Posted on 11/11/2015 6:57:11 PM PST by markomalley
Crowds gathered in New Orleans to protest Tuesday against a plan by Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal to reinstate food stamp work-requirements.
The federal government has required work or job training to qualify for benefits since 1996. After the recession, many states were granted waivers that allowed them to ignore the requirements. With the improved economy, several states have decided to not request their waiver be renewed. Louisiana let its waiver expire Oct. 1. The move, however, has faced adamant opposition.
“The Department of Children and Family Services and Governor Jindal do not understand the impact of their policy change,” the protesters said in a letter obtained by The Times-Picayune. “For many, food stamps stand between subsistence and starvation. Taking food out of people’s mouths will neither promote self-sufficiency nor create jobs, but rather only leave entire communities hungry.”
The protest was organized by Stand with Dignity. The group has filed an administrative complaint demanding that state reverse its decision. Protesters note 62,000 state recipients are at risk of losing their benefits. The work-requirements apply to able-bodied adults without children. The job must be at least 20 hours a week and the training must be federally approved. Without the waiver, state residents have three months to comply.
“We continue to seek opportunities for SNAP recipients to increase their self-sufficiency,” Children and Family Services Secretary Suzy Sonnier said in September. “Engaging in work activities is a key step in that transition. We are striving to reduce reliance on public benefits, increase the number of clients participating in education or workforce activities and connect Louisiana employers with ready and willing to work job candidates.”
Not everyone believes ending the waiver is a good idea. Louisiana Budget Project Director Jan Moller argues the decision ignores economic realities.
“Parts of the state that are very rural and very poor with unemployment rates far above the national average, that’s what this waiver was designed to address,” Moller told The Times-Picayune. “There are people who are desperately poor and need help.”
As of June, 44 states have either a waiver or a partial waiver. The food stamp program is officially known as The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Run by The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it is the nation’s largest food-assistance program.
“We’re not talking about a luxury villa and a Cadillac in the driveway,” Moller continued. “Telling people you’re taking food off table for ideological reasons is bad policy and bad economics.”
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the program has increased from 17 million participants in 2000 to nearly 47 million in 2014. The improved economy has helped decrease the number of participants in recent years. Since participation hit its peak in December 2012, the number of people receiving benefits has declined by more than 1.5 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Hunger has been the #1 work motivator for the past...oh...100,000+ years.
John Engler in Michigan did the same thing in the 1980’s. He cut General Assistance to healthy young men. GA was a program that paid them just for breathing.
Breathless announcements of mass casualties were given. At the end of the day, the death toll stood at ZERO
Freeloaders Unite....
New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice
Building worker power, advancing racial justice, and organizing to build a social movement
For more information, CONTACT:
Joleen Elberth, jelberth@nowcrj.org, (504) 881-6647, Immigration Organizer, NOWCRJ’s Congress of Day Laborers
Community Groups Launch 15-Day Fast & File Administrative Complaint to End Gov. Jindal’s Starvation Plan
Posted on November 9, 2015 by Jessica Turner
STAND WITH DIGNITY
NEW ORLEANS WORKERS’ CENTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
MEDIA ADVISORY
Ok.... It certain parts of LA truly have no jobs....I’m sure there are areas that have high unemployment.... Give them a six month work waiver to receive benefits to either move out of state or find a job...
One shot to get your life on track...
Sounds like a win-win to me. If they are so lazy as to not work for food when the food stamps are cut off then let them starve.
Decisions have consequences.
Or send the immigrants in there area there to work to their home countries, so that the natives can have those jobs.
And don’t break up families - send their American born kids go back with them.
Someone should point out to the protesters that according to the Obama Department of Labor we’re now at full employment and experiencing a major economic upswing.
So plenty of jobs out there for the taking.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
Kipling was brilliant.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
Another favorite stanza from that one, for sure.
Extraordinarily politically incorrect today, but so applicable to so many things today, all at once.
After 9/11, I was rather partial to The Grave of the Hundred Head.
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_gravehundred.htm
I am almost willing to bet that at some time between a last meal and starving to death most of these folks will find some kind of meaningful employment,
I don’t know. People will do some downright wild things when they are starving. Labor for food is a time honored barter method that promotes peace and tranquility. Of course robbery, theft and pillaging have been around since man as well I believe. Opposite of peaceful. Here’s a prayer that many more remember what is written in their heart.
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