Republicans Declare Banning Universal Free School Meals a 2024 Priority

The fact that its been so normalized to be this openly shitty and callous toward frigging children... i dont even know how to react to this any more.

Im not saying its hopeless, but I feel like a lot of people on the "lets not let children go hungry" side of the fence are almost left speechless by these idiots. But i feel like thats almost part of their strategy - stunning the opposition. There has to be a better response.

What's the best way to respond to this kind of brazen cruelty? (Besides voting and campaigning for candidates who arent sociopathic).

What's the best way to respond to this kind of brazen cruelty?
Voting is a must. Political apathy is how this stuff happens. Outside of voting, just being vocal about your distaste for these policies might help let people around you know that not everyone supports this. And if you come face to face with someone who is outspoken in their belief that some children deserve to starve, then you know who to avoid being around.
- More people voted for trump after his disastrous 4 years in office than did when he first got elected. I don't think voting is the answer because we are stupid. Educating these idiots would go a long way, but they don't believe in education. Being controlled by their extended, daily, two minute hate is all they seem to know or want.
  I taught at a couple school where the majority of the students got their only 2 meals a day when at school. And these fuck heads think that's too much. It makes me sick.
- If only the only other option weren't also trash. Then wouldn't be so much voter apathy. The system is literally designed to be this way. The US being a democratic country is a myth. The founders never even intended it to be a democracy. They just wanted it to be their own little club. Plebs were never even meant to be able to vote.
- It’s really hard to convince people that voting matters. And in many places, the districts are set up in such a way that it favors a certain party’s outcome.
  Republicans seem to be more popular with older people, who also are more likely to be voting. Younger people are much less likely to participate.
  Personally I’m pretty sick of it all myself. I still vote though. I just wish that it wasn’t all about arguments between parties and we could focus on what’s best for people.
Listen, this is hard thing for me to type but I think is relevant to the Republican mindset. Hundreds of children are being murdered in their classrooms. Literal murder. Of children. This is not enough to sway Republicans on gun control. If actual murder of 6 year olds doesn't have any effect on them, surely 6 year olds being hungry is not even going to make them blink. This is the reality with these people. They simply do not care about you, or your children, and everything they do is governed only by money and power.
- Why do they prioritize money and power over the welfare of society? What makes them think it's a good idea? ~Cherri
Oh this is nothing by comparison. Republicans also vote to legalize child rape (which they preciously insist on calling "child marriage") and are trying to bring back child labor because adults are getting fed up with unfair labor practices while little kids are easier to manipulate.
I would say it would be the education of the American people. That stuff like this should be at the top of just about every news program out there.
What sucks is that most people in America, red and blue, are probably not even aware that this is happening. If more people knew what was going on then maybe things like this would stop because of either people voting these politicians out or causing so much outrage they change their minds.
- Many people who don't interact with schools or kids in general don't think about them at all, except as a tax burden and a political football. It's a sickness on this country.
Literally everyone in this comment section is missing “regardless of the individual eligibility of each student”. Everyone is getting hysterical over something that isn’t even in the cards.
Of course a lot of kids rely on free school lunches and they aren’t trying to take that away. They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.
I'm lefty as fuck and I still kind of empathize with people who consider themselves conservative being seriously over people characterizing literally any conservative action they take as cartoonishly evil.
- And you're missing that, without the free meals being available to everyone, there's a negative social stigma to getting the free school lunches. Kids skip the meals because they don't want to be seen as "that poor kid." This leads to them going hungry, not doing well in school, and not having as many chances to break the cycle of poverty.
  By opening the free school lunches to everyone, the stigma is removed. If Billy gets a free school lunch, he might be poor or his parents just might be having him get the school lunches instead of packing something. Without the social stigma, kids who need the lunches are more likely to get them and more kids are fed.
Chapter 1: The Power of Love Chapter 2: ...
- Is a curious thing... Wait, is that not what you meant?

Beyond disgusting. Keep the kids hungry so they can't learn while sitting in their underfunded classrooms. Uneducated masses ripe for the conservative picking. Can't see through their lies if you've never been taught how to think. I hate it here...

Gosh... Just imagine that not guaranteeing a meal to children, preventing them from eating in some cases, is what you want more than anything.

Simply blows my mind.

These people jerk off to the idea of hurting children. Every new policy Republicans come up with, whether its supporting ~~child marriage~~ legalized rape with 12 year olds or trying to bring back child labor, or making children too hungry to learn anything in school, makes their "moral" panic over a bunch of people who happen to be wearing dresses reading to kids even more hypocritical. Honestly I think it's the idea of children being functionally literate that probably terrifies them the most.
Malnutrition leads to developmental delays. Poor academic performance in early years means they're less likely to go to college, and ma not even finish high school. This helps create the next generation of wage slaves that are required for capitalism to survive.
In other words, working as designed.
- Why design it like that though? And I know someone's going to say "money and power and evil" or something but that just pushes the question further back. ~Cherri

Why….. I grew up on free and reduced lunches. The return on investment here is immense.

I make six figures working at the highest levels of my career in support of government agencies. I used free/reduced lunches my entire schooling. It’s super ridiculous
- Same, my property tax for this month alone will have more than paid for my entire schooling career of subsidized food.
Don't you know? The only necessary welfare is mine
- https://youtu.be/eyGND49CBYk
  british comic stuart lee on the subject.
Obviously being nice to 1 person just leads to communism! I'll bet you now believe that people should have access to food, clean water, clean air, health care, and shelter as well? DON'T YOU!?
I do as well. :-)
Why? Assuming this is not a rhetorical question, it follows directly from the core authoritarian principle of Conservatism in the U.S.: Moral Hierarchy. That is to say, Those who rule are privileged above those who serve, and this is the basis of a ranked ever-swelling staircase of privilege.
Any action or policy that supports the hierarchy is divine, and whatever threatens the hierarchy is evil. Free food, or food as a right, is antithetical to Conservatism because it diminishes a key point of leverage held by rulers going up the chain. When a person is fed, they are less inclined to honor the privilege of their supposed rulers. When a person is truly hungry, they are highly motivated to submit, and even to support the hierarchy that provides them with any limited access to food.
In this philosophy, the ROI of free lunch is negative. The same argument applies to most forms of welfare.
The cruelty is the point.
Same here, kept me fed during my high school years. Don’t know what I would’ve done without it.

Why aren't they self aware enough to realize they sound like cartoon villains?

They are appealing to their voters who want them to "hurt the right people"
- Why do their voters want them to "hurt the right people" in the first place? And why do they go along with it rather than trying to persuade them not to or targeting a different demographic or anything else? ~Cherri
I keep hoping that their voters finally see them for what they are, but well, I guess they do and that's the point...

imagine being in the strategy meeting with your team, when they suggest a play based on suspending withdrawing food from child would go well with your voters.

imagine agreeing to go with it. getting a speech written about it and one day standing at the lectern to say in front of crowd of assembled people "it is not our responsiblity to feed children". and then pausing for applause and going home and telling your spouse, "today went great".

in this supply chain of inhumanity, there were so many opportunities for the heart to say "yo...something is off here.....cant quite put my finger on it.......but it doesnt seem.....right ?."

to sail through all those checkpoints of human decency, and go through with it, is nothing less than psychopathy.

The horrifying thing is that there are people out there who will consider it the right thing to do.

It's really quite shocking how the GOP agenda can be predicted by asking yourself, "What's the worst thing someone would in a given situation?". What's even more shocking is that they have engineered the political framework to disproportionately grant them enough power to sometimes pass these regressive policies. But for most of America, sigh, just another Thursday...

“It’s not enough that I should eat, children should starve. “ -the gop.

Either that or "I don't believe that anyone is starving. I just ate a large lunch so obviously nobody is going hungry."
They only recognize that something is real when it affects them personally. If it doesn't then they'll either claim the thing doesn't exist or will say it's that person's fault that they are going through that (likely for being "too lazy" to pull themselves up by their bootstraps).
- “I don’t believe that anyone is starving. I just ate a large lunch so obviously nobody is going hungry.”
  Exactly. Same energy as "I made a snowball in January so obviously global warming doesn't exist and neither does the sun by the way." Weaponized incompetence at the object permanence level.
- If it was just apathy, they wouldn't be going out of their way like this to make it worse. ~Cherri

1 million Americans are dead because of disastrous Republican-lead mishandling of covid. Some have even labeled it as a literal genocide against our countrymen.
And yet, there is some evidence to suggest that the Trump administration did in fact intend to use COVID-19 to target certain political and racial groups. According to reporting from Vanity Fair, Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner shelved a federal COVID-19 testing plan because he believed that the virus would mostly affect Democratic states, and the administration could then blame Democratic governors for deaths. Blue Democratic cities are disproportionately home to Black people and other minority populations. A federal plan to allow deaths in blue states inevitably and predictably disproportionately facilitated the deaths of Black people and other people of color.
- It's not a new thing for the Republic side. Reagan refused to do anything about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, or even speak about it publicly, since he believed it was God's punishment against the gay community. Before it started spreading and killing his white Christian community too, the administration was fine letting it kill off the people he hated.
There's probably some of that, in some cases there may even be overwhelming evidence of it.
Overall they're just a bunch of greedy self-centred fools who will drive a steam roller down a street filled with babies and kittens if it means their stocks will go up by 0.01$.
So Republicans don't love America? Yeah, that tracks.

How did this get normalized? Why is this even something that is even considered debatable? As a society, feeding our children should be the first priority.

I'm flubbered.

Echo chambers that reinforce the lie that democrats want to take your money to pay for irresponsible people’s children.
- Maybe they are irresponsible, but that's not their kids fault. Feeding kids regardless of who their parents are, is a basic morality thing.
- Why do they want the children to suffer for it though??? ~Cherri
- the unplanned kids that arrived under anti abortion laws.
- i understand its a bullshit argument, but even if were true, idgaf why kids dont have food, i want them to get food one way or another
Literally everyone in this comment section is missing “regardless of the individual eligibility of each student”. Everyone is getting hysterical over something that isn’t even in the cards.
Of course a lot of kids rely on free school lunches and they aren’t trying to take that away. They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.
- I'm admittedly not familiar with how the program works but I suspect that "totally bulletproof and unbiased eligibility criteria that can't / won't be weaponized against specific people groups" isn't something that it guarantees

Tearing down women's rights. Ruining queer people's life, especially trans people. Making sure children can't eat for free. Wow. Quite the priorities over at the Republican party.

I'm not American, I've just been looking from afar for a long time now. But from everything I'm seeing... it feels like they're going to be in for quite the rude awakening in 2024.

Unless you're Russian, you probably aren't familiar with living in the kind of media environment we have which can cause these clearly absurd ideas to seem normal for people to have. This lunacy is within our overton window. Centrists think it's about half right. Liberals think it's wrong but more or less fair to hold these views. A younger and further left contingent which has almost no representation in the government (because we put elecrions upnfor sale in 2010 with Citizens United) but is growing is the only group who finds this kind of thing completely unacceptable.

They care about children until they’re born then they want nothing to do with them. Oh wait they also use children to pass anti lgbt legislation.

And prop up the work force.

You know, I try to keep an open mind and try to understand how the other side could come to the conclusions they do, but sometimes they really make it difficult. I genuinely don't get how this could be construed as anything other than malicious. What's the benefit in this? How is this "thinking of the children?" How did a political party come to represent views that are so aggressively anti-humanity? It's such a bizarre platform to attach yourself to so proudly and openly.

Sometime there is no rationality in those people/political party, they exist just to be destructive and promote hatred no matter the reason.
They wanted to promote child marriage.
They wanted to rape children and get away with it by forcing them to marry them.
They wanted to take out PPP loan on younger generations and tell them to go and fucking die.
They wanted to deny student loan relief, even if there are provable economic boon in doing so, because they exist to hate people no matter what.
They want to ban abortion without giving any exception even for raped victim or a miscarriage.
I could go on and on and on about it. Sometime, there is no reasoning with monsters and they need to be destroyed, period.
- It's insane seeing how they've built themselves on a platform of strictly hate. It seems like they're never for things only against things. Well I guess outside of the child marriage thing seems they're pretty for that. It's so strange to me that in 2023 the republican party has regressed into essentially a draconian early industrial revolution era roll back of rights. I mean they're even repealing child labor laws. It's literally like they want to remove all progress from the last couple centuries. It blows my mind that this is acceptable in our country in the era.
- Ah, student loans are, in fact, a problem. One-time relief of student debts is a good thing - provided there are no new debts on such a scale and the mechanism changes after that.
  Charity sponsorship of students is a good thing without doubt. Private stipends are a good thing. But when loans which are not going to be returned in a normal way are becoming that common, then something is wrong and should be fixed, not poured more money into.
  They are a cause of inflation in education (which, of course, harms the students as well), of people like AOC talking and being listened about economics, because on paper they would be qualified, and so on.

What. The. Fuck. Is wrong. With. These people?

I've been thinking about this a lot. I'm absolutely not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or anything similar, but it's starting to show that all of them have forgotten where they came from or the stories of where their family members came from. Most of these people were raised by Depression-Era parents who, without exaggeration, suffered and died due to lack of affordable food options. I'm sure some Republicans even experienced that same problem themselves in their childhood.
I used to believe the ignorance of how important providing basic nutrition to the next generation is was based on a lack of life experience, and that may be true for some, but there's no way every single one of them has no surface-level knowledge of true hardship. They have heard about it, read about it, and some have witnessed it firsthand.
So to answer the question, it's either a part of some long-term plan to control the public for their means (which is evil) or they are selfish pricks (which when you are in government, makes you evil). Unfortunately, it's looking like both.
- I do not understand where this push from the right came from.
  This is incredibly cruel and inhumane.
  So, you do understand.

They're not even bothering to lie any more, and yet everyone still votes for them.

You know that scene in Final Fantasy 8 where Edea announces her evil plan to a huge crowd and calls them morons and they all clap and cheer? This is like that.

The whole point in these kind of moves is to cause congestion and exhaustion in political movement.

It’s a struggle to campaign for actual improvements when we’re all stuck fighting garbage like this all the time.

It’s deliberate obstruction and a standard GOP play

It's just cruel. A disgusting, cruel mindset from those who genuinely just want to hurt others.

Anyone supporting this lacks the most basic of morals. There is no excuse for this.

it's a weird mindset.
Literally everyone in this comment section is missing “regardless of the individual eligibility of each student”. Everyone is getting hysterical over something that isn’t even in the cards.
Of course a lot of kids rely on free school lunches and they aren’t trying to take that away. They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.
- They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.
  i honestly have to ask here: who cares if the children of people who can afford to feed their kids benefit from this policy? means testing is dumb in basically all circumstances, you can't count on parents to do this (and if a child goes to school without a lunch they should still be able to eat!), and even if you don't care about those considerations the policy as a whole is basically a budgetary rounding error. this isn't the F-35 program, your tax dollars aren't being thrown into a black hole because someone with an income of $100,000 has a child also being fed by universal school lunch.
- The problem is that, when free lunches are restricted to only kids who can't afford lunch, there's a social pressure NOT to get the free lunch. Kids don't want to stand out as "that poor kid." They'll skip lunch instead of being singled out.
  Free lunches for everyone fixes this. Kids can't tell if Jimmy is getting the free lunch because his parents didn't pack him one or because his parents can't afford to feed him. The cost to feed the kids is low and the reward - kids learning, doing well in school, and having a better chance to break the poverty cycle - is high. It's well worth the cost.

My Daily Reminder that this is a gold plated dystopia.

The second gilded age. And I'm not sure it will end as peacefully as the first.

What's crazy to me is it seems like they just want children to suffer. They want to force women to give birth, but then don't give a shit about what happens to the children after. On top of that, it's like they are trying to make them suffer even more for their parents being unable to provide.

I could somewhat get attacking programs for adults. Still disagree, but I guess it's the "they should be able to provide for themselves" mentality. But then doing this for children when they are literally unable to provide for themselves or have any responsibility for being hungry. Yes, let's make the helpless children suffer.

Disgusting times we live in.

They want to force children into the labor pool. Can't afford to eat? Get a job Timmy! Oh and by the way if you don't pay your school lunch debt, we're calling CPS and taking you away from your parents. So get to work!
- They see poor people as inherently bad parents. They want ways to take away poor minority children from their parents, and lunch debt is a great way to get them on the radar for that.

I’m reluctant to use the word “evil”, but I can’t think of another word that accurately describes their goals and behavior. They simply hate anyone who isn’t just like them. Different race? SUFFER AND DIE. Different economic bracket? SUFFER AND DIE. Different beliefs on sexuality? SUFFER AND DIE.

They think that others are a threat to the “moral fabric” of America, but they themselves are a threat to the mere existence of millions of Americans.

Attention conservatives: you can't ~~marry~~ legally rape children or force them into child labor if you already starved them to death first.

yeah, but if all the kids starve to death at least the drag queens can't groom them (by existing and sometimes reading stories aloud)

"There is no such thing as a free lunch", they said :(

To pull more of the article into the comment section:

The Republican Study Committee (of which some three-quarters of House Republicans are members) on Wednesday released its desired 2024 budget, in which the party boldly declares its priority to eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, from the School Lunch Program. Why? Because “CEP allows certain schools to provide free school lunches regardless of the individual eligibility of each student.”

Of note is that the CEP is not even something every school participates in; it is a meal service program reserved for qualifying schools and districts in low-income areas. The program enables schools that predominantly serve children from low-income backgrounds to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, instead of means-testing them and having to manage collecting applications on an individual basis. As with many universal-oriented programs, it is more practically efficient and, as a bonus, lifts all boats. This is what Republicans are looking to eliminate.

It’s the kind of provision that many would want every school to participate in. Why not guarantee all our children are well fed as they learn and think about our world and their place in it, after all?

These are the same people who can expense up to $79 per day for food and drink. They're fine taking hand outs, they just don't want you to have any.

God this is depressing. What kind of world do we live in and when will we start creating a better one?

Getting rid of current Republican office-holders would be one place to start. Voting matters, and shit like this is why.
- We've been trying that for decades upon decades, haven't we? How long is it going to take? It's going to be too late for too many people if it goes on by then. Might end up being too late to deal with climate change... ~Cherri
there are things you can do to start building a better world today, but it never feels like enough
Literally everyone in this comment section is missing “regardless of the individual eligibility of each student”. Everyone is getting hysterical over something that isn’t even in the cards.
Of course a lot of kids rely on free school lunches and they aren’t trying to take that away. They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.
- I think the issue is that we should just be feeding the kids point blank regardless of their income level. When I was in school, I was denied lunch on a couple of occasions because I forgot my lunch money and wasn’t on free lunch. That certainly doesn’t help anyone learn.

what they fail to understand is that for poorer communities, kids rely on these lunches for meals when their families can't afford to buy food

No, they understand, they just don't care.
- No, they understand and they care... They want the poor to be trapped by debt and struggling starting at a young age.
I think they understand, and they take pleasure in it.
I'd argue that they understand it perfectly. The cruelty is the point.
The Republican party serves the rich. Poor Republican voters are just temporarily embarrassed millionaires so they are cool with suffering themselves as long as other poor people are suffering. Other people deserve to suffer because of skin color, religion, "laziness", or whatever, so they keep voting to cut services for themselves.
Something something bootstraps.
"those deadbeat parents should've got an abortion if they can't feed their kid" --republicans probably

Aren't these the same people who claim that an unborn baby has every right to live, even if they're only like 4 cells and still dividing? Does like... that right to life just end once they're birthed? I really don't get how these people justify their stupidity.

Relevant George Carlin
- Man I miss George Carlin
- “They are anti-woman.” Fucking nailed it. Carlin said this almost 30 years ago. Republicans and conservatives are evil to the core. They have not changed and will never change.
It's all about keeping women scared and powerless. They don't give a flying fuck about babies.
It’s never been about the babies or family values. It’s about keeping people dumb and angry at their own so they never catch on to how badly they’ve been fleeced again and again.

Very on brand for them. Especially after they denied free school lunch in North Dakota and turned around a week or so later and raised their daily meal allowance.

How dare you suggest that children and our future are more important than old millionaire boomer trolls, that uses every fiber of their being to screw everyone over so that they can have enjoy free vacations from their CEO friends?

Given that the Republicans are nominally a Christian party, has no one in the party had a look at what Jesus taught about feeding the hungry? It is pretty clear, and it is NOT this.

The problem is, they're ignoring Matthew 25:35 in favor of 2 Thessalonians 3:10.
- The children yearn for the mines, for only the mines make them worthy of a hearty meal.
  Also thank you for addressing the "but the bible is progressive akshully" bullshit. No it's not. Never has been. The new testament is less backwards, but to dismiss the old testament entirely is hypocritical and maybe even heretical. The bible is problematic if you look at it objectively, as is any form of moral prescriptivism from millennia ago.

Give the poor nothing and we will have nothing left to lose. eyes guillotine hungrily

Literally everyone in this comment section is missing “regardless of the individual eligibility of each student”. Everyone is getting hysterical over something that isn’t even in the cards. This isn't about not feeding the poor. This is about not giving the free food you should be giving the poor to people who simply don't need it.
Of course a lot of kids rely on free school lunches and they aren’t trying to take that away. They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.
- I would rather see my taxes go to feed every single kid in this country, poor or rich, than see another cent go into our absurdly bloated military budget, militarization of our police forces, and tax cuts for the rich. THAT is why everyone here is missing the fine print. You don't need to read between the lines to see that haggling down what little the working class has is an exercise in cruelty. It's ridiculous to penny-pinch social safety nets. Period.

Really putting evil front and center this time, huh.

I personally cannot stand the idea of children from low income househodls having something to eat
Nothing would surprise me from them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they announced wheelchair bans. For a party that openly promotes misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia… I wouldn’t be surprised if they went full tilt into ableism.

Just normal GOP evil.

Fuck your kids, billionaires need yet another tax break. -Republicans.

Careful, Republicans might take that first part literally

Pro-life, pro-child, pro-family values 👍🤗💖💯

It's like they say, universal free school meals leads to a lazy population and communism.

Jokes aside, I really don't understand their fear of anything that resembles socialized programs.

They’re afraid of someone getting a free handout because they think it isn’t fair. They think they had to work hard for everything they have and that other people should suffer even more to have the same things. They’re perfectly fine bailing out banks and large companies though because those aren’t people. Huge lack of empathy and morals is the greater issue.
- They THINK they had to work hard. Most of them are from a time where a one income family of 5 could actually be financially solvent.

I imagine they twirled their mustaches and maniacally laughed while announcing this. How much more cartoonishly villainous can they get?

Have they started tying women to train tracks yet? I feel like that might be a literal next step at this point.
- “Those who seek abortions will now be executed by steam-powered vehicle.”
- I can just picture Ted Cruz covering his mouth and Muttley laughing while children starve.

Holy shit what a bunch of heartless spineless wankers :(

Imagine caring so much about corporate profits you refuse to literally feed children. ‘Governance’. What a joke.

Literally everyone in this comment section is missing “regardless of the individual eligibility of each student”. Everyone is getting hysterical over something that isn’t even in the cards.
Of course a lot of kids rely on free school lunches and they aren’t trying to take that away. They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.
- Technically a good point, but the text directly after your quote ... :
  it is a meal service program reserved for qualifying schools and districts in low-income areas. The program enables schools that predominantly serve children from low-income backgrounds to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, instead of means-testing them and having to manage collecting applications on an individual basis. As with many universal-oriented programs, it is more practically efficient and, as a bonus, lifts all boats.
  Yes, some free meals might go to kids whose parents, albeit from a low-income area, might be able to pay for it. But is that so much of a problem?
  There are costs for checking for individual eligibility:
  more administration
  potential social stigma
  some kids with "bad parents" who happen to be "too rich" might have no meal
  I'm also unhappy this is fought on the back of the kids when it's actually about the money of the parents.

What happened to states rights? Wasn't that the rationale of getting rid of RoweVWade? Oh yeah, that was another lie. Of course it was.

Conservative beliefs in "state rights" are just as valid as they were when the Dredd decision was made. They want maximum cruelty to be imposed on the greatest number of people and will use whatever power they have to inflict it. Maybe today that's state rights while tomorrow it will be federally mandated law. Whichever path allows them to exercise their will over others is the one they will choose in the moment. Every other principle they will waffle and flip flop over, but they are always consistent on maximizing their ability to hurt innocent people.
You've hit the nail on the head! States rights only apply to (insert conservative ideology here). It'll be interesting to see if book banning continues to be allowed as it's the perfect example of a law that shouldn't be legal.

Just evil… no nuance needed.

Yes. it just breaks my heart that people seem to have a goal to make the lives of the vulnerable as hard as possible.

The one bright side of this article is that it's coming from The New Republic, which is traditionally more conservative. And the author is calling out how sad this plan is.

edit: I'm wrong? This never happens! see reply below.

Naw - TNR is a liberal but not leftist sort of magazine. It was founded by progressives back in the 20s and remains a solidly Democratic sort of magazine.

thinner kids are harder targets /s

Wow, this made me incredibly sad...
- sorry, bit sarcasm is the only way I can still cope with this sh*t

Pure cruelty. Our taxes ment to be used to help people and this means more then paving roads (which in the US isn't done). I'm sick of this idea the government needs to cut spending but then they just cut social programs that is the whole point of having a government.....

I used to work for a small, family owned business. At lunch the wife of the owner was reading an article in paper and said, "90% of this school district is close enough to the poverty line that they receive free/reduced breakfast and lunch, because there's a good chance those are their only reliable meals for the week." Then she looks up from the paper and says "Can you believe that? They're giving away breakfast now, too!"
- Yessh...is this a lack of compassion or empathy. I have a feeling it's the latter that cause the former. They can't see past their own lives and that lead them to think anyone that needs help isn't doing enough. Besides all that giving food for free to children shouldn't even be a issue. Hell is shouldn't matter rich or poor kids at school should just be feed. This program in the grand scheme wouldn't even cost that much (as other countries have proven)
- Actually horrifying
They could cut military spending by like 2% and fix a whole lotta issues.
- Lockheed would never allow it.

I'm just sad for the US now. Hope you guys will get better times soon.

and this is developed nation XD

We're not a developed nation the the US. Bring a developed nation is a moving target. As the world's idea of what it means to have a healthy and safe society progresses, a nation must progress with those standards.
The US was a developed nation, but has since failed to keep up with it's peers over the last 40 years now. We are a very wealthy nation who is rapidly rotting away at the core. Our inability to keep our people fed, healthcare available, preserve the ability for people to own homes, ensure that people have lives beyond work, and to have a route for upwards mobility all demonstrate a nation not achieving the standards set of the developed world.
We have lots of money (in total), but not a healthy and successful society.

More orphans for the the orphan crushing machine

The machine needs to be fed.

that's a weird priority to have... even weirder to be so proud to announce it

The cruelty is the point with Republicans. The cruelty always has been the point. The cruelty always WILL be the point.

"I love the poorly educated"

They sure do. Dumb people vote for dumb candidates.

More like dumb people vote for intelligent psychopaths.
- Can we please not do the "evil is caused by mental illness" thing here? ~Cherri

Of all the things to rally people around…

Children should not have to bring money to school to eat. A nutritious and tasty meal should be provided free. Their only worries in school should be whether they studied enough to pass an exam, not on their grumbling stomachs. This is dystopian garbage.

They're like a bunch of comic book villains trying to outdo each other in who can be the most abhorrent.

cut Social Security and Medicare
make Trump’s tax cuts for the top 1 percent permanent
impose work requirements on “all federal benefit programs,” like food stamps and Medicare
extend work requirements on those aged 55–64
bring back all of twice-impeached and twice-arrested former President Donald Trump’s deregulations, including the weakening of environmental protection.

Well then

Does GOP actually have any goals that could be deemed objectively good?
- Many of their goals are objectively good for the oil lobby and scam industries like private health insurance.
  They're in favor of fucking over humanity as a whole because they just love the flavor of boot.

But I thought they were so worried about the children... /s

They give free lunch to fetuses.
They are worried about the children - they're worried that they're getting free handouts from the government that will turn them into social parasites! They should be out in the wilderness hunting for their survival. Whatever happened to the good ol' days where kids worked in coal mines for 12 hours a day and lost limbs in factory accidents by the time they're 14?

I am not American... But I have to say, this sounds just so comically evil it seems something only a badly written cartoon villain would say, like "I will kick all puppies and banish chocolate"

They get their votes by hurting people. It's what their base demands.

Can somebody please think off the children!!

Oh wait..

Meanwhile, they literally get free lunch. It's some ridiculous stipend over $100 a day. Tax corporations and the 1%, no never. Starving children though, excellent idea. Can't get kick backs from a single parent who's struggling. Plus we can use the money we saved to give Uvalde another armored vehicle. That'll help the children. We are truly screwed.

What a weird priority to have.

Using public funds to help people? Not on the GOP's watch.

WHaT iF tHat UNfeD ChILd is ThE MEssIaH

Profits are priority over children being able to eat, right? Makes sense to me! /s

This is just plain cruel. But I think they know that.

For a lot of kids, especially those whose families struggle financially, the free school meal is what they have to eat that day, and this would take even that away.

Horrible.

Not only that, but research in one state showed that every dollar spent on meal programs added 7 to the economy. Moreover, it leads to better education outcomes, which leads to better financial outcomes, which leads to more taxes for the government. Granted, that last one will take at least 12 years to pay off.
There is no good moral or economic reason to not have meal programs, which makes one wonder why they insist on doing it. The only ones I can think of are spite, malice, or power.

How is this a thing that people rally for? Like WTF

These chucklefucks always seem to choose the more expensive way of going about it in the name of saving taxpayers money. Abject morons.

So depriving children of food is a "priority" for them. I don't know how to describe that other than "disgraceful".

Absolutely ridiculous and cruel. But not surprising for Republicans Their mindset of "I got mine, screw everybody else" is so terrible.

Always think about the children, except when it's something that directly impacts the lives of children.

Vote em out! not voting is complacency. Not voting is showing that this is acceptable.

I'm not saying voting is the only action needed, but it is an absolute bear minimum.

Why would they alienate their voter base that mainly reside in impoverished red states? A portion of those poor brainwashed right-wingers have children too.

Can you guys see the parallel with a certain spiteful CEO who is the reason for our exodus...

They know their voter base is too dumb and enraged by right wing propaganda to realize they are voting against their interests.
- Yeah it seems as long as it hurts someone else they dislike they don't mind hurting themselves.

Demons

The cruelty truly is the point with republicans.

this is unfortunate to say the least. Its hard to decide if Republicans have been cartoon villains all along or if they just began to be more honest. Sad thing is will it even stop folks from voting for them? lmao

You see, the issue is if you spend money to guarantee children aren't going hungry then that money isn't going into the pockets of some billionaire instead. And they just can't handle that.

How anyone with any empathy could ever support these politicians is beyond me.

They don’t have empathy. They have been told it is a weakness since they were children.

And I declare that voting these child-killers out of office is a 2024 priority.