In addition to the travesty that the USA does not provide guaranteed health care to its citizens - unlike the modern industrialized nations of Europe among other places - it is a national disgrace that the percentage of Americans experiencing hunger has increased rather than diminished. The irony, of course, is that the voters and politicians who oppose heath care reform and social services to disadvantaged Americans are precisely those who pretend to be supporters of "family values." Since when did hunger and lack of need medical care come to represent "family values" or what America is allegedly all about? But if one listens to the rants of the far right against health care reform, immigration reform and a host of other needed reforms, it is always the falsely pious ego centric members of the Christian Right who are in favor of denying assistance to the poor, etc. They are the antithesis of the Gospel message of Christ, yet the spineless mainstream media never challenges them on their hypocrisy and the disconnect between their actions and the Gospel they claim to worship. The Washington Post has coverage on the increasing presence of hunger in America. Here are some highlights: *
The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.
*
The magnitude of the increase in food shortages -- and, in some cases, outright hunger -- identified in the report startled even the nation's leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens. The findings also intensify pressure on the White House to fulfill a pledge to stamp out childhood hunger made by President Obama, who called the report "unsettling."
*
The data show that dependable access to adequate food has especially deteriorated among families with children. In 2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in households in which food at times was scarce -- 4 million children more than the year before. And the number of youngsters who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.
*
Several independent advocates and policy experts on hunger said that they had been bracing for the latest report to show deepening shortages, but that they were nevertheless astonished by how much the problem has worsened. "This is unthinkable. It's like we are living in a Third-World country," said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America, the largest organization representing food banks and other emergency food sources.
*
The report's main author at USDA, Mark Nord, noted that other recent research by the agency has found that most families in which food is scarce contain at least one adult with a full-time job, suggesting that the problem lies at least partly in wages, not entirely an absence of work. . . . The report suggests that federal food assistance programs are only partly fulfilling their purpose, although Vilsack said that shortages would be much worse without them. Just more than half of the people surveyed who reported they had food shortages said that they had, in the previous month, participated in one of the government's largest anti-hunger and nutrition programs: food stamps, subsidized school lunches or WIC, the nutrition program for women with babies or young children.
The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.
*
The magnitude of the increase in food shortages -- and, in some cases, outright hunger -- identified in the report startled even the nation's leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens. The findings also intensify pressure on the White House to fulfill a pledge to stamp out childhood hunger made by President Obama, who called the report "unsettling."
*
The data show that dependable access to adequate food has especially deteriorated among families with children. In 2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in households in which food at times was scarce -- 4 million children more than the year before. And the number of youngsters who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.
*
Several independent advocates and policy experts on hunger said that they had been bracing for the latest report to show deepening shortages, but that they were nevertheless astonished by how much the problem has worsened. "This is unthinkable. It's like we are living in a Third-World country," said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America, the largest organization representing food banks and other emergency food sources.
*
The report's main author at USDA, Mark Nord, noted that other recent research by the agency has found that most families in which food is scarce contain at least one adult with a full-time job, suggesting that the problem lies at least partly in wages, not entirely an absence of work. . . . The report suggests that federal food assistance programs are only partly fulfilling their purpose, although Vilsack said that shortages would be much worse without them. Just more than half of the people surveyed who reported they had food shortages said that they had, in the previous month, participated in one of the government's largest anti-hunger and nutrition programs: food stamps, subsidized school lunches or WIC, the nutrition program for women with babies or young children.
*
Despite findings such as these, I know a number of Republicans who continue to chant the mantra of lower taxes as they stand by and let children suffer from hunger and lack of medical care resources. Naturally, all of these folks consider themselves "godly Christians" while in reality they are greedy, self-centered scrooges who car nothing for what happens to their fellow citizens. It's sick and it's disgusting, but that's the reality of today's GOP and its false Christian, self-centered bigots
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