12mo ago

Nebraska governor again rejects giving kids from low-income families $40 per month for food: 'I don't believe in welfare'

fortune.com Nebraska governor again rejects giving kids from low-income families $40 per month for food: 'I don't believe in welfare'

The program—part of federal assistance made available during the pandemic—would help families whose children are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches at school.

114 comments

States that participate in the federal program are required to cover half of the administrative costs, which would cost Nebraska an estimated $300,000. Advocates of the program note that the administrative cost is far outweighed by the $18 million benefit, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates would benefit 175,000 Nebraska children who might otherwise go hungry on some days during the summer.
Imagine being such a reprehensible monster that you'd let 175k children in your state starve rather than participate in a federal program that'd help feed them when school is out each summer. It's unconscionable.
- It’s unconscionable.
  BUt... but... he doesn't believe in welfare! how dare you intrude onto his lack of belief!
  (/s. this guy can fuck off to the nether.)
  
  I keep hearing that violence isn't the answer but I swear it feels like.... FOR LEGAL REASONS THIS IS SATIRE
- Republicans get off on dead children. It's as simple as that.
  
  Kinky.
  
  John Wayne Gacy would be proud.
- It's unconscionable
  It's conservative.
- Remember, Republicans only care about fetuses. They don't care about babies and kids.
  
  The birthed children need to starve so they can be told they're starving because of democrats.
- Every farmer in that state receives welfare. Every fucking farmer benefits from agricultural subsidies.
  The governor believes in federal welfare, just not welfare that directly benefits kids.

He doesn't believe in welfare... I see. But what about this welfare?
Pork processor partially owned by Pillen gets $25 million federal grant
Or what about the time he got got $7.8M in pandemic loans and only paid back 2/3 of it. The rest was forgiven. What about the hundreds of thousands he takes every year in federal subsidies? He seems to like that kind of welfare.
- Don't look for any moral center for these crooks. As you've shown, they are complete and utter hypocrites. He condemns "welfare" because it gets him votes, while he gladly uses taxpayer money to fund himself and his wealthy campaign contributors. It's the GOP long con.
- “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Projection as always...

“I don’t believe in welfare”
Feck off and stop accepting federal funding, you fucking welfare queen
- I love the DON'T BELIEVE statements. I don't believe in guns, yet they exist.

Fucker believes in welfare when it's called corn subsidies.
- Loophole: Poor people must change their name to corn
  
  "Why are they Falling Away from Me?"
- I think the best course of action would be to reframe their thinking, instead of allowing things to keep in being called subsidies, force them to try to clarify the difference between a subsidy and welfare. Ie, farming subsidy? You mean farming welfare. Banking subsidy? You mean banking welfare. Did you know that Boeing Corp has received $15 Billion in subsidies not paid back? You mean $15 Billion in welfare, they in fact, received nearly $75 Billion in welfare, most of that welfare being received since 2000, and of that ~$75 Billion in welfare received, they actually paid back ~$60 Billion. So they received $15 Billion dollars in welfare from the US taxpayers. They are by no means the sole corporate beneficiary of welfare from the taxpayers, just the first one I stumbled upon. Point being, force the language to reflect what they hate so their hypocrisy can be exposed and other people's eyes can be opened. Most people don't know exactly what a subsidy is, they think there is some sort of justification for it that makes it beyond criticizing, a subsidy is just welfare for corporations or farms to keep them in business, we want them in business, sure, but we also want kids to be able to eat over the summer, and if farms and Boeing and banks are deserving of welfare from the government, and hence from the US taxpayers, why aren't kids?
  
  Exactly right. Corporate welfare.
  
  Because kids aren't lining their pockets with cash.

But he’s okay with PPP loans being forgiven and also gets USDA subsidies for Pillen Family farms. Source: https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts/search?q=Pillen&v=1 Source:https://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A09760551
- Those entitled brats made a deal with the devil when they took the money. Greed got the better of them. It always does.

maybe if we called it a 'subsidy'. ha
subsidies for very profitable corporations: a-ok ! tax cuts for people with more money than they could ever actually spend: you betcha! the welfare jobs program we call 'the united states military': ha, no reductons there, ever!
human beings who need to eat food: go fuck yourself
the lack of empathy in the republican party is so stark its hard to fathom.
- Just need to get those little tykes their own LLCs and then they can have their lawyers file for federal aid!
- They’d hate that too. Then GOP hates the word “subsidy” when it’s associated with something they don’t like. Example: subsidies for transitioning to green technology.
  
  Maybe they need to frame it as a subsidy for grocery stores and large food businesses, it just takes a temporary detour though somebodies bank account to get to the intended recipient.
  It's also amusing that such a federal policy would actually help stimulate their economy because poor people are always forced to spend all their money but he's too blind in his hatred for poor people that he can't see the economic benefits to business in his state that it would bring. Business groups should be calling for his scalp too.

So no more federal funding for Nebraska??
If he doesn’t believe in welfare, surely he doesn’t believe in government aid or subsidies
That goes for every citizen of Nebraska, and if you don’t like it vote him out!
I’m tired of this fucking pissing contest between Republicans and people that care about others
- 33% of Nebraska's operating budget comes from federal grants and funding.
  
  Definition of a welfare state right there.
- I would very much appreciate if a wonk can swing in and layout all the subsidies this guy/Nebraska benefit from.

Except to our farmers. Well subsidize the shit out of them.
- Or even his "holy" rich supporters.

So he is not a christian?
- He is like Trump. He'll pretend to be whatever you want to believe as long as you give him money. Then he'll rape your kids.
  
  And then quote the Bible afterwards and parents send the kids back for another round
- He's Christian by name only. It's not exactly a nice and tidy acronym but I call these types C.U.N.T.S.

Ohh, so when I say, "I don't believe in god" and you still force your Christian morality on me that's OK. When you "don't believe" in a real tangible thing that helps countless numbers of people you can just hand wave that away.
Good to know the douche bag demographic is still overly represented in every facet of American life.
- When these jerks talk about "freedom", they don't mean it in the sense that normal people think about it. Normal people think freedom means that I, as a free citizen in a secular nation, can ignore the xtian cult's demands on what I'm required to do if I so wish, but governments (local and federal) may seek to provide services for their citizens.
  For them, "freedom" means they get to dictate that everyone bend the knee to their little book club and other people's kids starve so that taxes are as low as possible (for the rich - regressive taxes on the poor and middle class can be high AF).

So he pays for his campaign out of his own pocket? He doesn't collect donations. Surely.
- I bet he considers them investments.
  Welfare is an investment too, however, and a damn good one.
  But that requires you to recognize everyone’s life valuable.

“I know the governor a little bit, and he seems to be a reasonable man. He’s a man who is compassionate in conversation,” Love said. “This is out of character. So, obviously, he’s not following his heart. He’s following his politics. He’s falling victim to political posturing, and there’s no excuse for that when it comes to children.”
No, he is not reasonable or compassionate. His actions speak louder than any words he uses sounding like reason or compassion.
- It sounds like his friend thinks he's virtue signaling. I thought they were supposed to be against that. /s
  
  "Vice signaling"

So... He wouldn't mind if the government withholds any financial aid to the state from now on, right?
- not like that!™

The sadder part of this is that $40 can hardly feed anyone for a week, and that's if you REALY stretch it on bulk rice and beans.
- It's worse than that.
  It's $40/month, and only for the 3 months of summer to make up for impoverished children not getting meals through school during the summer.
  These people are ghouls.
  
  And its only administrative costs: the federal government would be paying for the program. He doesn’t want to pay for someone to coordinate and do the paperwork for someone else to feed his state’s disadvantaged program. He doesn’t want to pay for someone to run a program to bring like 50 times the spending into his state

I live in NYC and my son attends public school. The availability of food to all children just feels right. I know that means my taxes are higher than they would be otherwise, but nutrition is so damn important to a child’s development.
This isn’t welfare. This is caring for children. I’m sure this jackass has a “keep Christ in Christmas” sticker somewhere.
- That’s the thing, taxes would be lower if it was spent on society, education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc instead of stadiums and police. This is proven fact, not some ethical debate.
  Uplifting society means everything gets better.
  Almost like socialism works.

If you don’t believe in a problem, it simply goes away /s

“I don’t believe in welfare*.”
for the poor

"I don't believe in welfare," he says.

The rich get bailouts, the poor get welfare
- Not in the USA. The rich get both. The poor get nothing.
  
  As Chomsky puts it, when it comes to "tough love", the rich get all the love and everyone else gets the "tough" part.

I see he also self identifies as a Christian... I'm not one to judge, but I once read that countries with the word "democratic" in their names seldom were.
- What do you mean? The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is the best Korea! Lol

The way that he is opting out is by refusing to spend the ~$300k that is the federal government's requirement to be part of the grant program. I wonder if it would be possible to do an end run around that waste of oxygen, and have a charity raise the ~$300k and accept the $18m the federal government is offering, to be distributed by the charity instead...

This ass wipe makes 105k salary a year for doing fuck all in a nowhere state of morons, then tells you he doesn't believe in welfare.
- the cost to Nebraska would be less than 3x his salary

Even if welfare is in the Constitution...

He spent more money sending troops to the border as a publicity stunt. Blaming the poor has always been an effective tactic to divert attention away from their groveling to the wealthy.

This exact post came up yesterday except with Iowa. Wtf is going on?
- Idiots
  
  ~~>Idiots~~ Monsters

I hope he doesn’t have children.
- He has four children and seven grandchildren. Source
  
  I demand they all be stripped of every government-funded service including roads and telecommunications infrastructure,- oh and sewers - immediately.
  
  And they will all end up just as reprehensible and disillusioned as he is when they get older, most likely. And theyll be all greased up and ready to get in the same positions that this dickhead served in. Its all about who you know after all. Yay progress!

Don't be a villain, Jim Pillen

Yeah! Those children should stop being so lazy and go get jobs! Damn children, depending on other people for their well-being.

Sounds like a real swell guy.

Americans need to start going to these politician's homes. Don't protest at city Hall, protest in their yard. Make sure their rich neighbors hate it and are inconvenienced. Any time they go out to get coffee or sit down at a restaurant, harass them until they leave. These fucks should get no peace.

If he doesn’t believe in giving low income families a meager 40$ a month “welfare” then he should reject the saving Grace that is given from Jesus.
The point of the Gospels of Jesus is that the we are saved ONLY because of the Grace of God, and NOT because of our good works. PERIOD.
Nothing we do gets us the Grace of God. We can’t DO anything to deserve it. It is just given.
Edit: add “Like welfare!” To the end. I forgot.
- Nothing we do gets us the Grace of God. We can’t DO anything to deserve it. It is just given.
  Why is this a given? And if it is, why would that ever be a good thing? Sounds like a real prick move to me. All knowing God making humans irredeemable from the start, knowing everything that was going to come.
  No thanks.

i'll bet he can turn right around and say he's a Christian with a straight face, too
- From his own website
  Jim has dedicated himself to community involvement including:
  
  Shocker how many of those are religious. /s
  
  Those churches and organizations need to start being called out online to ask them if they oppose feeding children
  
  The greatest trick that Satan ever pulled was to convince people to do his work in God's name.

Random fellow in Nebraska here, it’s a depressing place to live if you’re not a staunch republican!
People say Lincoln and Omaha are pretty okay, but I suspect that’s just in comparison to the rest of the state.
- former resident here. you're absolutely correct, and also compared to most of the neighboring states.

Feeding children is an investment in the future. It's in our economic best interest that new humans are educated, be in good health during adolescence, and are allowed to explore "The New".

What a complete fuckhead. Love Australia.

Something tells me this guy is about to learn about all the poor Iowa residents who don't believe in letting piece of shit politicians continue to breathe.
- Why would poor Iowans be upset at the governor of Nebraska?
  
  Haha my bad, I think I was confusing this with a very similar article from Iowa.
  Something to do with big open spaces and being a complete prick to your fellow humans.

Breaking: "my home state continues to fall into the neo-conservative hell portal"

Well, at least Pillen is more honest than Iowa, who tried to make excuses on why. Pillen just openly states that he hates poor people because he's a POS.
Man, I hate living here.

what an absolute pussy

"I know the governor a little bit, and he seems to be a reasonable man. He's a man who is compassionate in conversation," Love said. "This is out of character..."
Not for a psychopath, it ain't.

This is the best summary I could come up with:
Nebraska’s Republican governor on Friday reiterated his rejection of $18 million in federal funding to help feed children who might otherwise go hungry while school is out.
That statement came as advocates for children and low-income families held a news conference outside the Governor’s Mansion in Lincoln to call on Pillen to change his mind before the Jan. 1 deadline to sign up for the program.
The program — part of federal assistance made available during the COVID-19 pandemic — would provide pre-loaded EBT cards to families whose children are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches at school.
Many of those who signed the petition also included comments expressing how much the program is needed, especially in light of multi-year inflation that has outpaced many household incomes.
Pillen insisted Friday that the state would continue to help food-insecure children through the Summer Food Service Program, which provides meals and snacks at various sites when school is not in session.
Preston Love Jr,, a longtime community advocate in Omaha, on Friday questioned whether Pillen was bowing to political pressure in rejecting the federal funding.
The original article contains 669 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Those children should go and work for living since day 1 of their age.

Man, for every day that goes by, the US just presents itself as more and more of a hell-hole.

I also don’t believe in paying people enough to live.

I like how Republicans force these children to be born and then don't care if they die as long as they are out of the womb.

God damn man.
Why do Republicans hate children so much? If they're not raping them or beating them, they starve them.

Agreed! Why feed KIDS when that money can be used to make Rich people RICHER?

114 comments

Feck off and stop accepting federal funding, you fucking welfare queen