At different times, different people have had different ideas of freedom. The Pilgrims objected to having the dogma of the Church of England imposed on them. They came to the new world for the freedom to impose their own dogma on others. Even at the founding of our nation freedom meant totally different things to the plantation owner and the slave. Roosevelt defined four freedoms: of speech, of worship, from want and from fear. Today’s Republicans offer some strange freedoms: for blacks and others, freedom from voting; for the poor and sick, freedom from life; and for women, freedom from self-determination and reproductive rights. They also offer a Republican freedom for the hungry, as Paul Krugman elucidates.
The word “freedom” looms large in modern conservative rhetoric. Lobbying groups are given names like FreedomWorks [Koch suckers delinked]; health reform is denounced not just for its cost but as an assault on, yes, freedom. Oh, and remember when we were supposed to refer to pommes frites as “freedom fries”?
The right’s definition of freedom, however, isn’t one that, say, F.D.R. would recognize. In particular, the third of his famous Four Freedoms — freedom from want — seems to have been turned on its head. Conservatives seem, in particular, to believe that freedom’s just another word for not enough to eat.
Hence the war on food stamps, which House Republicans have just voted to cut sharply even while voting to increase farm subsidies.
In a way, you can see why the food stamp program — or, to use its proper name, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) — has become a target. Conservatives are deeply committed to the view that the size of government has exploded under President Obama but face the awkward fact that public employment is down sharply, while overall spending has been falling fast as a share of G.D.P. SNAP, however, really has grown a lot, with enrollment rising from 26 million Americans in 2007 to almost 48 million now.
Conservatives look at this and see what, to their great disappointment, they can’t find elsewhere in the data: runaway, explosive growth in a government program. The rest of us, however, see a safety-net program doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: help more people in a time of widespread economic distress… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Photo credit: Pinterest
Krugman goes on to explain how the increase in SNAP utilization is not because of runaway spending, as Republican’s claim, but because of runaway need, due to the Republican Recession. He provides a detailed explanation of the program and how it benefits all Americans, not just recipients. I urge you to click through and read the rest. Finally I agree with him that the reason Republicans have done this is only because they are mean-spirited class-warriors.
31 Responses to “A Republican Freedom”
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I know how much I depended on Food Stamps at one time, even though they only gave me $18 a month. Supply-side Christians like those RepubliCons in Congress do NOT care about whether people can eat or not. They care only about themselves and their Corporate Masters. This Farm Bill is a joke! The only farms it helps are the huge conglomerates.
Speaking of jokes, my Congressman is one of the biggest ones. He lives in a farming community but the farmers don't matter to him. The fact that we are also one of the poorest areas in NY state is another thing furthest from his mind.
I totally agree Patty!
Amen Patty. Thanks for making this personal.
God bless Paul Krugman and all like him! He is always so lucid and wise – and correct! The fact that there are 48 million Americans who need the safety net that is SNAP really should make the policy makers think hard – but alas there is no-one like FDR (and his excellent wife Eleanor) to help American and its people out of this terrible mess.
Patently the policy makers on both sides of the Pond haven't heard or listened to the phrase 'There, but for the grace of God, go I….'.
Amen Pat!
I want Paul Krugman for Economic Tzar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then maybe we could get a fair shake for our economy and for frikken JOBS!!!!!!!! The Fascist Bastards never EVER discuss the real reason behind 46+ million Americans having to use SNAP, do they. Because that was the very center of what they ran on in 2010 and 2012 to get elected and since then NOT ONE JOB or, Dawg forbid, ONE useful JOBS BILL. Where the f*** are they???????????? DECENT JOBS….WHERE ARE THEY you sorry-assed POS Fascist frikken Bastages…..where are they?
Oh, I lasped for a momnet, they are in CHINA, INDIA, POINTS OTHER THAN USA…..and they aren't that great of pay there either.
I wish we could stop their salaries up there on the hill. I wish we could stop their tax-payer paid healther care. I wish we could force them to live (read as exist) on the average SNAP payment and welfare payment. I wish we could only pay the MILLIONAIRES in CONGRESS one dollar a year in salary and NO PERKS. Damn, they make me ILL.
Ok rant over.
Terrie, I totally agree with you. Their annual salary of $174,000 plus free health care, plus what the lobbyists give them removes them from the rest of us. They need to be brought down to earth with the rest of the country
Kudos on a most excellent rant!
I can get in a high dudgeon sometimes!
As can we all!
RepubliKKKans have a long and ignominious history of conflating food stamps with racism.
It at least goes back to St. Ronnie Raygun who shared his anger with shoppers who saw a "strapping young buck" buy steaks using food stamps. And now we have Rand Paul equating food stamps with slavery.
What planet did this guy come from???
What planet did Rand Paul come from?
Wayyyy too easy: Uranus
Good one. andCruz is making Rand look better!
I doubt if anything that foul ever came out of Uranus or anybody else's for that matter.
Dang Nameless! Great minds really do fall in the same ditch! You'll love tomorrows cartoon, which was finished before I say your comment. 🙂
The Economic distress created by the same people that oppose Food Stamps…
Excellent point, Richard!
The definition of freedom from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
1: the quality or state of being free
a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another
c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous
I see nothing of the true meaning of freedom in anything that the Republicanus/Teabaggers do or propose. What's more, I don't think that they have the moral capability, nor desire, to understand true freedom. And they certainly don't understand the responsibility that comes with freedom.
For the Republicanus/Teabaggers, freedom means 'what I and the party want regardless of what you want or need. My freedom is my ability to control you'.
So what kind of freedom is this when the Republicanus/Teabaggers cut $4 billion per year for 10 years from the SNAP budget when "…almost two-thirds of SNAP beneficiaries are children, the elderly or the disabled, and most of the rest are adults with children."? That is their freedom to control others and keep them subservient.
It also contributes to society by ensuring children get enough to eat to allow them to learn better, and by keeping people working. I read a short while ago that for every $1 of SNAP benefits, $1.17 or more goes back into the economy. No SNAP for those that need it, slower economy.
Very well said and documented Lynn. That it helps the economy is enough reason for Republicans to oppose it.
In reviewing the Republican legislative agenda during the Obama Administration, I fail to find even one instance where legislation proposed (or opposed) by Republicans wouldn't result in premature death for thousands or hundreds of thousands of marginalized citizens if the legislation tips in Republican favor. Is the Republican goal to cull the population? It's getting increasingly difficult to argue otherwise.
Exactly!
Amen!
Great point, Phil!! 🙂 Please be sure to see my reply to your comment a couple days ago.
I may be a little biased as I spent two years as a Food Stamp Social worker when Food stamps first started. The people I worked with were either elderly or down on their luck and the program gave them a leg up. The people on Food Stamps now, at least the majority, are people who have worked all their lives andnever dreamed they would need government assistance. The "Wefare Queen" that the Republicans invented is really a person who used to be middle class who lost her job after 8 years of government by George Bush and the blasted Tea Party.
I remember when, after 24 years with the same bank, I was restructured out. I had to go to the unemployment office to register. I dressed as if I were going to work and then drove to the centre. I was so distraught that I had a major anxiety attack right there. When I got up to the service desk, I was asked to fill out a form but I was so anxious, I was trembling and could not work. The clerk told me to take the form home and get my family to help. When I said I had no family to help, she filled it out and I signed it. I was finally in tears at my inability to keep things together and at being unemployed for the very first time in my life. I survived and restructuring has happened 2 more times since. It really sucks. For those who have to ask for help just to put food on the table, I can sympathise in my own way. I wish these bloody Republicanus/Teabaggers had to go through what so many others do. Maybe then they might, MIGHT, begin to understand that most people don't want to ask for help but have to, especially if they have young children.
Nothing I can say can illustrate the need as well as the two of you just did.
Rand Paul would make an excellent CEO for …..MONSATAN!
Archie, we have an OIpen Thread here every day. Please post off-topic commenth there.
And what you went through is typical of most every one who has to apply for help. Sadly, some bureaucrats never understand this.
Amen, Edie!