In The Hunger Games, the wealthy people of the Capitol leverage their power to create a game only they can win. Unfortunately, this is a storyline similar to one that many Americans know all too well. Watch this Hunger Games parody trailer to learn how Congress is playing games with hunger and nutrition assistance.
Melissa Boteach, director of Half in Ten, reveals some of the choices the GOP made in an effort to avert military cuts scheduled for January 2013 under a bipartisan agreement reached last summer.
Chart from Melissa Boteach, Lawrence Korb, and Max Hoffman shows that House conservatives are asking low- and middle-income families to foot the bill to protect weapons systems that don’t enhance our national security.
The House Agriculture Committee found nearly all of its savings ($33.2 billion over 10 years and less than what the Buffett Rule would raise even under the low scenario) from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This translates into an 11 percent cut in the monthly benefit for an average family of four. The proposal would also change the rules of the program to make it more difficult for families who fall on hard times to access benefits, reduce coordination with other forms of assistance, and force families who lose a job to spend nearly all their savings to get temporary help.
House Republicans have made it clear that they aren’t finished with their war on women. In fact, they’ve just taken their crusade to a new level: attacking women’s economic security.
House Republicans want to overhaul the nation’s safety net by turning Medicaid and food stamps into block grants and making recipients work for certain benefits.
The latest House Republican budget plan asks low-income and middle-class Americans to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while simultaneously delivering massive tax breaks to the richest 1 percent and preserving huge giveaways to Big Oil.
To help more working families keep what they earn, antipoverty activists are embracing financial empowerment efforts and pushing for new policies to restrict asset-stripping practices.
The Virginia Interfaith Center has been working with coalition partners to ensure that vulnerable Virginians are protected in the 2012 General Assembly session.
President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 sets a responsible course for rebuilding the economy so that it works for everyone, not just the privileged few.