More Bad News for the Poor in America

With a little-noticed proposal, Republicans took aim at Social Security on the very first day of the 114th Congress.

The incoming GOP majority approved late Tuesday a new rule that experts say could provoke an unprecedented crisis that conservatives could use as leverage in upcoming debates over entitlement reform.

The largely overlooked change puts a new restriction on the routine transfer of tax revenues between the traditional Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program.

[...]

House Democrats are sounding the alarm. In a memo circulated to their allies Tuesday, Democratic staffers said that that would mean "either new revenues or benefit cuts for current or future beneficiaries." New revenues are highly unlikely to be approved by the deeply tax-averse Republican-led Congress, leaving benefit cuts as the obvious alternative.

  TPM

The continued reduction in food stamp support is the latest addition to the dismantling of a social safety net that fulfills an ethical obligation to individuals in the US.

[...]

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities predicts that in the government's fiscal year of 2016, it is possible that one million adults (without dependent children) who do not have jobs will have lost their food stamp benefits.

[...]

The Center estimates that new regulations will result in a loss of $150-$200 a month in food assistance for individuals who have total incomes of just over $2,000 a year.

Why will so many people lose food stamps? The change will result from reinstating restrictions in many states that only allow adults (without dependent children) to receive SNAP for three months after losing a job. Even if they are actively looking for employment - and can document their job search - they will not be eligible for food stamps after that time, due to the end of a waiver program in most states.

[...]

One of the profound and cruel ironies is that, as BuzzFlash has noted over the years, the government distribution of food stamps actually adds to economic activity: People who spend food stamps stimulate employment down the entire food chain, starting at the store or market where the food is purchased. Therefore, cutting back on food stamps for those in need in all likelihood actually increases unemployment, because less money is spent to stimulate work in the food distribution chain.

  TruthOut

Yeah, well, we're not famous for our solid, sensible handling of government.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.