The President wants those who are able, to get off food stamps and get back to work. Sounds reasonable, right? Absolutely not! Like everything else these days, it’s completely racist. I know this because “The Root” says so.
More than 750K Could Lose Food Stamp/SNAP Benefits Under Proposed National Changes
This week we found out that unhealthy diets account for almost 20% of all deaths world-wide. That’s an estimated 20 million people. Trump wants to make that number rise by at least three-quarters of a million people.
Wow! If that’s true, maybe Trump really IS a Nazi. That sounds like some sort of genocide to me. Let’s explore this accusation and find out if we really are all in danger of being exterminated.
750,000. That’s how many are likely to lose food assistance later this year under a new proposal by the White House administration. The proposal is meant to encourage Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) to go to work, but it’s based on the wrong assumption that these people are lazy and haven’t already been seeking jobs. It’s not only a classist sentiment; it’s also racist.
And just to reinforce her misguided accusation, the author of all this bullshit, one Aliya Semper Ewing, posted this classic:
How clever. But the problem with her hurling that overused insult of “racist” at Trump is that 8.8 million whites are receiving these benefits versus 5.7 million blacks. So tell me, how is that racist? Is the Donald actually black and been wearing “whiteface” (or orangeface) all this time? Boy, he sure has pulled one over on us!
Craig Gundersen, professor of agriculture and consumer economics at the University of Illinois tells NPR, “This idea that people are ripping off the system or something, that’s just not true.”
Yes, it is true. I once knew of a woman, a single mom who had to children. She lived right next door to a used tire place where she worked at the front desk, getting paid under the table by her boss. Meanwhile, she was also collecting all the benefits of that a supposedly unemployed single woman with two kids can possibly get. And what did she spend her extra cash on? Drugs of course! In her case, meth. So don’t tell me there aren’t people cheating the system, Mr. Gunderen. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
The payoff isn’t that big for someone looking to ‘cheat the system’. According to statistics from the Center on Budget and Policy Proposals, the average monthly for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit, formerly known as Food Stamps, was only $126 per person in 2016. It is true however, that selling SNAP benefits for cash is illegal and considered to be defrauding the government. This method of “fraud” is on the rise. But many feel that exchanging a $125 dollar food voucher in order to have cash to pay other bills, or other means of survival, isn’t behavior worthy of being demonized or criminalized; it’s a method of survival for those who need help the most.
Don’t even try to sell me on that one. I know from personal experience that those who sell their food stamps aren’t doing it to pay other bills. They trade them for drugs. I’ve seen it so many times over the years. I even knew of one unscrupulous liquor store owner that would give 100% cash value in exchange for food stamps.
Supporters of the bill claim it should be easy to find jobs in this better economy and job market; but the bill ignores the barriers to work that many people face. Parents, for instance, are often limited to finding employment that won’t conflict with their kid’s school schedule because the cost of before/after school programs is outrageous.
Why don’t you go back up to the second paragraph and re-read what you wrote. “The proposal is meant to encourage Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) to go to work.” “Without dependents” means people who don’t have kids, you dolt. Your argument here is invalid.
Many poor people can’t afford cars to travel to work (or a volunteer site, or job training), and in rural areas public transportation often isn’t available. Formerly incarcerated people are ineligible or overlooked for many positions; the homeless, drug-addicted, and mentally ill struggle as well.
So walk. Ride a bike. Hitch a ride with a friend. I knew a guy, formerly incarcerated, who had nine fingers and no car. He lived in what basically amounted to a chicken coup. Yet somehow he managed to arrive at an industrial staffing company called Labor Ready (now People Ready) every morning at about 5am and wait for work. In fact most of the people I worked with there were formerly incarcerated, drug-addicted, and had no cars. So don’t tell me it can’t be done because I’ve seen it accomplished first hand.
With this newly proposed plan, SNAP assistance would stop after three months for those without disability unless they find employment, get job training, or volunteer, for at least 20 hours a week. That’s not a new law; the requirement has been in place for years. Still, many states waive the requirement because they understand how cruel it would be to those who genuinely need the assistance. The Trump administration now wants to make waivers much harder to get.
Volunteer a whole 20 hours a week?!?! Dear Lord! Trump is a monster!
The proposed bill is poorly conceived in other ways too. For instance, if almost one million people are forced into job training programs as planned, it would overload training offices that weren’t designed to handle the masses of people now facing this requirement. A backlog would quickly ensue.
Dumbass, all one million people are not going to flock to job training. In case you didn’t notice, you listed three options above.
Food justice advocates agree that solutions to hunger are systemic, not personal. Most people using food assistance have been pushed to the margins of society through unjust systems, not through lack of trying. These oppressive systems and administrators are not simply “unaware” of the devastating effects they’ve had. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps legislation like this one threatens to leave our most vulnerable communities in real danger, and they know this.
Blah, blah, blah, unjust, oppressive, blah, blah. Nothing is ever your own fault. How is encouraging people to find jobs dangerous to any community? I don’t understand and you don’t have the mental capacity to explain it to me even if you were to respond to this post.
Congressional democrats have threatened to sue if the bill passes, but this bill hasn’t stood alone. It’s part of a broader effort by this classist and racist administration to make government aid of any kind harder to come by.
No, you adorable little moron. It’s an attempt to get those who are able to get to work. That’s all it is. Personally, I believe there are times that assistance is needed, but it was never intended to be a permanent way of life. That’s what this proposal is trying to stop. So get off your asses and get to work, people.
