Trump’s budget hits "Slackers" the hardest

[WingNot]

Liberals up in arms over proposed cuts they say will hit poor Americans the hardest!


President Trump proposed a budget Monday that hits the poorest Americans the hardest, slashing billions of dollars in food stamps, health insurance and federal housing subsidies while pushing legislation to institute broad work requirements for families receiving housing vouchers, expanding on moves by some states to require recipients of Medicaid and food stamps to work.

The Trump budget proposal would gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, by $17.2 billion in 2019 — equivalent to 22 percent of the program’s total cost last year. It calls for cuts of more than $213.5 billion over the next decade, a reduction of nearly 30 percent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

In addition, Trump is proposing a full-scale redesign of SNAP, which provides an average of $125 per month to 42.2 million Americans. For the last 40 years, the program has allowed beneficiaries to use SNAP benefits at grocery stores as if they were cash. Under the budget proposal, the  Department of Agriculture would use a portion of those benefits to buy and deliver a package of U.S.-grown commodities to SNAP households that receive $90 or more in assistance each month, using the government’s buying power to obtain common foods at lower costs.

“This budget proposes taking away food assistance from millions of low-income Americans — and on the heels of a tax cut that favored the wealthy and corporations," said Stacy Dean, president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "It doesn’t reflect the right values.”

The proposal repeats several cost-cutting measures from last year, including new restrictions on eligibility and stricter requirements around the use of work-requirement waivers, which allow states with high unemployment rates to extend benefits to adults who are out of work for longer than three months.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/12/trumps-budget-hits-poor-americans-the-hardest/

[WarmPotato]

Considering the poorest of people don't pay taxes at all, I'm not too upset :P Especially with that increase in the child tax credit!

[truth_seeker]

Work for welfare, was instituted under Clinton. Remember "ending welfare as we know it?"

But Obama reversed that. And EBT exploded under Obama.

Good for Trump to have the huevos to do what I suspect most other GOP  Potus candidates lacked same over.

[Right_in_Virginia]

The administration has proposed eliminating the entire fund for public housing capital repairs, a savings of nearly $2 billion a year. The targeted cut comes at a time when public housing faces a backlog of capital needs upwards of $40 billion, said Diane Yentel, president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. In New York City, about 80 percent of public housing tenants suffered heating and hot water outages in recent months because the aging boiler systems are in desperate need of repair, Yentel said.

“The administration wants state and local governments to take care of that, which is just a total abdication of its responsibility,” she said.

Why shouldn't this be a state and local government issue??

[jmyrlefuller]

Why shouldn't this be a state and local government issue??

More importantly, if this is such a problem even with that much money, wouldn't that indicate the fund isn't working? Only two types of people chase good money after bad: fools and Democrats... but then again, there's a lot of overlap between them.

[Right_in_Virginia]

More importantly, if this is such a problem even with that much money, wouldn't that indicate the fund isn't working? Only two types of people chase good money after bad: fools and Democrats... but then again, there's a lot of overlap between them.

Good point.

[Restored]

Considering the poorest of people don't pay taxes at all, I'm not too upset :P Especially with that increase in the child tax credit!

Don't pay INCOME taxes. Everyone pays taxes.

[Applewood]

“This budget proposes taking away food assistance from millions of low-income Americans — and on the heels of a tax cut that favored the wealthy and corporations," said Stacy Dean, president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "It doesn’t reflect the right values."

Maybe not your values, sweetheart, but it does reflect the values of those of us who were raised by parents who went out every day to work for what we had, not lying around all day making babies they couldn't afford to raise. 

I don't believe the Founding Fathers intended for government to look after people, especially those who refuse to pull their own weight.  If you don't work, you don't eat.  That's the way it used to be and it's long past time we go back to those days again.

[libertybele]

Maybe not your values, sweetheart, but it does reflect the values of those of us who were raised by parents who went out every day to work for what we had, not lying around all day making babies they couldn't afford to raise. 

I don't believe the Founding Fathers intended for government to look after people, especially those who refuse to pull their own weight.  If you don't work, you don't eat.  That's the way it used to be and it's long past time we go back to those days again.

Granted food prices have skyrocketed along with unemployment.  But I have witnessed students at school being ridiculed for bringing a lunch from home instead of participating in the school lunch program.  The county that I live in gives FREE breakfast and lunch to ALL students in elementary, middle and high school and a lunch from home is highly discouraged.

We were poor growing up and I remember sometimes lunch consisted of a Velveeta (yuk) and miracle whip sandwich on white bread and a thermos of milk if money was tight. Parents need to be responsible for feeding their kids or consider not having additional children if they don't have the money instead of seeing another child as a tax deduction and a bigger welfare check!