“Washington, D.C. – One of U.S. government’s largest safety net programs won’t be there to catch people if the federal government shuts down next month. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides monthly food benefits to 45 million Americans, will go dark if Congress fails to pass a law funding government operations after October 1, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program.
“On the other hand, the Oklahoma Republican Party is making a case against food stamps by comparing poor people to animals, reviving a stereotype that’s often deployed against Americans who rely on government benefits to feed their families. In a Facebook post published recently, the Oklahoma GOP suggested that the millions of Americans receiving food stamps this year should not be enrolled in the program because “the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”
“This government deserves to be shut down, especially because of the way it has been running the country, or better to say not running it,” an Oklahoma GOP spokesman told Newslo. “The only thing this government has been good at for the past 4 years is taking money from hard-working, law-abiding Americans who bust their asses every day to provide for their families, and giving that money away to free-loaders and lazy hypocrites who don’t have the willpower or motivation to maintain their personal hygiene, let alone get a job and work for a living.”
The spokesman added: “When you really think about it, poor people are just like animals: they’re filthy, they stink, they sit around all day and wait for someone else to feed them. There really isn’t that much difference.”
“And that’s why it is important to shut down social safety net programs and the government in general, because when people get accustomed to the fact that someone is willing to offer them something for free, they’re never going to want to work for it ever again. And that’s the situation we have in the country right now – millions of lazy Americans are sitting around idly, doing nothing and waiting for the government to give them a free meal. Well, that needs to stop because it’s ruining the economy. It kind of negates the whole idea of capitalism,” the spokesman concluded.
