In the fiscal cliff negotiations,
Republicans want food stamps to be on the table. And that could mean that a lot of families won’t have anything on the table. Watch out—everything that the Republicans want to put on the table is going to be taken off of somebody else’s table. Guys, if people are working, and don’t have enough money to eat, then we don’t have a problem with food stamps—we have a problem with wages.
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is taking the lead in the Republican assault on food stamps. Well, they had to pick someone who wasn’t at all overweight—a fat guy attacking food stamp recipients would have made for some very embarrassing visuals. Sessions says that the food stamp program is “out of control.” Odd, that the party that wants to allow guns anywhere and everywhere thinks that the thing that is “out of control” in this country is food!
Sessions was on CNN with Soledad O’Brien, who pointed out that 61 percent of households in Alabama have children who are recipients of food programs. But if you’re thinking that Jeff Sessions is cutting a program his constituents need, you have to remember that, in Jeff Sessions’ mind, he doesn’t represent those 61 percent of Alabamans. Republicans may have contempt for 47 percent of Americans, but in poorer states like Alabama, they have to hike it up to having contempt for 61 percent of the people.
Speaking of states gone bad, what the hell is happening with Michigan, passing all of these crazy rightwing laws? Michigan is going Mississippi! This is a lame duck legislature, but the one that’s coming in will still be Republican controlled, just not by as much. So they don’t have to do all the crazy stuff now—just the really crazy stuff. Just when Detroit is coming back, Republicans want to send all of Michigan back... to the 1920’s.
After denying rights to workers, the next thing on the Michigan Republican’s “to do” list is to
deny reproductive rights to women. So if you’re a woman and a worker in Michigan, that’s strike two. Some of the requirements are clearly meant just to punish the woman. After all, whenever there’s an unwanted pregnancy, the woman is the one who did it, right? One bill requires that remains of a fetus over 10 weeks old must be disposed of by burial, interment, or cremation. Who is behind this—the mausoleum builders lobby? Why don’t they just mandate a funeral service as well?
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