Earlier this summer, I worked as an intern at the AFL-CIO national headquarters in Washington, DC.
The AFL-CIO is a national confederation of labor unions that advocates on behalf of American workers, including the working poor.
As part of my internship, I had the opportunity to meet with Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL), the congressman who represents Gainesville, to discuss legislation proposed in Congress that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour from its current level of $7.25.
Although the congressman and I had sharply divergent opinions about the merits of increasing the minimum wage, our conversation was respectful and cordial.
Rep. Yoho informed me that he empathized with the struggles of minimum wage workers in America because he and his wife relied on food stamps to supplement their meager income early in their marriage.
He said that, although he opposed giving government assistance to the working class, he had a strong desire to increase economic growth to help ensure prosperity for all Americans.
Unfortunately, recent statements made by Rep. Yoho suggest that his actual views on the plight of the poor and working class in America are much less charitable than he initially led me to believe.
According to Right Wing Watch, a website that reports on statements made by conservative Republicans relating to key issues, Yoho casually dismissed the problem of hunger in America as nonexistent at a recent town hall meeting.
“I think there’s 330 million people starving, at least three times a day,” Yoho said. “We call it breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Yoho asserted that millions of Americans who benefit from programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, often called “food stamps”) are not truly in need of government assistance.
He said cutting the SNAP program would not cause harm to anyone and that “not one person would lose a calorie or a crumb that deserves it.”
Yoho’s callous joke and his portrayal of many SNAP users as greedy freeloaders ignore the significant and growing problem of food insecurity in America.
Feeding America, a hunger advocacy group, reported that 50 million Americans — that’s 15 percent of all households — experienced food insecurity at some point during 2009.
This means that millions of Americans, many of whom are employed in minimum-wage or low-wage jobs, are frequently unable to afford enough food for themselves and their families.
Rep. Yoho’s opposition to measures like fully funding SNAP and increasing the minimum wage — both of which would help combat the problems of poverty and food insecurity in America — is damaging to the interests of his constituents and those of the nation as a whole.
His support for eviscerating the American social safety net despite relying on it himself in the past is deeply hypocritical.
The people of Gainesville and Alachua County, particularly the working poor, deserve advocates in Congress to help ensure that their most basic needs are being met.
Rep. Yoho’s hypocritical, destructive and false statements show that he lacks the integrity required to effectively represent his constituents.
Elliot Levy is a UF public relations and political science junior. His column appears Wednesdays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 8/21/2013 under the headline "Rep. Yoho’s food stamp hypocrisy harms"
