House Panel OKs School Lunch Funding Cut --

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 28

WASHINGTON - The House Agriculture Committee approved budget cuts Friday that would take food stamps away from an estimated 300,000 people and could cut off school lunches and breakfasts for 40,000 children.

The action came as the government reported that the number of people who are hungry because they can't afford to buy enough food rose to 38.2 million in 2004, an increase of 7 million in five years. The number represents nearly 12 percent of U.S. households...

<>...The cuts, approved by the Republican-controlled committee on a party-line vote, are part of an effort by the House GOP to curb federal spending by $50 billion. The food and agriculture cuts would reduce spending by $3.7 billion, including $844 million on nutrition, $760 million on conservation and $212 million on payments to farmers.

"The fact is, our country is going broke," said Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio. "We're spending money we don't have and passing it onto our kids, and at some point, somebody's got to say, `Enough's enough.'"...

It is really hard for me to write about this stuff without getting angry and the sarcastic, so... We have money for tax cuts for the rich. We have money to cut taxes on corporations to their lowest share of the total in generations. We have money to pay test makers for testing all of our kids time and time again. We don't have money to help those in need to feed their children. How hard it must be to learn and take tests when not adequately fed. But that's not their problem. That's the teacher's problem, and the school's. Of course we don't have money to adequately fund the schools either. We do have money for vouchers to private schools though. Does this not make anyone else mad?
anti nclb