The North Dakota Senate Republican majority has really outdone themselves:
Ten days after narrowly defeating a bill to provide free school lunches to low-income K-12 students, the North Dakota Senate approved legislation [along party lines] to increase the amount of money lawmakers and other state employees receive in meal reimbursements.
A leading Republican senator says employee meal compensation rates and free school lunch programs aren't related issues, but top Democrats see the chamber’s conflicting actions on the two bills as unjustifiable.
“I thought today’s vote was very self-serving,” said Senate Minority Leader Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo. “How can we vote for ourselves when we can’t vote for children?”
The Republican-dominated Senate in late March rejected House Bill 1491 by a single vote. The legislation, which had previously passed the House, would have dedicated $6 million over the next two school years to cover lunch costs for K-12 students with family incomes below double the federal poverty level. Children from families of four making less than $60,000 a year would have qualified.
This story makes more sense if you remember that Republicans believe people in poverty deserve their lot. Because that way, you see, so do the rich.
The cruelty, though: that's the special gift of the modern GOP.