Editorial: Taking from the poor

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 | 12:32 p.m.

A program that provides free boxes of food to poor Americans each month would be cut off under President Bush's proposed budget.

The U.S. Agriculture Department's Commodity Supplemental Food Program is the most recently revealed target in a budget that also proposes cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and veterans' services.

The program provides needy Americans - most of them senior citizens - with a box of food each month containing cereal, peanut butter, fruit, vegetables and pasta. Designed as a supplement, the food often keeps many of these people from going without anything at all to eat. One Milwaukee official who administers the program there told the Associated Press that many of the recipients "are choosing between utility bills and prescription drugs and whether they get to eat."

Bush's plan would move all of the program's clients to the federal food stamps program. But those who advocate for seniors say older Americans are reluctant to join the food stamps program, partly because of the stigma but also because of the paperwork involved. They also say the food boxes often contain more generous amounts than can be obtained with food stamps. And transportation to a store to use food stamps is a problem for home-bound seniors.

While he's taking food away from the most vulnerable Americans, Bush hopes to convince Congress to make permanent the tax cuts he signed in 2001 and 2003, which largely benefit the nation's wealthiest people.

The 38-year-old Commodity Supplemental Food Program operates in 32 states and the District of Columbia and cost $111 million last year. That includes $4 million spent on Hurricane Katrina victims. With a record $423 billion deficit, it seems the Bush administration could cut something that would make a bigger impact without placing more burdens on the old and poor.