Republicans come for Medicaid and Food Stamps

Republicans never hid the fact that they planned to pay for their massive tax cut for the wealthy by gutting basic services for the poor.

The first method is by kicking people off of Medicaid.

Members of a federal advisory panel expressed alarm this week that 4,350 low-income people in Arkansas had lost Medicaid coverage because they failed to show they were complying with new work requirements held up by the Trump administration as a model for the nation.
...Indiana, Kentucky and New Hampshire have also received approval from the Trump administration to impose work requirements for Medicaid. Eight other states — Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin — have formally applied for similar waivers.

A federal district judge blocked the Kentucky plan in June, after finding that federal officials had failed to consider the state’s estimate that 95,000 people would lose Medicaid coverage.
...With 4,353 fewer people on the rolls, he said, the state expects to save $30 million a year.

Because taking away poor people's health care is a good thing, I guess.
By that logic, denying food to poor children and elderly must be a great thing.

The multiyear spending bill would change the income and expense criteria that allows low-income people to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), stripping benefits from nearly two million Americans, including 469,000 households with small children.

This would represent a huge cut to the program, allowing the government to take benefits from 8 percent of those currently receiving them. Seniors would be particularly hard hit—34 percent of them would lose benefits, according to an analysis from the research firm Mathematica. One in ten SNAP recipients with a disability would also lose benefits.

Those estimates don’t even account for another of the bill’s provisions, which would enact work requirements on more SNAP recipients, stripping another 1.2 million people of benefits.

I flat out don't understand how anyone can justify denying food to children, elderly, and the disabled. The immorality of it is stunning.
There are also wrinkles in the bill, like denying 100,000 former inmates access to SNAP, because they shouldn't eat, I guess.

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snoopydawg's picture

There can be no other explanation for cutting people off social programs to save money after the huge tax cut. This is beyond evil in a country that does what it had done with its money. The only shining light is that the house bill doesn't have the cuts and there's a chance that it won't pass.

The House version of the bill is currently at odds with the Senate version, which has bipartisan support and doesn’t cut benefits. Unsurprisingly, President Trump supports the House version of the bill.

The only reason why I hope that there is a gawd because then maybe there's a Hell too.

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

Pricknick's picture

@snoopydawg
If there were a gawd this wouldn't happen.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

snoopydawg's picture

@Pricknick

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

divineorder's picture

And remember the Empty Suit offered cuts for a Grand Bargain.

Talk in Texas:

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Consequences , consequences...

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Worth fighting for?

This is important to my family:

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

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