WaPo's Twisted Take on Poor People Eating

WaPo's Twisted Take on Poor People Eating
By Jim Naureckas
Mar 27 2014

Sometimes corporate media just come out and tell you what their priorities are. Take a Washington Post story by Reid Wilson (3/26/14) headlined "States Use Farm Bill Loophole to Stem Food Stamp Cuts."

The "loophole" the headline refers to is a provision in food stamp law that gives slightly higher benefits to people who receive state subsidies for heating bills. The law was formerly written so that people who received as little as one dollar in heating aid were eligible for what is known as "heat and eat" aid, and some were giving just that much to some of their needy citizens to qualify them.

The Republican-led House, apparently driven by the conviction that poor people have too much to eat, insisted on making it harder to get these supplementary food stamps, and so the law was changed so that recipients had to receive at least $20 a year in heating aid to qualify. And governors in eight states said they would comply with the law by raising their heating subsidies to that amount.

This completely logical and predictable response to a legislative change is what the Washington Post describes as a "loophole"–and what it quotes Republican House Speaker John Boehner as calling "this cheating and this fraud."

More:
http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/03/27/wapos-twisted-take-on-poor-people-eating/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wapos-twisted-take-on-poor-people-eating