Something WIC This Way Comes

If you're reading this blog, chances are you are at least somewhat familiar with U.S. immigration issues. You're also probably aware that demographic changes are impacting our nation. More specifically, we have a booming Latino population. What you may not know, however, is for how much of it you're paying.

If you reside in San Jose, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Gwinnett, Houston, Phoenix or Chicago, and are familiar with local public schools, you're probably aware of the dismal graduation rates of illegal aliens and their children, and what de facto babysitting services (with free lunches!) many campuses have become.  However, don't think for a second that you stop subsidizing the upbringing of other people's children when they step off campus.

Case in point, WIC (Women, Infants and Children) is a government program that provides free fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk, cereals, and other healthy foods for children who were brought into this world by parents who can't afford them (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMoveI0Bpww&feature=related). Well, who commonly has children in America these days that they can't afford? Single mothers and Hispanics.

Recently, we learned that Latinos are now 16% of the national population. However, the National Council of La Raza reports that Latinos are 42% of all WIC recipients (http://action.nclr.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4283). In fact, about 90% of very young Hispanic kids in America have parents who receive WIC vouchers and benefits.

WIC officials assume two things: 1) Lots of people in the United States have had children they can't raise without repeated government handouts, and 2) most of these people are nearly clueless as to how to properly feed a kid. Hey, given the overrepresentation of obesity among Hispanics in the U.S., below age 18, they're probably right.

Now why is this happening? Is there something wrong with people from Latin America? Hardly. People hailing from Mexico and Central America are as capable as anybody else of properly feeding and caring for kids. But, and this is key, the U.S. isn't absorbing "Latin Americans" and their American born children. Our nation is getting the bottom rung of the educational and socio-economic ladder that comes in from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, etc. Illegal aliens are not commonly bankers, accountants, college grads, stock traders or people who had much success in their homelands. The middle-class and wealthy are not the ones skittering across Arizona deserts, hopping fences and paying coyotes to lead them past the Border Patrol. And they sure aren't the ones who are usually signing up for taxpayer-funded food programs.

Now, you may think that this is all very unfortunate, but you can't be asked, as an American taxpayer, to pay for all this. You have your own expenses and financial problems, right? Please, don't kid yourself. The NCLR has recently blasted e-mails (below) out to that organization's members and supporters. Make no mistake, having Americans continue to pay for WIC is exactly what they expect:

Save Our Babies! Stop Extreme Cuts to the WIC Programs!

The Latino community’s access to WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children, is under immediate threat. The House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee has voted to cut WIC funding by nearly $650 million, which will result in up to 350,000 mothers, infants, and children falling off the program. Given that Latinos make up two-fifths (42%) of all program participants, the Hispanic community is expected to be among the hardest hit.

WIC has been an essential nutrition assistance program for Latinos and has long been proven to prevent many of the costly conditions that result from hunger and malnutrition. In fact, nearly nine out of ten Latino infants born in the United States participated in WIC in 2008. This program has been especially important for Hispanic expectant mothers, who are less likely to have access to prenatal care and medical information.

Hispanic families became the hungriest families in 2008, and Latino children now make up nearly 40% of all children living with hunger in the U.S. The last thing we need is to take food out of the mouths of vulnerable mothers, babies, and young children.The full House will have a chance to reject these cuts. Tell your member of Congress to save our babies and reject harmful cuts to the WIC program. (http://action.nclr.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4283)


For a news report about the fraud and abuse common in WIC programs, please click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z92plqoP3GE