You may remember that in early February I published a piece on Republicans cutting food programs for school children, even though 1 in 8 or 7 school children in America, depending on which study you read, has hunger issues. Well, the Republicans in North Dakota have done it again. Only this time just to make it clear what the Republican Party is about after voting to cut the school lunch program in the state, the Republican legislators voted to increase the food program that pays them for their meals. As one Senate Republican told a reporter, “Is [children going hungry] the problem of the state of North Dakota?” Another state senator, Mike Wobbema, after voting to increase his own meal funding, seconded this thinking saying, “We talk about personal responsibility as one of the major principles that the Republican Party stands on. Yes, I can understand kids going hungry, but is that really the problem of the school district? Is that the problem of the state of North Dakota?” This in a state where the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour because the Republicans will not allow it to be increased.
Child lunch program Credit: Maskot / Getty
Last week, Republicans in the North Dakota Senate killed a bill that would have expanded a program to provide children living close to the federal poverty line access to meals at school for free. The vote was met with outcry over its cruelty, as one Senate Republican asked, “Is [children going hungry] the problem of the state of North Dakota?”
This week, 13 of the Republicans who voted to kill the school meals bill voted to increase their own meal reimbursements by nearly 30 percent, as first reported byInforum.
On Thursday, the state Senate voted 26 to 21 to pass a bill, SB 2124, aimed solely at expanding the meal allotment for state employees, including members of the legislature. If signed into law, lawmakers’ daily meal reimbursement would increase from $35 to $45 to cover three meals a day — an increase of about 29 percent. This would cost the state almost $1 million over the two year budget cycle.
The vote took place just 10 days after the chamber narrowly voted against expanding […]
