Cutting SNAP is precisely the wrong prescription for our children and the nation's economic recovery. The notion that SNAP benefits are an overly generous handout could not be further from the truth.

Programs like Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps, and transitional housing are lifelines that work when people fall on hard times. We need to preserve them. But that's not what the Ryan "reconciliation budget" just passed by the House of Representatives would do.

Both sides are convinced that poverty-related discussion will scare away middle-class voters, ignoring the reality that tens of millions of Americans, formerly solidly middle-class, teeter on the edge of poverty and hunger themselves.