Re: the headline, “Debt deal imposes new work requirements for food aid” (June 4): What could be a more descriptive difference between the terms “conservative” and “liberal” than a sticking point in compromise over food aid to the poor or the just-hanging-on?
The debt deal had to do with U.S. money already spent. Democrats had a struggle with some able-bodied recipients not receiving food aid. This point almost led to the talks breaking down several times. The result came down to “square cutting access to food for marginalized communities.”
A House representative was at one time among the most vulnerable among us. Rep. Cori Bush was living in the family car with her husband and two children after eviction from their rental home. The federal aid they qualified for, sometimes as little as $6 per day, would buy groceries. That was before she ran for office and was elected.
According to news articles, food aid is the largest program in our country that focuses on fighting hunger. Last year the number was 41 million.
A typical conservative comment on such a number would be to condemn the “able-bodied” as people too lazy to work. That way of thinking is a mind-set.
How many conservatives examine the truth? It’s easier for all of us to believe something based on past thinking that may be outdated, changed and actually unexamined. That kind of thinking can be a mindset like the former president’s idea that he can declassify government documents by merely thinking about them. Or one could find news reports with questionable figures and stories about the most vulnerable that agrees with one’s thinking.
Is there abuse in such programs? Surely there is. But to what extent?
Fraud can be manufactured in reportage. We all could point to frequent examples, some so strong that after months of the ex-president’s claims he can declassify by “thinking,” some couples interviewed by reporters believe he can and did. Believe long enough — mindset. Believe long enough, repeat it often enough, there was fraud in the last presidential election.
But what if food aid programs benefited many folks long enough to make it? To find a foothold from abject poverty to steps to rise to run for Congress?
Not everyone on food stamps may achieve that, but maybe make it long enough to find work to at least put food on the table.
The same news piece states, “Republicans have tried for decades to expand work requirements for these government assistance programs, arguing they result in more people returning to the workforce, despite several studies that have found they have little impact on employment.” That doesn’t have to do with a mindset about the problem. It has to do with truth.
Shirley Rickett
Alamo
Will EVs
tax grid?
Because of the intense heat we are urged not to use our dishwashers and washing machines during certain hours and to turn up the thermostats on our air conditioners to conserve energy. As we acquire electric cars, how do we recharge them if our power grid is already threatened?
Caroline Steele
Harlingen
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