Don't forget Trump's cruelty is routine - By E.J. Dionne Jr.

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Columnist
June 24 at 7:21 PM

President Trump has a special animus toward immigrants, but the children of those crossing our borders are not the only vulnerable people in his sights. His administration is waging a less visible war on our nation’s poorest citizens, with the complicity of its Republican allies in Congress.

We can welcome the fact that the president’s family-separation policy aroused the indignation of a broad empathetic majority. This instinct for compassion and justice should also be mobilized to stop efforts that will, quite literally, take food off the tables of Americans who already have great difficulty making ends meet. And can we please stop using the word “populist” to describe a crowd that would slash programs for the neediest to help finance a deficit-inflating tax giveaway that disproportionately benefits the very wealthiest people in our country? There is nothing populist about transferring money and power to those who already have a great deal of both.

The latest attacks on programs that have long commanded bipartisan support came last week when the House voted 213 to 211 for a farm bill that would impose new work requirements on recipients of food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

But SNAP already includes work requirements. Most recipients who don’t receive disability payments and are in their prime work years hold jobs of some kind or are between jobs. Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), estimates that the new rules and cuts “would eliminate or reduce food assistance for more than 1 million low-income households with more than 2 million people.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-forget-trumps-cruelty-is-routine/2018/06/24/447eb630-7655-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html