – from this year's budget for the federal nutrition program that provides food for low-income mothers and children. The 2012 budget proposal for food and farm programs also includes a decrease of almost $457 million, or 31 percent, from an international food assistance program that provides emergency aid and agricultural development dollars to poor countries.
The legislation would provide $71 billion for food stamps, $2 billion less than the Obama administration projected would be necessary for next year.
Republicans who wrote the bill said the cuts in domestic food programs are taken from excess dollars in those accounts, and participants won't see a decrease in services.
Domestic nutrition programs are mined for dollars in tight budget times because they often have extra money sitting in their accounts. Money is allocated for the programs based on projections of need and food costs, and those needs are sometimes overestimated.
Hunger advocates have warned against stripping those programs of those reserves. Two analysts from the liberal research and advocacy group Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Zoe Neuberger and Robert Greenstein, said Monday that the cuts could mean turning away as many as 475,000 people from the Women, Infants and Children program if food prices continue to rise.
Almost 9 million low-income mothers and children participate in the WIC program, which provides food, health care referrals and nutrition education.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the GOP budget "rolls back years of progress."
"This budget threatens the health and security of American families, while asking the most of low-income seniors and the most vulnerable among us," she said.

Story continues below

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/23/house-gop-proposes-budget_n_865915.html

 

Really?  You’re going to cut food programs?  How about the billions in oil subsidies, the billions in aid to Pakistan, the bridges to nowhere and all the other fluff?  Instead we’re going to cut programs that directly effect people.  We can feed the world, but the GOP wants to cut food programs in the United States.  Are we ever going to put our own people first?  Are we ever going to be more concerned about the health of our own, before we worry about lining our pockets or aiding other countries, which in most cases hate us?  How pathetic!