Food Stamps, Obamacare, The Ukraine

The Ukraine
Russia is wrong to send troops into the Ukraine.  Not anywhere on the scale of US wrong in invading Iraq, for example, but wrong nonetheless.  The Ukraine and Russia share more than 1400 miles of border and you can see how Russia may have concerns about stability on its door step.

(Map is adapted from ESL-in-Canada's website)

The situation in the Ukraine is complex but here's a brief summary.

• The elected president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich, was ousted after demonstrations protesting his cancellation of talks on a European Union trade agreement.  Russia had offered $15 billion in aid to keep the Ukraine in their sphere of influence.  Yanukovich's  sympathies and inclinations lie more with Russia than Europe.  
• Yanukovich's assets and those of 17 others were frozen this morning by the EU, alleging embezzlement of government funds.  
• The Crimean Parliament has voted to leave the Ukraine and join Russia with a referendum set for March 16.  Crimea has a large Russian population and was part of the Soviet Union until 1954, when Nikita Khruschev gave it to the Ukraine. 

The turmoil in the Ukraine is being identified as a restart of the Cold War.  This is utter nonsense.  An editorial in The Nation calls for "the international community [to push] for compromise to prevent this fragile and bitterly divided country from breaking apart."  The Nation notes "We are reaping the bitter fruit of a deeply flawed post–Cold War settlement that looks more like Versailles than Bretton Woods, a settlement inflamed by the shortsighted American decision to expand NATO eastward and pursue other policies aimed at isolating Russia and ignoring Russian interests."

Food Stamps
Democratic governors in New York and Connecticut and the Republican governor of Pennsylvania have taken measures to thwart the Congressional cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  As explained at philly.com : "The cuts to SNAP delineated in the federal Farm Bill passed last month were being borne by 15 states that operate the "Heat and Eat" program, which coordinates energy assistance with SNAP...Under the program, some of the families that received as little as $1 in federal heating assistance saw increased SNAP benefits...Last month, Congress changed the rules, stipulating in the Farm Bill that a family would have to have at least $20 in heating assistance before receiving increased SNAP benefits."  And that's exactly what these governors have done.  Kudos and let's get the governors of the rest of the states affected by these cuts (see below) to act in a similar manner.

Comedy Central's Jon Stewart has a hilarious take down of Fox News' whining about food stamp recipients.  You can watch it here.

Obamacare
As the well-funded Republican right continues to pour millions into negative ad's against swing state Democratic Senators supportive of the Affordable Care Act and as the do-nothing House of Representatives vote yet again to defund or subvert the program, "Obamacare" enrollments are quietly growing.  As of February 1, enrollments in the Obamacare market place were nearly 3.3 million.  Also, according to ThinkProgress, in what it calls the woodwork effect,: "A new analysis by Avalere Health finds that the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment season is boosting Medicaid signups even in the states that have refused the health law’s optional Medicaid expansion...All told, between 2.4 million and 3.5 million of the poorest Americans started receiving Medicaid coverage for the first time during the first four months of Obamacare’s enrollment season."  So as of end January, there were an additional 6 million people with health insurance.

ACA proponents are not done yet.  MoveOn.org has mounted a campaign to get non-Medicaid-expansion states to change their decisions.  The advantages to the states seem to be coming more and more clear: "Faced with the prospect of tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, in federal funding, states are racing to find politically palatable ways to expand Medicaid. [Washington Post, March 4].  Even the brilliant op-ed writers for self-proclaimed "capitalist tool" Forbes are changing their tune.  Take a look at these two headlines:
Nov. 11 - "Obamacare Will Be Repealed Well In Advance Of The 2014 Elections"
Feb. 12 - "New Signup Numbers Show Why Obamacare May Be Impossible To Repeal"

But don't expect the right-wing to throw in the towel.  They will continue to spend tens of millions in negative ads even though as Kevin Drum wonders "whether there's a single genuine Obamacare horror story out there, given that virtually every yarn promoted by Republicans or conservatives about people hurt by the Affordable Care Act has deflated like a pricked balloon on the merest examination." [LA Times, Feb 20]


In the final set of rules published Wednesday, the Obama administration will "let people with health insurance plans that don't comply with Affordable Care Act standards keep them through October 2017 if their states allow it."  [CNBC, March 5]

The enrollment deadline - after which an individual without health care insurance may be subject to a fine - is March 31.  If you haven't got insurance yet, here's a link to healthcare.gov to help you get started. The site works.

Other info
"Those “heat and eat” states are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin. Some lists compiled by non-profits lists add or subtract a state or two from that lineup." [Washington Post, Feb 5]

Finally, a couple of links from the Daily Kos website:

Minimum wage increase would cut food stamp costs beyond Republican's wildest dreams 
(based on a report by the Center for American Progress)

Obamacare boosting household income and  spending (based on an article that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal)

The cuts to SNAP delineated in the federal Farm Bill passed last month were being borne by 15 states that operate the "Heat and Eat" program, which coordinates energy assistance with SNAP. Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey are Heat and Eat states.
Under the program, some of the families that received as little as $1 in federal heating assistance saw increased SNAP benefits.
Last month, Congress changed the rules, stipulating in the Farm Bill that a family would have to have at least $20 in heating assistance before receiving increased SNAP benefits.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20140306_In_surprising_move__Corbett_forestalls_deep_cuts_in_food_stamps.html#A2ZZrfpZ6fFPkBkp.99

The cuts to SNAP delineated in the federal Farm Bill passed last month were being borne by 15 states that operate the "Heat and Eat" program, which coordinates energy assistance with SNAP. Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey are Heat and Eat states.
Under the program, some of the families that received as little as $1 in federal heating assistance saw increased SNAP benefits.
Last month, Congress changed the rules, stipulating in the Farm Bill that a family would have to have at least $20 in heating assistance before receiving increased SNAP benefits.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20140306_In_surprising_move__Corbett_forestalls_deep_cuts_in_food_stamps.html#A2ZZrfpZ6fFPkBkp.99

The cuts to SNAP delineated in the federal Farm Bill passed last month were being borne by 15 states that operate the "Heat and Eat" program, which coordinates energy assistance with SNAP. Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey are Heat and Eat states.
Under the program, some of the families that received as little as $1 in federal heating assistance saw increased SNAP benefits.
Last month, Congress changed the rules, stipulating in the Farm Bill that a family would have to have at least $20 in heating assistance before receiving increased SNAP benefits.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20140306_In_surprising_move__Corbett_forestalls_deep_cuts_in_food_stamps.html#A2ZZrfpZ6fFPkBkp.99

Sunday Round-Up - February 9, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the Syrian Civil War, Israeli-Palestinian relations, the Eurozone recession, the cuts to the US food stamps program and climate change.



Syria
With a three-day ceasefire in place, the first stage of the evacuation of the besieged city of Homs began on Friday.  As reported in The Guardian: "Scores of Syrian women, children and elderly men from the besieged old city of Homs have been evacuated to safety and humanitarian supplies are expected to be allowed in in the first stage of a limited relief operation agreed between the UN and the government of President Bashar al-Assad."  The Assad government has agreed to attend the second round of Geneva II peace talks. The NGO Save The Children welcomed the deal but sees it as a temporary measure: "We need all parties to the conflict to allow immediate humanitarian assistance into Homs and other besieged areas all across Syria, from Aleppo to Damascus." [The Guardian, February 7]


Israel-Palestine

Palestinian workers from Hebron at a checkpoint. Image credit:Emil Salman; Haaretz, February 7

AIPAC and Benjamin Netanyahu are still reeling from their failed ham-handed attempt to derail the Iran nuclear negotiations.  Support for the new Iran sanctions bill is diminishing with several former cosponsors now saying they changed their mind.  So back to the main issue of concern for Israelis - how are the US sponsored negotiations with the Palestinians going?  Recent polls suggest that neither the Palestinian nor the Israeli public believes a deal can be reached.  The negotiations are stalled and the US is signaling that the original April 29 date for a final agreement is in jeopardy.  There is Palestinian anger at the ongoing Israeli permitting of illegal settlements on Palestinian land, and the destruction of Palestinian homes is at a five year high.  A key stumbling block for the Israelis is the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.  It seems to me that one solution might be Arab and Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state combined with a recognition of the Palestinian right of return, a guarantee that Palestinians will be accorded full rights in Israel should they choose to return, and an end to settlement activity and home destruction on Palestinian lands.


Russia Today reported on Friday of the protests lodged by aid groups and the UN on the destruction of the Palestinian homes.  "In a statement Friday, 25 aid organizations said the number of demolitions went up by almost half and the displacement of Palestinians by almost three-quarters between July 2013 – when peace negotiations began again – and the end of the year, compared to the same time period in 2012.  The groups said that of the 663 Palestinian structures destroyed by Israel in 2013, 122 were constructed with international donor aid. The 663 demolitions mark the highest number in the last five years. 'International and local aid organizations have faced increasingly severe restrictions in responding to the needs created by the unlawful demolition of civilian property, in violation of Israel's obligation to facilitate the effective delivery of aid,' wrote the groups, which included Oxfam. 


On Thursday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the meeting between "chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat  [and] U.S. Middle East peace talks envoy Martin Indyk, against a backdrop of tension between Israel and the United Sates and criticism in Jerusalem of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry...Erekat said Thursday in an interview on Al Jazeera television that the Palestinian response to Israel’s continued construction in East Jerusalem was to join the Geneva Convention, in preparation for declaring the settlements a war crime and bringing Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague." 

Eurozone Recession
The Guardian reported on January 31 that  Eurozone unemployment dropped for the third straight month in January.  Overall unemployment in the Eurozone is still at 12%, ranging from ~5% in Austria and Germany to over 25% in Spain and Greece. "Youth unemployment fell by 23,000 to 3.53 million, with the youth jobless rate falling to 23.8% from 24% in November."  European policymakers are "becoming increasingly concerned about the risk of deflation, with the latest data showing inflation fell to 0.7% in January from 0.8% in December."

Food Stamp Cuts
The Republican assault on the social safety net continues.  Not only have they blocked the extension of long-term unemployment benefits - the measure fell one vote short of the required 60 to break the Senate filibuster - but they managed a big win in the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program passed as part of the farm bill.  Mother Jones reporter Erika Eichelberger wrote on January 31 of the impending passage of the Farm Bill by the Senate with its subsequent sign-off by the President.  Both of these steps have now been executed and $8.6 billion will be taken from the food stamps program over the next 5 years.  It's less than the Tea Party wanted but double the amount in the original Senate bill.  Eichelberger explains why the compromise level of cuts is a Republican win: "In addition to the [nearly] $9 billion in food stamp cuts in this five-year farm bill, another $11 billion will be slashed over three years as stimulus funding for the program expires. The first $5 billion of that stimulus money expired in October; the rest will disappear by 2016. In the months since the first $5 billion in stimulus funding was cut, food pantries have been struggling to provide enough food for the hungry. Poverty remains at record high levels, and three job applicants compete for every job opening.And yet, despite the $5 billion in cuts that already happened and the guarantee of $6 billion more, Republicans succeeded in getting their Democratic peers to cut food stamps further."  As the non-profit Feeding America noted "The $8.6 billion cut means that 850,000 SNAP recipients will lose an average of $90 in monthly benefits. That’s not a talking point. That’s real food for families that are struggling."

Climate Change
Haven't heard much on climate change in the news recently?  You're not alone.  Tom Engelhardt bemoans the lack of coverage in a February 2 essay on the TomDispatch website.  "That the anything-but-extreme Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers an at least 95% guarantee of human causation for global warming is not a story, nor is the recent revelation that IPCC experts believe we only have 15 years left to rein in carbon emissions or we’ll need new technologies not yet in existence which may never be effective.  Nor is the recent poll showing that only 47% of Americans believe climate change is human-caused (a drop of 7% since 2012)...Climate change isn’t the news and it isn’t a set of news stories.  It’s the prospective end of all news.  Think of it as the anti-news."




Link
Food bank locator - find a food bank in your area - from the Feeding America website

"On God's Side"

[This is the second part of a discussion of Jim Wallis' On God's Side. The first post (September 17, 2013) can be found at this link.]

"Common good is the whole network of social conditions which enable human individuals and groups to flourish and live a fully, genuinely human life, otherwise described as 'integral human development.' All are responsible for all, collectively, at the level of society or nation, not only as individuals." - Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, The Common Good and the Catholic Church's Social Teaching

In the second part of On God's Side, Jim Wallis discusses "practices for the common good." What actions and behaviors will help our nation achieve the common good so necessary for a democracy and so essential to the Christian view of the world? The first step, Wallis believes, is a return to civility in our political discussion. Indeed, one of the drivers for writing this book in 2012 was the dysfunctional and bitterly partisan politics that had undermined "the people's deep desire for hope and change." How do we return to civility? By all parties focusing on the those ideas of our political opponents that work for the attainment of the common good. Only then will we be able to solve problems rather than assign blame for them.

Both conservative and liberal philosophies have critical contributions to make in solving our problems...The best big conservative idea is personal responsibility...Doing the right thing, the moral thing, the ethical thing in personal decision making is key not only for individual well-being but also...for the common good...The best big liberal idea is social responsibility...Compassion is an essential social virtue and should not be confused with political systems. Hubert Humphrey... expressed it well: "Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism."... The question of who will take responsibility [for those, in Humphrey's words, in the dawn, twilight and shadows of life] is a soul-searching one from liberals, especially if those in need are outside of our own families and groups.

Wallis gives two examples of areas where liberals and conservatives could work together to restore the common good- strengthening marriage and ending poverty. In emphasizing his call for a return to civility, he reflects on the shooting of Gabby Giffords, "the least likely person to be targeted by an angry and unhinged man." Wallis contends that the way to get back to civil discourse is by framing it as a moral argument - it's a religious issue, we always speak the truth ("Much of our worst political rhetoric these days is based on outright lies that go viral"), and hold to the early American statement E pluribus Unum - one out of many.

After calling for civility in our political discussions, Jim Wallis writes of the need to redeem democracy (from voter suppression laws, from the Citizens United decision ("one of the most disastrous judicial decisions in American history...which...virtually overturned the beginnings of campaign finance laws") and from the control of money over elections), to restore economic trust (the current global economy is "unfair, unsustainable, unstable, and [makes people] unhappy"), and to have a "servant government" ("the purpose of government...is to protect its people from the chaos of evil and to promote the good of society: to protect and promote").

Besides civility and focusing on solutions, Wallis points to two other necessary elements for making things right - that is, for changing and correcting injustices. The first element is grass-roots movements or post-candidate advocacy. "There are systems that undergird and shape the limits of the political agenda, and challenging those limits to get to root causes and real solutions is always the prophetic task....It is always movements that "change the wind," and only a change in the political wind can change the political policies in Washington..." The second element is healthy households. "Our households are critical places for the practice of human flourishing and for teaching the next generation the meaning of the common good." Wallis sees strong families and the home as the place to nurture values rather than encourage "appetites" (i.e., consumerism, materialism).

Focus on solutions rather than partisanship, encourage movements, and teach values and the common good to your children. Good advice at any time. God bless your optimistic heart, Jim. I hope you're right. 

 

Ten Decisions to Change the World

 

Want to get started on changing the world?  In the Epilogue to his book, Wallis provides "Ten Personal Decisions for the Common Good" and he re-lists these ten decisions in a Sojourners' June 30 post.  Check them out.  Jim's intro to the post reads: After traveling the country this spring — while keeping an eye on Washington, D.C. — I am more convinced than ever that our personal decisions, choices, and commitments will change the world more than our politics. The message in the Epilogue to On God’s Side says this as well as I could do again. It’s short and very practical.

 

Food Stamp Cuts

 

The day before the House of Representatives passed its draconian cuts to the food stamp program, Sojourners issued a press release concerning the call from religious leaders to reject the proposed cuts.  The leaders are from the Circle of Protection, a coalition of more than 65 heads of denominations and religious organizations, plus more than 5,000 church pastors. They have been working for more than two years to resist federal budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people.  From Jim Wallis' letter to Congress: “These immoral cuts are incongruent with the shared values of our nation. They demonstrate the triumph of political ideology and self-interest over sound public policy and concern for the general welfare. Actions like these foster cynicism and distrust of government in the everyday Americans who struggle to meet their families’ basic needs and create a better life for their children.”  The common good took a beating this time but perhaps the pressure from religious and other community leaders will help reduce the size of the cuts (or eliminate them altogether) when it goes to the House-Senate conference. 

Tornadoes, Hunger, and Getting Angry

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

- Plato

The personal tragedies wrought by tornadoes over the past few weeks in Oklahoma are just the latest reminders of the difficulties faced by ordinary people in the course of everyday life in this country. Untimely deaths from disease and accidents, impoverished and malnourished children, homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, urban violence, hate crimes, student massacres ... the list is seemingly endless. That is why I can't understand the positions taken by today's Republican Party. If you have the opportunity to do something to relieve or prevent the suffering of the vulnerable in our society, why on Earth would you choose not to?

Former Republican presidential candidate and former Senator Bob Dole, answering a question put to him by Fox News' Chris Wallace, said that neither he nor Ronald Reagan would feel comfortable with the GOP's present membership. Dole said that the party should hang a “closed for repairs” sign on its doors until it comes up with a few positive ideas.    A May 28 NYT editorial put it like this: "The difference between the current crop of Tea Party lawmakers and Mr. Dole’s generation is not simply one of ideology....Republicans used to set aside their grandstanding, recognize that a two-party system requires compromise and make deals to keep the government working on the people’s behalf. The current generation refuses to do that. Its members want to dismantle government, using whatever crowbar happens to be handy."

Dole is a staunch conservative and holds many of the same general policy positions as the Tea Party Republicans - although admittedly less extreme. There are few moderate Republicans around nowadays - at least in the Republican Party. The closest you have to moderate "Eisenhower Republicans" - people like former Senators Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Clifford Case of New Jersey - can now be found within the Democratic Party. Whether because of Republican obstructionism or because of his belief in his role as Compromiser-In-Chief, Obama has effectively become an Eisenhower Republican. This is not what we voted for in 2008 or 2012.   That said, his policy and budget positions are generally better than or, at least, no worse than, those of the Tea-Party-controlled GOP. (For a comparison of the various 2014 budget proposals, here's a link to a one-page summary from the National Priorities Project.)

There is so much to criticize in the proposed Republican budget that time and space do not permit even a partial listing. Their proposed cuts to social services can best be described as Draconian. And then there is the infamous sequester brought about by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which in turn was the compromise response to the phony debt-ceiling crisis initiated by Republicans. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 750,000 jobs will be lost or not created because of this austerity measure in this year alone.

"But", in the immortal words of Arlo Guthrie, "that's not what I come to talk about tonight." What I really want to talk about is hunger in America and the current and future proposed cuts to the food stamp program. The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Food insecurity then is the opposite: when you don't have enough food to maintain a healthy and active life.

Take a guess. How many Americans, citizens of the wealthiest country on Earth, live with "food insecurity"? Well, in 2011, 50.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children. [Feeding America website] That corresponds to about 1 American out of every 6.

What was our elected representatives' response to hunger in America? The Republican-controlled House Agriculture Committee proposed cuts of $20.5 billion to the food stamp program over the next 10 years. The Senate Agriculture Committee proposed cuts of $4.1 billion. This is all part of the response to the phony deficit crisis - imposing austerity measures in the midst of a recession. On May 21, the U.S. Senate blocked an amendment to reinstate the $4.1 billion for food stamps. It was not just Republican obstructionism this time. For whatever reason, 28 Senate Democrats voted with all the Republicans for the 2013 Farm Bill which put corporate welfare ahead of  low-income families.

The differences in the farm bills will now be resolved in a joint House-Senate committee. As of December 2012, approximately 48 million people relied on food stamps. That's more than at any time in history and a direct result of the number of people thrown into poverty in the Great Recession. The House bill would drive 2 million low-income people off food stamps. Paul Krugman's excellent op-ed of May 30 analyzes these untimely and mean-spirited cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and concludes:

"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."

Yup.

RIP Frank Lautenberg

New Jersey lost one of its finest Senators in history on Monday morning. Frank Lautenberg had a consistently liberal voting record and he will be missed by the Senate majority. He had been ill for a while. But so important was his vote and so total his dedication, he was brought to the floor for several important Senate votes during his illness - including gun control. Unfortunately, thanks to the Republican filibuster, these last public services from the ailing Senator Lautenberg generally went for naught. You can rest assured that Republican Governor Christie will appoint a Republican until the special election later this year. Times will be even tougher for the Senate majority. With the next chance of changing Senate filibuster rules in 2014 and with the unlikely return of the House with its gerrymandered Congressional seats to the Democrats until the next census (2020), it will be a hard time for progressives.