Louisiana Voice

It’s not enough that Donald Trump is perfectly willing to let SNAP benefits run out on 16.3 million hungry children in the U.S. (including nearly 400,000 hungry children JUST IN LOUISIANA), but he has chosen to knowingly invoke a rule meant to benefit recipients but which does just the opposite.

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter (D-New Orleans) probably said it best:

“To add insult to injury, it appears that the Trump administration has now sunk to an all-time low — simply cruel and heartless.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a REMINDER TO RETAILERS prohibiting them from offering special discounts or assistance to families who rely on SNAP benefits during a lapse in federal funding. “This decision does not reflect the compassion or decency that public service demands,” Carter said. “It punishes those who already have the least and ties the hands of grocers who simply want to help their neighbors.”

The Department of Agriculture rule is contained in the Code of Federal Regulations and was included as a means of preventing retailers from overcharging SNAP recipients. Instead, Trump is now using the rule to prevent grocery stores from helping.

SEVERAL COMPANIES were assisting. They included Instacart, DoorDash. Others offering discounts included Walmart, Amazon and Kroger.

But an administration that chooses to ignore laws and court decisions it doesn’t agree with, now cherry-picks an obscure regulation in order to further punish nearly 42 million people, many of whom work at jobs that pay too low. But Trump first refused to release funds held in reserve for just such an emergency and now this.

Too, Repugnantcans keep insisting that undocumented immigrants are bleeding the SNAP program as well as Medicare and Medicaid dry when they know that undocumented people are ineligible for those benefits.

 “At a time when working families are struggling to put food on the table, this directive sends the wrong message about our values as a nation,” Carter said. “No rule or regulation should ever stand in the way of kindness. Leadership requires empathy and moral courage — especially in times of hardship.

 “I call on the administration to immediately rescind this directive and allow grocery retailers the flexibility to serve their customers with dignity and compassion. Congress must also review whether this so-called “Equal Treatment Rule” has been twisted into an instrument of cruelty rather than fairness.

 “Families in Louisiana’s Second District — and across America — deserve better. They deserve leaders who put people above politics and compassion above cold bureaucracy.”

But what else would one expect from Donald Trump?