Hungry for tax cuts, House GOP would slash food aid

I took a few days off over the Memorial Day weekend for my wedding and tried not to worry about the grim headlines, most of them generated by one man:

President Trump, shoving a European prime minister.

Trump, picking fights with Germany and France and destabilizing the seven-decade-old NATO alliance.
Trump, tweeting late-night gibberish — “covfefe” — as investigators probing the Russia scandal queried more members of his inner circle.

Perhaps the most upsetting headline I saw, though, was generated not by Trump but by a 10-year veteran of the House Republican majority. In an astonishing interview Saturday on NPR, this lawmaker repeatedly demurred when asked whether Americans are entitled to the most basic human need.

NPR’s Scott Simon, a genial interviewer, asked Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska, a member of the Ways and Means Committee and an influential figure on agriculture policy, about Trump’s proposal to make vast cuts to food stamps. Smith posited that the program could be cut in ways that “do not harm the most vulnerable.”

http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/milbank-hungry-for-tax-cuts-house-gop-would-slash-food-aid/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=9c67b638a7-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-9c67b638a7-228635337