Comments on: When it’s Democrats talking trash, they’re just “passionate”

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:47:48 +0000

You can imagine what will happen if no benefits are forthcoming to 50 million recipients. There was a reason that Roman rulers feared the mob, and tried to keep it placated.

If you cut people’s real income by a large fraction on no notice, you’ll cause a reaction.

Now, why not look at what was said in Congress ca. 1995 on proposals to revamp the old AFDC program, or what was said in various venues about that program by it’s promoters (e.g. Marian Wright Edelman) in the generation previous. The successor program enrolls 1/3 the number of people who were on AFDC, and does so in a country whose population is 20% larger. The social crisis predicted never appeared.

You can remove perverse incentives in the political economy quite readily, provided you follow orderly procedures which allow clientele time to adjust.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 18:55:56 +0000

P.S. If you recall, some time ago there were reports about a 17 hour “glitch” in the system for loading benefit money onto some Federal EBT cards in several states, and reports of disturbances by customers–at places like Walmart–when the cards couldn’t be used to buy “stuff.”

You can imagine what will happen if no benefits are forthcoming to 50 million recipients.

There was a reason that Roman rulers feared the mob, and tried to keep it placated.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 18:55:14 +0000

Yes. Live off the government and you starve when it doesn’t spit out the goods.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 18:49:24 +0000

Not giving Republicans any credit for being Machiavellian, it appears that the geniuses in Congress just never anticipated that any shutdown could last for months, perhaps many months.

If the new Democrat controlled House passes more funding for these programs, will the Republican controlled Senate vote these appropriations through?

Will Trump sign them?

In this situation, it seems to me that the Democrats–more so than the Republicans, and a lot more than Trump–will be the ones under the most pressure to cave on funding the Wall.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 18:36:36 +0000

According to a CBS story out today,** it looks like Congress only appropriated enough money to fully fund the SNAP program i.e. Food Stamps–that has 47 million recipients, through the end of January; not enough money will be left to fully fund SNAP for February, and Congress did not appropriate any money to fund SNAP for March.

WIC–with 7 million recipients, will be running on whatever remains of its prior funding, and may also be in trouble come February.

That’s when the excrement will really hit the fan.

** See https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-affect-snap-food-stamps-wic-millions-could-face-severe-cuts-in-2019-funding-usda/?fbclid=IwAR0vRRjwZrH0EW4bbSD0cK8eQJIbvEGXKclmkzmU5MpJ52l943exzlwuWZE

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 20:51:23 +0000

Kai Akker–Yes, Congress has always seen to it that federal employees receive all of the pay they would have received if a shutdown had never occurred.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 20:42:45 +0000

I'm coming to the conclusion that Trump smarter than even the GOP has given him credit for or he is getting very good advice, maybe from Kushner. David Pryce Jones explained the Arabs Shame-Honor cultures years ago when I read his book. Trump either knows from negotiating with Arabs or has been told about it. This sounds well targeted. Of course, if she is a black Muslim, she may not be smart enough to get it, but she is supposed to be Palestinian.

By: Kai Akker

Kai Akker — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 19:56:47 +0000

The shutdown is Trump’s budget cut. But haven’t the furloughed bureaucrats always received full pay plus more later, when back on the job? I would prefer they use the aid and comfort provided by their own individual churches. Or other charitable enterprises to which they have always given so much of their own money.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 19:43:08 +0000

I saw a post on facebook from some guy with a Spanish surname complaining about the GoFundMe account to build the wall. He said it could be used for better purposes. Obviously left wing purposes.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 17:51:05 +0000

It may be possible for Trump to “reprogram” a lot of DOD–or other funds–that are already in the pipeline.

I believe that there is also an “Emergency” military fund available.

If Trump declares the slow motion invasion across our Southern border to be a National Security Emergency, he might then get access to those funds to build the Wall.

Another possibility are the funds that Trump has cut for some UN organizations, our foreign aid–collectively adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars each year –for Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, that Trump has said he will cut, and there might even some unspent funds, due to the government being in shutdown mode.

I wonder if President Trump can take some funds from here and there, and cobble together enough to build the Wall without an appropriation from Congress.