The other day I was speaking with a Trump supporter friend
of mine who was celebrating how Trump was finally doing something about what he
referred to as “the dead beats on welfare” by implementing a work requirement to
receive SNAP benefits. He lamented the
fact that it was long over do.
My friend was referring to the implementation of the welfare
assistance requirement that any non-disabled adult, between the ages of 18 and
49, with no dependents, receiving SNAP benefits be required to work a minimum
of 20 hours per week, or be enrolled in a job training program or in school.
Failure to do any of these would result in termination of benefits after three
months.
Once again my friend was so consumed by the FOX News Trump propaganda
that he was totally unaware of the fact that such a requirement has been in
place since 1996. Of course he didn’t believe me and accused me of espousing “fake
news,” but after he Googled it he apologized.
His Google search also found that built into the 1996 SNAP work
requirement was an exception that allowed states to forgo the requirement if
their unemployment rate was so high that the likely hood of even finding a part
time job was remote.
Additionally, my friend being a staunch conservative has
regularly professed how our Constitution should be followed to the letter of
the law, and that the previous administration always ignored that fact. I pointed out that the present administration
was not much better and used his current misinformed argument about the SNAP
work requirement as an example.
In 2018
both houses of Congress by overwhelming bipartisan votes (87 vs 13 in the
Senate, and 369 vs 47 in the House) renewed the SNAP funding and left in place
the waiver that the states can invoke.
Please remember that both houses of Congress at that time were
controlled by the Republicans.
However, in typical monarchial fashion President Trump has decided
to intentionally disregard the democratic principles stated in our Constitution and ignore
the mandate of Congress by directing his Secretary of Agriculture, whose
department is charged with implementing SNAP, to disregard the state waiver
clause when funding the states. Staunch constitutionalist? Don't think so
.
I laughed when I reminded my friend of the old adage “People
who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
