Democratic representative Jackie Speier defends food stamps from being cut on the Congress floor. She decided to hold individual members of congress up for speculation. Her weapons of defense? Vodka, caviar, and steak. She decided to show the members of congress who had large numbers of supplemental nutrition assistance program residents in their districts how far their food stipends could stretch in a family of four or five. According to Buzzfeed, Her goal was to prove that these congressmen lived lavishly, ate gluttonously, and drank like fish, all on Uncle Sam’s dime, while their constituents were hungry with malnourished children. She aimed to show how taxpayers’ dollars were spent ironically and wrongfully.
“In my district, California 14, we have about 4,000 families who are on food stamps, but some of my colleagues have thousands and thousands more.” She went on to say how the congressman who vote down SNAP and food stamp subsidies feel like they are heroes, and they feel like they are doing America a big favor. Perhaps they think they are saving the country money by denying families food. She then cut into these hypocrites, “Some of these same members [of congress] travel to foreign countries under the guise of official business. They dine at lavish restaurants, eating steak, [drinking] vodka and even caviar. They receive money to do this. That’s right, they don’t pay out of pocket for these meals.”
Or in other words, their lavish lifestyles and all expenses paid trips with top tier lodging and luxurious food, is taxpayer funded. Speier gave an example of a congressman who took a 6 day trip to Russia and was given $4,000 there for food and lodging. Congresswoman Speier continued by saying that the Russia trip likely included a fair amount of vodka and caviar. “That particular member has 21,000 food stamp recipients in his district.” The sad truth there is that the lavish 6 day trip’s expense of that congressman could have fed a family for an entire year.
Congresswoman Speier gave a final example of another 20 member trip to Dublin. She notes that each person had almost $200 for each single meal for themselves. She continues, “Yet, for them the idea of helping fellow a American at a cost of less than $5 dollars a day makes their skin crawl.” She finishes by noting that, to the men who spend $200 on a meal for themselves, but who wont spend $5 per day on a single person, the working poor, veterans, farmers, and the disabled are invisible to them, “Even when they are their own constituents.”