The Us Government wants to pass a bill that would allow religious organizations to compete equally with other non-governmental groups for federal funds to provide social service, and provide $13.3 billion in tax breaks for charitable giving over 10 years.
Bill HR 7 ; vote number 2001-254 on Jul 19, 2001
As welfare decreases, churches and other faith-based organizations (FBOs) pick up the slack.
Churches are tax-exempt, and donations to churches and other charities are tax-deductible, so federal activity focuses on tax reform to encourage donations, by increasing deductibility on federal and state income taxes.
Other recent Congressional bills focus on removing restrictions on religious organizations' activities, so that churches can bid on government block grants for performing welfare services.
The lessening of restrictions on separation of church and state for this purpose is known as Charitable Choice
Article by Charles Abbott Nov 18th 2005
This is the stupids Idea I have ever heard. Does the Government not know how hard it is to get money from a church to help someone pay bills or to help put food on ones table. I don't pay Tax's to a church I pay taxes to my government.I wish just once a senator would live one month like a poor or a middle class family lives and they will see for themselves the crap that we the poor and middle class have to go though while they sit in there office making rules and living high on the hug.
What ever happened to the Separation of Church and State.
You the Government said that we can't pray in our school's and in meetings But yet you want the Church's to take over your dutys taking care of the poor. Is this not a double sanderd
Food Stamps
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to cut $700 million from the food stamp program as part of a broad bill to reduce federal spending by $50 billion, despite objections from antihunger groups.
Some 235,000 people would lose food stamp benefits under the House bill, according to one analysis.
The House bill, which also trimmed other social programs for the poor, was narrowly approved on a vote of 217-215 early on Friday.
House and Senate negotiators now must write a final, compromise version of legislation to pare federal spending over five years. The Senate did not cut food stamps in its version of a $35 billion budget-cutting bill.
"In nutrition, the Senate did the right thing," said Ellen Vollinger of the Food Research and Action Center. She said Congress should not cut food stamps as part of its final budget-cutting bill.
Food stamps, the major U.S. antihunger program, help poor people buy food. Some 25.8 million Americans received food stamps in a program run by the U.S. Agriculture Department.
In a statement, the White House said it supported the House "efforts to narrow overly broad exemptions from the food stamp program's eligibility limits." President (George W.) Bush proposed restrictions in February that are similar to the House-approved steps.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss said earlier this month that he would oppose "substantial cuts" in food stamps in the budget bill. By tradition, the Georgia Republican would be a senior negotiator on the budget bill.
Under the House plan, roughly 165,000 people who now automatically are enrolled in food stamps when they get assistance from welfare programs would lose their food stamps. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said the affected people were mostly working families with children.
States would have the option to continue offering free school lunches to families cut off of food stamps. The Center on Budget said it was unlikely all states would do so.
The House proposal also would require 70,000 legal immigrants in most cases to wait seven years to become eligible for food stamps, rather than the current five years. That brings the total number of people affected by the plan to 235,000.
The Government wants to do away with food stamps, Why don't the poor and middle class have the right to eat.The Government has no problem feeding the poor in other countrys but when it comes to there own people thats another story. Wake up I know that the world is changing but if this is part of the change i want no part of it.
