Letter to the Editor; Rep says poor kids should work for their school lunch??

To the Editor:

Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA) recently proposed that low-income pupils need to work for their school lunch. Really?

Punishing children for being poor is a new low for many members of Congress, Kingston among them. I wonder if they think that cutting food stamps, school lunches, Meals on Wheels, and the safety net for poor women, children, infants, veterans, the elderly and disabled makes them better representatives, caring people, more Christ-like?

I don’t hear these same members of Congress punishing the 936 companies, corporations, and banks that got a TARP bailout to the tune of $608 billion of taxpayer money. (By the way, only $381 billion has been paid back.)

I do not hear Congress cutting into the almost $1 trillion military budget. Yes, the U.S. has the largest military budget in the world, but Congress is not punishing those who waste military money on such items as a $5.6 million state-of-the-art incinerator that never worked and is now scrap metal for the Afghanis or the $36 million headquarters building at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province, Afghanistan – a building that has never been or will be used that the Marine Corps never wanted. Or the $70 million for each V-22 Osprey. Or over $1 trillion it will cost for 2,493 F-35 fighter jets. Or $8-9 billion for the aging missile defense program.

When it comes to cutting guns or butter, Congress chooses the military and rich corporations over the people. Now we hear Congress talking about cutting into the social safety programs (which total about $411 billion of the national budget) and benefits for federal retirees and veterans (about $250 billion in the budget).

When all else fails, Congress resorts to punishing the poor, the retired, the veterans, the middle class.

Duane Pitts

Moses