Trump voters are about to get what they wanted...good and hard

At the risk of stereotyping a bit, Trump supporters are about to get screwed over like they have long demanded to be.
The American social safety net was already horribly underfunded.
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However, the real gutting of the social safety net are about to start.
While previous Republican Administrations just wanted to let programs that help the poor degrade incrementally, the Trump Administration has taken a hatchet to them.

To name a few damaging policy initiatives: a proposal to punish immigrants for participating in programs like Head Start; closing a Department of Justice office that was created to make legal aid more accessible; repealing guidance to judges that suggested they consider an individual’s ability to pay a fine before allowing her to languish in jail; imposing work requirements and time limits on people who need assistance with health care, housing, or food.
Two experts who have been deeply immersed in anti-poverty policy throughout their careers agree that since the Johnson administration launched its Great Society programs in the 1960s there has never been a more politically dangerous moment for those who are struggling to make ends meet in America.
“We’ve been through things before that we thought couldn’t get worse. But this right now is just one of a kind,” says Georgetown University law professor Peter Edelman...
...Trump’s budget would cut more than $300 billion from Medicaid, taking away health care from millions of people; $200 billion from student aid; and $200 billon from the SNAP program (food assistance), which currently has an average benefit of just $1.40 per person per meal. It would cut rental assistance—which currently reaches only one in four eligible families—jeopardizing more than 500,000 subsidized households, and eliminate the fund for public-housing repairs, even though there is a backlog of between $26 billion and $40 billion to fix things like leaky roofs and bad wiring. It eliminates the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps at least 6 million households with utility bills. It cuts $72 billion from federal disability programs, saving less than the cost of Republicans’ recently passed tax cut for heirs of multimillion-dollar estates.

For the sake of brevity I'll focus on Medicaid and SNAP.
Historically, Republicans favor huge cuts to food stamps and view Medicaid as welfare.

Republicans want to roll back the Medicaid expansion, cap federal Medicaid spending increases, and add work requirements, drug testing, time limits, copays and premiums to some state Medicaid programs. But almost no one else wants to do these things.

The Republican plan for food stamps would kick an estimated 1 million people off the rolls.

The proposal to reauthorize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would subject more enrollees to “work requirements,” and would require states to set up training programs for 3 to 5 million people who might be unable to find suitable private sector work.
Democrats say the work requirements proposal could potentially deny benefits to 3 percent of enrollees in 2028, which could amount to nearly 1 million people that year.

The Republican response is to deny that anyone will go hungry, when there obviously will be some that will. Meanwhile, work requirements for farm subsidies are practically nonexistent.

Any farmer who makes less than $900,000 a year in income, or $1.8 million for a couple, is eligible for ARC and PLC payments. SNAP recipients must make less than $15,684 a year for one person or $21,120 for two people to receive any benefits.

Personally, I've never had a problem feeding people that are hungry, but then I'm not a Republican.
Nearly two-thirds of SNAP participants are children, elderly, or people with disabilities. Around three-quarters of adults who participated in SNAP in a given month worked either that month or worked in the year before or the year after.
Most of the states with a large percentage of people getting food stamps are red states.

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As bad as the food stamp cuts are, the cuts to Medicaid will be worse.
The Republican justification is that poor “able-bodied adults” are living large on the public dole by being able to sometimes see a doctor. The reality is something entirely different.

Buttressing the liberal argument, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that of the nearly 25 million non-elderly Medicaid recipients, a majority are already working, meaning they qualify for Medicaid (and thus can’t afford insurance) even though they are employed, which allows them to work these jobs and still get coverage. Meanwhile, of those who are not employed, most report serious health and other impediments to working, meaning the obstacle isn’t dependency or a lack of motivation.

How dare those poor people get food and medical care!
Next they'll all want ponies.
Here's the irony.

Such requirements are likely to be imposed in states carried by Trump. The Post reports that 10 states are already trying to get permission to impose them, almost all of them red states. This, among other things, leads Harold Pollack, a health-policy expert at the University of Chicago, to conclude that “Medicaid work requirements may hit Trump country hardest.”

Republican Kentucky went first, and an estimate 95,000 impoverished people will lose health care.

The plan strips Medicaid coverage from most adults who fail to comply, including those who do not complete paperwork on time or report “changes in circumstances” quickly enough.

Those with the most to lose from the Medicaid cuts are children in rural areas and small towns.
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So why would these people vote to screw themselves? Because they didn't believe the Republican politicians when they said "We are going to screw you."

We spoke a good deal longer about the Affordable Care Act, and the possibility of repeal. Mills said she had gone into the voting booth confident that Republicans wouldn’t dismantle the law, despite their promises. How could they, when people like her had become so reliant on it?

OTOH, they did believe Trump when he obviously lied to them.

Many exchange enrollees thought their plans were too expensive, and many beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion didn’t realize their free health insurance was the result of Obamacare. And Marketplace enrollees told KFF they trusted Trump to “craft a plan that would work better for them.”
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The Aspie Corner's picture

Since the Repigs Taft-Hartley'd the ACA, Medicaid expansion was a no go in Flawer'Duh.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

earthling1's picture

ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people".
-Someone smart.-

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

snoopydawg's picture

That some people have no problem with children going hungry and kicked out of their homes because they have poor parents is something I will never understand. Especially in a country that spends ungawdly amounts of money on killing other kids in foreign ones.

Raise your hands if you think congress gave two shits about the UN report on poverty in America. That's if they even needed to read it since they created the conditions in the first place. The war on the working class is getting damn ugly.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

boriscleto's picture

@snoopydawg

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

words for this, in a country that spends billions on war, tax cuts and subsidies to the already sickeningly rich. I'm going to drink a bit more now, anaesthetize myself as best I can as it does no good to scream, although I'll do a bit of that too. How I wish I could blame it all on RWNJs, damnit. It is all of them, their cruelty knows no bounds. And it is so damned petty as far as the "budget" and "deficits. Damn them all. They deserve that special place in hell, if there really is one besides what they're busy creating.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

In America politics has nothing to do with morality. Republicans in red states especially will support these cuts while those who suffer will not vote. In blue states Democrats will scream platitudes about how heartless the Republicans are and no one will believe them - for damn good reason.

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On to Biden since 1973

snoopydawg's picture

@doh1304

Utah has finally decided to expand Medicaid to 60,000 people, mostly drug addicts and the comment board was filled with whiners. They don't want their money going to people who made the decision to get hooked on drugs or criminals who broke the law.

They even have problems with people who are working 3 jobs and still qualify for some programs such as food stamps, school lunches, etc. They just need to go back to college and get a better job. And flipping burgers wasn't meant to be a job for adults who lost their pensions during the crash. This would just raise the price of burgers and come out of their pockets. But then they have no problem with corporate welfare because they deserve to keep their money. Go figure.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

for rich donors. Safety nets and social programs are not what their masters want. They will only get away with it until we push back with enough force to break the chain.

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Wink's picture

As long as their hero is kicking Librul hippie Dems to the curb - if not tossing them out of the country - it's fine with them! And they'll keep voting for Trump. I see Bernie as our only hope - and then only if he runs as an Indie, 'cuz there's No Way he runs as a Dem. I see none of the current crop of Dems beating Trump.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

The Aspie Corner's picture

@Wink Don't expect him to do anything. At all.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Wink's picture

has intentions of running, or he wouldn't bother with the FB Town Halls and other face time opportunities.
@The Aspie Corner
I mean, if you're not running why bother? He's not out there supporting Berniecrats, he's out there promoting himself. So at the very least he's got his toes in the water, determining if such a run is viable. It's not, unless he runs as an Indie.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Shahryar's picture

we have Medicare cards so I guess we've got it. At this point I'm trusting that they'll cut whatever they can but not those who currently have SS or Medicare, simply because most of those Trump types are older. But, you see, it's just trust. I'm not comfortable about it. I can picture a way they'll get rid of Social Security, blame it on the Democrats somehow (it'll be partly true) and the Trump supporters will believe it.

I know I won't be able to work every day for the rest of my life unless it's one of those "he died at his desk" type things so there'll be a time when I'll need SS and Medicare in order to survive, probably poorly since the SS isn't really enough to live on (thus I'm still working and expect to for another 10 years...at least).

I know lots of people are in worse situations who would die within a year if their SS/Medicare were taken away.

But Medicaid and Head Start....those are really vulnerable, especially Head Start! "Which would you rather have? Black kids getting 'social development' help or protection from Mexican thugs coming across the border?"

I hate them, I really do. And when I say 'Trump supporter' I mean any blind follower.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Shahryar

He said that he has no intention of kicking his mother off it, but when he was pushed he said that "something has to be done for people who are not on it yet" which probably means that if you are on it now or close to being eligible then you will probably be okay. I'm thinking that his cut off line is below 55 and maybe 50, but everyone below that will be shit out of luck. I've got a few years yet to go before I'm eligible, but my other programs are going to be cut. I'm most worried about public housing. This is already way underfunded as it is and from what I'm hearing it's going to get a lot worse.

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Wink's picture

Not just for food, but for housing.
@snoopydawg
And pretty much everything else.
Groups of ten, 20, more.
Buy a 20 unit trailer park or RV park.
Rent out ten, the other ten for Co-Op members.
The only way I see of surviving Trump II.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

It has been a a slow burn since Clinton. gopers want to take an axe to the safety nets while democrats perferred just a plain saw. When the democrats last controlled the Senate they approved of a four billion dollar cut to SNAP. It then went to the House where gopers wanted to take a buzz saw to SNAP.

I don't understand why farmers are not against SNAP cuts as supposedly, they reap a big benefit from the purchase of food items.

But I saw this coming with Clinton.

But the vote for Trump then? Without doing any research, I suspect that many of the receipents don't vote period.

And those lower middle class whites who do vote look down on food stamps, etc. It is induced class war. And the bizzzare thing is that republicans beat the democrats in building lower class white alliagence to them. And the one democrat that could reverse that was cheated in the presidential primaries by the person who became focus of all those white compliants which were legit complaints.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

and of course the people who are involved in the farm programs have already received their tax cuts. But then they are never in danger of having their investments tampered with. I was pissed when Obama happily signed his budget. What the Clintons did to welfare and food stamps should have disqualified them from getting anywhere near the WH again.

I read this earlier today. A reminder of the damage that the Clintons did to women's issues.

Hillary Clinton Does Not Represent Values that Help Women

“I strongly argued that we had to change the [welfare] system...I didn’t think it was fair that one single mother improvised to find child care and got up early every day to get to work while another stayed home and relied on welfare...The third bill passed by Congress cut off most benefits to legal immigrants, imposed a five-year lifetime limit on federal welfare benefits, and maintained the status quo on monthly benefit limits, leaving the states free to set benefit limits...I agreed that he [Bill] should sign it and worked hard to round up votes for its passage...Weeks after Bill signed the law, Peter Edelman and Mary Jo Bane, another friend and Assistant Secretary at HHS who had worked on welfare reform, resigned in protest.” - Hillary Clinton in her 2003 memoir Hard Choices.

Not liking Hillary has nothing to do with her being a woman. It has everything to do with the hypermasculine values she espouses.

There were so many reasons why I refused to vote for her! Misogyny did not have a thing to do with it.

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@snoopydawg Oh I remember that those times. It was truly disgusting how so many "liberals" adopted the Clinton's right wing agenda. They played off the whole idea of the "welfare queen" but using a softer rhetoric but with the same worldview that saw welfare as a scam by morally undeserving types--the results were utter vicious to so many people. I remember reading that at the time, the so-called average welfare welfare queen was a mother with two kids who spent on average 2 years on welfare.

And when the down turn happened after the Clinton regime, the full effects of their policies were in worse barely giving any help to those who lost their jobs.

You know, if Trump had made the same sorts of cuts like those toward legal immigrants, he would be labeled a racist.

When people argue about the lesser of two evils, I simply note that coming into the election, Hillary Clinton was already proven evil.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

The GOP couldn't get welfare reform passed so they went to Bill and asked him to do it. And when the crash happened his policies were there to make people's lives much worse. The gift that keeps on giving .... just like Obama's are doing.

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@MrWebster that a lot of the people that scorn the safety net programs, snap, medicaid, head start are just over the other side of the cut off line, or were just told they wouldn't qualify because x. They feel like other people can "work the system" and somehow "cheat" when they're pretty much on the same level, just some small $ amount too much.

It's like the trap the young mothers are in. They have a child, and qualify for a bunch of aid and programs. They get some training and get a near min. wage job with no benefits, and the state wants to pull the whole support system away, SNAP, child care, housing, medical everything at once, as if they can somehow cover everything on min. wage.

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@Snode @Snode There is this whole genre of stories built up about welfare abuse with the narrative voice being a gosh darn hard working low middle class earner who does not indulge in mere pleasures like a cheap steak. My favorite are those where the narrative spots an undeserving type using a SNAP card from 50 feet away and points their moral finger at them. Absolute super duper human vision. Of course, the question I ask is why is the narrative voice buying food at the same places as SNAP users? SNAP users do not shop at markets aimed at upper income levels. Maybe the narrative voice is almost just as poor as the SNAP user.

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@MrWebster Mr. Webster. I was thinking more of some people that I know that fell on hard times and attempted to get some help from government programs. In the end it was owning a 14 year old beater rig held together with pop rivets, junkyard transplants and ingenuity that did them in. Of course in a rural area with no public transportation, it's needed to get anywhere. $1200 too rich to get help, or maybe some rule. They absolutely believe those stories now, and will till the day they die.

With so many in the bottom 20%, with an arbitrary cutoff number there have to hundreds of thousands just on the wrong side of a number. You are 100% right about Clinton, and Obama did nothing to right that either

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edg's picture

Many people that voted for Trump think it's only black and brown people that get welfare, use SNAP, or go on Medicaid. They don't think of it being themselves or anyone they know, so why should they care about a few people of color being kicked off the dole and forced to work like everyone else has to?

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