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December 7, 2010

National Review Editor: Parents of Children in School Lunch Programs "Criminally Negligent"
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And an MSNBC pundit and editor with the right-wing magazine National
Review is under criticism for saying the parents of children enrolled in
school lunch programs are criminally negligent. Kate O’Beirne made the
comments during a Republican panel discussion last week.

Kate O’Beirne: "The federal school lunch program, and now breakfast
program, and I guess in Washington, D.C., dinner program, are pretty
close to being sacred cows. Broad bipartisan support. And if we’re going
to ask more of ourselves, my question is, what poor excuse for a parent
can’t rustle up a bowl of cereal and a banana? I just don’t get why
millions of schoolchildren qualify for school breakfasts, unless we have
a major widespread problem with child neglect. You know, I mean, if that
many parents are incapable of pulling together a bowl of cereal and a
banana, then we have problems that are way bigger than—that
problem can’t be solved with a school breakfast, because we have parents
who are just criminally—criminally negligent with respect to
raising children."



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