Open Letter to Congressman Hultgren #2

Dear Congressman Hultgren,

How sad is it that even on an issue like the elimination of hunger we cannot agree?

The conservative majority in the House of Representatives, of which you are one, voted to eliminate 40 billion dollars of funding for SNAP.  This program provides food stamp assistance to individuals and families with incomes below the poverty line.  The majority of people needing assistance from the SNAP program are the working poor, children, the elderly or sick, veterans and even some currently serving in the military.  These are real people with real lives, who don’t have the political clout to make their voices heard.

For those of us who are concerned about hunger and poverty in this country, we are ashamed of the callousness of this vote.  Where are your Christian values of caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless? There is a certain meanness in passing budgets that ask nothing of those who have much while simultaneously taking from those who have little or nothing.

Have you considered that one of the quickest ways to cut food assistance spending is to raise the minimum wage so no one who works full-time lives in poverty? Seems like a no brainer, yet you still voted against increasing the minimum wage. While your rationale is that you are trying to help the poor by eliminating their dependence on government, you have yet to demonstrate how you will make the most vulnerable among us more self sufficient.

In fact, America has a higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than at any time in its history. As a nation we have never been richer. Particularly in this times of record corporate profits, record stock market highs, obscene executive salaries and bonuses, we as a nation need to find the will and compassion to care for those who need our assistance.

That there is any controversy at all is because there exists on the right an extremely radical and vociferous minority that seems to be obsessed with the idea that someone out there is getting something that they don't deserve, and that someone is almost invariably on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

We think that a better solution to decrease food stamp spending would be more jobs and higher wages.  That might require cooperating with Democrats to put together a jobs program that actually has jobs in it. And, it might mean you’ll have to get on the case of those giant corporations who use food stamps to supplement their poverty wages. But, truly, Congressman, isn't that preferable to taking even a little food away from poor kids or seniors who have worked hard their entire lives?