Fox's Stuart Varney outraged states still feeding poor despite food stamp cuts: 'You can't win!'

Fox News host Stuart Varney is outraged that state governments are continuing to help the poor feed themselves, even after Congress agreed to cut spending on food stamps.

The farm bill passed Jan. 29 cuts about $800 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but officials in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania have made changes to state programs to tie food-stamp eligibility to home-heating assistance to allow more low-income families to be eligible for aid.

“This completely negates, almost entirely negates the cuts that Congress imposed,” Varney said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.” “It shows you, once you’ve got a program, you can never get rid of it and it’s very difficult to cut. Now what’s really going on here is the government’s buying votes. They’re keeping, churning out the food stamps in return for votes. That’s what’s happening.”

"Fox & Friends" host Brian Kilmeade said the states had forced Republicans into “a tough situation politically.”

“They know what’s right, they know what’s affordable, they know that food stamps are a never-ending cycle, but do you want to be the party that goes up to the poor and says, ‘Take that back’?” Kilmeade said.

Varney agreed that Republicans were the true victims here.

“You are demagogued to death!” Varney cried. “You are told that you are taking food out of the mouths of children. You’re making people starve. You are bad because you’re cutting. You can’t win! How will we ever get a handle on our debt if you can’t cut $8 billion out of food stamps over a 10-year period? How will you ever do that?”

Watch this video of the segment posted online by Media Matters: