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Democrats, Advocacy Groups Blast Cuts to Food Stamps to Fund $26B Aid Bill

 Some Democrats are upset and advocacy groups are outraged over the raiding of the food-stamp cupboard to fund a state-aid bailout that some call a gift to teachers and government union workers. 

House members convened Tuesday and passed the multibillion-dollar bailout bill for cash-strapped states that provides $10 billion to school districts to rehire laid-off teachers or ensure that more teachers won't be let go before the new school year begins, keeping more than 160,000 teachers on the job, the Obama administration says.

But the bill also requires that $12 billion be stripped from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, to help fund the new bill, prompting some Democrats to cringe at the notion of cutting back on one necessity to pay for another. The federal assistance program currently helps 41 million Americans.

Arguably one of the most outspoken opponents on the Democratic side is Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who has blasted the move as “a bitter pill to swallow” but still voted yes.

“I fought very hard for the food assistance money in the Recovery Act, and the fact is that participation in the food stamps program has jumped dramatically with the economic crisis, from 31.1 million persons to 38.2 million just in one year,” DeLauro said in an e-mail sent to FoxNews.com. “But I know that states across the nation and my own state of Connecticut also desperately need these resources to save jobs and avoid Draconian cuts to essential services for low income families.”

Dem lawmaker calls on Gibbs to resign

By Jordan Fabian - 08/10/10 02:54 PM ET

A Democratic member of Congress called for White House press secretary Robert Gibbs's resignation Tuesday due to inflammatory comments he made about the "professional left."

Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), said Gibbs went over the line when he told The Hill that some left-wing critics of the president "ought to be drug tested."

"This is not the first time that Mr. Gibbs has made untoward and inflammatory comments and I certainly hope that people in the White House don't share his view that the left is unimportant to the president," Ellison told the Huffington Post. "I understand him having some loyalty to the president who employs him, but I think he's walking over the line."

Asked if Gibbs should resign, he said "That'd be fair, because this isn't the first time. And, again, people of all political shades worked very hard to help the president become the president. Why would he want to go out and deliberately insult the president's base?"