DES MOINES – Iowa Republicans just want everyone working and not freeloading, and in a cruel, deliberate stroke against the hungry and poor amongst us, advanced a bill to cut their access to fresh meats grains, beans, cheese, and more.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is federally-funded program to make sure poor people and kids can eat. The state covers half the cost to administer the federal funds. For whatever reason, these people don’t have the means to eat right. Maybe they are on drugs, lazy, mentally or physically incapable of work, too many kids, or game the system. SNAP fills their bellies. They do have to apply and get approved to be in the program. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 286,100 Iowa residents, or 9% of the state population (1 in 11) were assisted by SNAP in 2021.
However, Iowa Republicans are framing the issue as a way to slash the state budget – which has billions in surplus. Some think it’s a way to push people into the workforce – there are plenty of “now hiring” signs all over the Hawkeye state. Some say the jobs don’t fill up because, in general, these jobs suck. Others say it’s because folks are lazy. Why should the neighborhood Burger King close at 8 PM due to staff shortages? If you want a Whopper at 9 o’clock, by God, you are entitled to it. Some slovenly teen should be in the kitchen to slather mayor on the buns, slap that meat between them, place that bad boy in a box and shoot it out the drive-up window with a huge smile on his face as he collects $8.25 an hour – and not a penny more, because you like your Whopper as cheap as possible.
Up to 300,000 Iowans are facing food insecurity, and one-third of that number are children, Democrats say. Some tell them to look to our glorious past, before pesky labor unions and child labor laws. “America was once great, and it should be, again,” these pious Christians scream into their TV as Tucker Carlson’s words of wisdom infiltrate their souls, brushing Chips Ahoy crumbs off their XXL t-shirts. As NIT reported last November, kids are working in factories in Nebraska and Minnesota, so why not in Iowa? Everyone should be doing their fair share so America’s capitalist system hums along at full capacity.
Read about the Republican plan in their bill, here.
