National Security

It's not just about terrorists.

The House passed a farm bill that strips out food aid to the poor, promising they’ll get to it later. I don’t believe it: Republican rhetoric demonizes those who need a hand, implying they are lazy moochers. The reality is that 47% are children, 30% are working poor (those who have jobs that don’t pay enough to cover all their bills), and 21% receive supplemental security income for the aged or disabled.

This includes those who currently serve our country or who already have – the Department of Defense estimates that 5,000 military families will lose food stamps if these cuts go through, and food stamp spending has been up at commissaries, where only service-members, retirees, and their families can shop. When you hear about cuts to food stamps and picture whom this affects, add the image of a second world war veteran whose retirement benefits aren’t quite enough, the children of a national guard soldier who lost his civilian job in the economic downturn, and a young military spouse with small kids who can’t figure out how to pay the bills.

This is not just a moral issue; there’s also a national security component to food aid. The national school lunch program that helped me was established shortly after the second world war: a senior military leader testified at the time that malnutrition or undernourishment likely caused about 8% of potential recruits to be rejected from service (pdf) or placed in the limited service class. School lunches were designed in part to help correct that problem and increase the pool of eligible recruits. Who knows how many other kids like me grew up knowing the debt we owe our nation and choosing to repay it through service?

  Raw Story

"School lunches were designed in part to help correct that problem and increase the pool of eligible recruits." No doubt that senior military leader's testimony is what pushed the vote in favor of the program.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.