Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) suggested Tuesday that children who rely on federally funded school lunch programs should get a job instead.
McCormick made the comment on CNN while defending the Trump administration’s order temporarily pausing federal aid to allow the government to review all programs even the ones that provide free school lunches to low-income children.
“Before I was even 13 years old, I was picking berries in the field, before child labor laws that precluded that. I was a paper boy, and when I was in high school, I worked my entire way through,” McCormick said.
“You’re telling me that kids who stay at home instead of going to work at Burger King, McDonald’s, during the summer, should stay at home and get their free lunch instead of going to work? I think we need to have a top-down review.”
He added: “I mean, how many people got their start in fast-food restaurants when they were kids, versus just giving a blanket rule that gives all kids lunches in high school who are capable of going out and actually getting a job and doing something that makes them have value, thinking about their future instead of thinking about how they’re going to sponge out the government when they don’t need to.”
McCormick went on to suggest that kids who received lunch without working become adults who are dependent on government welfare.
“That’s what’s been the inner city problem for a very long time,” he said. “We need to have a top-down review so we can get people out of poverty. Because you know what? America’s very good at creating jobs and giving them worth.”
“And we’ve been very, traditionally, good at that but we’re losing our way,” he continued. “And that’s when we give people incentives to stay at home and not work, that doesn’t work for America.”
The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memo on Monday ordering federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.”
The deadline for the freeze was supposed to go into effect on Tuesday by 5 p.m. ET, but U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan temporarily blocked the action until Feb. 3.
