There are people for hunger?

I am glad to see the House trying to cut the budget. We need to help people become responsible for themselves. As long as we hand out sacks of cash, they won't.

Reuters: House votes to cut $700 mln in food stamps---

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to cut $700 million from the food stamp program, despite objections from antihunger groups complaining that estimates show some 235,000 people would lose benefits.

The House bill, which also trimmed other social programs for the poor in an effort to reduce federal spending by $50 billion, was narrowly approved 217-215.

House and Senate negotiators now must write a final, compromise version of legislation to pare federal spending over five years. The Senate did not touch food stamps in its version of a $35 billion budget-cutting bill.

Food stamps, the major U.S. antihunger program, help poor people buy food. Some 25.8 million Americans received food stamps in a program run by the U.S. Agriculture Department. (emphasis added)

"Anti-hunger" groups??? Are there "pro-hunger" groups? I know Democrats like to accuse us of being so, but we aren't.

Food stamps aren't the only things that allow poor people to buy food. We have food banks, schools and organizations have food drives, and private charities help people out.

There are certainly plenty of people who use food stamps and buy things that middle class people can only afford on sale or for very special occasions. I have often seen "food stamp" people use their (what should be borrowed) food stamp money to purchase great cuts of beef, all sorts of junk food, and other specialty items that they have no business buying.

Sure, there are people who genuinely need the help, but many people abuse the system. That's wrong and we need to change the system, cut the amount of money given, and put limits on what people can buy. And no cash back either.

The goal, for everyone on food stamps, ought to be to work toward personal responsibility and a job that enables that person to buy his own food. Then, all the money that individual has used from the government ought to be paid back with interest, just like I have to do with my federal student loans.

House Republican leaders say the cuts are only a sliver of food stamp spending that runs more than $35 billion a year.
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Under the House plan, roughly 165,000 people now automatically enrolled in food stamps when they get assistance from welfare programs would lose food stamps. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said these were mostly working families with children.

States would have the option to continue offering free school lunches to families cut off of food stamps. The Center on Budget said it was unlikely all states would do so.

The House proposal also would require 70,000 legal immigrants in most cases to wait seven years to become eligible for food stamps, rather than the current five years. That brings the total number of people affected by the plan to 235,000.

The food stamp program costs $35 billion a year???? That's outrageous.

I daresay, this cut is only in the increase in the food stamp budget, not the actual amount that has previously been given out.

Perhaps the "anti-hunger" groups should make up the difference.

(Curtsy to Drudge)