White House claims about food stamps suffer from a dramatic and consequential flaw
Donald Trump often struggles to point to specific accomplishments in his second term, but at an event in New York last week, the president repeated a claim that on first blush probably sounded impressive.
“In 16 months, we’ve lifted nearly 5 million Americans off of food stamps,” he said. For emphasis, he repeated, “5 million.”
For those who are keeping an eye on the Republican’s record, it was a familiar assertion. In fact, earlier that same day, at Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s swearing in ceremony, Trump also took the time to tell attendees, “Under our leadership, 5 million people have been lifted off of the food stamps. Think of that.”
Not surprisingly, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, has repeatedly echoed the president’s claim, pointing to the developments as evidence of “a better economy.”
The trouble is, the entire pitch is based on a deception: The Trump administration and congressional Republicans didn’t “lift” struggling Americans off food assistance, so much as they simply stopped providing many of those vulnerable people with aid. Or as Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts explained by way of social media, “Trump and Republicans ripped food assistance away from millions of Americans to pay for giant tax giveaways for billionaires.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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