Budget cuts to WIC

[zap]

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/23/opinion-gop-budget-cuts-will-cost-us-in-the-long-run/


If human capital is the wealth of nations, the House GOP's proposed federal budget will leave us poorer.

Economists know that what separates wealthy and poor countries is not simply their natural resources like oil and minerals, but their human capacities, like initiative and ingenuity. Many Americans fear that our status in the world is slipping.

Another View on Spending Cuts
Who Has the Courage to Lead on Spending Cuts? -- Gretchen Hamel, executive director, Public Notice
In that context, the last thing we should do is accept the GOP's proposed federal budget cuts leveled at the poor, particularly those aimed at children, such as cutting about 10 percent, or $758 million, from the Women, Infants and Children program.

WIC is a federal nutrition program, established in the mid-1970s, aimed at improving the health of young children and pregnant or postpartum women through education, nutrition and referrals. To qualify, participants must be at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty line ($34,280 for a family of three) and assessed by a health professional to be at "nutrition risk" for medical or dietary reasons. Children and mothers receive an average of $41 a month in food assistance that meets common nutritional deficits in WIC participants, including protein-rich foods such as peanut butter and eggs.

Cuts to WIC might work with voters in the short term by delivering immediate and visible spending reductions, but they will cost us in the long run.

Here's why.

Thanks to recent advances in our understanding of nutrition, we now know that when it comes to nutrition, a child's first five years last a lifetime. These are the years of the most intense growth and development, particularly for the brain.


The types of nutritional assistance provided and promoted by WIC are key to brain development. Nutrients consumed before birth and during early childhood become part of the architecture of the brain, such as the essential fats used to grow myelin, the insulation between brain cells. These essential fats can be found in the breast milk of mothers with adequate diets, as well as whole milk and other items in the WIC food package.

Like fixing a house without a solid foundation, undoing damage caused by poor early childhood nutrition is more difficult than providing a nutritious diet in the first place. While some effects of malnutrition can be repaired by a proper diet, poor nutrition during sensitive periods of development can alter children's developmental trajectories.

Children may make height or weight gains, but their basic physiology and brain structure remain affected by early nutritional deficits. This can result in cognitive impairment, as well as behavioral emotional problems.

What's more, investments in federal food-assistance programs such as WIC are more important in our current economy than ever before. Soaring enrollment in the federal food stamps program, which now serves one in seven Americans, attests to the vital role that food assistance plays in the American safety net. And states are slashing their social programs to close budget gaps, leaving federal food-assistance programs as one of the few resources that Americans can count on to keep them going in a time of need.

If anything, the federal government should be investing more funds, not less, in programs such as WIC.

Children are not passive little recipients of charity. They are actors in a social contract that says invest in children now and they in turn will grow into productive citizens.

If we renege on our part of the contract, we deprive these children of what they need to develop their full human potential. For the cost of a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk, we're investing in their, and our, futures.

Amy Conley Wright is an assistant professor of Child and Adolescent Development at San Francisco State University, where she teaches courses and conducts research on child and family dev.

[dys]

I am sure I will be in the minority here, but I think this is shameful. First you wreck the economy through 'free trade', bailouts, malinvestment, crony capitalism, etc...and then once people can no longer fend for themselves, you take away their food. This turns my stomach.

dys

[Book]

First you wreck the economy through 'free trade', bailouts, malinvestment, crony capitalism, etc...and then once people can no longer fend for themselves, you take away their food.



http://media.cnbc.com/j/CNBC/Sections/News_And_Analysis/_Blogs/Warren_Buffett_Watch/_DAILY%20POSTS/Graphics/080306_BuffettGates2005.standard.jpg

This is how they kept the tax breaks for the Top 1%.

[zap]

I get your point Dys and I am sure some folks out there do need a little help, but If you can't feed yourself why would you get pregnant to have a kid you can't feed, if you are that broke you shouldn't have any kids then.

[osoab]

I am sure I will be in the minority here, but I think this is shameful. First you wreck the economy through 'free trade', bailouts, malinvestment, crony capitalism, etc...and then once people can no longer fend for themselves, you take away their food. This turns my stomach.

dys



How do you differentiate between those that can't or won't fend for themselves?

[LuckyStrike]

I am sure I will be in the minority here, but I think this is shameful. First you wreck the economy through 'free trade', bailouts, malinvestment, crony capitalism, etc...and then once people can no longer fend for themselves, you take away their food. This turns my stomach.

dys



I agree with your premise, although I somewhat disagree with your ultimate conclusions. On the whole it is very sad that the things you outlined have wrecked our nation, but I still think even in this broken state you can be what you want to be in this country. You might have to work harder than at any point in the last 50 years but it's still possible.

Also, under no circumstance is it the governments job to take wealth and redistribute it to buy votes, to make the people more dependant on the state.

[dys]

I used to work in an industry where many people were coming off of the dole. The deal is that being on the dole is a very meager existence. By 'very meager' I mean food and shelter- shitty shelter and cheap food- and that is pretty much it. I urge everyone here to do the math and determine this for yourself. Where I live, disability, for instance, is 1000/mo. Rent in a shitty apartment is 750/mo (conservative, not including utilities). Welfare is 500/mo. Housing or section 8? Forget it unless you are extremely connected. My sister in law, who is pretty much disabled, has been waiting for YEARS (and she actually has connections, btw).
Why do you see people on the dole living large? Well, you USED TO see it because many people on the system had figured out a way to game the system, namely hustling which is slang for middling drug deals. There used to be big money in 'hustling', enough to support a family. Now there is almost none. There used to be back door ways of making money, under the table, now they are few and far in between. If you think that people on welfare or whatever other social program are living high off the hog, it might be prudent to do the math before you make that presumption. That is all.

dys

[lapis]

What this article says about nutrition and child development is true:




Thanks to recent advances in our understanding of nutrition, we now know that when it comes to nutrition, a child's first five years last a lifetime. These are the years of the most intense growth and development, particularly for the brain.


The types of nutritional assistance provided and promoted by WIC are key to brain development. Nutrients consumed before birth and during early childhood become part of the architecture of the brain, such as the essential fats used to grow myelin, the insulation between brain cells. These essential fats can be found in the breast milk of mothers with adequate diets, as well as whole milk and other items in the WIC food package.

Like fixing a house without a solid foundation, undoing damage caused by poor early childhood nutrition is more difficult [or impossible] than providing a nutritious diet in the first place. While some effects of malnutrition can be repaired by a proper diet, poor nutrition during sensitive periods of development can alter children's developmental trajectories.

Children may make height or weight gains, but their basic physiology and brain structure remain affected by early nutritional deficits. This can result in cognitive impairment, as well as behavioral emotional problems.



Children are not passive little recipients of charity. They are actors in a social contract that says invest in children now and they in turn will grow into productive citizens.

What the writer doesn't understand is that the PTB don't want smart productive citizens, and are doing whatever they can to make the useless eaters even more useless.

What do they care if the rest of society has to live with people who grew up without proper nutrition in the crucial early years of their lives?

[k-os]

I am sure I will be in the minority here, but I think this is shameful. First you wreck the economy through 'free trade', bailouts, malinvestment, crony capitalism, etc...and then once people can no longer fend for themselves, you take away their food. This turns my stomach.

dys


A lot of people were on WIC during this country's time of plenty. All it has ever done is reward bad behavior. (More babies, more money.)

When the government handouts shut down, people are going to need to be good to their family and neighbors and seek charity from religious organizations.

[madfranks]

I get your point Dys and I am sure some folks out there do need a little help, but If you can't feed yourself why would you get pregnant to have a kid you can't feed, if you are that broke you shouldn't have any kids then.


I think about the countless families who had stable employment and income, who due to the crash in the economy, lost their jobs, drained their savings, lost their home, had to endure the $800 billion bailout to the banks, who are now living with relatives trying to find suitable work and the gov't cuts the $41/month food checks that were helping feed their kids. Sure, the gov't can spare $800 Billion+ to bail out the bankers, but can't spare $700 Million to help families who's lives have been wrecked due to the economy. Yeah, there are always those who live on the dole and abuse the privilege, but right now there are more people who really need it than ever before.

[Libertarian_Guard]

"If you build it, they will come."

I'm not against charity, but charity (in all forms) should not come from the state.

[ShortJohnSilver]

I'm not against charity, but charity (in all forms) should not come from the state.


Charity that comes from the barrel of gun is not charity at all.

Concerning WIC, that $41 per month costs how much in govt admin and overhead to administer? I bet that for the $41 per month in benefit that reaches a person, there is probably $35 in wages, pensions, offices etc. , so the cost is more like ~$75 per month.

I don't have an answer for the cross currents of globalization and the TPTB obviously wishing we would all be happy about the 3 servings of gruel a day they want to feed us for a full days' work; but the reality is that we have been subsidizing the stupid people to have kids while punishing the smart ones who want to have kids.

Time to add some chlorine to the gene pool... any farmer who bred pigs or cows like we pay for humans to breed in the USA would be out of business after 3 years.

[Neuro]

A lot of high protein, nutritious food is cheap, like eggs and oats. The main reason why poor people don't feed them this, is not because they lack the money, but because they are stupid and lazy, and go and buy more expensive fast food....

[lapis]

A lot of high protein, nutritious food is cheap, like eggs and oats. The main reason why poor people don't feed them this, is not because they lack the money, but because they are stupid and lazy, and go and buy more expensive fast food....


Those foods have high protein, but are they nutrient-dense? Eggs can be, but WIC only sponsors the factory-farm kind. Factory farm meat/eggs is better than no meat/eggs, but the best is from local farms that pasture-raise their animals.

Poor people don't know about nutrient-dense foods; well actually most of the population plugged into the Matrix don't know either. So don't worry, in a few generations the useless eaters will be decimated through physical degeneration, just like the PTB planned.

[osoab]

A lot of high protein, nutritious food is cheap, like eggs and oats. The main reason why poor people don't feed them this, is not because they lack the money, but because they are stupid and lazy, and go and buy more expensive fast food....


Those foods have high protein, but are they nutrient-dense? Eggs can be, but WIC only sponsors the factory-farm kind. Factory farm meat/eggs is better than no meat/eggs, but the best is from local farms that pasture-raise their animals.

Poor people don't know about nutrient-dense foods; well actually most of the population plugged into the Matrix don't know either. So don't worry, in a few generations the useless eaters will be decimated through physical degeneration, just like the PTB planned.


I think they are pretty happy with the way things are going now. I can envision chronic diseases more prevalent in society. There is a lot more money to be made if more people are trying to save their own asses through the medial industry.

[jayda*star]

I worked in wic for over ten years and I am so glad to finally leave that job! It was causing me so much stress just seeing all these families come in and get free food. If half of the newborns in this country qualify for WIC...then something is wrong with this nation! And I know exactly what the problem is. The government has created so many of these programs that is supposed to help these low-income families with nutrition, food, insurance, etc. The problem is that these people are not doing their part back for the country...so we have taxpayers and middle-class families paying taxes to support programs that they are not even qualified for! And people who are on these governmental assistance programs does nothing but collect money for foodstamps, cash, and free food. So the result is that they have one child after another because....why Not?? The government is practically supporting their entire way of life, so they become dependent on these types of programs.
So when iwas working in wic, i know that so many lies were told just to qualify for wic and to get free food, especially the formula. If you have 5 kids and pregnant with your 6th one and collecting food stamps and financial assistance, then something is wrong with this picture. The government needs to set limits as to how much help these people receive. For example, they can only get benefits from these programs for four children..any more children and your benefit does not increase.
All in all, I think this country is pretty messed up and the secret to living a good life in this country is to stop working and you can qualify for all these free programs! I actually hope the government cuts programs like wic and food stamps. Everyone needs to be responsible for your own actions. If you want to have sex and conceive a child, then you are responsible for supporting him/her/them. It is not the government's responsibility, and certialy not the taxpayers' responsibility to support your bad decisions!

[mike88]

41 bux equals about 10 gallons of diesel fuel. That will propel an M1 Abrams tank a whole 2 miles. Onward to victory!!

[madfranks]

Jayda - great first post and welcome to the forum!