No matter how callous and disreputable the GOP's acts, Fox News will always be there to back them up. We've been covering the cuts to the SNAP program and other entitlements all week, but after watching Fox news cover the same story, I had to reply since they relish it when Americans suffer.
Brad Blakeman is the typical Fox News pundit that spreads lies and disinformation on almost anything that benefits average working class Americans, including the Poors. Here he is, equating the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that many Americans need to survive, to drug dealers and addicts. Gretchen actually makes the case that making drastic cuts to SNAP will be able to help root out fraud in the system. Is she on whacky weed?
Gretchen: Brad, are these cuts the right thing to do so we can root out this fraud?
Blakeman: You bet and we should not only be looking at food stamps, but every entitlement. Faud, abuse and mismanagement is rife in America.
Here's Media Matters: Dishonest Claims To Defend GOP's Food Stamp Cuts
Fox News rushed to defend a GOP plan to cut $39 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), misportraying the program as riddled with fraud and abuse and downplaying the effects those cuts would have on families with children. In reality, fraud amounts to less than 1 percent of the total program, and the cuts would take benefits away from 3.8 million people*.
MM's whole piece is worth the read even though using facts to debate a Fox News follower is pretty pointless.
Brad Blakeman says the people who need SNAP really aren't in need, but are instead 'dependent' on government handouts like a hopeless drunk swilling Sterno.
Blakeman: The fact that so many are in need -- no it's not a need, it's a dependency when government should be freeing people up and giving them work, instead of a drug dealer, they are giving them dependency that they don't need.
With the sequester, Republicans are cutting federal jobs that people need, right, Brad? Freeing people up to starve and die is the effect of what Blakeman is promoting.
The NY Times reports that these draconian cuts to the SNAP program will not only hurt millions of people, but will hurt the nation's economy as well.
Starting Friday, millions of Americans receiving food stamps will be required to get by with less government assistance every month, a move that not only will cost them money they use to feed their families but is expected to slightly dampen economic growth as well.
The Republican-controlled House version of the farm billproposes cutting $39 billion from the program over the next decade; the Democratic-controlled Senate would cut $4 billion over the same period.
The food stamp cuts scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 1 will reduce spending by $5 billion in the 2014 fiscal year, and another $6 billion over the 2015 and 2016 fiscal years. They are expected to shave 0.2 percentage point from annualized consumption growth in the fourth quarter of 2013 and trim an estimated 0.1 percentage point off the annual growth rate of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to estimates by Michael Feroli, the chief United States economist at JPMorgan Chase.
Those drags may seem small, but right now, projections for gains in fourth-quarter gross domestic product hover around an annual rate of just 2 percent.
“This could potentially affect consumption of food as well as nonfood items, as individuals may maintain the same food intake but reduce spending on other items,” Mr. Feroli said.
Republican don't care about jobs, the economy, healthcare, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They only care about abortion rights and destroying the federal government enough so the free markets can be able to do what they want with no regulations. It's sad and I wish the media would stop pretending otherwise.
