Paul Krugman: From the Mouths of Babes

The “ugly, destructive war against food stamps”:

From the Mouths of Babes, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: …I
usually read reports about political goings-on with a sort of weary
cynicism. Every once in a while, however, politicians do something so wrong,
substantively and morally, that cynicism just won’t cut it; it’s time to get
really angry instead. So it is with the ugly, destructive war against food
stamps. …

Food stamps have played an especially useful — indeed, almost heroic — role
in recent years. In fact, they have done triple duty. First, as millions of
workers lost their jobs…, food stamps … did significantly mitigate their
misery. Food stamps were especially helpful to children…

But there’s more. … We desperately needed (and still need) public policies
to promote higher spending on a temporary basis — and the expansion of food
stamps … is just such a policy. Indeed, estimates from … Moody’s
Analytics suggest that each dollar spent on food stamps in a depressed
economy raises G.D.P. by about $1.70…

Wait, we’re not done yet. Food stamps greatly reduce food insecurity among
low-income children, which, in turn, greatly enhances their chances of …
growing up to be successful, productive adults. So food stamps are … an
investment in the nation’s future…

So what do Republicans want to do with this paragon of programs? First,
shrink it; then, effectively kill it.

The shrinking part comes from the latest farm bill released by the House
Agriculture Committee… That bill would push about two million people off
the program. …

These cuts are, however, just the beginning… Remember,… Paul Ryan’s
budget is still the official G.O.P. position…, and that budget calls for
converting food stamps into a block grant program with sharply reduced
spending. If this proposal had been in effect when the Great Recession
struck,… it … would have meant vastly more hardship, including a lot of
outright hunger, for millions of Americans, and for children in particular.

Look, I understand the supposed rationale: We’re becoming a nation of
takers, and doing stuff like feeding poor children and giving them adequate
health care are just creating a culture of dependency — and that culture of
dependency, not runaway bankers, somehow caused our economic crisis.

But I wonder whether even Republicans really believe that story — or at
least are confident enough in their diagnosis to justify policies that more
or less literally take food from the mouths of hungry children. As I said,
there are times when cynicism just doesn’t cut it; this is a time to get
really, really angry.