The Republican Study Committee’s annual budget also calls to permanently defund UNRWA and eliminate the National Labor Relations Board.

The Republican Study Committee’s annual budget also calls to permanently defund UNRWA and eliminate the National Labor Relations Board.

On Wednesday, the Republican Study Committee, of which some three-quarters of House Republicans are members, released its 2025 budget entitled “Fiscal Sanity to Save America.” Tucked away in the 180-page austerity manifesto is a block of text concerned with a crucial priority for the party: ensuring children aren’t being fed at school.

Eight states offer all students, regardless of household income, free school meals — and more states are trending in the direction. But while people across the country move to feed school children, congressional Republicans are looking to stop the cause.

The budget — co-signed by more than 170 House Republicans — calls to eliminate “the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) from the School Lunch Program.” The CEP, the Republicans note, “allows certain schools to provide free school lunches regardless of the individual eligibility of each student.”

“Additionally,” the Republicans continue, “the RSC Budget would limit spending in the program to truly needy households.”

  • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
    90·
    9 months ago

    The “school lunch and breakfast programs are subject to widespread fraud and abuse,”

    So is Congress, but I’d abolish that long before free meals for kids.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      431·
      9 months ago

      You know what would eliminate fraud and abuse of these programs? Making them universal. Kinda hard to defraud a program that everyone gets.

      • charles@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        9 months ago

        Can I also add: who fucking cares if someone frauds their way to saving the cost of a $2.50 lunch for a child? Feed the damn kids.

        • Uranium3006@kbin.social
          1·
          9 months ago

          We use school lunch as a dumping ground for excess at commodities the USDA buys up to get farm votes, who cares?

        • 0x2d@lemmy.ml
          1·
          9 months ago

          at my school some kids would purchase large amounts of cookies and such using the lunch money provided by their parents

          then they would sell these foods in order to get money

          • Furedadmins@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 months ago

            How would buying cookies then reselling them get them any more? If there was markup the kids would just buy from the school directly.

            • experbia@lemmy.world
              2·
              9 months ago

              I had kids that would do this at my school too. they’d sell them at a loss, technically - see, it was their parents money paying for it, but they would get paid cash by kids for discounted food items. it was essentially a way to launder the money your parent gave the school for your lunches into usable money, with a little bit of a loss yes, but at a big gain in versatility - for any kid, cash in hand is way better than dollar values in a school lunch system.

              but I’d much rather have this “fraud” (of the kids’ parents maybe lol) than kids go hungry.

              and this has nothing to do with the free school lunches either. those were always fixed meals given to you - not “lunch money dollars” you could choose to use as you see fit. so this is just a bunch of greedy old assholes wanting to starve some kids.

    • vortic@lemmy.world
      19·
      9 months ago

      Republicans support many things with higher potential for fraud and abuse than school lunch programs. Privatized prisons come to mind.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    64·
    9 months ago

    imagine being such a giant fucked up asshole that you think “oh, some people’s lives suck a little less so lets fuck over everyone that struggles to feed their kids.” is the way to go.

    Imagine being such an asshole that you think this guy is doing god’s work and should be supported.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    491·
    9 months ago

    I’m just going to say it, all kids deserve free lunch. We can give every kid in Yemen a free bomb but we can’t feed our own kids? This place is hell because we stopped simply pulling these people onto the streets and beating them. Its apparent the only thing that keeps the boot out of your mouth is the threat of violence. And even then they’ve created a system where the military police keep them safe and we’re all too busy and poor to do anything else but get to work. I want to do something, too. But if I get arrested my kids go on the street.

      • Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.works
        11·
        9 months ago

        That is a really good point. I’m all for free lunches because i know it’s something we can do for our people. But you’re on to something that i would like to hear a rebuttal to.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          9 months ago

          Something like “You’re free to homeschool your kid.” Especially because assholes against this love unmonitored homeschooling

  • balderdash@lemmy.zip
    37·
    9 months ago

    Isn’t it funny how any proposal that would harm the interests of seniors is a third rail in US politics, but they can willingly fuck over our children?

  • linuxgator@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    28·
    9 months ago

    What gets me is that so many of these idiots put We the people… stickers on their trucks. And they have absolutely no clue what the rest of that sentence is, or that it specifically mentions promoting welfare of said people.

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
    27·
    9 months ago

    These kinds of programs are important in high poverty districts. Super transient population - sometimes students might attend for a couple of weeks and then disappear. Parents don’t speak English, or can’t read, so they can’t fill out the paperwork to get their kid on the free lunch program. Many of these kids come to school TO eat - when COVID shut my district down the schools were kept open as feeding sites. We provided breakfast and had a school food pantry.

    I don’t think people understand how many children would starve without free lunch programs.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    271·
    9 months ago

    “Hey brown kid, give me your lunch money so we can buy more bombs.”

    Republican compassion

  • DogPeePoo@lemm.ee
    14·
    9 months ago

    Republicans are radicalizing the population and it’s exactly what Putin wants

    • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
      12·
      9 months ago

      Kinda unrelated but holy balls did you see that Tucker Carlson crap in Russia? The interview and the several videos after that… It is the most blatant ridiculous propaganda I’ve seen in a long time and it’s strange. That combined with the crazy amount of Russian bots on those videos puts you in such a weird weird environment it’s crazy

      He even says

      “Coming to a Russian grocery store, the ‘heart of evil,’ and seeing what things cost and how they live, it will radicalize you against our leaders. That’s how I feel, anyway, radicalized.”

      Lmao usually they try to be just a smidge more sneaky with the propaganda

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        14·
        9 months ago

        Kinda unrelated but holy balls did you see that Tucker Carlson crap in Russia?

        Putin made fun of Carlson afterward for asking such weak questions. I mean, I’d serve up softballs too if the alternative came with a risk of unexpected acute polonium exposure, but it’s still humiliating for Carlson.

      • DogPeePoo@lemm.ee
        5·
        9 months ago

        I did see that. It was crazy.

        I think Putin has the goods (kompromat) on Tucker, Elon, Dershowitz, Trump, and most of the Congressional Republicans. Probably all were avid frequenters of Epstein island.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
          61·
          9 months ago

          I think it’s less blackmail and more just knowing what buttons to push. Tucker needs attention, he’s that kid saying “look at what I can do” but grown up and completely lacking ethics. If you offer him a platform and reach he’ll agree to anything.

          • DogPeePoo@lemm.ee
            3·
            9 months ago

            Remember Matt Gaetz attempting to blackmail him in an extremely awkward interview, which Tucker subsequently changed the subject on and ended the interview?

            I bet he’s a freak and Putin has the goods.

  • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    It’s a good thing that there aren’t enough of them to pass a fart let alone this bill

    • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      9 months ago

      Have you seen/heard some of their fellow elected officials? I’m pretty sure some are just congealed farts using air pressure to make noise.