Paul Ryan: Please Lay off the Free School Lunches; Almost no one is Against a Free Meal for a Child

From the "own-goal department" of the GOP we have Paul Ryan trying to take food out of the mouth of babes. (The easy liberal counterattack if I have ever seen one)

“The left is making a big mistake here. What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul. The American people want more than that. This reminds me of a story I heard from Eloise Anderson. She serves in the cabinet of my buddy, Governor Scott Walker. She once met a young boy from a very poor family, and every day at school, he would get a free lunch from a government program. He told Eloise he didn’t want a free lunch. He wanted his own lunch, one in a brown-paper bag just like the other kids. He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid with a brown-paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the left does not understand.”

So taking away that government program will suddenly get this poor kid a sack lunch? There might be a decent chance he will not get to eat and be hungry throughout the day. It just seems heartless to try to deny this kid some sustenance that the parents obviously cannot afford. Plus hungry kids test poorly and don't learn well so that puts this kid even further behind.

Instead of offering someone a full soul but an empty stomach why don't you offer his parents a job instead. This is exactly why I don't understand why the GOP is dead-set against a minimum wage hike. If you pay people $3 more per hour we might have more sack lunches and less free school lunches. McDonalds and Walmart might lose money but I'm sure they have smart managers that can make up the difference.

This rush to cut food stamps and free school lunches just makes the GOP look mean-spirited. The least thing this mighty and rich country can do is to make sure that there are no hungry people within its borders. It is very Christian to feed the hungry and clothe the destitute. But when the government takes on this task all the GOP wants to do is cut these programs. The "full soul, empty stomach" principal is just not something most people will get behind.

Finally, what is the savings that can come from these cuts? How could that money be better spent? I would be willing to bet it just a few billion that can be cut out of some other program. Or it can just be gleaned from reducing fraud, waste, and abuse. Shouldn't feeding people be a good use of ones tax money?