..and for corporate “interests” that run the coin operated GOP
Recently Fox “news” and Newt Gingrich (R) is reviving the racist food stamp narrative that worked so well for them in the Reagan era.
Why?
The GOP’s president-to-be has made campaign promises to spend $ trillions of dollars in the future on infrastructure (note: it’s a privatization scam and a Trap | Joy Ann Reid reports; video). Iow’s, If it was honest it would be an agenda diametrically opposed to his own party’s actual record on this. Trump also promised massive tax cuts for the rich/Wall Street/Hedge Funders (Josh Barro | republican | reports).
Tax cuts according to Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz (12/27/2016) that could “nuke the economy”
Massive tax cuts for the rich donor base that swept republicans into power
Steve Benen has this report nailing it down:
It’s widely assumed that congressional Republicans, working with a Republican White House, will go after social-insurance programs with a vengeance next year, and the most economically vulnerable Americans are likely to face new hardships.
GOP allies know that the public might be more tolerant of drastic cuts if the public distrusts the public programs themselves.
— emphasis added
e.g. | a typical Fox “news” propagandized/misinformed republican voter: “get yer government hands off my Medicare ! ”
Fox ‘news” is now regurgitating decades old propaganda to get it done:
Food stamp fraud is at an all-time high, with cases this year including a state lawmaker and even a millionaire.
According to the USDA, $70 million of taxpayer money was wasted in 2016 due to food stamp fraud.
Steve Benen then begins the debunking:
Taking the report at face value, the question is bizarre. The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, generally known as food stamps, is a nearly $71 billion program.
If $70 million helps provide food for people who shouldn’t receive assistance, that’s 0.09% of the overall budget. In other words, according to Fox’s report, 99.91% of the money Washington spends on food stamps is spent appropriately.
That’s an amazingly successful program.
Here are some more facts from the USDA last year, exposing the racist underpinning of the republican agenda that republican politicians and talking heads lie about to cover their tracks:
Fox “news” & friend Sean Hannity likes to claim that SNAP recipients don’t work:
These are the people that the GOP is planning to cut off from needed supplemental nutrition in order to hand massive tax cuts to the already wealthiest:
Fox news” was questioned about their latest claim that the Dept of Agriculture was their source of information.
The Rachel Maddow team with Ari Melber sitting in, called the Dept. of Agriculture. A spokesperson from the USDA says “We don’t know where they [Fox “News” ] got that information” — No new information had been sent out:
December 28, 2016
The Nation’s National Affairs Correspondent Joan Walsh talks to Ari Melber about why conservative media is misinforming the white working class about food stamps, and turning them against a benefit they need.
It turns out according to Joan Walsh reporting; that seven out of the ten states with the most per capita food stamp recipients are deep red states;
Ari Melber has this to say about Newt Gingrich’s conjuring:
“More broadly Gingrich’s answer is a classic ‘slight of hand’.
“Blaming the solution for the underlying problem.
“When more people are unemployed or hungry, more food assistance is needed. Just like when more floods strike, more housing assistance is needed.
“It’s quite the political feat, to blame the government providing those basic provisions for the underlying causes that made them a necessity.”
About those underlying causes. The GOP is not only responsible, but these causes are the actual agenda of the “conservative” movement.
One of the last major attempts by the republicans trying to sell this kind of scam, after boasting about helping out the middle class, did the opposite of what they promised.
Ryan’s “Roadmap”:
Provides Largest Tax Cuts in History for Wealthy, Raises Middle Class Taxes, Ends Guaranteed Medicare, Privatizes Social Security, Erodes Health Care
Sanders will lead Democratic drive to organize rallies in every state against Medicare/Medicaid cuts
check it out :)