Cory Booker to live a week on food stamps

[highplainsdem]

Source: Politico

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is set to live at least a week on food stamps after he challenged a self-described Army wife and veteran to join him in the test.

Booker tweeted that investing in “schools, nutrition, etc” would save money in the longrun instead of paying only for “huge back-end” government programs like prisons and police.

@MWadeNC, who goes by the name TwitWit on Twitter, touched off the exchange when she responded that “nutrition is not a responsibility of the government.”

“We have a shared responsibility that kids go to school nutritionally ready 2 learn,” Booker responded. “Lets you and I try to live on food stamps in New Jersey (high cost of living) and feed a family for a week or month. U game?”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84076.html

[Epiphany4z]

1. you need to do it

for at least a month ..you are not going to be really sick of bean soup in just a week. You only start to feel really hungry a bit after that week. After you skip a couple days meals.

[Javaman]

3. He should also try living on a income that is determined to be

at the poverty level.

simply living on food stamps but still being able to pay ones bills isn't getting the full experience.

[CreekDog]

26. he's defending the programs, are we making him out to be the bad guy?

i have never tried to live on the food stamp diet, but i advocate constantly to increase funding for this and other safety net programs.

[Scootaloo]

30. Thing is, while it's a nice gesture... it's still just a gesture

And you don't get the full food stamp experience with just a week, nor without digging pennies out from under the seats of your car so you cna keep the lights on...

So, good on the mayor, sure. Just saying that there's way more to it than "egg noodles for a week!"

[Little Star]

19. He said for 1 week or 1 month.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Now if we could get him to teach PS for a week, we'd really have something. n/t

[Arkana]

4. You know, just when I start to think Booker's a tool, he does something like this

and totally redeems himself.

[tech3149]

7. Don't cut him any slack

He talks a good game and is skilled in presenting himself as a champion for the people. I have no doubt he is a good person with good intentions but you have to consider his fealty to the financial industry and capitalism above all.
Were it not for the support of his Wall St buddies he would never have won election. His actions to gentrify Newark will devastate the working poor.

[dexterborg]

8. so true!!

The same thing just keeps on happening
[img][/img]

[nc4bo]

5. I give him a C for effort. What he really needs to do is live off foods stamps for the full 4 weeks

as week 1 is a time of plenty and week 2 not far behind but once you get into weeks 3 and 4 - things go into an entire different territory.

BTDT.

[kcass1954]

6. And he needs to start with an empty pantry.

[starroute]

15. Week 1 is only a time of plenty if you spend 50% of the monthly allotment

If he does it honesty and sets out with slightly less than 1/4 of the monthly total, he'll be closer to the true experience.

In fact, doing it for a week might make it harder, since you can't take advantage of sales or buying in bulk to stock up for the entire month. You have to buy everything at the going rate.

[FarCenter]

9. That would be around $4 / day or $30 / week?

Rice, potatoes, root vegetables, cabbage, apples, and some cheaper cuts of chicken or pork?

[Ash_F]

10. He needs to also live in an efficiency aparment

...with like 4 people and no car and no job in a bad neighborhood to get it.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

13. To be fair to Mayor Booker

He actually does live in a low income neighborhood.

[Mass]

11. Good for him

Of course, he knows that after a week, he'll go back to his cushy life, but it is still more than most pols will do to understand what it means to be poor, and more than most Dems when it comes to talking about poverty.

[democrattotheend]

23. Agreed. I wish more politicians would do this.

I have long said that it should be mandatory for all new members of Congress to spend a week (or maybe longer) living on minimum wage before taking office. It would go a long way to increase sensitivity to poor people.

[malthaussen]

12. Wow, a whole week! I'm impressed!

Somehow, the word "grandstanding" comes to mind.

-- Mal

[IdaBriggs]

14. I thought "feeding the poor" was a national security issue after WWII

when so many of the age qualified men were deemed "4F" due to nutritional deficit issues.

Since we already finished this discussion (in theory) over 50 years ago, why on earth would anyone be idiot enough to question whether "feeding children" should be a priority for our nation?

Some people are just STOOPID.

[forestpath]

16. Cheap stunt. He showed his true Bain Capital apologist colors last summer.

[olddad56]

17. why not try 52 weeks.

[Little Star]

18. He proposed 1 week or 1 month.

[jtuck004]

20. It is not possible to eat a sufficient diet on food stamps for 52 weeks that does anything better

than keeping one from starving. It simply is not. The only thing it does is keep you from falling over dead, but it is not possible to feed a child or adult sufficient calories today on food stamps alone and expect good work or learning. One WILL experience times during the year where you will be forced to skip eating because you do not have enough for food.



Although a big percentage of those are children, for over 10 million families it's a subsidy for the business they work for. The business pays a minimal wage, avoids responsibility for paying sufficient wage, and dumps this and associated health costs on the community.
No one, whether it is the worker, the business, or the community thrives with this strategy.

It would be nice for Booker to highlight the fact that if we want to reduce food stamp usage, we not only need to increase the numbers of jobs, we must look at the quality as well. This is really a good opportunity to address the larger issue.

Because she is right in some cases - the taxpayers are the government and it is not fair that they have to pick up the costs that a business should be paying. If a business can't pay enough to let the employees buy food without government assistance, they sure have no business paying upper level folks higher salaries. Those are profits stolen from the tables of hungry people.

[Nye Bevan]

21. What a stupid, meaningless stunt.

Easy to live like that for a few days when you know that on the 7th day you will have a huge dinner at the best steakhouse in NJ.

[democrattotheend]

24. I disagree

I think it's great that he is doing this. It's a great way to call attention to poverty and maybe make himself a little more sensitive to the needs of the poor. I wish more politicians would do this.

[justice1]

22. He also drives an Escalade.

[NYC Liberal]

25. I hate these kinds of stunts.

For one thing, a week is far too short a time to really know what it feels like.

For another, it's not the same when you have plenty of money in the bank and KNOW you don't actually have to worry.

[Rider3]

27. Good, but...

It should be done for one whole month - just like Morgan Spurlock and his girlfriend (now wife) did a few years back. That's the only idea to see what it'd be like. Get an apartment, transportation, healthcare, etc. on those few dollars and really see how badly some people have it.

[VanillaRhapsody]

28. It is not about Cory proving a point to us on the Left

it's about proving something to that Army wife (who no doubt avails herself of the Commissary program).

[missingthebigdog]

29. Good for him! But he should take it a step or two further.

He should (under an assumed name, of course) actually go through the process of applying for those benefits. He should shop himself, and use the "benefit card" so everyone else in line knows he's using food stamps, then use public transportation to tote his purchases home.

[mucifer]

31. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky done this a few times. nt

[Kaleva]

32. I get $16 dollars a month. Would be tough to live on $4 dollars a week.