Jackie Speier: “I thank my colleague from Connecticut, who says it better than any of us and with such great fervor and passion. You…”

“I thank my colleague from Connecticut, who says it better than any of us and with such great fervor and passion. You know, there are times here when I am elated, and there are times here when I'm sick to my stomach. And tonight is one of those times when I am sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed for this body. I'm embarrassed that the Republicans want to stuff polar bears and bring them back to this country as trophies for their hunters, but they do not want to stuff the bellies of poor kids in our country. There is something fundamentally wrong, and I say that with a great deal of remorse, really. One in seven Americans now is in poverty and needs to be part of the SNAP program. You know, I think it's really important for us to say it over and over again. This program is not filled with fraud. {time} 1940 This program is one of the best programs that we run in the government, where the error rate and the fraud is less than 3 percent. Now, I took the Food Stamp Challenge last fall, and I've got to tell you that it was a humbling experience. And for every one of my colleagues who want to cut the food stamp program by $33 billion, I challenge them to live on the equivalent of food stamps for just 5 days. I did it for 5 days, $4.50. There were no lattes in my diet. There were no Big Macs in my diet. There was no sushi in my diet. My diet consisted of canned tuna, eggs, one head of lettuce, and tomatoes for 5 days, and a can of instant coffee from the dollar store.…”