Mark Kirk Votes Against Feeding Children But Won't Try the Foodstamp Challenge

Today, Mark Kirk voted against the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act Conference Report. I bet I know why too: Two-thirds of the money in the farm bill would go to public nutrition programs like food stamps. Mark always hated feeding children. Last time the issue of food stamps was visited he called it pork. He never took the Food Stamp Challenge like Jan Schakowsky did. She mentioned that again last Friday at the Women's Power Lunch. She said it was pretty hard to eat on the $3/day.

It's never too late Mark. How about taking the Food Stamp Challenge and find out what sort of life you are giving to poor children in this country, many of them in your own district. Here's a little description of what you might find:

I survived the entire week drinking water almost exclusively, which brings me to my second issue. It became very clear to me that to eat a diet entirely funded through the Food Stamp Program, one had to consume fairly unhealthy food and drinks. I could not afford orange juice, thus did not get my daily recommended allowance of vitamin C. I could not drink milk, thus did not get sufficient amounts of calcium. I ate almost no fresh fruit or vegetables. The Ramen noodles I ate for lunch had very high sodium content. The only meats I could afford had a high fat content. The bread I used was not multigrain and therefore had a low fiber content. Much of my dinner each night consisted of simple carbohydrates which quickly turn to sugar in the body. Because of this I cheated and continued to take multivitamins which I had purchased prior to the FS Challenge.

Here is Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan's account of his experience with the Food Stamp Challenge. His weekly budget bought:
One bag of corn meal- $1.43
Two jars of strawberry preserves- $4.00
One jar of chunky peanut butter- $2.48
Two boxes of angel hair pasta- $1.54
One can of coffee- $2.50
Three jars of tomato sauce- $4.50
Two cartons of cottage cheese- $3.00
One loaf of wheat bread- $.89
One clove of garlic- $.32
That's food for a week and it was last year's prices. I can only imagine how little he could get for less than $21 now and what about the gas for the car to go to the store. My little car filled up at almost $45 yesterday.

The bill passed and Bush has vowed to veto it because he hates kids too. I imagine he spent way more than the Food Stamp Challenge daily amount per person on the toothpicks for Jenna's wedding dinner. As Kirk voted against the conference report, he's unlikely to vote to override Bush's veto. McCain is against the bill as well and probably spends way more than the daily food stamp allotment from his wife Cindy's fortune for on his pre-bedtime milk and cookies. Cindy only today divesting her Sudan holdings.

What cowards, McCain, Kirk and Bush. They wouldn't last an hour on what they force American children to live on every day.

I'm not saying the Farm Bill is perfect, but I agree with the Detriot Free Press that favored the bill despite its flaws because at some point as we sink beyond the recession McCain and Kirk still deny exists into a very real possibility of a depression, we have to feed people. Kirk's vote today is a good indication of what he'll do if the worst happens, we'll get Herbert Hoover when we need FDR.