still the turkey this year

Jeepers, few are in Reynolds’ class. Not in Iowa, not in the midwest, not in the country. Reynolds just doesn’t get the credit she deserves since she is almost single handedly driving Iowa into the irrelevance once reserved for states like the Dakotas and Wyoming. 

Reynolds latest ploy is to exploit hungry kids for the sake of a few headlines. This is one of her favorite themes. Last summer she pulled $29 million from an Agriculture Department program and substituted that money with $900,000. Guess she thought kids educated at one of Iowa’s poorly funded public schools wouldn’t notice.

Look, if these kids were really hungry they could get a job cleaning the kill floor overnight at one of Iowa’s slaughter houses. So it is up to them.

Last week Reynolds already turned down a similar package from the USDA to feed Iowa’s hungry kids this summer just as she did last summer. She claims there is another competing program she wants to use the money for. But due to rules (those are things MAGAs talk about but seldom follow) money from one place can’t be used in another. Damn rules.

Reynolds says her program choice could feed a gazillion others, but people who truly care about hungry kids say old Kim is fudging the numbers. Lying in other words – a bad thing for governors to do:  

In a statement about the USDA rejection. Reynolds said her “summer feeding demonstration project would feed nearly 60,000 more Iowa children than” the Summer EBT program.

Elzinga pointed out the governor based her number on every family eligible signing up for the project using a new online registration portal the state would create, even though participation rates for two well-established nutrition assistance program run below 50 percent. Only 42 percent of Iowans eligible for SNAP participate in the program, and for the Woman, Infants and Children (WIC) program, the participation rate in the state is 45 percent.

<<snip>>

Elzinga was joined at the news conference by Executive Director of Common Good Iowa Anne Disher, Paige Chickering, Iowa state manager for Save the Children Action Network, and Coralville Community Food Pantry Executive Director John Boller, who also serves on the coalition’s board.

<<snip>>

Boller said the program “has been shown to improve healthy eating while reducing childhood insecurity. Parents should be trusted to make the best food choices for their children.”

In addition to her claim that participants would not make healthy choices if allowed to join the Summer EBT program, the governor has also cited her concern over the cost of the program as a reason for rejecting it. The state would have to split the cost of administering the program with the federal government. It would cost Iowa just over $2 million to provide access for the 245,000 eligible children. But, as Chickering explained, the state can qualify for a USDA grant that would cover about half its cost.

I am going to speculate here that Reynolds probably believes that the Trump oligarchy will do away with any program that targets childhood hunger by summer. After all, there are the billionaire tax cuts that are much higher priority than poor kids eating.

Besides, in Iowa by summer the Administration will be gathering up all sorts of kids to ship them and their parents out of the country. That’s the MAGA way to solve problems like hunger! And the bonus to that action will be empty houses for people to move into.

I remember Iowa from about a decade back. Kim Reynolds has really changed the place. People are moving out to show their appreciation!

Oh and let’s not forget what she’s done for Iowa’s once vaunted public school system. Trashed it and turned the money into paying school tuitions at private (often religious) schools for wealthy families while  public schools fall apart. Kim, What would Iowa’s rich do without you?