Republican suggests students get jobs to pay for lunches

Republican Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) suggested students should get jobs to pay for their lunches as the federal funding freeze proposed by President Trump threatens nutrition support for children across the country.

McCormick joined CNN’s Pamela Brown for an interview, conducted Tuesday after the announcement, and he highlighted that he worked while he was in high school.

Later Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s plan to freeze the federal aid just minutes before it was meant to go into effect.

The administrative stay doesn’t completely dismiss Trump’s attempt but delays action on it until Monday.

Brown asked McCormick about the implications of the funding freeze, and how it would particularly impact school lunches and Head Start, which helps young children from low-income families prepare for school.

“Before I was even 13 years old, I was picking berries in the field, before child labor laws that precluded that. I was a paperboy and when I was in high school; I worked my entire way through,” McCormick replied.

“You’re telling me that kids who stay at home instead of going to work at Burger King, McDonald’s during the summer should stay at home and get their free lunch instead of going to work? I think we need to have a top-down review,” he continued.

Brown asked if McCormick thought the kids in his district who use the free breakfast and lunch programs are at home and not working.

“I mean, how many people got their start in fast food restaurants when they [were] kids, versus just giving a blanket rule that gives all kids lunches in high school who are capable of going out and actually getting a job and doing something that makes them have value, thinking about their future instead of thinking about how they sponge out of the government when they don’t need to,” McCormick replied.

Brown pushed back, noting that many of the children across the country who are using these federal programs are not of working age.

“They’re young kids,” she said, adding, “They’re like 5 and under.”

McCormick said he understands and it “doesn’t apply to everybody.”

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