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Watched by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (L) and Vice President Mike Pence, US President Donald Trump holds an executive order on immigration which he just signed in the Oval Office of the White House on June 20, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
[The insurance] includes fewer benefits and consumer protections, bypassing significant requirements of the Affordable Care Act.[...]The new rules allow plans to exclude coverage for maternity care, prescription drugs, mental-health services and other 'essential health benefits' the ACA requires of coverage sold to individuals and small businesses... Congressional Democrats and critics across the health-care industry say the availability of cheaper, skimpier coverage will leave some patients stranded when they get sick.
That rent increase is about six times greater than the growth in average hourly earnings, putting the poorest workers at an increased risk of homelessness because wages simply haven't kept pace with housing expenses.
...The proposal, which needs congressional approval, is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to scale back the social safety net, under the belief that charging more for rent will prompt those receiving federal assistance to enter the workforce and earn more income. 'It's our attempt to give poor people a way out of poverty,' Carson said in a recent interview with Fox News.
All of this comes just as Philip Alston, an NYU law professor and United Nations special rapporteur on global poverty, has finished writing a report on extreme poverty in the United States. The Republican tax cut bill, he says, "overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality," and worse, "The policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned, rather than a right of citizenship."
would reshuffle social welfare programs in a way that would make them easier to cut, scale back or restructure, according to several administration officials involved in the planning.Among the most consequential ideas is a proposal to shift the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a subsistence benefit that provides aid to 42 million poor and working Americans, from the Agriculture Department to a new mega-agency that would have 'welfare' in its title--a term Mr. Trump uses as a pejorative catchall for most government benefit programs.
Trump and his crowd are dedicated to curdling the milk of human kindness. They fill their pockets while destroying America in a misbegotten attempt to take it back to a time of ethnic purity that never really was while establishing a new Gilded Age where only a handful can prosper at the expense of everyone else. We are becoming a mean boy nation, a nation once of immigrants but now one of bullies and tyrants. Our president breaks everything he sees, including our democracy and our republic.
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
[The insurance] includes fewer benefits and consumer protections, bypassing significant requirements of the Affordable Care Act.[...]The new rules allow plans to exclude coverage for maternity care, prescription drugs, mental-health services and other 'essential health benefits' the ACA requires of coverage sold to individuals and small businesses... Congressional Democrats and critics across the health-care industry say the availability of cheaper, skimpier coverage will leave some patients stranded when they get sick.
That rent increase is about six times greater than the growth in average hourly earnings, putting the poorest workers at an increased risk of homelessness because wages simply haven't kept pace with housing expenses.
...The proposal, which needs congressional approval, is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to scale back the social safety net, under the belief that charging more for rent will prompt those receiving federal assistance to enter the workforce and earn more income. 'It's our attempt to give poor people a way out of poverty,' Carson said in a recent interview with Fox News.
All of this comes just as Philip Alston, an NYU law professor and United Nations special rapporteur on global poverty, has finished writing a report on extreme poverty in the United States. The Republican tax cut bill, he says, "overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality," and worse, "The policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned, rather than a right of citizenship."
would reshuffle social welfare programs in a way that would make them easier to cut, scale back or restructure, according to several administration officials involved in the planning.Among the most consequential ideas is a proposal to shift the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a subsistence benefit that provides aid to 42 million poor and working Americans, from the Agriculture Department to a new mega-agency that would have 'welfare' in its title--a term Mr. Trump uses as a pejorative catchall for most government benefit programs.
Trump and his crowd are dedicated to curdling the milk of human kindness. They fill their pockets while destroying America in a misbegotten attempt to take it back to a time of ethnic purity that never really was while establishing a new Gilded Age where only a handful can prosper at the expense of everyone else. We are becoming a mean boy nation, a nation once of immigrants but now one of bullies and tyrants. Our president breaks everything he sees, including our democracy and our republic.
[The insurance] includes fewer benefits and consumer protections, bypassing significant requirements of the Affordable Care Act.[...]The new rules allow plans to exclude coverage for maternity care, prescription drugs, mental-health services and other 'essential health benefits' the ACA requires of coverage sold to individuals and small businesses... Congressional Democrats and critics across the health-care industry say the availability of cheaper, skimpier coverage will leave some patients stranded when they get sick.
That rent increase is about six times greater than the growth in average hourly earnings, putting the poorest workers at an increased risk of homelessness because wages simply haven't kept pace with housing expenses.
...The proposal, which needs congressional approval, is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to scale back the social safety net, under the belief that charging more for rent will prompt those receiving federal assistance to enter the workforce and earn more income. 'It's our attempt to give poor people a way out of poverty,' Carson said in a recent interview with Fox News.
All of this comes just as Philip Alston, an NYU law professor and United Nations special rapporteur on global poverty, has finished writing a report on extreme poverty in the United States. The Republican tax cut bill, he says, "overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality," and worse, "The policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned, rather than a right of citizenship."
would reshuffle social welfare programs in a way that would make them easier to cut, scale back or restructure, according to several administration officials involved in the planning.Among the most consequential ideas is a proposal to shift the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a subsistence benefit that provides aid to 42 million poor and working Americans, from the Agriculture Department to a new mega-agency that would have 'welfare' in its title--a term Mr. Trump uses as a pejorative catchall for most government benefit programs.
Trump and his crowd are dedicated to curdling the milk of human kindness. They fill their pockets while destroying America in a misbegotten attempt to take it back to a time of ethnic purity that never really was while establishing a new Gilded Age where only a handful can prosper at the expense of everyone else. We are becoming a mean boy nation, a nation once of immigrants but now one of bullies and tyrants. Our president breaks everything he sees, including our democracy and our republic.