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Who Needs Poor People Anyway?
Amazon and Walmart, Apparently
Now that the US Department of Agriculture is launching a pilot program for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to use their benefits to buy groceries online and get them delivered to their homes, the uproar about “welfare moochers” can’t be far behind. I can hear it now: how lazy do they have to be to get their food delivered on the taxpayer’s dime?
There has never been a finer example of pretending a program is designed to help the poor — in this case, make food more accessible — when the real aim is to open up the $63 billion dollar SNAP market and create new revenue streams for businesses. Amazon stands to make (another) fortune from SNAP subsidies.
The administration’s concurrent drive to decimate social services, spike defense spending, and gift the wealthiest Americans with a hefty tax cut generates plenty of criticism. Deep cuts to food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and college student loans would be devastating to the most vulnerable Americans.
But detractors are fighting the wrong battle. Trump isn’t against welfare; he’s only against welfare to actual poor people. He’s perfectly happy to disburse free, no-strings-attached, government money to corporate giants.
