donnie two scoops' Let Them Eat Cake Moment Couldn't Get More Stupid

[niyad]

Trump’s “Let Them Eat Cake” Moment Couldn’t Get More Stupid
He proposes to cut funding for food stamps in the most embarassing way.

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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.

One might think an idea so confidently proposed might have the weight of a think-tank white paper, a university study, or a US Department Agriculture pilot program behind it. Not this one, reports Politico’s Helena Bottemiller Evich. “The idea that USDA would provide millions of low-income people packages of food on a national scale has not been floated by conservative think tanks, promoted by industry, or sought by previous administrations,” she reports. A USDA spokesman told her that the idea emerged from the mind of USDA chief Sonny Perdue, a former Georgia governor and agri-businessman with no experience in hunger or poverty policy.

Not surprisingly, anti-hunger advocates went ballistic. In a press statement, Lisa Davis, senior vice president of the anti-hunger group Share Our Strength, declared it a “disturbing and harmful agenda.” Robert Greenstein, president of the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, warned that “more homelessness and hunger would inevitably follow” from SNAP cuts. Annie Lowrey, who covers economic policy for The Atlantic, delivered a blistering inventory of the “food box” plan’s faults on Twitter. Here’s how it started:

. . . .

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

[Gothmog]

1. This is a stupid plan by trump

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Looks like the

Steve Miller,Mark Short group is running the garbage show. If one has followed verbiage from the Heritage Foundation and the John Birch Society type groups,notice the themes,anti poor,anti Labor,anti Female,anti every program that FDR proposed or implemented .

And the Religious Right Wingers have been championing just what Trump is spewing. And it appears this is another of his new Campaign Themes.

[niyad]

3. that memo that was mentioned here a couple of days ago said they were going to do everything

to keep their base stirred up, to foul the midterms.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Caught that one.

Something I noticed in the last two weeks. The Media seems to be creating another narrative to protect their part in Electing Trump and the GOP. Notice how Hillary Clinton keeps coming back into the Discussions. We are sixteen months beyond the last Election,and Trump has not been held accountable for his lies and abuse of power.

Trumps Rural Base will be feeling the fininical pain shortley. The Farm Economy is on the edge of a major hit. Trump and friends have killed off tons of export contracts via the Tarriff threats.

[guillaumeb]

4. Recommended.

Some questions, speaking as a 37 year USPS worker and retiree:

1) How heavy is each box?
2) Who delivers the box?
3) What size is the box?
4) Where will it be delivered to so we know it cannot be taken?

I could write numerous more logistical questions, but this is not a serious proposal at all. It is typical Trump Administration idiocy masquerading as policy and solution.

[niyad]

6. you are asking most excellent questions.

but, being the cynical and suspicious soul that I am, I am not so sure that this isn't a serious plan. think about all the graft possible in the construction and staffing of these centers. and all the profits for various utility companies--what an endless well of money to be had.

[guillaumeb]

7. And, speaking of money,

one could envision Amazon, with its many minimum wage and no benefit contract drivers, being the delivery agents for these packages. Billionaire Jeff Bezos is probably speaking to politicians as we write.

[niyad]

8. YIKES-- a most excellent point!!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. trumputin hates Bezos, Amazon, WaPo

On the other hand, TrumPutin might declare that those lazy poor people have to come to well-guarded (ICE) warehouses to pick up their Homeland Care Packages. Any packages unclaimed get sold to pay for snazzy new ICE uniforms and tasers.

[guillaumeb]

12. Perhaps the ICE warehouses could be located near ICE detention facilities.

[brush]

10. Yep, the distrubution costs are going to be huge. Might as well keep SNAP...

but that wouldn't be cruel enough for these repug scrooges.

[packman]

9. Seems to me when growing up after WWII - there was a similar plan

People on welfare, widowers, etc. would go to a local distribution center and pick up a box of groceries. Can't recall much about it except the government cheese block which my widowed grandmother hated ended up in our house.

Anyone remember anything like this?