Cruelty, thou art without a doubt a Republican

Refusing federal money to feed children is the pinnacle of Republican assholery

Let’s be assholes and enjoy the life.

• M.F. Moonzajer

He simply does not possess the emotional capacity to comprehend how his actions affect others.

• Mary Jo Buttafuoco, Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned, and What Millions of People Involved with Sociopaths Need to Know

Making sure children don’t go hungry shouldn’t be a controversial subject, especially when it comes to schools. Hungry children don’t learn well when their stomachs grumble, so it makes sense to ensure that children who may not come from stable home situations begin their day with something in their bellies.

It’s also just a decent and compassionate thing to do. No one, especially children, should go hungry, and if our schools can help alleviate that problem, we should fund programs to alleviate hunger. It’s a decent thing to do, no?

The cost for such programs is minimal. Besides, we roll more than $2 BILLION through the front door of the Pentagon every freakin’ day, rain or shine. So, spending a few bucks per kid during summer months to stem hunger should be a no-brainer, right?

Parents in 35 states will be able to breathe a little easier this summer when it comes to feeding their children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Wednesday that children in those states, along with all U.S. territories and four Native American tribes, will benefit from a federal program that will dole out food assistance to low-income families while school is out.

But 15 Republican governors chose not to sign up for the program, which would provide up to $120 per school-age child for each month of summer, supplementing the free or reduced-price lunches they receive during the school year. The governors’ choice will leave an estimated 8 million children less certain that there will be enough for them to eat each day. There’s something particularly cruel about a decision to willfully deprive millions of parents the comfort of knowing that their child won’t go to bed hungry.

I can’t even begin to fathom the rationale behind turning down what, in effect, is free money for the states. This decision, besides being cruel, would have to be filed under “Why ya gotta be an asshole?”

It takes a special kind of sociopath to be so devoted to an inhuman ideology that you couldn’t see your way clear to looking after the well-being of children in your state. Especially when you, as Governor, wouldn’t have to worry about taking money out of your state’s budget.

Why ya gotta be an asshole about such a simple, easy-to-understand, and compassionate thing to do? Seriously?

Explain it to me like I’m a recalcitrant two-year-old.

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children, or Summer EBT, is an outgrowth of a food security program launched during the Covid-19 pandemic. The bipartisan budget deal struck in 2022 made the program permanent, providing funding for parents with incomes below the federal poverty line to receive $40 per month for each kid in school. The USDA said on Wednesday that it estimates that the program will “serve close to 21 million children, providing a total of nearly $2.5 billion in grocery benefits” starting in June.

This kind of policy should seem like a slam-dunk for any state politician. Summer EBT is fully federally funded, requires no buy-in from state governments, and augments other assistance like summer meal programs and private food banks. Yet the GOP-led administrations in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Struggle as I might to wrap my pointy li’l head around the sheer, thoughtless cruelty behind refusing an opportunity to ensure that children don’t go hungry, I can’t understand the cruel, sociopathic nature of 15 GOP Governors being assholes.

Why ya gotta be an asshole?

Their varying reasons for rejecting the funding, as reported by The Washington Post, are even more baffling:

The governors have given varying reasons for refusing to take part, from the price tag to the fact that the final details of the plan have yet to be worked out. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said she saw no need to add money to a program that helps food-insecure youths “when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.” Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) said bluntly, “I don’t believe in welfare.”

Childhood obesity has become an epidemic, in part, because children on the lower end of the economic spectrum are too often reduced to eating whatever they can. That usually means it’s ultra-processed and high in sugar, fat, and calories.

Eating a healthy diet is far more expensive than a diet heavy on ultra-processed foods. If Gov. Reynolds could be bothered to do a little research instead of demonizing those on the lower end of the socio-economic scale, she’d understand that. But, as with most Republicans, it’s easier to traffic in stereotypes rather than facts…and to be an insensitive, poorly-informed asshole.

As for the smug, self-superior “I don’t believe in welfare” declaration, that’s all well and good, but ensuring that children are fed isn’t welfare. It’s helping to ensure that children remain healthy, grow normally, and learn on par with their peers.

Here’s a thought: Early investment in the health and well-being of children can help ensure their later health and well-being. You don’t need a Ph.D. in child…well, anything…to understand that.

If we can bomb Houthi camps in Yemen without generating controversy, shouldn’t we be able to feed potentially at-risk children over the summer for $120 per month per child? It’s not like anyone’s talking about giving each child a cruise missile each week; we’re talking about a few bologna sandwiches, some fruit, and a few cartons of milk. Nothing extravagant.

But assholes gonna asshole, and sociopaths gonna sociopath, right? So, of course, Republicans are going to make it sound as if kids are getting “FREE STUFF!!!!”

And, as any REAL, God-fearing, White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual KNOWS in their heart of hearts, “FREE STUFF!!!!” is Satan’s Own Gateway to “SOCIALISMO O MUERTO!!!!”

That’s definitely one way to frame keeping money out of the pockets of parents struggling to make ends meet. Contrary to Republicans’ dismissiveness, food insecurity rates have risen as pandemic-era programs have ended, according to the USDA. Roughly 17 million families faced food insecurity at some point in 2022, 3.5 million more than in 2021.

The data for 2023 has yet to be compiled and released, but 2024 is shaping up to have an even sharper uptick in hunger if Congress doesn’t act soon. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — better known as WIC — faces a funding shortfall as more families sign up for the aid program. A short-term federal spending bill that passed in November provided $6 billion in WIC funding for the year, but a report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities last month warned that the USDA might still be more than $1 billion short.

I don’t know; you can call me silly if you choose, but I’ve always believed that Job One of government is to care for those it governs. Of course, I understand that some on the Far-Right believe that Job One is to support and maintain the superiority of White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals and the oligarchy. Sadly for them, that truly ISN’T the primary responsibility of any government body, though that might change if Donald Trump wins in November.

Why ya gotta be an asshole?

But, seriously, y’all…what kind of monster objects to ensuring that at-risk youth are fed? Well, I’ll see you that question and raise you 15 Republican Governors, who…well, I’m not going to pretend to get inside their heads and attribute reasons to them. Those aren’t paths down which I’d care to travel.

Nothing good can come from such a journey….

As food prices spiked last year, WIC participation grew to over 6.6 million mothers and young children. The New York Times reports that without an infusion of funding from Congress, states will likely only have enough money to provide full benefits through the end of March to the more than half of infants in the U.S. that receive them. After that, states may be forced to add parents to a waiting list for benefits for the first time in 30 years.

Normally this would be an easy bipartisan fix. But House Republicans have insisted on major cuts to federal spending and many would prefer to keep funding for food security programs flat, at best, even as more people have clearly needed help. Some have been even eyeing rolling back an expansion of WIC benefits to pre-pandemic levels despite rising food costs.

The rejection of the Summer EBT funding and skepticism toward fully funding WIC are a perfect representation of GOP policymaking. While talk about reining in spending may sound prudent and responsible in the abstract, the result is policies that make it harder for families to raise their children. Conservatives may pride themselves on being supposedly “pro-family,” but in reality, their unwillingness to help families in need makes the Republican Party platform nothing less than pro-child hunger.

Yeah, for a party that traditionally makes a lot of noise about being “pro-family,” these 15 Republican Governors are a perfect representation of GOP policymaking and priorities.

Why ya gotta be an asshole? Why? Because gratuitous cruelty is the one thing on which all Republicans can agree.

American war-making capabilities are designed and funded so that our military can conduct two theaters of war in far-flung parts of the world. Congress spares no expense to ensure that the Pentagon has everything it needs and then some. Providing for the defense of the homeland is part of Congress’ responsibility…but so is caring for the PEOPLE who are part of the homeland.

What’s the point of being able to blow up a base in Yemen, Syria, or Newfoundland if we refuse to care for those here at home, especially when that responsibility can be met for a fraction of the cost?

It does look like the GOP is the “pro-child hunger” party, and that generalized, abstract cruelty is part and parcel of the Republican philosophy. Republicans don’t care who they hurt; there’s no reason why they would. Not when their overall philosophy is “Fuck ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out.”

Why ya gotta be an asshole? Because it’s the game the entire party can play.

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