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Rebecca Vallas Profile picture
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13 Nov, 6 tweets, 3 min read
so hey, remember how the Trump admin was trying to strip hundreds of thousands of disabled people of #SocialSecurity, to “save” $2.6 billion in disability benefits, via a backdoor administrative action?
despite receiving an avalanche of comments from the disability community on the harm this cruelty-is-the-point proposed rule would do...

just days after losing the election...

Trump’s #SocialSecurity administration has now sent the cuts to OMB for approval as a final rule:
oh and did I mention they’re doing it in the middle of a pandemic
👆

media who cover #socialsecurity you need to be covering this
reupping one if the best and most detailed explainers on what the rule would do (via @mattbc):
cc: #CripTheVote

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More from @rebeccavallas

Rebecca Vallas Profile picture
21 Apr
BREAKING: @AGKarlRacine, @NewYorkStateAG & a coalition of 22 Attorneys General have sent a 🔥 letter calling on Trump & Ag. @SecretarySonny Perdue to immediately suspend a rulemaking that could slash Food Stamps for 3.1 million people amid #COVIDー19 if allowed to take effect.
Here’s the full letter: oag.dc.gov/sites/default/…

#handsoffsnap
Refresher on what the rule would do, as well as the politics (like how this is another instance of Trump slashing critical programs by fiat when he doesn’t get his way in Congress)
Read 6 tweets
Rebecca Vallas Profile picture
15 Apr
As U.S. jobless claims skyrocket amid #COVID19, thousands of unemployed Floridians have been unable to access benefits due to a broken claims system.

But the system's working just as state GOP leaders intended.

And Florida's just the tip of the iceberg.

(AN OP-ED & A THREAD):
First, the op-ed (h/t @ericmgarcia for the great edit): washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…
“It’s a sh-- sandwich, and it was designed that way by @SenRickScott.”

Per an adviser to FL @GovRonDeSantis, Florida's UI system was deliberately designed to “make it harder for people to get benefits so the numbers were low to give the governor something to brag about.”

/2
Read 46 tweets
Rebecca Vallas Profile picture
13 Apr
in light of the news that the Trump admin has FINALLY hit pause on taking Food Stamps away from 700,000 jobless workers in the middle of the #COVID19 pandemic... i put together a short history of the past month’s events, to put this in full ugly context:

(thread)
MARCH 12: Trump's USDA confirms it has considered whether to suspend its Food Stamp cuts due to #COVID19 19—and has decided to let them take effect April 1.

MARCH 14: A federal judge issues a temporary injunction blocking Trump’s Food Stamp cuts from taking effect, noting the immense cruelty of stripping jobless workers of food amid the global #COVID19 pandemic:

Read 12 tweets
Rebecca Vallas Profile picture
3 Apr
Holy hell. Politico is reporting that @SenRickScott, back when he was governor, DELIBERATELY BUILT FLORIDA’S UNEMPLOYMENT SYSTEM TO FAIL.

“It was about making it harder for people to get benefits so the unemployment numbers were low to give the gov. something to brag about.”
Then, after deliberately building a system that didn’t work so as to keep the unemployment numbers low, @SenRickScott—and @GovRonDeSantis after him, so he’s complicit here—ignored years of audits warning of major system problems:
Now hundreds of thousands of Floridians can’t get jobless benefits—at a time of record-high unemployment, amid a global pandemic—because the system is working precisely as designed.
Read 5 tweets
Rebecca Vallas Profile picture
15 Mar
Putting on my former legal aid lawyer hat for a sec to explain why it’s so important that we temporarily halt “continuing disability reviews” for #SocialSecurity disability benefits as part of #coronavirus response (as @mattbc & I have been urging).

thread:
@mattbc For people who rely on SSDI or SSI benefits, continuing disability reviews (CDRs) are periodic fire-drills that generally require not just lots of paperwork, but also multiple dr visits, trips to the #SocialSecurity office, and in many cases, visits to SSA consulting docs.

2/
@mattbc The bottom line: Continuing with CDRs as scheduled right now would make it impossible for SSI & SSDI beneficiaries to observe the #coronavirus social distancing protocols urged by the CDC and public health experts at this critical time.

3/
Read 12 tweets
Rebecca Vallas Profile picture
14 Mar
The injunction halting Trump’s SNAP cuts amid #coronavirus is:

a) obviously great news & a relief to millions

b) a scathing rebuke to Trump & USDA for not listening to Congress or the American people thru the comment process

c) a helluva reminder that comments matter

thread:
Since the opinion is 84 pages long, I read it so you don’t have to.

But for those who want to follow along:

Injunction: oag.dc.gov/sites/default/…

Full opinion: oag.dc.gov/sites/default/…
Some of the most damning rebukes include calling out Trump’s USDA for:

-making arguments that are “not only implausible, they are off-the-wall”
-being “equally brazen in its ignorance of longstanding practice and precedent”
-a rule that is “a solution in search of a problem”
Read 26 tweets

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