Thread by @rebeccavallas

BREAKING: After failing to gut food stamps in the Farm Bill, Trump has announced he plans to sidestep Congress & unilaterally slash the program by fiat—just days before Christmas.

(THREAD.)

1. A proposed rule issued today by the Trump admin would significantly weaken the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), by making it even harder for unemployed & underemployed workers to access food assistance, under the guise of harsher “work requirements.”

2. According to the Trump admin’s own estimates, the rule could jeopardize food assistance for some 755,000 Americans struggling to find stable work.

3. The rule would also undermine states’ ability to respond to economic downturns and help distressed communities with few jobs, by preventing states from helping their residents put food on the table when times are tough.

(So much for states’ rights…)

4. Let’s be clear what this is really about. Trump made no secret of his desire to see food assistance dismantled in the Farm Bill. He vocally backed a House GOP plan that would have stripped food aid from 2 million Americans and 265,000 hungry kids of free school meals.

5. But that plan was so odious and cruel, it was DOA in the Senate. When a bipartisan Senate Farm Bill deal was struck that didn’t slash food assistance, Trump’s hand was forced—and he’s set to sign that version into law later today.

6. But as we know, Trump doesn’t give up when he can’t get his cruel agenda through Congress. After GOP leaders in Congress failed to repeal the ACA & gut Medicaid legislatively, Trump has spent the past year doing everything he can to sabotage both through executive action.

7. Now he’s using the same playbook to unilaterally take food out of the mouths of hundreds of thousands of struggling workers and families, circumventing Congress after his draconian cuts failed legislatively.

8. Remember, we’re talking about a program that provides $1.40 per person, per meal on average in food assistance.

This is what Trump is so eager to take away from struggling workers.

9. Once again, the Trump admin is dressing up their cruel cuts in the language of work, claiming their mass starvation plan is about the “dignity of work.”

Well, I’ve got news for them.

Making struggling workers hungrier won’t help them find work any faster.

10. In fact, taking basics like food away from people unable to meet strict work reporting requirements is *directly* counterproductive to the goal of work.

Research shows that when workers have access to those basics, they’re better able to work & have higher earnings.

*Roundup of the research: americanprogress.org/issues/poverty…

11. Meanwhile, the mere fact of requiring workers to document work hours causes eligible people to lose assistance when they get lost in red tape.

In Arkansas, over 17,000 people have already lost Medicaid since the state instituted work reporting requirements 6 months ago.

12. Trump’s cruel SNAP cuts by fiat come as nearly *half* of Americans report trouble finding a job with decent wages in the past year, according to @amprog polling: americanprogress.org/issues/poverty…

13. Workers of color and workers with disabilities will be especially hard-hit, as they face unemployment rates 2-3 times higher than other workers.

14. If Trump actually gave any f*cks about the “dignity of work,” instead of taking food out of the mouths of struggling workers, he’d be raising the poverty-level minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25/hour for nearly a decade.

15. In fact, just raising the minimum wage to $12/hour (not even the $15 it needs to be at) would save $53 billion in SNAP over the next decade, by ensuring workers earn enough to afford food—more than 3 times the $15 billion Trump’s rule would slash by making workers hungrier.

^ h/t @rwest817 for this analysis: americanprogress.org/issues/poverty…

16. Trump’s cruel rule doesn’t just come a few days before Christmas.

It also comes as we mark the 1 year anniversary of his tax cuts for the wealthy—which gave more in tax breaks to the top 1% than *the entire SNAP program costs.* americanprogress.org/issues/economy…

17. So what comes next?

This is a PROPOSED rule, which means we have the opportunity to tell Trump what we think about it (and hopefully stop it from taking effect).

In fact, the Trump admin is legally required to read every single comment it receives in the next 60 days.

18. In the coming days, @CAPAction will have a handy #HandsOffSNAP comment tool available at handsoffsnap.org.

I’ll reup this thread once the page is live.

19. But boy is this one helluva lump of coal for Trump McScrooge to be sending the “forgotten man and woman” he pledged to fight for during his presidential campaign, right before the holidays. /fin