Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie: The opting out is especially wild Like, Republican governors are being actively presented with money to feed kids and affirmatively saying 'I would like children to starve actually' (Also, if I'm a Dem campaigner, I'm making some ads and placing some op eds about this immediately)

The opting out is especially wild Like, Republican governors are being actively presented with money to feed kids and affirmatively saying 'I would like children to starve actually' (Also, if I'm a Dem campaigner, I'm making some ads and placing some op eds about this immediately)

The governors of a dozen Republican-led states — AL, AK, FL, GA, IA, MS, OK, SC, SD, TX, UT, WY — opted out of a new federal food assistance program, leaving about 9.5 million students without the aid this summer

Republican-led states are blocking summer food benefits for hungry familieswww.usatoday.com Money for food is especially tight for families in a dozen states where Republican lawmakers declined to accept federal food assistance.

I'm now wondering if there's any way to rewrite or reinterpret whatever provision created this program to ignore states entirely and connect directly with organizations doing food assistance work in those states -- I'm sure they would welcome the funds

As a progressive county-level official, I regret to inform you the answer is no. We already reached out to USDA.

Damn! And thank you for sharing that information. What was the legal reason they gave?

We asked back in February and received this response late March.

But please keep up with creative thinking! My governing philosophy in the face of a spiteful State is that of malicious compliance.

Hell yeah brother

I think one option might be to direct funds to FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP), the funds go from there directly to nonprofit food and shelter orgs

Wonder what is legal reason states can opt out? Before (execrable) Roberts’ ACA decision, I thought the rule was you have to take all of a fed program, like Medicaid, or highway funds, or reject it all.

Thank you so much for checking

We must try.

With this Supreme Court? I’ve seen this movie before, sadly

I'm trying to see a sequel where they do it anyway regardless of what the Court does

Well they did just make Joe Biden king…

And why on earth would they not allow a pass-through so they don't have to dirty their hands feeding hungry children. It's pretty hard to believe there are people this cravenly sadistic. You'd think they'd do it just to grift/steal off of administering it.

The governor of Nebraska (whom I despise) actually got enough pushback to change his mind about rejecting these funds. nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/05/06/o...

Once-controversial Summer EBT food program for low-income NE kids set for rollout • Nebraska Examinernebraskaexaminer.com The once-controversial Summer EBT food program for low-income NE kids moves forward with federal approval of rollout.

...There it is...

Welfare for me, not for thee! More fun facts: His pork processing plant received a $25 million federal grant. Jim Pillen's net worth is estimated to be $221 million as of 2022.

Oh, yeah. He’s a piece of work.

Another fun fact: Pillen was the hand-selected successor to former governor Pete Ricketts, who once ran for senator and lost. He was term-limited as gov, but lucky for him! His buddy Ben Sasse vacated the seat just as he was leaving the governor's mansion. www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/p...

Nebraska Gov. Pillen appoints Pete Ricketts to Sasse’s Senate seat | CNN Politicswww.cnn.com Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Thursday said he is appointing former Gov. Pete Ricketts to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Republican Ben Sasse’s resignation.

Minnesota funded free school lunch statewide and when the GOP complains the governor’s office releases more photos of Tim Walz surrounded by delighted schoolchildren.

It’s like filling in the pools.

It is exactly, but health care and now fucking food.

Yep, North Carolina refused to expand Medicaid for years. It still pisses me off.

Texas and many others, too, all under the guise that they're trying to states' rights out of coercive federalism.

Money COLLECTED FROM THEIR CITIZENS that will now be spent on kids in less regressive states.

They hate helping the needy so much that they would rather throw it away. And for things like helping homeless people, they would rather lose MORE money punishing people than it would cost to help them.

No don't worry, these states are still net negative contributors to federal tax revenue.

With a few exceptions, money collected from bluer states, that will now stay there.

100% they aren't accepting the funding so they can turn around and campaign on ineffective social programs or blame it on immigrants and their base and media will fail to call them on it.

Maybe, but it's more straightforward than that: Remember how mad Republicans were getting when the government started slinging stimulus checks? It was because they didn't want people to realize that, legally, the government can just throw cash at people at any time, no sweat.

IE, Republicans are terrified of the salt of the earth realizing that there's actually nothing stopping the federal government from radically improving their lives ... except ... Republicans.

They explicitly fear (and say so) that if the government gives people money to meet needs, then people are going decide it's a reasonable thing to vote to take away Republicans money and give it to everyone else.

Like, this horror of "spending someone else's money" and the assumption that it is going to be Those People spending My Money is a core part of the rhetoric about why democracy is bad in general.

They’re terrified people will demand the government start subsidizing their lives instead of the corporations they work for.

One of the few things I had long planned to write a blog or whatever about, but I was slow and lazy and @lolgop.bsky.social did it first. These sickos are unable to imagine anyone deserving to eat unless someone else deserves to starve. www.theframelab.org/yes-republic...

Yes, Republicans really believe in starving kidswww.theframelab.org What GOP states' cruel rejection of lunch for poor kids reveals about the right-wing brain. And how to fight it

Remember the Bible story where Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world? And he resists temptation? When they refuse funding for school meals, healthcare, etc, they feel good. Virtuous. They resisted our temptation. That's the dynamic

Fundamentalists taking fundamentally the wrong lessons from Sunday school.

I also love this story because it reminds me that Lucifer killed exactly 0 people in the Bible. And he appears like all of 4 times. Guess who actually kills A FUCKTON of people?

The bit in Job, where Satan clearly works for God as an agent provocateur, is quite something, in that line.

Oh Job is my favorite. God makes a bet with Satan (how many ethical crimes is that?), then kills a man's family based upon that bet, then tortures said dude for awhile, and in exchange for Job being a good little boy, he swaps in a new family for him. Women / children are interchangeable, you see.

💯

Excepts the sociopaths and the people who see others as undeserving

Food for kids makes them smarter & more successful later in life. It’s such a no-brainer!

... and thus, less likely to vote Republican.

Naturally

Any time that these Repub govs talk about how much they care about kids, remind them of the childhood poverty rates in their state. (The data is available on the Census site, specifically ACS data).

There’s a piece of this that is about their long term campaign to make people feel that government can’t get anything done/can’t help/can’t do anything good - if you take the money and feed the kids you give away the game

As a public sch teacher who has worked in Title 1 schls, I can’t tell you how imp meals are to kids that are food insecure. They show up early to get breakfast and eat any lunch that is given. They may not have any other meals. They sometimes get food to take home for the weekends through charity.

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