Fox News host Stuart Varney worked himself into a later because states are finding ways to feed the poor, despite food stamp cuts. It truly must be seen to be believed.
Only a conservative like Varney — and possibly Paul Ryan — could be outraged that poor people aren’t starving in the streets, for the sake of the national debt. It’s par for the course for Varney, who has in the past boasted about being “mean to poor people.”
Clearly Stuart Varney doesn’t care about poor people, but if Varney really cared about spending on food stamps then he’d be in favor of raising the minimum wage. Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would cut food stamp spending by $46 billion over 10 years. That’s $6 billion more than the $40 billion that House Republicans wanted to cut.
States are finding ways to feed the hungry, because people are still hungry. Cuts to food stamps don’t lead reduce the need for food assistance, but fewer people getting assistance. That’s how conservatism works. Raising the minimum wage means more people can afford basics like food and shelter, and thus fewer people need food assistance.
Multi-million dollar companies are collecting billions of dollars in corporate welfare, because taxpayers supplement the meager wages they pay their employees through safety net programs like food stamps. Instead of railing against the poor, and looking for way to inflict more pain upon them, conservatives like Stuart Varney should be incensed about that. But that’s not who they are.