WASHINGTON, Oct. 13- A letter signed by 127 Democratic members of Congress encourages the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to protect anti-hunger programs in their budget cutting decisions.
The letter, sent to each of the twelve members of the “super” committee this afternoon, referred to the $4 trillion deficit reduction proposals in the Simpson-Bowles and “Gang of Six” plans that did not include reductions to non-health safety net entitlement programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“These plans demonstrate that major deficit reduction can be achieved in a bipartisan manner and without harming vulnerable families by cutting key nutrition and other critical low-income assistance programs,” according to the letter.
The letter suggested that “super” committee members include substantial revenues in addressing the deficit and that a failure to do so would “place virtually the entire burden of deficit reduction on ordinary Americans, worsening poverty and inequality and making it even harder for struggling families to make ends meet.”
It highlighted investments like those made through ARRA in SNAP as successfully stabilizing the rate of food insecurity during the years 2008-2010, when poverty rates increased by more than two million people in one year.
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