Do you remember Franz Kafta's haunting very short story "The Hunger Artist?" (Click here [1] for an etext). I thought of it while Queens Council Member
Eric Gioia [2] tried to live for a week on an average food stamp allotment of $28. Was it a publicity stunt? Well yes, but in a good cause. The cause, however, is in danger of getting lost.
As it turns out, the way food stamp allotments calculated has not changed in a long while leaving their value diminished and recipients on line at the food pantry. The progressive Fiscal Policy Institute [3] has issued a report picked up the other day by the Gotham Gazette. It’s only nine pages and unusually clear considering it’s written by economists and exhaustively footnoted. The punch line is that inflation is eroding the benefit and Congress can fix it. Read the report here [4] (pdf, sorry) and then call your Member of Congress.
While you’re on the phone, why not suggest an up or down vote on the minimum wage? It’s already passed both houses, but looks as though its enactment may await the end of the war In Iraq, because the minimum wage hike is ties to the Iraq Supplemental Budget Bill. To check the lack of latest developments on our shameful failure to raise the minimum wage, click here [5]
A more or less progressive Congress should, if we help them, be able to get food stamp and minimum wage increases through.
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