Oh SNAP, veterans get dissed by the GOP
By Jonathan Capehart
November 1 at 1:12 pm
Remember all the howling by Republicans about the closed monuments and war memorials during the Ted Cruz government shutdown? Remember how they helped World War II vets storm their memorial on the very first day? Remember how Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) snarled at a Park Service ranger for trying to abide by the law and keep the memorial closed to the public? Remember how the likes of Cruz and Sarah Palin railed against President Obama for the cuts to veterans’ benefits that resulted from the Cruz-caused shutdown?
“Our veterans should be above political games,” Cruz said at the Million Vets March on Oct. 13. “Veterans have proven they are not timid. And we will not be timid in calling out anybody that uses the military as pawns,” Palin said at the same event. “We can only be America, home of the free, if we are America, home of the brave.”
So, pardon the forthcoming blue language, where the hell are they now that a $5 billion cut to the food-stamp program has hit thousands of veterans squarely in their wallets?
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “in any given month, a total of 900,000 veterans nationwide lived in households that relied on SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] to provide food for their families in 2011, a previous analysis of Census data estimated.”
The cuts to that benefit result from the expiration of a temporary increase in the food-stamp program through the Recovery Act of 2009. CBPP translated the economic impact of the benefit reduction into jaw-dropping dollars and cents.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/11/01/oh-snap-veterans-get-dissed-by-the-gop/
| 
