Republicans are driving their party off a cliff. House Republicans recently voted to slash funding for food stamps, and this week tea party extremists are attempting to hold the government hostage to a shutdown unless Obamacare is defunded. Why are Republicans so adamantly opposed to any funding for social programs?
The only explanation is that they simply don’t care. Congressional Republicans have done nothing to prove otherwise. From Congressman Paul Ryan’s draconian budget to Senator Ted Cruz’s fake Obamacare “filibuster,” the Republican Party prioritizes the top 1 percent over the rest of us every single chance it gets.
Last Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to cut $40 billion from food stamps over the next 10 years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the GOP cuts will bump approximately four million people off food stamps next year, with an additional 2.8 million losing them each year on average over the next decade. Additionally, an estimated 210,000 children will lose access to free school lunch programs and 55,000 jobs will be lost in the first year of cuts alone. Make no mistake; Americans will starve if the House GOP gets its way.
Republicans love to have this image of — to invoke Reagan — a “welfare queen” buying filet mignon with her EBT card, but the problem becomes the GOP’s incredibly false sense of reality. Unbeknownst to many in the Grand Old Party, the food stamp program provides on average $133 per month. Last year, the average food stamp benefits were $4.45 per day. Is putting food on the tables of hungry Americans wasteful spending?
In addition to the war on the hungry, congressional Republicans are playing politics with health care. Tea party extremists have threatened to shut down the government unless Democrats agree to cut Obamacare funding from the continuing resolution.
If you were watching Fox News, you probably didn’t hear that when uninsured Americans begin enrolling in Obamacare’s new health care exchanges on Oct. 1, the overwhelming majority — 95 percent — will face health care premiums that are on average 16 percent lower than the government had previously projected. In some states like New York, premiums have fallen nearly 50 percent.
But Republicans like Ted Cruz are fighting to keep the status quo where the uninsured can only get care at times of emergency care. Republicans are fighting for a world where insurance companies can discriminate against a patient for pre-existing conditions and raise prices on consumers to give a bonus to the CEO. Thanks to Obamacare, insurance companies cannot discriminate or deny coverage to the 129 million Americans living with pre-existing conditions. Nearly 60 percent of Americans are against defunding Obamacare — so why doesn’t the GOP listen to the public?
I’m content watching the Republicans self-destruct. But they’re damaging our country and the lives of millions of Americans on their way down. How can a party consciously cut food stamps when millions of Americans will go hungry without that safety net? How can a party fight against health care coverage when thousands of Americans die each year due to the lack of health insurance?
Republicans love to thump their Bibles at gay people fighting for the right to marry while at the same time they turn their backs on the poor. Proverbs 14:31 reads, “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Republican policies toward the needy will negatively impact millions of Americans. This mean-spirited class warfare must stop — voters will not forget the heartless, cold policies supported by congressional Republicans.
Sean Higgins is a junior political science major from Brookings, S.D.
