Yeah, looks like the right place to make a cut:
A group of bipartisan lawmakers on Monday agreed to a deal on a farm bill that would end direct subsidies to farms in favor of crop insurance.
The deal could trim as much as $90 a month from food stamps for 850,000 recipients.
The farm bill would last five years and needs to pass both chambers and then be signed by the president.
After all, heating bills aren’t going to be too bad this year, so these welfare queens will just have to go with one less t-bone this month.
At some point in the future, when an alien race or advanced civilization attempts to make since of of the archival data from our era and our world, linguists will for years thing that “bipartisan” translates into “FUCK THE POOR.”
Gin & Tonic
Three AL posts in a row, I was wondering where bigfoot was lurking.
The Fat Kate Middleton
I don’t usually use this language, ’cause my students and family know I post here, but just fuck them. Fuck them sideways with a rusty farm implement. And can we please find some tumbrels somewhere?
Mark S.
David Broder is probably smiling over in Hell right now.
gian
Sometimes I worry that they’ll set off the bloody revolution they seem in such abject fear of.
Sometimes I think if it were 40 years ago give or take there would be extreme leftist groups who might do them violence.
with all the workplace violence and random shootings we see, (helped by gun policies pushed by the likes of the Koch brothers and Richard scaife and so on) I’m kinda amazed they haven’t had a security breakdown by some employee they’ve screwed over. Make the security guy miss a kid’s graduation or something… I mean we know they’re dicks and we know what they think of people who actually work for a living. Do they have food tasters?
They behave like the idiot who goes into a restaurant and insults the server and the kitchen staff before eating just because the customer is “always right” and as a paying customer I get to be an asshole.
yeah, the asshole who the kitchen staff makes sure to find the old yellow mayo…
Corner Stone
Anyone have any bipartisan UI extension to speak of?
Hmmm, no? Maybe it will also be in the SOTU.
Ash Can
No guarantees of that happening. First, the Dems on the Ag panel need to sell the other Senate Dems on the food stamp cuts. That may be feasible, but then the Ag panel Repubs need to sell their fellow Senate Repubs on the fact that the deal cuts only $8 bil over 10 years, rather than the $39 bil they want (the fuckers). Then, the knuckle-draggers in the House need to be sold on a cut that’s hugely smaller than what they want, And then, Obama — who has already expressed his distaste for food stamp cuts in general — has to sign off on it. There’s a lot that can happen between now and this mishegas actually becoming law.
Mark S.
God these people are assholes.
Corner Stone
Our argument is a rear guard action about just how much we’re going to cut.
That’s all.
Corner Stone
I’m sure there’s some apologia available that I’m not seeing.
Goblue72
Then why aren’t Dem Congresscritters proposing increases?
Because they too are bought and paid for mostly.
Ted and Hellen
Congressional Dems suck ass.
And not in the good way.
themis
@gian:
Isn’t that SOP for the current crop of Republicans (well, since the Birchers, anyway)…
Step 1 – whine loudly about their fears
Step 2 – do everything to create the background situation that brings about those fears
Step 3 – say ‘I told you so’
Step 4 – profit!
Gah! Fuckers.
Corner Stone
Hey! A “ladder of opportunity” !
Thank goodness!
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
So basically austerity wins again. Because even if this doesn’t pass, it still means that someone other than the people who really need to help pay for shit feel the pain.
God fucking dammit all. Just like fucking ever, GOP wins even when they lose.
Corner Stone
“Work hard, and play by the rules!”
Yeah, right.
Dolly Llama
The story never seems to talk about what this means for all those poor, struggling farmers just barely eking out a living. What kind of accounting sleight of hand does this phrase represent? You can bet all the aspiring R.J. Simplots of the world won’t be losing a God damn thing in this deal.
Another Holocene Human
@Dolly Llama: It’s too much to hope for that they’re, say, axing subsidies for cotton farms in the desert.
As for $90 out of food stamps, wouldn’t that make the benefit go into negative dollars? Thar’s nothing left to cut, matey!
Sadly, hungry desperate people are not well known for successfully registering to vote and managing to stay on the rolls. Fuck!
Suffern ACE
Yay. We’re cutting food stamps in cold places just as food prices are going to go up thanks to a drought in our biggest agricultural region.
I’m not certain what the crop insurance is supposed to cover.
srv
Look, sacrifices have to be made, and everyone needs to play their part.
You know, I didn’t even think twice about not getting the gold inlays for my Mulsanne’s interior. Can’t we all just get along?
Keith G
It is breathtaking in not only its mean spiritedness but in also how counter productive this idea is. At least we have a president who will gladly veto this crap and lead a moral charge against the villains who would do such a thing..
Omnes Omnibus
What are the chances that this gets through Congress and gets signed?
themis
@Suffern ACE: And to add injury to injury, a lot of these cold places (including my neck of SW Ohio) have food banks that are running out of food. So, sure, let’s have more people needing food banks (private! charity! bootstrappy! not government!) when they’re barely serving the folks they already serve.
Too many people are going to have to eat their bootstraps before they can pull themselves up by them. And way too many will probably die from it.
It can’t be said enough… Fuck these fucking fuckers and the horse they fucked in on (this sentiment is not intended to insult horses or people who enjoy intimate relationships)
Ash Can
@Omnes Omnibus: I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being the House Republicans who blow it up.
Yatsuno
@Omnes Omnibus: None. Doesn’t fuck the poors enough.
@Ash Can: Or Elizabeth Warren. This can’t have her pleased.
@themis:
Nothing in this statement is a negative to a wingnut.
BruinKid
Unfortunately, as long as Tea Party radicals control the House, we’re going to be eating shit sandwiches of austerity for the foreseeable future. It’s just a matter of how much shit is in the sandwich, and whether or not the sandwich includes bits of broken glass and tire fragments and the nasty stuff you find swept up from a kitchen floor as well.
danielx
Not quite the season, but –
“Are there no prisons?”
“Plenty of prisons…”
“And the Union workhouses.” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“Both very busy, sir…”
“Those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Goblue72:
They are proposing increases. The way the House works they have no way to get them to the floor.
And keep in mind what the practical alternative to passing a bill with cuts in it is: no bill passes and food stamps get cut to zero. Is that preferable? When the opposition controls one house of Congress, they have the ability to veto anything they want.
themis
@Yatsuno:
Yah, I know. My only consolation is that when Bubba starts having to pay more for food, he’ll start bitching. Not all Rs are wealthy. Of course, by then the Kochs will own the government and Bubba and his tricorner hat won’t matter any more.
Damn, I’m depressed now. Anyone have a cat picture?
Ash Can
@Yatsuno: Elizabeth Warren wouldn’t be able to do it on her own. The Teahadi faction in the House plus a speaker who refuses to stand up to them, on the other hand, would do the trick.
Schlemizel
I was waiting for an open thread but its way past bed time. Looks like the NRA has opened a new field off in Cole’s neck of the woods.
This 62 YO guy shot and killed two 60 YO guys who were breaking into a shed on his property without so much as a warning shot. Small problem. The shed was not his, oh and it was not on his property, it was on one of the dead men’s property. So yeah, lets see if anyone can correctly identify the skin color of the shooter or his victims.
http://www.wsaz.com/home/headlines/UPDATE-Two-Men-Shot-to-Death-by-Homeowner-in-Barboursville-241973841.html?device=phone
RaflW
Could Pope Francis come over now and kick Paul Ryan in the nads? It’s time a few of these pious puritain shitheels got a schooling.
themis
@RaflW: Maybe Pope Alexander VI instead?
liberal
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): but don’t ag subsidies also in that case get cut to zero? not saying that’s enough of a benefit to offset the foodstamp cuts. But I would have thought that a lot of red staters wouldn’t like that.
Chickamin Slam
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): “keep in mind what the practical alternative to passing a bill with cuts in it is: no bill passes and food stamps get cut to zero. Is that preferable?”
Fuck you. Fuck you to hell in a fucking hand basket. You’ve never obviously had the misfortune of being on food stamps standing in line as people glare at you for daring to buy something other than store brand. Oh God those Cheerios that were on sale. What will the folks at church think. Next thing you know the poors will go for the caviar!
Of course you’d like to think you are a democrat as you lean over the porch railing of your condo looking down upon the unwashed masses, sighing disdainfully as you have to buy another Iphone since the one you got for Christmas now has a smudge on it. You did once give a quarter to a bum and your Republican friends found out. You were never again invited to their end of the year Yacht Club party. Oh life is so bad for you now. Poor you.
Citizen_X
@Chickamin Slam: Jesus. Shoot the messenger, why don’t you?
pseudonymous in nc
@Chickamin Slam: Perhaps channel your anger into the mid-term elections? The hand that the Dems have been dealt thanks to 2010 and the gerrymandering that followed means that this is probably the best deal on the table in an election year where otherwise both parties will be devoted to fucking up each other’s legislative ideals.
DTOzone
@Goblue72:
They have, no one’s paying attention.
Joseph Nobles
@Schlemizel: Oh, damn it, I was not looking further at that story because I didn’t want that particular shoe to drop. Shit shit shit.
DTOzone
@Chickamin Slam:
That’s true, but last week a woman thought my AMEX was an EBT card and decided to call me a serious of derogatory names and embarrass me in front of everyone because I was buying beer. I imagine that’s not the first time she’s done that and in past times it was actually someone with an EBT card she embarrassed in front of an entire store.
My heart bleeds for them, but there is literally NOTHING anyone can do for them. Because more people like that woman vote than people like us.
That’s how it is.
Mnemosyne
@Suffern ACE:
Don’t worry, I’ve already been assured today that California doesn’t produce that much food, and even if they do, other states will be able to pick up the slack, so there’s no need to worry about shortages or rising prices. Don’t you feel better already?
Mandalay
@Dolly Llama:
There are surely some struggling farmers eking out a living, but a lot of farming is now under the control of large corporations. And does anyone really support the principle of direct crop subsidies, where payment is made even if nothing is grown? So I think ending direct subsidies is a good thing.
But the end of those subsidies should not be seen as an attack on corporate welfare….
Republicans must love this bill: it kicks the poor and helps the rich!
Or, as Cole would say, it’s a twofer.
gwangung
@DTOzone: I hope you told that dolt what an asshole she was for shaming poor people.
themis
@Mnemosyne: And don’t forget, us ‘pick up the slack states’ are under a rather harsh winter at the moment. Our planting dates will be pushed back, our crops might get a little too wet if the Spring that follows is also wet, and food production will be smaller. So why worry?
The food revolution might not be next year, but I’ve already seen my students side-eyeing my carrots at lunch…
DTOzone
@gwangung:
Certainly did, no good it did, she was proud of her rant. “People need to work and earn a living” she said
kdaug
This.
ruemara
@DTOzone:
That is it in a nutshell. It’s also horrible how many very politically interested people do not understand how the House works. Dems have been doing things, but when they are not in the majority, they need the majority partymember to be a friend to the bill and allow it on the floor. That’s simply how it is and when you sit out midterms, lower party races, etc., this sort of pain is what we wind up with.
piratedan
@DTOzone: if the media refuses to cover it, well then the magical balance fairy is in play. remember all of the attention in the Senate when Reid, after multiple violations of the gentleman’s agreement he had with McConnell (some of whichwere violated by McConnell himself) said screw it and authorized all of those judicial and legislative nominees to pass? Now remember all of the attention when the house rewrote the rules in mid session to block all Dem amendments to any bill from being brought to the floor during the Debt Ceiling/Shutdown boogaloo? That’s right, a few passing mentions on the downlow show because all of the focus was on the R’s shutting down the government. Those rules haven’t changed because R’s don’t want to have anyone noticing reasonable Dem amendments being voted down by clueless teahadis, you know, the kind of crap that gets put into ads showing what utter wastes of oxygen that they are?
An unbiased mainstream media outlet would be welcome, but hey, the good guys are not in control of providing unfiltered messages to the citizenry.
Yatsuno
@ruemara: Add to that the disaster that was the 2010 elections and the gerrymander and GOTV becomes even more important. If we can swing a few of the marginal districts, we might have a shot at retaking the House. Of course nothing would make me happier than to send Cathy McMorris-Rodgers back home unemployed, but Spokane has been Republican since forever.
Mandalay
This guy should be the official spokesperson for FUCK THE POOR…
Schlemizel
@Chickamin Slam:
Jesus you have no idea who you are talking to but you think you know everything about him don’t you? He happens to be right, if no bill is passed then there would be not supplementary food assistance and you wouldn’t have to worry about how awful it is. You could replace that with worrying about how you were going to get anything to eat over the next few days.
But go ahead and blast him if it makes you feel any better because reason and logic have no place in politics, right?
Beyond that he is nothing like the cartoon character you created in your mind.
themis
@Mandalay: Your left out the irony in the headline…
“Anton Casey fired and flees Singapore in economy class over “poor people” comments ”
Poor baby – wasn’t invited to Davos this year? I’d cry in my caviar but that would make it a scooch too salty.
wasabi gasp
I did not expect all the black people.
Yatsuno
Pete Seeger died. Fuck.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/arts/music/pete-seeger-songwriter-and-champion-of-folk-music-dies-at-94.html?smid=tw-bna
themis
@Yatsuno: Damn. My mother is going to be devastated – the only thing keeping her ‘generation’ alive is that Roger Daltry (who should have been my father) is still alive. I grew up on the music of the 60s after the fact, and I will even miss his voice. I wish our current culture had something like him – at least better than Macklewhothefuck’s ‘make $ on the lgbt movement’ Same Love. (offense intended)
To those who experienced Pete first hand, my non-snarky honest condolences. This is a loss.
Yatsuno
@themis: 94 is a good run. I just wish there was someone to take his mantle.
am
@Schlemizel:
Jesus, just when you think you can’t be shocked.
piratedan
@Yatsuno: have heard good things about this young upstart called Zimmerman, but I’m not sure if he still uses that name….
erlking
@piratedan: Meh. That Zimmerman kid? A flash in the pan.
themis
@Yatsuno: I honestly don’t know if that is snark or a coincidence..
If it is a coincidence, link it. I’ll listen
Steeplejack (tablet)
@themis:
Are you maybe thinking of Pete Townsend? Because otherwise I’m not seeing the Roger Daltry connection.
themis
@Steeplejack (tablet):
No – just “guys my Mom wanted to fuck in the late 60s’ – the cute ones. Mom has taste in men:) But she knows a damn good lyric when she hears is (ignor the Neil Diamond phase… pure hormones)
She was Viet Nam era – her husband died there in ’69 (my father). Pete was saying what she wanted but coudn’t.
Villago Delenda Est
Austerity sucks. It’s totally counterproductive, reality tells us this, but the austerians are impervious to logic, or too fucking greedy to care.
I do believe these assholes WANT tumbrel rides. I really do, so they can validate their victimhood through death.
Calming Influence
@themis: Speaking of “taste in men”, 85 people have as much of the world’s wealth as the poorest 50% of the world’s population. Those guys have GOT to be well marbled, and I’m fucking hungry.
wasabi gasp
It’s way too late to call my mom.
Yatsuno
@themis: I’m missing something there, but okay. Seeger passed away at 94. No one is stepping up to his level of activism. It’s a big hole that needs filling.
Comrade Mary
@Schlemizel: I clicked.
Hang the fucker. I don’t care if I lose my Canuck passport over this statement. Hang the fucker high. Leave his body for the crows and pour encourager les autres.
TheMightyTrowel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezyd40kJFq0
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Dylan Like A Rolling Stone (Newport, July 25, 1965)
Amir Khalid
@Yatsuno:
That’s a giant gone from this world.
themis
@Calming Influence: And one is Cole, right?
themis
I’m a young 47, so lets get this party started! I’ll take the ones that hate athiests:)
themis
@Yatsuno:
Speaking of “taste in men”, 85 people have as much of the world’s wealth as the poorest 50% of the world’s population. Those guys have GOT to be well marbled, and I’m fucking hungry.
That’s sweet – I’m just a girl who loves science, cats, anti-politics, and men with HUGE amounts of character.
I’ll be in my buck…
Yatsuno
@Comrade Mary: I can’t let you lose your principles over this, as horrific as it is. He should be locked up, sent away until his bones are dust. His lack of repentance will eat his soul alive.
themis
@TheMightyTrowel: Played that for Mom over the phone – thank you
? Martin
@Comrade Mary: Dude was just standing his ground. Those guys were definitely
blackarmed.Yatsuno
Can’t find a link, but the President of the Ukraine just quit.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@? Martin:
They were obviously thuggish. Obviously.
Yatsuno
@Yatsuno: Ok got it.
? Martin
@Yatsuno: Holy shit. Assad is burning his country to the ground rather than do that. Little lesson there, bud.
Fort Geek
@Villago Delenda Est: They want everything else. I say give ’em the tumbrel rides.
NorthLeft12
@gian: It won’t happen because those plutocrats are untouchable/unseeable and generally not blamed by the majority of Americans [or most of the nutjobs who do the mass shootings]. I don’t know how many times that I have been told on sports sites that the “owners” deserve everything they can squeeze out of a sports franchise, while the players/employees should be happy they are part of such a fun job and take whatever the owners choose to give them.
That same attitude spills over to business ventures in general, with those people who think that way being perfectly happy to live on the crumbs the owners decide to pass on to them…..because that’s the way this system is supposed to work.
And when I question that I get told, “If you don’t like it, start your own business.” Then I can be a despot.
At some point in time, your education system and media have failed you miserably.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So all those red agriculture states going to sign off on the end of their sweet corporate farmer wealtare checks?
danielx
Color me surprised…not.
But seriously, what can you expect? When do you suppose was the last time that one of these sanctimonious solons actually talked to a person making less than six figures a year? What with all the money that the Kochs are funneling into congressional races you’d think some of them would have a little more time for constituent contacts available, since they don’t have to spend half their days asking for money….
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Zero. What are the chances that our progressive betters develop a detectable amount of self awareness and admit that they were wrong about something?
lurker dean
@Mandalay: i love this so much. meanwhile here, the rich demonize and mock the poor on a daily basis, and the idiots tell us to stop picking on the rich because they have hurt fee-fees.
fidelio
@themis: The Unholy Father sent his boy out to handle those tasks. Somehow I don’t think the current GOP is ready to play in that league, much as they fancy themselves as up for hard choices.
themis
@fidelio: I think Rand thinks so, on both counts.
danimal
Ok, I’ll say it. The SNAP change isn’t so bad. Several states have used a loophole regarding utility calculations in the SNAP budget to increase benefits for some people who currently don’t receive the benefit because they can’t verify they qualify for the utility allotment. The states are gaming the system, and it’s fairly ridiculous in practice (my state of CA began providing ten cents a month to this population–and it’s been an administrative nightmare).
I’m all for increasing or maintaining food security, so I’d prefer that the loophole get closed and the savings applied to higher base grants, but this change won’t impact most SNAP recipients and will reflect the actual intent of the law (to reflect the cost of utilities in the SNAP budget calculation).
WaterGirl
@danimal:
Are you kidding me? I have a food budget that I’ll bet is a hell of a lot higher than SNAP provides, and if I had $90 less every month, I would be totally screwed.
Fuck anyone who says this isn’t a big deal.
johnny aquitard
Basically, it’s this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B1IQYD4Uew
Wonder what ‘fuck the poor’ is in latin…
JR
For what it’s worth, West Virginia has no death penalty, just life without parole.
Sometimes I’m sorry about that, mostly not.
I’m sad to see that a bigot thought he could get away with something like this, and pretty sure he won’t. You can’t ever be sure about a jury, of course, one well hidden bigot can cause a mistrial.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Keith G:
You do understand that a veto would end SNAP altogether, right? Right?