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Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Hunger and Vowels

Posted by on November 1 at 10:01 AM

According to today’s Wall Street Journal, the Senate is considering legislation that will filet $39 billion from the budget over the next five years by cutting from entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, student loans, et al) and opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling.

The prizewinning sentence:

As the Agriculture Committee was drafting budget-cutting legislation that could knock 295,000 people off food stamps [and, according to the Boston Globe, 40,000 kids off school lunches], the Agriculture Department released findings that 529,000 more Americans went hungry last year than in 2003.

The Department’s report contained a silver lining for Northwest chauvinists. Oregon, once the nation’s hungriest state, has ceded that distinction to Oklahoma. Also high on the list: Arkansas and Alaska. The lesson? Bring extra snacks when visiting states that begin with open vowels.