Homelessness in greater Seattle has increased exponentially in same period. Same folks, just kicked to the streets once the life line was cut?
3
I would like to see the result of polls that ask, "Are you or any other members of your family suffering from hunger because you can't afford food?" In a country as wealthy as ours, no one should go hungry and no one should have to live on the streets or go without healthcare.
4
Moving off various welfare programs because "they now earn too much money" does not signify that people are earning enough to make a decent living. Being above the very low income levels required for assistance only means that people no longer have any support beyond what their jobs pay them. Some jobs may pay enough more to make them ineligible but are they full time jobs? Do they offer benefits? What happens to people who still earn very little but are no longer eligible for assistance? if we only count the people who have come off assistance (or were pushed off) we understand very little about poverty in this country.
5
There have been more demands for help from the food banks where I live. Donation boxes have been showing up in February where in the past they were only there in November and December.
Can’t wait till they hit SS, Medicare and Medicaid which a lot of people are dependent on.
5
Moved off...Or thrown off? Can we get more details before giving Mr. Trump any credit.
8
How many of the millions were thrown off assistance. Worse how many working poor are losing benefits. Meanwhile Trump dumps billions on farmers, no income restrictions required. In fact 50% of farm welfare goes to the 10% of America's richest farmers. The other 90%, probably the most needy, scramble for the other 50%.
7
And again I wonder: which side is stupider?
3
Trump pushed people off food stamps mostly families with children now they're on line at their local food pantries. When Social Security gets cut and make no mistake thats where he and the GOP are headed but those Americans will be mostly elderly. Welcome to Trump's America
13
Why does this article, and other like it, fail to list the corporations & individuals receiving tax dollars, & very often without paying any tax?
For example, in Australia the mining industry pays no tax yet receives a diesel fuel subsidy.
Just this week, News Corporation received A$345,000 to develop a website.
It pays no tax on revenue of A$2 billion.
On a previous occasion, Murdoch received A$30 million to develop a women's sports program on his cable network, Foxtel. No such program ever eventuated.
There has to be a couple of corporations in the US on the same kind of Wealthfare deal.
11
Like Bernie says, the USA has socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
3
My friend just passed away after fighting cancer for 7 yrs. Living on $1100. SS benefits with a $650.00 mortgage. $15.00 per month is all she could qualify for...so sad.
20
First, force them off assistance and then credit the one who did it: the problem with corporate media.
5
I'm a dedicated liberal and detest Trump, but people, please -- read the actual article before commenting!!! A liberal organization checked the numbers and confirmed that, yes, much of the reduction in the numbers is due to the economy, NOT to Trump's increased restrictions. Now, this doesn't mean Trump gets all the credit -- a lot of it may have to do with increased minimum wages, which Trump/the GOP hasn't supported -- but please don't let your bias jump to conclusions and assume that the lower numbers are all due to Trump kicking people off assistance. You're as bad as FAUX NEWS viewers when you can't bother to read the facts and accept that, yes, it's complicated! Such is life.
9
All I see in the charts in the cited Federal Reserve article is that the lowest earners in states that have not raised the minimum wage are FINALLY making the same relative wage that they were making 20 years ago. Yay? Is that technically “growth” or just recovery? Better than NOT recovering, to be sure, but the climb back to 20 years ago started in 2013. It’s unclear how the current administration can take all or even most of the credit. Just a factual, not political, observation.
8
@Susan
A number of people were I am have 2 or3 part-time positions. No benefits no nothing.
7
How many people even read past the headline? Judging by the comments, not many. A LIBERAL think tank says that the improvement in the economy has more to do with the decline in the welfare rolls than the proposed benefit cuts:
“'The decline in poverty levels since the end of the Great Recession has been the single largest factor in recent SNAP participation declines,' said Dottie Rosenbaum, a researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research organization in Washington. 'This shows the program is working as designed.'”
Oh no, people have jobs and don't need gubmint bennies! What are we going to do?!?
3
Well let me tell you where you can find those people who are missing: At the food bank where I volunteer. Trump just hid them all under the rug.
11
Dear NYT:
So President Trump should get creit for the booming economy, which is teh single factor -- in largest part -- responsible for the decline in Americans receiving financial aid from the federal government (welfare).
Why not just say it?
2
@Jorge
Because, this would not be true. The recovery has been going now for 10 years.
7
I don't believe any thing Trump or his untrustworthy administration says. Once a liar, always a liar.
9
Trump and Millions off of Aid Assistance = Homelessness on the Streets of America led by his chronic corporate bribing of American Carnage for Putin!
2
The reality is that it is multifactorial why people come off foods stamps or other assistance. The article highlighted 2 important causes such as income growth and policy. However I was disappointed that the policy of increasing minimum wage I. Many states has had a great effect on income growth especially of the lower income workers. Further more the question of how those people off the “welfare” roles were never discussed. Some families ha e made more with minimum wage increases but are still struggling with the lost of assistance.
2
That is the way it should work. When the economy gets better I would expect assistance rolls to decrease. When the economy gets worse, i would expect them to go down. As to the cause, the economy has been growing for ten years.
8
Isn't the steep rise in homelessness and food banks as a direct result of these policies?
21
Americans really "moved off" assitance?? or they have been removed due to the discriminatory policies Trump implemented.
The legacy Trump is building is one of racism and discrimination when it comes to social programs and the victims are always those who live below the poverty line and represent roughly about 55 million americans.
16
His policies are working. People don't want to be on government programs. Now they can find work at decent wages. Give Trump credit.
11
@Julia the minimum wage hasn't changed and the number of new jobs has slowed down. And the tax cuts have been shown to have, shockingly, not "trickled down." How are people "now" finding working at decent wages and "now" not wanting to be on assistance? Facts matter.
26
@Julia Feel free to tell us how his policies are working and how poor and middle-class American lives are improving as a result of his policies. Just because YOU say so doesn't make it true. The rich have gotten richer and trump and his family have GREATLY benefitted from taxpayer's support.
9
@Julia throwing them off is not helping them. Get your facts straight and then we can have a dialogue about cause and effect.
3
Throwing people off SNAP or other assistance programs is not helping anyone; it's making the poor even more poor.
21
The number of Americans receiving government assistance has nothing to do with a great economy. Trump is kicking people off food stamps and Medicaid through work requirements. Most are already working or disabled and their wages are so low they are forced on assistance, thanks to Walmart and others who refuse to pay a living wage.
Missouri Republicans mistakenly kicked 60,000 kids off Medicaid and won't bother to fix the mistake.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/19/1920447/-Missouri-Republicans-mistakenly-kick-60-000-kids-off-of-Medicaid-resist-reinstating-them
11
@Jacquie,
"The number of Americans receiving government assistance has nothing to do with a great economy."
That statement has no credibility. It is probably true that new regulations make it both harder and more cumbersome to collect benefits. But your assertion that a great economy (which every sentient person must acknowledge) isn't a major factor simply flies in the face of reason.
If there is a case to be made, your post did not help that cause.
3
The headline of this article sets up the idea as a positive thing, that perhaps Trump should get credit for, when in fact it is definitely negative. Pushing people off the rolls of programs designed to provide essential services is not a victory, it is a disgrace.
18
We need a count of the people receiving food from food banks.
16
It's too bad they can't afford health insurance. And with the GOP busy tearing holes in the Medicaid safety net, it'll be back to food stamps if anyone gets sick or needs medical attention.
Out of the pan and into fire.
10
Trump always lies.
So every claim has to be checked out.
He wastes Americans' time with all his lying.
How many pushed off SNAP are young military?
8
You can make the economy look good if you drive up the national debt and let our kids pay for it. This is a giant scam designed solely to get Trump reelected.
He won’t care a whit when the bubble bursts.
15
Trump’s winning message is that he has pushed millions of the poor off public assistance but continues to provide the wealthy with tax cuts and subsidies? His supporters had better stock up on Kleenex because they will be crying when Bernie Sanders wins the nomination! “If we need austerity, let it not be austerity on the backs of the most vulnerable people in our country. The elderly. The children. The sick and the poor. Let’s have some austerity for billionaires.” Bernie Sanders
https://youtu.be/6XR0imy8PgI
7
Agreed, let's give Trump full "credit" for this unchristian-like behavior and for increasing the poor's suffering here on earth. I don't know how supposed christians can live with themselves for voting him in office.
Proverbs 28:27 “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.” and Deuteronomy 15:11 "For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’"
8
I can't believe how many blind posters there are. The article clearly states that the majority are off due to improving economic conditions yet the bulk of comments are spouting off "fake news" left wing talking points. The truth and facts appear dead for those on the left as well.
9
@John ....Substitute "cynical posters" for "blind posters". After 3+ years of lies and exaggeration by this president & his administration, all information becomes suspect. Therefore responsible citizens & voters should be following such reports with a healthy dose of skepticism until other information and facts prove such reports are valid.
3
Have moved off assistance or been pushed?
6
Credit?
Is taking food away from needy families considered a win?
Sounds like you think so NYT.
2
How many of those people were "moved" involuntarily as states, so motivated and encouraged by Trumpism, tightened guidelines for assistance, put additional obstacles in place or otherwise made it damn near impossible to apply for and receive help. The rhetoric of the Trump administration is plain - giving people assistance is bad, and encourages them to sit home. It plays to all the mythological stereotypes developed since the beginning of the New Deal or the Great Society programs. They firmly believe that taking public assistance, in any form, is a sign of a moral failure on the part of the recipient. The mythologies of Republicans about the vast majority of people in need never ceases to astound me. So some people utterly dependent on these programs for survival yet so full of shame and self-loathing that they'll vote the people who'd let them starve or die without medical care into office. States like Kentucky, Mississippi, or West Virginia have some of the highest rates of Medicaid recipients. Yet, despite how high those rates are they are all are still deep red bastions is a testament to the fundamental truth of Lyndon Johnson's quote "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Sadly, this is the proud emblem of Trump's America.
12
What a silly, ignorant headline. Trump has kicked Americans off assistance. Certainly doesn't mean they no longer need it.
5
Does Trump get credit? A rhetorical question, surely. Of course, he does not. He only gets credit for bad things – that's NYT's editorial policy. I did not even have to read the piece to know that.
3
From the Dept. of Reality Check & Corrections ;
Lets please state the facts ... as in F-A-C-Ts ... correctly ... and more importantly ... clearly ;
Millions have NOT ' moved off ' assistance which implies they no longer need it .
Millions have been REMOVED from assistance either because their benefits have run out or the benefits they were receiving were eliminated by this present administration's progressive winnowing of all social benefit programs .
State the facts clearly and what one discovers once again is that the very people who voted for and still support Donald Trump as POTUS ..... are the very one's he is hurting the most
37
@TJ Martin
From what I understand his followers don’t care if these policies hurt themselves as long as they hurt the “undeserving poor” more.
5
Very well written article.
What happened to the days when FDR talked about “freedom from want, freedom from fear”? Too often it seems that the American people have forgotten the sense of collective, civic responsibility that brought us through the Great Depression and created the postwar economic boom. Don’t forget, taxes on the highest earning brackets have dropped drastically. Now, whenever we talk about citizenship we end up stressing its freedoms and not its responsibilities. Whoever the Democrats nominate, they should point towards that sense of civic responsibility as something to revive.
6
Does Trump get deserved credit? This was in spite of Trump. Trump takes from public safety. He never gives anything back.
4
The number of people on SNAP does not show anything positive that Trump has done, but rather a function of negative treatment of needy people. It's shortsighted and will have negative long-run consequences. Children who don't have sufficient nutrition--and don't forget that school meals have also been affected--don't learn as well and lag behind their peers, causing a vicious cycle of poverty. People who have left the rolls because they got good jobs benefited from the Obama administration's policies that ended the Great Recession, not anything Mr. Trump has done.
5
@Barbara
Trump has excellent reasons to take money from nutrition for the poor and put it into the pockets of the rich. Remember, the fewer people who are well-fed enough to be educated, the more followers who will believe anything he says.
11
@JD Athey But I thought most poor people voted for Democrats? Although I know that an economics professor once said it is far easier to get rich by taking $1 from a 100 poor people for some trinket you sell than it is $100 from 1 rich person. I took this to heart.
Think of it this way. If everyone has $100 dollars to start with and I sell a $1 trinket to the other 99 people. They have $99 dollars and I have $199. That is how you get rich, it is how the economy works more or less.
1
@SeattleJoe
Got news for you: Quite a few Trump fans are on public assistance (SSI) and dropped out school as soon as possible. I know some of them personally, still on SSI and working the gig economy to avoid reporting any income.
Your comment is completely off-topic, as is your cute 'the-best-way-to-get-rich' ditty.
Churches used to be society's safety net. Now the government is, and churches have become little more than social clubs.
Tax the churches and help provide child care, housing, educational opportunities, and nutrition for the poor.
9
@KJ
Get rid of the Nanny State and bring back individual moral responsibility.
3
@Grace
So I take it you'll be declining your Social Security and Medicare?
6
Can we be clear that many of the people who no longer qualify for food stamps do so because the minimum wage has increased in many areas. People are now earning a living wage and are no longer eligible. If I remember correctly raising the minimum wage was opposed by the president and the republicans.
11
I don't care who takes credit but this is a win for everyone with a job who pays taxes.
10
@Mystery Lits Why? How does society benefit from people who needed assistance to feed and house themselves and are now being kicked off that assistance? What of people who work and still need the assistance? What of those who can't work and need the assistance?
3
The working poor pay taxes fyi.
3
@Mystery Lits Why do you think people dying in the streets of hunger or disease is helpful?
3
Donald Trump is the Bernie Madoff of politics. What he gives with one hand, he is taking away with the other. As has happened repeatedly throughout his career,the bill for his profligacy will come due, and it will be paid by others. If Trump and the Republicans have their way, millions of Americans will be left to fend for themselves, to self-finance their own retirements and pay off their healthcare bills, millions more will have to worry about procuring their own safe drinking water, and face the consequences of increasingly polluted air, and the negative effects of global warming on which the gov't will have done nothing. Trump is doing nothing to prepare the country for the future, to keep it competitive and prosperous. He is simply doing and saying what he feels is important to keep himself in power, and of course protect his brand and his financial empire.
I have no doubt Trump and the Republicans will look for more ways to extricate the wealthy and well off from the obligation to pay the taxes desperately needed to invest in America. The IRS is already seriously defunded, and as the war for Trump's tax returns continues he will no doubt seek to punish them even more. Whatever he is doing is going to cost us. This is the thing to remember.
15
@DebbieR
Give me a break - how does having more people working and having them pay taxes balance with using limited tax money to try to cover welfare for lots of people.
Economic 101 - A strong economy is not a "zero-sum game".
2
What is often lost are the real people who make up the numbers. The children who will lose free or reduced lunch. Schools who will lose funding used to provide those lunches. Those on the margins of society who cannot comply with more onerous requirements. Why is this ok? Why do we deny food to the hungry, medical care to the sick? Have we so thoroughly lost our way as a nation?
19
@Carolyn H Why? Here is the 3 word answer- the Republican party.
4
@Carolyn H
Gotta have those F-15 fighters...where are your priorities? Gotta show the world what a mighty exceptional nation we are. Gotta show that we are the beacon of democracy & freedom. Food? Let them beg.
3
If we didn't provide such obscenely generous tax cuts to businesses and encourage and support them in squeezing the life out of their employees, not providing full-time employment so then they don't have to provide medical coverage, etc. We wouldn't need a food stamp program at the size it is.
Food stamps and medicaid are largely subsidies used by people ARE working, and act as subsidized health and food benefits so that Walmart, Mcdonalds, and the like don't have to cover these costs themselves.
36
I wish I could believe that this is all due to rising wages and living standards. We know, for example, that work requirements are kicking people off Medicaid for minor mistakes because of the frequent paper work.
I wonder the effect of some states raising the minimum wage. Surely many who had qualified for Federal assistance programs now earn too much to qualify, given that much of the wage growth at the bottom has been driven by these minimum wage increases.
We also know that many legal immigrants and their relatives have been frightened from applying for public benefits for which they do qualify because immigrants who receive benefits may now be denied a green card or citizenship for having used them. This was the trump administration's intention, of course, even though immigrants and refugees use fewer public assistance dollars, in the long run, than the rest of us. But that doesn't play well with his base.
18
There's a trade-off. There's always a trade-off of one type of 'error' for another type. We-the-people have to decide which type of error is worse, and how to decrease it.
In the judicial system, it's considered worse to convict someone who's innocent than to let the guilty go free; e.g. William Blackstone, "It is better that ten guilty men go free than that one innocent man be convicted." If the rules for admitting evidence are changed so that fewer innocent people are convicted, of necessity more of the guilty will be set free.
In this context, which is considered worse? That those who are legitimately in need of help are denied it, or that some who are undeserving actually get help?
I consider it a statement about broader society that our elected officials have so firmly staked out the position that we must prevent every single scofflaw from receiving undeserved help, while refusing to acknowledge that they're simultaneously hurting those that most think ought to be able to receive assistance.
Better a thousand people go hungry than one slacker receive assistance. (If we eliminate any / all public assistance, we can guarantee than none of the undeserving receive it.)
26
As a person who had free/reduced lunch and food stamps until I graduated from college, I find it deplorable that we would even consider higher restrictions and cuts to these programs. This is not restricted to this presidency. I am well aware of the Clinton rollbacks - capitalism uses and hates the poor, period. It's an interesting juxtaposition to need the masses for profit but to also take the vast majority of wealthy and trickle it upward to the hands of the few.
I am an educator who can take care of myself now, but I want to remind folks that food stamps and other programs which offer a few hundred dollars a month can mean the difference between finishing school and homelessness. It's survival at the margins.
I also suspect that there's more to the story than employment. Organizing wins pushed minimum wage increases in different cities and states; this probably helped people move off of assistance as well. More jobs alone does not mean a fair distribution of capital. We're talking about taxes, labor protections, and the reconstruction of a stronger social safety net.
57
Lower numbers are a great thing. I don't care who takes credit.
8
@Lee Irvine
'Lower numbers' of people on assistance are only 'great' if it means they are now able to buy enough to feed themselves and family. In many cases Trump's actions just raised restrictions and made sure fewer people qualify, but those people are still going hungry, including children.
4
What "improving economy"? The one where jobs for many workers pay poverty wages, and jobs for many other workers pay just above poverty wages?
One of the reasons Trump won in 2016 was Hillary and Obama going around saying the US economy good. It's good for ibankers, and some Facebook/Google employees. Not good for most others.
"For now, the evidence supports Mr. Trump’s contention that an improving economy is more responsible for falling food stamp rolls than Mr. Trump’s attempts to limit access. "
Then cite hard evidence that supports Trump's assertion. You can't.
13
"The Great Divider" Trump will claim anything that appears positive if people allow him to. As wise people have learned, you can't trust anything our national disgrace of a president says at face value.
To have someone who watches TV, tweets, and plays golf as much as he does claim credit for anything significant in our huge economy is, on its face, a laughable assertion--not to mention that his party's governing philosophy is to not interfere in "free markets", as if non regulation of them makes them more accessible to more people (and therefore more truly free).
9
Reagan can take credit for correcting the worst abuses of the welfare state circa 1980s.
The limo liberals took the great work done by the original reformers like the two Roosevelts and LBJ etc. and put generations of families on welfare almost destroying cities like NYC.
Trump is doing the opposite, targeting the truly needy and helping the rich get richer.
These are two separate things.
6
@Paul:
Reagan sure increased homelessness--especially in NYC.
3
@Yaj thank you for your reply. Reagan stopped the worst abuses of the welfare state. Limo liberals helped create homelessness by putting generations of people on welfare and not job ready.
Trump is now doing something similar to limo liberals ie making it impossible for legit poor people to survive.
Yaj, whether its the extreme left or right, history has taught us they are the problem.
1
Ah, yes, as long as we keep supporting the rich all is well.
9
If Trump said it, it's a lie. The details may vary, but you can be sure it's a lie.
57
Let's see some coverage of the misery this "move off public assistance" undoubtedly has caused. Only people who have never been there would presume all these people moved up, rather than fell further down.
44
@JTS - good point. I’d also like to see a follow up article focusing on the food banks, churches, etc that provide assistance to so many. Are they seeing and fulfilling more of the need that the government is not?
3
This is obviously good, regardless of who or what may be responsible for it, but I have to admit I nearly choked on my coffee when I read this bit: “‘A commitment to the transformative power of work is why I signed an Executive Order instructing agencies to reduce dependence on welfare programs by encouraging work,’ Mr. Trump wrote...”. He has never done a lick of real work in his life and I’m sure his experience of “the transformative power of work” is just something he heard about on Twitter.
24
Imagine the Bernie/Warren diatribes if welfare rolls grew at the same time billionaire fortunes grew. Surely they’d concede fewer on welfare is a good thing, and if trump is responsible for everything that happens in the country (healthcare, criminal justice, housing), he gets credit too no?
3
@Andy Deckman:
Oh, I credit Trump with making life harder for the poor and next to poor.
I also credit him with the reduced rates of medical insurance.
15
Not so fast. There is a whole seamy underside to this equation that Donald Trump and his administration don't want to address, namely those Americans who for one reason or another continue to fall through the cracks sometimes through no reason of their own, who now stand to lose their Food Stamp benefits -- the very benefits that are keeping them alive.
There's no reason why the United States of America, one of the richest countries in the world should allow its people to starve just so this president can take credit for reducing the number of those in need.
Make no mistake about it.
In many cases, the need is still there.
50
@N. Smith
In most states, navigating through bureaucratic hoops for any means-based assistance is pretty much a full-time job.
13
@N. Smith
Just another conman tactic.
1
This is very good news, Trump or no Trump. Work is not only an economic necessity but a psychological one. Everybody who can work, including people who are disabled, should work. Why do you get up in the morning if you have nothing to do? This said, obviously many people need assistance but I could never understand the point of food stamps - a uniquely American invention, and not a successful one, as it contributes to the obesity epidemic by encouraging people to buy junk. Just give people a stipend or supplementary income if they don’t make enough, and let them balance their own budget.
7
@Mor I suggest you spend some time with a person or people who don't know where their next meal is coming from. You won't have to look too hard.
I find it hard to believe that the American invention of food stamps contributes to the obesity epidemic.
Once again, your theory may sound logical to you but finding out the reality for yourself of a person who is hungry more times than not and doesn't know when their next good meal may change your reality about the topic.
20
@rlbjr I don’t know why you believe that personal anecdotes are more powerful than data. This article alone provides enough data to see the correlation between work participation and reduction in poverty. I did some research on the history of hunger and famine and let me tell you that Americans are NOT starving compared to people in Africa, Yemen and particularly, compared to the victims of historical famines in Ireland, China, the USSR and other places. The American poor are overweight, not emaciated, because they consume too much of a wrong kind of calories. Maybe instead of talking to random strangers you should try reading some history books or look up the conditions in Yemen and Venezuela.
4
@Mor:
"Everybody who can work, including people who are disabled, should work."
For poverty wages?
Go work on a factory floor for $10.50 an hour for 6 months.
And remember where the sign "Work Will Set You Free" hung.
6
Cutting food stamps is disgraceful. It's one of the few commandments that Jesus gave us - feed the hungry, heal the sick - and it hardly costs us anything, and it helps support farmers. The only reason for cuts is greed.
Richest nation in the world and some so-called Christians are against Christian charity. The Republicans are disgraceful. You will know them by their fruits.
Trump didn't raise minimum wage, so he isn't responsible for people doing better, either. All his tax cuts went to the lazy rich like him, who are still laying people off. Outside of the insufficient 'gig economy' work the employment numbers wouldn't look so good. The economy can't function this way for long, if for no other reason than Trump is bankrupting us.
86
@mjw
You do know that your Jesus said
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
.... not give him free fishes for his life - right?
1
@SteveRR
Actually Jesus didn’t say any of those things...
5
@SteveRR
Jesus never said the quote.
4