What a day of mixed messages.

The same day that Pope Francis made crystal clear to American Catholics that their spiritual welfare was no longer tied to making common cause with the compassion-free Republican right wing, House Republicans voted to cut food stamps. Slash them, decimate them.

The House approved a Republican plan Thursday to cut food stamps by $39 billion during the next decade, setting up a showdown with Democrats over the program used by nearly 48 million low-income Americans. The House voted 217-210 for the bill that cuts nearly twice as much from food stamps as a bill the House rejected in June. It is also far more than a Senate measure passed earlier this year that would trim about $4.5 billion in spending. The bill failed to draw the support of a single Democrat, many of whom have said the steep cuts would erode a key safety net depended upon by families with children, seniors, veterans and people looking for work. Fifteen Republicans also voted against the bill. Republicans argued that the bill would restore the program's original eligibility limits and preserve the safety net for the truly needy.

"Truly needy." Defense contractors? Wall Street?

The bill would cause 3 million people to lose benefits while another 850,000 would see their benefits cut, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The White House threatened Wednesday to veto the bill, calling food stamps one of the "nation's strongest defenses against hunger and poverty."

We need to get these people the hell out of office. I will vote for a skunk if it has a D next to its name, because we will never get anywhere with this bunch.