House votes to cut food stamps

“House votes to cut food stamps”

– Austin American Statesman (A1), 9-20-13 

 

2.      Category: Economy

3.      Level: National

4.      A potential policy that is being considered to help a problem/issue that individuals/families face

5.      This article is important to both individuals and families because of the rate of poverty in this country. Food stamps are a means to end hunger, especially hunger in young children who cannot work in order to make money for food.

6.       The house of representatives has voted to cut food stamps in order to get Americans back on their working feet. Hurray… right? It seems ideal; to stop spoiling lazy Americans who aren’t working and make them work for a living. But what about those families who ARE working and still can’t make ends meet. What about the children who CAN’T work? Are these people just supposed to starve? Sure, cutting food stamps would save the government a ton of money that would just go towards our ever-growing debt, but in the end it would just end up putting more families (and children) into poverty. In my eyes, something should definitely be done; however, cutting this government aid would do more harm than good. Noted in the article, states would be allowed to require recipients to be drug tested, and to stop lottery winners from receiving benefits. The first requirement seems ideal from keeping those who abuse the aid from doing so; however, as Florida has discovered, it simply isn’t worth it. The latter of the two requirements stumps me, though. People who have won the lottery have actually still qualified for food stamps? That just angers me! I understand you pay taxes into your winnings, but you still don’t have enough money to get you back on your feet? That in itself is the epitome of laziness. It is definitely disheartening to see people at the grocery stores caring around designer purses and wearing expensive clothes, only to pay for their groceries with food stamps. I do not believe these people make up the majority of that in poverty, though. By cutting this federal aid, there would be more people considered below the poverty line.