Oh, snap! Kristina Ribali, director of new media at FreedomWorks, has a real challenge for those members of Congress choosing to live on the equivalent of food stamp benefits for a week: put people to work so they can feed themselves.
Cory Booker, the Newark, N.J., mayor who recently announced his inevitable run for Senate, was among the first politicians to take the so-called SNAP Challenge, vowing to live on a food budget of $35 a week (for one week). Rep. Eleanor Norton gave the challenge a shot this week to highlight proposed cuts to the food stamp program in the Farm Bill, choosing to blow $5 of her $31.50 budget on a pint of blueberries. (For his part, vegetarian Booker ate up a third of his food budget with a bottle of imported olive oil.)
We’re not ones to tell people how to spend their money. But the taxpayers’ money? Ribali has some suggestions.
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345645529847459840
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345645933062664192
Another caveat that was lost on many who followed Booker’s lean week: the “S” in SNAP stands for supplemental.
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345647419498844161
https://twitter.com/thenormalmiddle/status/345647996395986945
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345648342371557377
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345648605492817920
So, what’s for dinner? Blueberries in olive oil?
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345665032555753473
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345665468427825152
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345665989955960832
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345666401207468032
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345666643076206592
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345667185949167616
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345667487892922368
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345667873693380608
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345671507382501377
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345673255337734144
If Ribali can come in $52 under budget and have food left over, imagine what this approach could do government-wide.
Next month I'll try to live on just $16.6 trillion of borrowed money. #DEBTchallenge
— jon gabriel (@exjon) June 14, 2013
https://twitter.com/davidqueener/status/345673144549384192
https://twitter.com/KristinaRibali/status/345673607378255872
Ribali is currently writing up an account of her SNAP Challenge, but for now we’ll give Iowahawk the final word.
You know what's harder than living off $32/week in free SNAP food? Having a job.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 14, 2013
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