I am not doing well. I'm ill, and I'm struggling to get on disability benefits (appealing the shitty decision I got that disregarded the original reason for the appeal: I can't work due to severe LongCovid as stated by my doctors). I'm also trying to get on SNAP because I can't afford much food. I'm at a point where I'm running low on money and may not be able to even afford my housing. Mutual aid efforts in my city are running on empty, many burnt out by the relentless barrage of the failure to have Covid mitigation efforts, more and more restrictive laws, and outright corruption from city municipal councils.
To make matters worse, Iowa Republicans have decided to put forth legislation that would effectively destroy SNAP and increase food insecurity, and force starvation measures on millions of low-income and disabled people. I tried to read through the House File 3, but it was such a horror fest that I felt too ill to continue.
I'm gluten and dairy intolerant. A lot of the dairy-free and gluten-free food I could eat is being banned or severely limited by that bill. I would have nothing left to eat but severely limited portions of some fruits and vegetables. I couldn't even have most rice as that's on the ban list. Even salt and pepper is on that ban list. Even most cooking ingredients, pre-made frozen foods, and deli food. But the petty evil and cruelty doesn't end there. The restrictions will also force us to buy based on very limited portion sizes.
Assets will come into play as well that severely limit our ability to get on SNAP, navigate it, stay on it, or access it. Even worse, those with a disability, like me, would be forced to stay in extreme poverty (we are already limited by federal disability to severe asset limitations) by enforcing cruel limits on how much assets we can have. There's no way we can ever save money at this point, so we're trapped in extreme poverty in a country whose healthcare systems are failing.
SNAP is a federally funded program. States do not pay one dime in this program. Not even one penny. Yet these Republicans have claimed it will reduce the state budget? No it won't. It's all federal money. These restrictions will reduce the amount of money the state accepts from the federal government as the federal government will respond harshly to the state trying to limit SNAP - it could start a political tug-of-war with the federal government trying to overrule and ban the Republicans' attempt to destroy SNAP at state level, but with the state engaging in outright administration corruption and inefficiency, SNAP will struggle to be useful at all.
This bill is pure evil. Food ought to be accessible for all. Controlling measures like this go against the science of what works, policies that have worked just fine without these measures.
I'm calling it the Starvation Bill.
To learn more about how evil it is, here's a deep dive here: No Snap for you: Deep Dive
(Article above includes the list of banned food, restricted portion sizes, and other harmful restrictions).
I'm trying to find energy to write the above for a letter to the editor, but it needs to be shorter somehow. I'm a bit too ill to do that. I will likely use this post as an template to write emails to the 39 Republicans sponsoring the bill, though it's unlikely they will care about me as I'm a disabled, useless person to them who is deserving of starvation. But I'll also write to the committee members and ask them to please not pass the bill out of committee. We can't let these evil, controlling assholes starve those they hate.
People like me deserve to have food we need to live. We deserve life not this starvation and death society keeps pushing on us.
Thanks for reading.
Edit: Since folks asked, if you wish to help, my ko-fi is here: https://ko-fi.com/aidanaz
