Sen. Blanche Lincoln Asked to Join Shopper at Local Grocery

Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Like most Americans, Arkansans are feeling the pain of both gas prices and food prices. Renee Taylor of Bradley County, Arkansas felt the pain as well but she is national writer and took to her keyboard to express her frustration in ‘Free Food’ Puts a Bad Taste in My Mouth' published today in Family Security Matters . Renee started by addressing President Bush announcement last week calling on Congress for an additional $770 million in international “food aid.” Renee said, "I had just returned from a trip to the grocery store and was feeling less than charitable upon hearing that he wanted to give more aid to countries (such as the terrorist, America-hating states of Somalia and the Sudan) that we have been “feeding” for over 50 years."

But most interesting in Renee's article was her call to U. S. Sen. Lincoln's office:

This week, I called the office of my senator, Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), to invite her to join me at the local grocery store. Ours is not a family on government assistance – we do not get that little food stamp card each month, nor can we go to the local welfare office with our electric bill to have it paid. Our children do not wear $100 sneakers and we do not carry expensive cell phones. We do not live in government-funded housing and our children do not receive “free” breakfast and lunch at the local government-funded school.

I wanted Washington, represented by Sen. Lincoln, to enter the reality of the middle class American – the one who pays $2 for a loaf of bread and $10 for a gallon of cooking oil in cash; the family who buys staples such as flour and cornmeal, fruits and vegetables to cook healthy meals rather than “prepared” foods that contain the high fats and calories that are quickly becoming staples of the American diet. I wanted Sen. Lincoln to stand with me in line as those with “food stamp cards” use them to pay for junk food and sodas. I wanted her to explain to me why the apparently able-bodied person in front of me is purchasing items on government assistance that many working Americans can ill afford. But I won’t hold my breath that Sen. Lincoln will take me up on the offer.

Hopefully readers will be encouraged to call and invite their U.S. Senators and Representative to shop with them. Let's invite them to reality and into our local grocery stores. Maybe then they will stop their "do nothing" arrogance. It is time for action not more inept statements asking taxpayers to conserve, drive less, turn down the lights, etc. While liberal officials call for taxpayers to do with less, they push their "pork barrel" spending and give our hard earned money away to others. I commend Renee Taylor's article to you and close with her words:

This American housewife is fed up – not with working hard to pay the grocery bill and the gas to get there – but with the Socialist, global policies that have put us in this position and the elitist, inept politicians who continue to expand them. All this free food is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. . . . [Read Complete Article]

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