Biden on Trump Getting Hundreds of Thousands Off Welfare: 'Morally Bankrupt'
Just in case you wanted a preview of how a Joe Biden-Donald Trump presidential matchup would go, the former vice president is now saying President Trump’s move to get able-bodied adults with no dependents who won’t work, go to school or receive training removed from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is “morally bankrupt.”
That eye-opener of a statement came as the president touted the passage of a defense funding bill that included money for the border wall.
“Last night I was so proud to have signed the largest Defense Bill ever,” Trump tweeted on Dec. 21.
“The very vital Space Force was created. New planes, ships, missiles, rockets and equipment of every kind, and all made right here in the USA. Additionally, we got Border Wall (being built) funding. Nice!”
Last night I was so proud to have signed the largest Defense Bill ever. The very vital Space Force was created. New planes, ships, missiles, rockets and equipment of every kind, and all made right here in the USA. Additionally, we got Border Wall (being built) funding. Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2019
Biden, ever on top of this sort of thing, decided to save his rejoinder for Dec. 26, which meant most of us were still spending time with our families or playing with our Christmas presents and had literally anything better to do. It’s probably good he saved it for then, however.
“Donald Trump is cutting food assistance for 700,000 people, but somehow found $1.4 billion for his sham of a border wall. This administration is morally bankrupt,” Biden tweeted.
Donald Trump is cutting food assistance for 700,000 people, but somehow found $1.4 billion for his sham of a border wall. This administration is morally bankrupt. https://t.co/1CPQhgNUdx
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 26, 2019
Now, to contextualize this, Trump’s “cutting food assistance for 700,000 people” involves tightening rules that the Obama administration was loath to enforce at all.
Since welfare reform back in 1996, Time notes, able-bodied adults without dependents between the ages of 18 and 49 can only claim three months of food stamp assistance in a 36-month period unless they live in an area or state that could claim a waiver based on persistently high unemployment or other factors.
For a while, the Obama administration did away with waivers entirely. Since then, the waiver process has been the bane of spending hawks and a sacred cow to the left, subject to a continual push-and-pull between the parties. The Trump administration just pulled — which means, of course, there’s a gnashing of teeth and a rending of Patagonia windbreakers on the left.
“The new rule imposes stricter criteria states must meet in order to issue waivers. Under the plan, states can only issue waivers if a city or county has an unemployment rate of 6% or higher. The waivers will be good for one year and will require the governor to support the request,” The Associated Press reported earlier this month.
“The final rule will be published in the federal register Thursday, and go into effect in April.”
Let me again reiterate what this would do: The move would mean 668,000 able-bodied people who have no dependents wouldn’t be eligible for food stamp requirements unless they’re working, receiving job training or in school.
Unlike the border wall, there’s no constructive reason to be giving waivers to these individuals except if you want to further a culture of dependency.
Especially given today’s low unemployment, it’s difficult to come up with a reason that waivers need to be widespread.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the policy was designed to move people “from welfare to work.”
“We want to encourage people by giving them a helping hand, but not an infinitely giving hand,” he said.
Which is accurate, no matter how much the Democrats want to pretend this is apocalyptic.
And sadly, Biden isn’t even the worst Democrat in terms of recent demagogy regarding SNAP.
That award is shared by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who wrote an Op-Ed for The Guardian in which they painted the new rules — as well as other proposed rules that would limit automatic enrollment for families receiving other aid and deductions for utility bills — in starkly Dickensian terms.
“The administration’s first step is to kick 700,000 adults off of nutrition assistance as they struggle to find work,” they wrote in the piece, published on the suitably Dickensian date of Christmas Eve. “The second step: trying to punish families who have high childcare and housing costs. And third, they want to hurt families who already are making difficult choices between food or heat.”
That’s one way to look at it if you view government assistance as a God-given right and think that any attempt to trim government assistance is “morally bankrupt.”
A culture of dependency is what’s really morally bankrupt — and by showing that there’s no common-sense plan to limit it that could possibly pass muster on the other side of the aisle, Biden and his compatriots are showing exactly the kind of contempt we suspected they had for the American taxpayer.
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