Bob Herbert Asks, How Can We Let Kids Go Hungry?

The most recent hunger statistics in the U.S. are startling: In 2010, 32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children lived in food insecure households. 

Despite the clear need for food stamps the House Agriculture Committee voted last week to drastically cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by over $33 billion. It's an extreme, absurd, dangerous thing to do, cutting an already underfunded program that is, as Feeding America put it, "one of the nation's most critical, remaining safety nets."

Bob Herbert summed up the implications of cutting food stamps on MSNBC's  "Up w/Chris Hayes" this weekend, saying:

What we're talking about here are blantantly cruel proposals. 1 in 5 american children is poor, 1 in 5 African American children is poor, it would be even more if we didn't have the food stamp program. ...As poverty is increasing in the United States at the same time that the rich are getting richer, we're talking about going in and taking food off of the table of poor children?! What is the matter with us??

Check out Herbert's full commentary on the SNAP cuts here: