Just Plain Wrong: Cramer Fights to Cut Food Assistance for Kids While Living Large on Campaign Funds

(BISMARCK, ND) – Kevin Cramer wants struggling American families to “get off the dole,” but he has no problem using campaign funds to bankroll his lavish lifestyle in Washington. Since arriving in Washington, Cramer has been paid nearly $9,000 by his campaign to cover the cost of his personal meals. In Congress, Cramer has supported “enormous cuts” to food assistance programs like SNAP, while savoring luxurious lunches for himself.

Cramer is paid $174,000 per year by taxpayers and has nearly doubled his net-worth since arriving in Congress. Yet, he has repeatedly targeted a program that supports struggling North Dakota families who earn a median household income of just $17,514 per year. Out-of-touch as anyone in Washington, Cramer has no qualms about asking his supporters to fork over almost $20 per meal, but he’s appalled by a program that provides an average of $1.86 per meal to more than 50,000 middle-class and low-income North Dakotans back home.

Of course, Cramer’s shameless inconsistency isn’t breaking news for North Dakotans. Cramer ran on shrinking government spending but he voted for a massive corporate tax giveaway that will add nearly $2 trillion to the national debt. He wants to “drain the swamp,” but he’s used his position to enrich his family – to the tune of more than $375,000. Even the local media and fellow Republicans have taken notice of Cramer’s brazen corruption.

Crooked Cramer’s self-serving and nepotistic ways beg the question: Who is Kevin Cramer really looking out for in Washington, North Dakotans or himself?

“Fortunately for Kevin Cramer, the big-money circle he runs in insulates him from ever having to speak with someone struggling to put food on the table, because I bet they’d like to give him a piece of their mind,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the Democratic-NPL. “Trying to take away a meager safety net — less than $2 per meal — which families with kids depend on isn’t just wrong-headed policy, it’s just plain cruel.”