And lets be honest and give the GOP some credit. $5.4 TRILLION dollars on poor people is a lot of money. I mean - often times they don't speak with proper grammar and they dress funny. To compare the $5.4 TRILLION - we've only spent $430 billion on the Iraq War. Pennies! I mean, holy cow, if we were fighting the Iraq war for the same 40 years we have been fighting the War on Poverty (save the Regan Era who instead waged a war on the Impoverished) it would cost round about - $18 billion a year! And with the $430 b on Iraq... well that DOES calculate out to about $86 billion a year - and let's face it - oil is so much more important than children. I mean they can just be a little hungry - their parents just need to get a job at WalMart.

Ok - all annoying absurdities aside can I just ask openly if Republicans are delusional, cruel, or immoral? Because I've lost track at this point.

This morning the Topeka Capitol Journal reports:

"A growing number of researchers and nutritionists see a connection between the farm policy and obesity. They say government-subsidized corn, for example, mostly benefits food and beverage processors who fill supermarket shelves with high-calorie, low-nutrient food and drink. Because that food is heavily marketed and provides the least expensive source of calories, people eat it even though a steady diet of it contributes to obesity, diabetes and other health problems...

"Give me a break," Roberts said. "I don't think corn on the cob or corn-based fructose are significant contributors to the obesity problem."

It feels awkward to agree with Pat Roberts.

A few weeks ago some of our Congressional Members joined an experimental opportunity to share with them what life is like for someone who is only able to buy food with food stamps. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio had some trouble. After being on the program for a week he lost 3 pounds and cheated on Friday night with a Pork Chop. From his blog:

"Well, we're now on day seven, and, in a moment of full disclosure, I want the whole blogosphere to know that I ate a pork chop on Friday night in New Hampshire. I apologize for not comin' clean earlier on the blog. I did mention this to Jerid at Buckeye State Blog immediately after my speech at Franklin Pierce, but forgot to blog about it in the haste of Peanut butter-gate. I needed some protein in a bad way and wanted to be in good shape for my speech the next morning. I didn't want to force my fellow FPLC alumnus to sit through a long, disjointed commencement speech. There is nothing worse than a bad Commencement speech. Anyway, after the Saturday Manchester airport incident I went back on the challenge and made myself some Polenta that night. "

Poor Tim. Can you imagine how hard it must be for someone to be able to afford nutritional foods? This happened after the TSA confiscated his peanut butter and jelly when he was trying to get on a plane to head back to DC.

"Sadly, the Reagan era lambast on "welfare queens" has proved a lingering albatross to the Food Stamp Program. While public perception of welfare itself has vastly improved since reform in 1996, the Food Stamp Program still suffers from widespread misperceptions about both its efficiency and its merit. Despite the fact that the program has made tremendous strides in improving accuracy and now has a 94 percent accuracy rate according to the Government Accountability Office, it is tainted by a lasting image of fraud and abuse. The notion of a food stamp recipient paying for his bag of groceries and driving off in a Mercedes persists." observed Sophie Milam at the start of this program.

So the Farm Bill is up for review and Kansas has 3 members who will be intricately involved writing the new policy.

"According to a report in March by the Congressional Research Service, a projected $42.4 billion will be spent on commodity programs over the six years covered by the coming farm bill. That is about $30 billion less than was spent over the past six years. CJOnline

"Kwaneka Bennett, a food stamp recipient from Topeka, told the small audience that because she has lupus, she can't always work and needed food stamps to supplement her costs for nutritional meals for her four children.

But even with the aid, Bennett said she sometimes has to choose between buying medicine and food for her family.

"Fruit is very expensive. Meat is very expensive. I don't want them to eat chips and all this junk," she said." HutchNews

So at the very least the reauthorization of the food stamp program will hopefully occur but the goal is to make improvements in the program maybe more funding - more help to the poor as well as more to help support family farmers.

My Congresswoman is a big fan of family farmers. While campaigning in the 2006 season Boyda posted her comments on her website about farm policy:

"Independent farmers provide our nation with the safest and most plentiful food supply in the world, and Kansas has long been a leader in this great American tradition. Our state is responsible for one fifth of all wheat produced in the United States, and in 2000 alone, Kansas produced 412 million bushels of corn!

But today, big agribusinesses have used their Washington influence to set policies that undercut independent and family farmers. Large farms are glutting the marketplace with mass-produced food, causing wholesale prices to drop below a level where independent farmers can compete. Droughts and heat waves have caused billions of dollars in damage to farms over the past few years. And now budget cuts to agriculture and rural development are making things even harder. After generations of financial success, many farms are closing down forever, destroying a crucial element of our state's heritage.

Worse yet, the loss of independent farms risks the traditional safety of our crops. After all, is America safer when our food supply is concentrated in the hands of three or four multinational corporations? " Boyda said

Today, her ideals are turning to action as she struggles to work with the other two Ag Committee Members from Kansas who are both Republicans.

"First-year Congresswoman Nancy Boyda is new to the farm bill debate. The 2nd District Democrat said it is important to ensure that Kansas commodity farmers have a "more consistent safety net," but she also is willing to consider proposals being floated by the Bush administration and others to cap commodity subsidies, though she prefers a longer timeline for implementing the limits. Under the administration's proposal, only producers with adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 per year or less would continue to qualify for subsidies.

"I would be very much in favor of scaling (the limit) back on a schedule over 10 years," Boyda said, adding that she hoped the limits would slow the trend toward consolidation and bigger farm operations. "It would send an immediate signal to producers that consolidation is not in their best interests. I would like to see as many people farming and ranching on the land as possible. I want my food to be grown by people who know and care about me." CJOnline

If our farmers are stable, if they are able to make a decent living, it means we are growing food within our own boarders and as such more able to monitor the process so we don't have nightmares happen to our OWN food. And Boyda is right - its the safest way to eat. More local farmers are losing their businesses or choosing to go into different areas or quitting altogether without anyone to take the reins after them. By offering incentives to grow corn and wheat locally - keep ranchers strong, the more possibilities we are going to have to provide nutritional options at a lower price to our children who need the necessary nutrition. Similarly, the more possibilities we shall have to provide nutritional options to families who can't afford it. A stake is less than potatoes chips but locally grown beef can make a nice healthy hamburger for a kid vs. a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or some spaghetti-o's.

Now if only we could reward organic farmers and ranchers and milk producers that don't use hormones to help our kids from ingesting god only knows what. But I'll wait out that until our Democrats grow enough balls to take on something of that magnitude.