The Liberty Union Party rebukes the Vermont delegation in Washington DC
for agreeing to $8.7 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. Our
representatives have an ethical duty to fight for the least advantaged
among us. Beneficiaries will lose $90 per month in food assistance.
This is a devastating burden for unemployed and under-employed workers
and their families already struggling to afford meals. It is scandalous
that Congress allows systemic unemployment and poverty to continue in
the first place.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, along with Congressman Peter
Welch, tell us that they lament the cuts but prevented even bigger cuts
proposed by Republicans. This is a shell game that has been whittling
down the social safety net for decades. Vermonters don’t need excuses.
We need a national strategy from our delegation to turn the country
around. Liberty Union is a socialist party that is prepared to join an
international movement to abolish unemployment, poverty, and hunger.
These are the true threats to our national security that cannot be
solved by the multi-billion dollar F-35 warplanes our delegation wishes
to bring to Vermont. Liberty Union calls for a radical reorientation of
priorities away from militarism and toward human need. If Sanders,
Leahy, and Welch are not up to the task, then they should step aside.