Greg Kaufmann in The Nation, in preparation for Friday when “48 million people—including more than 21 million children—will see their food stamp (SNAP) benefits reduced”, looks at the timing of the cuts, recent history concerning the addressing of poverty, and then says that a “Movement on Poverty” is in order:
It’s time to stop bemoaning “the lack of political will” to take on poverty and focus on what we are doing to create that political will. Because no matter how great a speech someone delivers, or how compelling a study someone conducts, or how smart the talking points are for those advocating for good policy, or how many twitter storms, e-mails, or online petitions we push—there will be no significant change without a truly broad-based movement along the lines of what we are seeing with immigration reform and marriage equality.
Otherwise, expect the advocacy community to always be playing defense and the most vulnerable people to keep paying the price for it.
See more on the changes to SNAP on yesterday’s The Lead.