Stop food stamp cuts

From the Daily Kos:

The Washington Post reports that "negotiations are almost complete on a long-overdue farm bill" and that House and Senate negotiators plan to "call for eliminating about $9 billion in funding for food stamps."

?#@*&%! But this fight is not over, not by a longshot:

Sign our petition denouncing congressional negotiators for planning to cut food stamps in order to pass a Farm Bill with massive corporate subsidies to Big Agriculture, and please share the petition widely over Facebook, Twitter and your other social networks.

Any cuts to food stamps are despicable and disgusting. Here is how we plan to stop them:

• Passage of the Farm Bill is not guaranteed. Any Farm Bill has to pass both the tea party controlled House and the Democratic controlled Senate. Just as there are some Democrats who will oppose the bill because it cuts food stamps (partially because the Daily Kos community sent 265,000 emails telling members of Congress to oppose food stamp cuts), there are also tea partiers who oppose the Farm Bill because it doesn't cut food stamps enough. As such, it is possible for a left-right coalition to sink this bill.
• If the Farm Bill is defeated, then any food stamp cuts will probably be delayed at least a year. If there is no way to pass a Farm Bill in the current Congress, then the most likely outcome is for a continuing resolution which would extend the current Farm Bill for another year. This would stop any cuts to the food stamp program, and kick the can down the road until there is a new Congress after the 2014 elections.

Now, there is no guarantee that the 2014 elections will result in a Congress that is better on food stamps. In fact, those elections could make things even worse. But defeating the Farm Bill, getting a continuing resolution, and then doing well in the 2014 elections is the only realistic path to stopping food stamp cuts.

This is our path. Please sign our petition denouncing congressional negotiators for planning to cut food stamps, and share the bill far and wide over Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers
Senior Campaign Director, Daily Kos