The Trump administration is set to introduce tomorrow a plan that will begin to force some states to enforce a work/vocational training requirement on those who receive food stamps, which could cut up to 750,000 people out of the program in the first year:
THE HILL – The Trump administration is set to announce a plan that would cut food stamp benefits for approximately 750,000 people, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The plan, which is scheduled to be announced Wednesday, will make it more difficult for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries of food stamps work or are enrolled in a vocational training program, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter.
The work or vocational training requirement applies to recipients who are “able-bodied” or those who are not caring for a child under six years old. Under the current guidelines, states can receive a waver for work requirements for those receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or its former name, food stamps, if its unemployment rate is at least 20 percent above the national rate, according to Bloomberg.
The national unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in October.
The regulation was initially proposed in February, and the administration predicted that the rule would end benefits for 750,000 people in its first year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that the move would save $1.1 billion in the first year and $7.9 billion over five years.
A person familiar with the measure confirmed to Bloomberg that the finalized regulation will have a similar impact. States seeking waivers under the rule would have to meet the stricter standards by April 1.
There are two more proposals they would like to implement, which could knock as many as 3.7 million people off of food stamps:
The measure, which will be published in the Federal Register Thursday, is one of the three proposals that the Trump administration has backed. The administration has also sought to adapt “the types of government benefits that automatically qualify families for SNAP,” according to a study from the Urban Institute. It has also called for changing the “approach to calculating standard utility allowances.”
The three programs together would limit food stamps for an estimated 3.7 million people and 2.1 million fewer households, according to the Urban Institute estimate.
This kind of reform is long overdue. Right now there are around 36 million people on food stamps, and 750,000 losing benefits is really only a two percent loss. As it is reported above, this would only apply to “able-bodied” people who aren’t caring for a child under six years of age.
But you can imagine that the left will scream bloody murder and accuse Trump of kicking needy families off the food stamp dole, leaving them to dig through trash cans or starve under a bridge somewhere. Because that’s just what Democrats do when it comes to their voter-bribery entitlement schemes. Considering that we are about to enter an election year, I’m honestly surprised Trump would do this knowing how Democrats will paint him and Republicans who support this plan. It takes gonads to do something like this and I say more power to them.