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Trump Executive Order Crushes Neediest Americans - Children & Disabled
Nothing is more emblematic of the Trump doctrine than to spit in the face of a poor, homeless American. Conservatives love to make it sound so simple. Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps they say. WHAT IF YOU HAVE NO BOOTS? What if you have literally nothing? These safety net programs are the last resort for millions of Americans.
Trump signed the Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility executive order privately on Tuesday [April 10th], directing federal agencies to strengthen existing work requirements and introduce new ones for low-income Americans receiving Medicaid, food stamps, public housing benefits and welfare.... directs federal agencies to review all policies related to current work requirements as well as exemptions and waivers and report back with recommendations within 90 days.
The order doesn’t yet set any new policy, but it does reflect a hardline conservative view of the nation’s entitlement system — one that welfare experts say relies on faulty arguments and could cut off the nation’s neediest from lifesaving safety net programs.
This order outlines much of the conservative welfare agenda, which has long promoted cutting welfare programs, either through pushing people off the federal rolls with harsher work requirements or block-granting funding to the states, giving them more purview over how to allocate money to welfare programs. This safety net, largely put into place following the Great Depression, led to the largest expansion of the middle class and tremendous wealth creation for our nation.
The executive order is the strongest statement Trump has made about the country’s social safety net program since his February budget proposal to slash billions of dollars in food stamps, health insurance and federal housing subsidies.
Here's a fact: most do work and their jobs don't pay enough to survive in our society. Another fact: some people can not work. Neither of these should be a difficult concept to grasp.
“For those who are able to work, they should work. But there shouldn’t be barriers for those who are in need when they can’t work,” said Derrick Johnson, president and chief executive of the NAACP.
Valerie Wilson, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute, said a majority of those on assistance were already working — but that wages in many jobs remained too low for people to get by. “Work requirements are inconsistent with the realities of poverty in America and are unlikely to provide any resolution,” she said. “The truth is that a majority of poor people who can work, do work....”
Wilson said low-wage workers are working more hours now that they did nearly 40 years ago. “The problem is that their jobs don’t pay enough,” she said. “People who are on public assistance and don’t work are not choosing between a six-figure salary or staying at home. Taking a low-paying job gets no one closer to economic stability.”
Waste and fraud in the program are also relatively inconsequential.
The social safety net is intended to help the neediest among us. TRUMP AND REPUBLICANS HATE CHILDREN.
....food stamp recipients are mostly children and elderly or disabled people. The number of able-bodied adults without dependents is slim....
There is strong evidence that SNAP reduces food insecurity and improves health outcomes, especially among children, who make up the majority of SNAP beneficiaries.
Sources:
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/10/17221292/trump-welfare-executive-order-work-requirements