Trump's "Let Them Eat Cake" Moment Couldn't Get More Stupid

[DonViejo]

He proposes to cut funding for food stamps in the most embarassing way.

TOM PHILPOTT FEB. 13, 2018 9:05 PM

In yet another eye-popping move, this week President Donald Trump called for sharply cutting and bizarrely restructuring the nation’s flagship program for providing food aid to to poor people. His 2019 budget proposal takes aim at the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

SNAP helps keep one in four US children and millions of disabled people adequately fed. The administration’s proposal would slash the SNAP budget by $213.5 billion between 2019 and 2028—a nearly 30 percent cut. Republican stalwarts like House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) have been pining for such such cuts for years. What makes the Trump budget document so jarring is how it proposes to deliver those savings. It would dole out food boxes, through what White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney called a “Blue Apron-type program.”

Anyone who has used a meal-kit service like Blue Apron might envision a chilled box featuring fresh meat and vegetables ready to be cooked into a sumptuous meal. The White House budget described something quite a bit more austere:

Under the proposal, households receiving $90 or more per month in SNAP benefits will receive a portion of their benefits in the form of a USDA Foods package, which would include items such as shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit, vegetables, and meat, poultry or fish.

In other words, a box brimming with a bunch of cans and jars.

more
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2018/02/trump-budget-food-stamps-cake-blue-apron-meal-kit/

[Girard442]

1. The plan as described would have a lot of issues, but...

...the real plan is to have a Potemkin Village of a plan that only delivers enough food for some photo-ops. Not too different from the disaster relief for Puerto Rico.

[Lars39]

3. , and to filter a large amount of money to a crony.

[global1]

4. He'll Also Throw Out To Them A Couple Of Rolls Of Paper Towels.....nt

[C_U_L8R]

2. Trump gives America hemorrhoids again

That packaged garbage will certainly raise healthcare costs.

[global1]

5. I Have To Believe That Trump Envisions This A Way Either For Him Or His....

rich friends to make money. Either he has or will open a Blue Apron type business or will pay big bucks to control the distribution and shipping to people.

I imagine the grocery businesses that currently supply food to SNAP recipients would be upset with such a plan as it takes away business from them. I see the grocery industry lobbying to stop this in its tracks.

I also envision a very costly unwieldy distribution and shipping problem cropping up. It would add unnecessary costs to the government that will be staggering in comparison to the current program.

Either this wasn't thought through enough or someone that suggested it go this way - sees a way that they can benefit financially through such a program.