Budget Cuts Are Killing The Elderly

The Republican budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Surplus Food Program have hit my community hard. The Republican budget cuts are literally driving poor elderly people to their deaths.

More on the flip

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Laredo is a relatively large metropolitan area of almost 250,000 people. Yet it has the distinct disadvantage in Republican eyes of being 96% Mexican-American, and voting overwhelmingly for Democrats every election cycle (like 85% to 15%). For example, Bush lost Laredo big in his reelection race in 1998, despite the advantages of incumbency and the sacrificial lamb of a Democratic opponent in Gary Mauro. So it's not unusual for Republicans to punish us. Nixon shut down Laredo Air Force Base after we voted against him back in the 60's, and more recently DeLay's mid-decade gerrymandering split Laredo into two districts to dilute our political influence in congressional races. But this takes the cake. They're killing us:

Officials at the South Texas Food Bank learned of the cuts in a letter two weeks ago. They were surprised by the decision because they had thought the program would be funded at the same level as last year.

"This is a death sentence for some people," said Alice Loewe, a resident of the San Luis Rey housing project. Loewe gets a sack of groceries each month through the CSFP.

Some compassionate conservatism. Kick those old fogies where it hurts - their breadbaskets.

About 90 percent of people on the CSFP are seniors, said Sam Varela, the Texas administrator of the program. He'd wanted Congress to increase resources for CSFP, but instead there are fewer to go around.

"We were hoping there would be enough to expand the program," Varela said.

snip

The food bank's inventory dropped dramatically last year, Arambula said. In December 2004, more than 1 million pounds of food was distributed, while last month just over 510,000 pounds was given out.

It escapes me how deep the denial runs, though. Turn your back, and the fucking problem will go away. No one's at fault here, nothing to look at. Just move on.

Leona Martens, executive director of the Weld County Food Bank in Greeley, Colo., participated with Congress and the USDA in the federal budget process last year.

She said both the USDA and Congress had good intentions and didn't want to throw anyone off the program, but there were still fewer resources to work with.

Martens doesn't know why there aren't as many resources as last year. She had stressed the need of seniors on the program to officials, but Congress had to look at the big picture.

But hey, the Republicans have figured out a neat way to reduce costs -- just kill the old and the poor.

Those who miss the distributions more than three times will be sent to the back of the line, said Food Bank President Odie Arambula. Some of the seniors pass away each month, as well, and they won't need the groceries.

After all, they're just a bunch of old Mexicans anyway, and probably illegals to boot.