5 months ago
34
Republicans need to remove the term "pro-life" from their vocabularies because in the ranks of conservatism, there ain't no such thing. A new CNN story highlights that yet again, as families grapple with the possible loss of federal food assistance benefits, House Republicans are demanding budget cuts, and whenever a Republican says "budget cuts," you can tack on "targeting children and the poor" and you'll be right nine times out of 10.
This particular move is the sort of rote dickishness that makes House Republicans tick. Now that pandemic emergency aid programs have largely been wound down, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children—otherwise known as WIC—is seeing a sharp spike in enrollments. There have been roughly 600,000 new enrollments in the past few months, which spurred the Biden administration to request an additional $1.4 billion for the program.
Enter House Republicans and new Speaker Mike Johnson, who are of the opinion that the government shouldn't be helping to feed babies. This isn't about "well, those babies need to learn to work" or some grand principle; Republicans want to see cuts, and when Republicans look for cuts, it's programs for the poor and for children that they look to slash first.
