New Orleans While Trump pretends he is saving Latin America, Greenland, and other places where he wants to plant the US flag, and presumably his brand, his war on the poor in America has reached new, unconscionable extremes. In recent weeks he has blocked childcare funds from Minnesota, as he tried to exploit a welfare scam there which as crushed the career of Governor, and recent Vice-President candidate, Walsh. Now he has taken all of this another tragic step forward and blocked both welfare and childcare funds from Minnesota, New York, California, Colorado, and Illinois, claiming scandal, while offering no proof or evidence of any such thing. This is just crazy.
TANF or the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families is a miserly program that renamed welfare assistance like AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, in the Clinton presidency. One of the changes made these welfare payments block grants, allowing governors and legislators to divert fund away from the poorest American families to other ends or in some cases to not distribute the full amounts because of the Scrooge like policies.
Is this political? Heck, yes!
A trial is happening in Mississippi right now involving a number of state officials and private citizens who diverted $77 million in TANF funds to pet projects to donors, celebrities like former NFL great Brett Favre, and politicians. Some have settled; some have not in the three years since this became public. Has Trump frozen their funds, despite the documented issues or done anything to assure the money is going to the intended beneficiaries. Oh, no, there are few states redder and more Republican than Mississippi, so let them run wild, so he can go after his so-called enemies in these five states.
Make no mistake. Food stamps are already imperiled by the new regulations required by Trump’s budget bill. These families – and importantly – their children, depend on these small welfare benefits. What’s the Trump plan now? Starve them? Cutting off childcare funds means that even with work requirements, these same families will no longer have support while they go to work. This is a Gaza-model program that he’s borrowing from Israel it would seem by blocking all food and support to the poorest families in these states.
Why? What’s the point of this attack on the poor? What’s he trying to prove?
Sure, most all of them, particularly New York and California, will be in federal court to overturn these orders before night fall, but other than pure meanness, it’s beyond me why any elected leader in the United States would so deliberately try to punish the poor for no earthly reason. If the administration thinks there is a problem in these programs, the Justice Department and police authorities can find the public and private miscreants, just as they did in Mississippi and bring them to justice, if they really have a case. If the administration really believes there are issues, they need to do their job and go after them, but why be so heartless and draconian by punishing the innocent and their children?
Current figures are hard to obtain, but a quick search, even if out of date, indicates this would effect 497,500 adults and 1.5 million children in New York, 890,000 individuals in 350,000 families in California, 75,000 people in Illinois, 44,000 in Minnesota, and close to 20,000 in Colorado. We’re talking about millions of victims of this inexcusable benefit blockade.
There’s no excuse for this. It has to be stopped!