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Opinion: GOP Budget Cuts Will Cost Us in the Long Run
By not in system - AOL NewsIf human capital is the wealth of nations, the House GOP's proposed federal budget will leave us poorer. Economists know that what separates wealthy and poor countries is not simply their natural resources like oil and minerals, but their human capacities, like initiative and ingenuity. Many Americans fear that our status in the world is slipping. Another View on Spending Cuts Who Has the Courage to Lead on Spending Cuts? -- Gretchen Hamel, executive director, Public Notice In that context, the last thing we should do is accept the GOP's proposed federal budget ...
Report: 45 Million Americans Went Hungry in 2009
By Dave Thier - AOL News(Nov. 16) -- Last year "food insecurity" amongst Americans remained at the highest levels it has ever been since the government began monitoring hunger fifteen years ago, according to a new federal report. Despite the fact that recession appeared to be easing in some places around the country, authorities classified about 45 million Americans as "food insecure" during 2009, and about 6.8 million as having "very low food security." "This is unthinkable. It's like we are living in a Third World country," food relief organization Feeding America president Vicky Escarra told the Washington ...
Opinion: Proposed Soda Ban Is a Bitter Pill
By not in system - AOL News
(Oct. 18) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently submitted a proposal to bar his city's food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy soda or other sugared drinks. Since becoming mayor, Bloomberg has launched a number of initiatives to improve New Yorkers' diets, including banning the use of trans fats in restaurants and requiring that restaurants post their foods' calorie counts. The sugared drink ban is another step in that effort, intended to fight obesity. There's nothing wrong with wanting taxpayer money to be spent on healthy diets. However, it's unlikely that ...
Proposed Food Stamp Soda Ban Leaves a Sour Taste
By Mara Gay - AOL News
(Oct. 7) -- Kathleen Castillo already eats her vegetables. So when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today proposed banning the use of food stamps to buy soda and other sugary drinks, she was a little put off. "I'm offended because, you know, it just seems like they want to pick on the people that don't have anything, people who are relying on food stamps to make changes in their lives," 24-year-old Castillo, who uses food stamps, told AOL News in a phone interview today. "But at the same time it's probably for the better. Those drinks are keeping the population in a vicious cycle of ...
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Wants Ban on Food Stamp Use for Soft Drinks
By Tom Diemer - Politics DailyIn New York they call it "soda," not pop, not a soft drink. Call it what you like, if Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets his way, NYC residents won't be able to use food stamps to buy many of their favorite carbonated beverages or other sugary drinks. The request, made Wednesday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, would apply to 1.7 million food stamp recipients in the city's five boroughs for an experimental two-year period. It's part of a nutrition push by the mayor that also includes advertisements, rules for food sold in schools and a failed bid to get a state tax on sugared drinks, the New ...
Number of Americans Accepting Government Aid Soars
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyOne in six Americans are relying on government anti-poverty programs to help them weather the lingering recession, and that number is growing, USA Today reported Monday. A survey of data by the newspaper found that more than 50 million are on Medicaid, the federal-state health program aimed at low-income Americans. That's up 17 percent since the economic downturn began three years ago. "Virtually every Medicaid director in the country would say that their current enrollment is the highest on record," analyst Vernon Smith of Health Management Associates told USA Today. The federal food stamps ...
Mass. County Drafted to Join the War on Obesity
By Kathryn Yao - AOL News(Aug. 19) -- The U.S. continues its war on the obesity epidemic by selecting Hampden County, Mass., for its first Healthy Incentives Pilot -- a federal initiative aimed at encouraging low-income residents to consume healthier foods. Government officials hope this experiment will cut a third of fruit and vegetable costs, which would give low-income residents the option to eat more fruits and vegetables. The pilot program's purpose is to "empower American to eat more nutritious food," Agriculture Department Food and Nutrition Service spokeswoman Jean Daniel told AOL News. The Food, Nutrition ...
Anti-Hunger Bill Cuts $14 Billion From Food Stamps
By Dave Thier - AOL News(Aug. 6) -- In a rare show of bipartisanship in Washington, the Senate voted unanimously to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Among other things, the bill reauthorizes federal child nutrition programs, sets nutritional standards for food sold in schools and boosts reimbursement rates for school lunch programs. All to the good, as far as food security efforts go. But in part to help pay for the program, the Senate also approved $14 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly referred to as food stamps. "This is essentially robbing Peter to ...
Former Ohio Rep. Thomas 'Lud' Ashley Dead at 87; Democrat Close to H.W. Bush
By Tom Diemer - Politics DailyFormer Ohio Rep. Thomas "Lud" Ashley, a liberal Democrat known for his work on civil rights, public housing and anti-poverty legislation, died Monday at his home in Leland, Mich. He was 87. Lud Ashley was practically a household name in Toledo. He represented the city and surrounding area in northwestern Ohio for 26 years, losing in 1980 in the Republican landslide brought on by Ronald Reagan's election. Ironically, he was nearly a lifelong friend of Reagan's vice president, George H. W. Bush, who was elected president in 1988. Ashley and Bush were buddies at Yale University in the 1940s, and ...
Food Stamps Becomes Safety Net of Last Resort for Many
By Bruce Drake - Politics DailyAlmost one in five food stamp recipients reported having no other income at a time when help from federal cash assistance programs has become harder to get, making food stamps "the safety net of last resort" for many during the current recession, according to a New York Times study of 31 states. ...
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