Thursday, December 5th, 2019
Stephan: I was driving back from a doctor's appointment on the mainland today when I heard npr report on this action of the Trump administration. Just as their report came to an end, I stopped at a light. There were three homeless people, each on a different corner, panhandling in the cold rain that had been falling most of the day. One was middle-aged, on the other corners, the other two looked to be in their twenties.
As I looked at them I thought to myself why do Republicans hate the poor so much? I understand why criminal Trump probably hates them; I'm actually surprised he hasn't had the private prison industry build camps near some toxic dump site out in a desert somewhere to incarcerate the poor.
I only had two dollar bills and I gave them to the young man on the corner near me and, in doing so, noticed he had no front teeth. He saw me looking at his mouth and said, "Thanks, man, teeth or eating; it's not a hard choice." As the light changed and I drove away I thought how do my fellow Americans sleep comfortably, vote comfortably, for people who are so callous, so morally bankrupt, so lacking in compassion, that throwing 700,000 of their fellow citizens off the food program on which they depend is okay.
Credit: SpencerPlatt/Getty
The Trump administration announced a plan Wednesday to end food-stamp benefits for about 700,000 Americans, issuing a new regulation that makes it harder for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program. (emphasis added)
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the new rule will move more food-stamp recipients “toward self-sufficiency and into employment.”
Conservatives have long sought cuts in the federal food assistance program for the poor. House Republicans tried to impose similar restrictions last year when Congress renewed the program but were rebuffed in the Senate.
The work requirement covers “able-bodied” recipients. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said it doesn’t apply to recipients who are over 50, disabled or pregnant, or anyone with a child under 18.
The measure would be the first of three Trump administration initiatives curtailing food stamp benefits to take effect. The Urban Institute estimated in an analysis last month that the measures together would cut 3.7 million […]
Tax breaks for the rich and death for the poor. What a despicable country we live in!