Republicans Think People Aren't Entitled to Food

[Content Note: Class warfare; food insecurity.]

Republicans think people aren't entitled to food. Republicans think people aren't entitled to food. REPUBLICANS! THINK! PEOPLE! AREN'T! ENTITLED! TO FOOD! Republican Senator David Vitter thinks people aren't entitled to food:

Under a bill Vitter introduced Wednesday, beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) [also known as food stamps] would be denied their food if they are unable to show a photographic identification card at the register. For millions of low-income Americans who don't have an official photo ID and can't necessarily afford to buy one, Vitter's bill would mean being cut off from their primary food source.

And naturally Vitter justifies this nasty bit of class warfare with garbage narratives about how the program is widely exploited by scam artists and lazies and takers and various other conservative caricatures of poor people:

[Vitter] says the legislation "will restore some accountability to the program so it's not ruined for people who use it appropriately," suggesting that "fraud surrounding the taxpayer-funded program" is part of why SNAP costs doubled since 2008.

Rage. Seethe. Boil.

SNAP fraud rates hover at around 1%, "the lowest fraud rates of any public program." And the reason why SNAP costs have doubled is not because of increased fraud, but because of increased need. More people are dependent on food assistance programs because more people aren't earning enough money to meet their basic needs without help, as a result of a long recession with high unemployment and a "recovery" that has disproportionately favored the wealthy.

Those are demonstrable facts. But a Republican Senator will shamelessly tell fairy tales about the fraud and greed and low moral character of people in need of some help, so he can justify legislation to cut costs by denying food to vulnerable people. Because he thinks people aren't entitled to food.

Republicans think people aren't entitled to food. That is the most basic strategic move in class warfare. Let them eat bootstraps.

[H/T to @SoDevolved.]