Republicans are constantly working to kill SNAP (food stamps) and have used every excuse in the book as to why it doesn’t work, including their favorite, which is that the majority of the unemployed adults choose not to work just so they can freeload off of the system. They use this strategy so much that they even claim it comes from the Bible. According to Wonkblog, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) became the third GOP member on Tuesday to refer to the biblical passage Thessalonians 3-10 as the reason food stamps should be cut. “He says even when we were with you we gave you this rule, ‘If a man will not work he shall not eat,’” Arrington declared.
However, as Republicans often do, the lawmaker agreed to modify his stance on food stamps and limited it “to only old people.” Asked to elaborate on the issue further, Arrington told Internet portal KnowMyRepublican.com that old people “simply shouldn’t be given food stamps regardless of the fact that logic dictates they need them the most.” He explained by arguing that “America’s future is at stake,” as well as that there are many young Americans out there “who have yet to learn the true meaning of the words ‘hard work.’”
“Unfortunately or luckily, depending on how you want to look at it, the fact to the matter is these younger generations have many conveniences that older Americans didn’t when they were growing up,” the lawmaker said. “Smartphones, the Internet, all sorts of media and flow of information that we could only dream about back in the day. And the thing is, when you have information that’s able to travel from one end of the planet to the other in an instant, you kind of have to account for the fact that people have evolved alongside technology. The consequences of that are, unfortunately, both positive and negative.”
He continued, “The effect that has on the issue at hand is as follows. If young people witness a situation in which old folks and those who claim to be poor are given food stamps, which are essentially free meal tickets, that could have a stifling effect on the young people’s motivation to study and work hard. We have to stop here for a second and think about what kind of end result this is going to produce for the American society. Put yourself in their shoes – if you’re a hormonal, energetic teen who is looking forward to partying and getting high 24/7, why would you ever want to wake up every morning and go to work when you could just sit at home, claim to be sick or unable to function properly due to health issues and get food stamps for doing absolutely nothing? Exactly.”
“No one in their right mind would ever think to work hard and study hard and do anything with their life if given the opportunity to have a free meal every day. Our economy would collapse in a matter of months, not years. There would be no labor market, there would be no giant companies, there would be no Wall Street, heck, there would be no more America. So, you kind of understand why we can’t let that happen. Coincidentally, we’ll have to deny food stamps to old people and that’s just a price we’ll have to pay. But, politics is a tricky business and you often are forced to make decisions you don’t like for the good of the many. And the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few any day of the week. Plus, that’s what happens when you elect a businessman with a zero tolerance for unnecessary expenditures policy as president,” Arrington concluded.
