On April 8, President Donald von Putinlecher signed an executive order mandating federal agencies exert MORE pressure on the poor and sick in this country. Mind you, these laws were already in place. President Enforcer just wants to make sure any agency who can have their boot on the neck of a poor or sick person is putting as much weight as possible on that person's windpipe.
CNN Money's Tami Luhby reports:
The move is the latest step in the administration's effort to require low-income Americans to work for their federal benefits. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services earlier this year began allowing states to mandate that certain Medicaid enrollees must work for the first time in the program's history, [empasis mine] [/empasis] while the Department of Housing and Urban Development is looking into the issue for those in subsidized housing.
What if they have cancer? What if they have chronic illness? What if they are in rehab? What if the only job available requires a car? That's not all...let's hope you you don't get hungry that often.
The Department of Agriculture also wants to strengthen the work requirements in the food stamp program. Currently, adults without minor children can only receive benefits for three months out of every 36-month period unless they are working or participating in training programs 20 hours a week.
Again, how can they do that if they're sick?
"So-called 'work requirements' are premised on a set of myths about poverty," said Rebecca Vallas, vice president of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
"First, that 'the poor' are some stagnant group of people who 'just don't want to work.' Second, that anyone who wants a well-paying job can snap her fingers to make one appear. And third, that having a job is all it takes to not be poor," she said.
Many low-income Americans who can work already do, advocates say.
Let's take a look at some numbers that put that myth to rest. A little perspective, please.
In households that receive SNAP and have at least one non-disabled adult, 58% are employed and 82% worked in the year prior to or after enrollment, according to the Center for American Progress.
Among Medicaid recipients, 60% of able-bodied, working-age adults have jobs, while nearly 80% live in families with at least one member in the labor force, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Most of those who don't work cite illness, disability or family obligations as the reason.
But, nooooooo...everyone knows Medicaid and food stamp recipients are all lazy, entitled good-for-nothings. Completely unlike the leadership of the Republican party and the 1%, who have always worked hard and sacrificed and never enjoyed the benefit of a hand-up or assistance now and then, right?
Especially from the government in the form of TAX "REFORM." Let's definitely give tax cuts to the rich instead of, say, raising the minimum wage from $7.25/hour (where it has been since 2009) to a more reasonable $12/hour or $15/hour. Why give the poor a raise, when people like Michael Cohen are barely scraping by with only three clients over the last two years?
