Sunday, August 26, 2012

Paul Ryan hates babies

four infants in diapers Paul Ryan hates white babies. He hates babies in all other colors too, but since the majority of babies, infants and toddlers who get fed via the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) are statistically listed as 'white' by our government, my assertion is justifiable'when talking about babies who didn't get born from elite wombs.

If I was discussing ethnicity it probably should be 'Paul Ryan hates Latino babies,' since a majority of Latinos in the data self-report or are listed as "white."

Pie chart showing racial distribution of WIC particpants No matter.  

Ryan and his conservative contingent of cads want babies to go hungry, while he promotes more tax pork for the wealthy. His "Path to Prosperity" plan should more aptly be named "The Ryan Path to Poverty."

They want millions of babies, infants and pregnant moms to go hungry.

During Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the number of women, infants, and children receiving WIC benefits each month reached approximately 9.17 million. For the first 8 months of FY 2011, States reported average monthly participation just below 9 million participants per month. In 1974, the first year WIC was permanently authorized, 88,000 people participated. By 1980, participation was at 1.9 million; by 1985, 3.1 million; by 1990, 4.5 million; and by 2000, 7.2 million. Average monthly participation for FY 2008 was approximately 8.7 million.

Children have always been the largest category of WIC participants. Of the 9.17 million people who received WIC benefits each month in FY 2010, approximately 4.86 million were children, 2.17 million were infants, and 2.14 million were women.

Ryan has three children'Elizabeth Anne, Charles Wilson and Samuel Lowery.
Romney has five'Taggart, Matthew, Joshua, Benjamin and Craig.

They had the privilege of never knowing hunger as infants. Those born without that privilege are scapegoated and targeted. You would think that being a parent would give them some empathy for other parents, and children, but it is clear that "empathy" is not a word, or ideal in the Republican lexicon. Unless it applies to eggs and fetuses.  

Right now the media is awash in stories about rape and Republican insanity forcing women to give birth'all under their banner of touting 'life.' This of course is rank hypocrisy writ large. You cannot be "pro-life" if you don't give a damn about the lives of the living.

I remember George Carlin's words on this:


Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.
I miss George Carlin.

The modern day Republican agenda is about denying food'food for the poor, food for the under-employed, food for the unemployed, food for those around the world facing drought, floods and famine.

There are films, books and organizations addressing these issues, but unless we have a Congress willing to confront them, instead of taking food away from those who need it most, nothing will change.

Without food, we die.

Without adequate nutrition, we get sick.  

Infants are particularly vulnerable. They can't go out and scrounge for food. Paul Ryan is the architect of a plan to introduce massive cuts to food assistance programs'including the one that feeds babies.

There is a maxim about wisdom coming 'out of the mouths of babes.' Perhaps we should amend it to "Republicans want to snatch food out of babes' mouths."

We already know that Ryan has been described as a zombie-eyed granny-starver, and his Medicare plan has been likened to pushing Granny off a cliff.

Granny can still vote (unless she is a person of color with no birth certificate in states repressing voter registration).

Infants can't. So the baby lobby depends on us all, and for those of us with no children, often their needs get overlooked in the political circus.

I'm one of those people with no kids. But I was a kid'60 years ago. When times were rough, growing up, my mom often apportioned the larger share of limited food in the house to me and my kid brother. There was no WIC or SNAP program then.

I got an education about child hunger in America (rather than just globally'my mom would say, "Eat all your vegetables ... there are children starving in Europe, Africa, Latin America" etc.) when in the late 60s I worked daily feeding kids in the Black Panther and Young Lords free breakfast for children program.

I learned that hungry kids didn't do well in school. Feeding empty bellies fed the brain.
But we didn't cover infants, unless our free food packages contained formula'which was rare.

(Continue reading below the fold.)


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