157 Republicans Vote Against Deficit-Reducing Bill That Gives Free, Healthy Meals To Hungry Kids
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 3rd, 2010 5:38 am by HL
157 Republicans Vote Against Deficit-Reducing Bill That Gives Free, Healthy Meals To Hungry Kids
Well-versed in obstructing help to the hungry, House Republicans first blocked, then voted against the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act yesterday, a bill that “would give more needy children the opportunity to eat free lunches at school and make those lunches healthier.” The Senate passed this bill by unanimous consent in August — essentially a 100-0 […]
Well-versed in obstructing help to the hungry, House Republicans first blocked, then voted against the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act yesterday, a bill that “would give more needy children the opportunity to eat free lunches at school and make those lunches healthier.” The Senate passed this bill by unanimous consent in August — essentially a 100-0 vote in favor of providing school meals to the nation’s 17 million hungry kids.
But 157 House Republicans had a different message for hungry children: get in line. During the House’s first attempt to pass the bill yesterday, Republicans “used a procedural maneuver” to add an amendment requiring background checks for child care workers. Recognizing it as a poison pill, House Democrats delayed the final vote till today rather than allow an amendment to “kill the bill.” The main champion of this tactic Rep. John Kline (R-MN) decried the Hunger-Free Act as a Democratic ploy to increase government spending. On the House floor yesterday, Kline insisted the bill was massive “deficit spending,” dismissing the bill’s offsets as a “stalling tactic that obscures government expansion”:
KLINE: The people are telling us, stop spending money we don’t have…this bill spends another $4.5 billion on various programs and initiatives and creates or expands 17, 17 separate federal programs…The majority claims this bill is paid for. They want us to believe we can grow government with no cost or consequences, but the American people know that’s just not true. More spending is more spending. Whether or not those dollars are offset elsewhere in the massive federal budget, but one offset is particularly questionable. The truth is that, at least some portion of the billions of new program costs is deficit spending. This money was borrowed from our children and grandchildren in 2009 when it was put in the stimulus. That borrowed money is simply being redirected today. It was borrowed then and its borrowed now. This bill with its so-called pay for is merely a stalling tactic. It obscures government expansion in the short-term so this bill can become law and its spending can become permanent.
Watch it:
An equally indignant Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) called the pay-for “a farce!” “It’s a farce, it’s a lie. And it’s borrowing more from our children and this kind of idiocy just has to stop,” he added.
The only “lie” emanating from the House floor yesterday came directly from Kline and Broun. The bill is indeed paid for, unfortunately with offsets from food stamp benefits included in the Recovery Act. Because of the Congressional pay-as-you-go rules that prohibits deficit spending on non-emergency measures, Democrats reluctantly raided much-needed food stamp funds — again — to pay for the Hunger-Free Act. Kline and Broun’s outrage at such a strategy is curious, considering Republicans have pushed the same exact strategy in the past.
Not only is their “deficit spending” cry hypocritical, it is also a downright lie. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the offsets in the Senate bill will actually generate “total savings that effectively meet or exceed costs” while simultaneously providing meals to hungry children. Essentially, 157 Republicans voted to block the holy grail of legislation. The House did, however, pass the bill today and it will now go to the President for signature.
The GOP’s continuing callous treatment of those in need was not lost on Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). “If cutting off unemployment insurance for out-of-work Americans wasn’t enough, House Republicans are now blocking critical legislation to help schools feed thousands of hungry children,” he told ThinkProgress. “Childhood nutrition shouldn’t be a partisan issue. But Congressional Republicans – intent on blocking any progress while President Obama is in office – are willing to put hungry children in the partisan crosshairs.”
ThinkFast: December 2, 2010
Yesterday, the Obama administration announced it will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic Coast through 2017, “reversing two key policy changes the president embraced in late March.” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the decision was “Based on our nation’s experience with the Deepwater Horizon spill” and […]
Yesterday, the Obama administration announced it will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic Coast through 2017, “reversing two key policy changes the president embraced in late March.” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the decision was “Based on our nation’s experience with the Deepwater Horizon spill” and that the U.S. should focus resources on areas that are “currently active.”
Republicans plan to eliminate the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created to examine climate change and cap-and-trade legislation. The committee “was created by Democrats simply to provide political cover to pass their job-killing national energy tax,” a spokesman for presumptive speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said.
Former Vice President Cheney is weighing into the race for the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, sponsoring a fundraiser Tuesday for candidate Maria Cino, a former Bush administration official and Republican strategist.
Former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell joined Obama yesterday in “urging Senate Republicans to quit stalling and vote” on the new START treaty. Referencing a pro-treaty editorial he and other former Republican Secretaries of State are writing for the Washington Post, Powell said START “in no way” constrains U.S. missile defense and that he hopes “the Senate will move quickly” to ratify it.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that if the START treaty is not ratified, Russia may increase its nuclear stockpile instead of decreasing it. During a CNN interview with Larry King that will air tonight, Putin said that if U.S legislators hold up the treaty, showing “a very dumb nature,” then Russia will “have to react somehow.”
Illinois lawmakers yesterday approved legislation allowing civil unions for same-sex couples in the state. Gov. Pat Quinn (D) has indicated that he will sign the measure “making Illinois one of only a handful of states to grant to same-sex couples a broad array of legal rights and responsibilities similar to those of marriage.”
Senate Democrats have introduced the fifth version of the DREAM Act, hoping that new concessions barring illegal immigrants from receiving in-state college tuition and prohibiting anyone from gaining permanent legal status for ten years, among others, will win over moderate Senators. Passage is threatened, however, by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) pledge to filibuster all bills that don’t extend the Bush tax cuts and fund the federal government.
And finally: “The head of the Washington State Potato Commission ended a self-imposed diet of potatoes-only,” which he embarked on in protest of a new USDA rule barring recipients of some food vouchers from using their benefits to purchase white potatoes. While Chris Voigt’s diet was inspired by politics, it also helped him lose more than 20 pounds in two months.
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