Say what needs saying

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I felt uneasy after writing a few weeks ago that the Republican Party wants to kill you. That’s a pretty shocking thing to say, and I thought I might have gone too far. But then something happened.

The Trump administration announced this week that it was going to change the rules so that fewer people are eligible for food stamps. How many fewer? More than 3 million Americans.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the rationale for the rule tightening is to save money. From Reuters: “Trump has argued that many Americans now using SNAP do not need it given the strong economy and low unemployment, and should be removed as a way to save taxpayers as much as $15 billion.”

It’s one thing to take food out of kids’ mouths. It’s another thing to insult them while doing it. This party gave away billions to the rich and corporations with a new tax law. Now it’s placing a sudden worry about spending on the backs of hungry people. That’s not just neglect resulting in bad outcomes.

That’s setting out to punish poor people for being poor.

I’ll close by quoting my friend Marty Longman. While GW Bush saw some room for government in the lives of Americans, the current president is something else: “He’s more about starving people.“

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Final note: On Friday, I tried to find a middle ground between pro and anti-impeachment camps. Basically, we should not miss the forest of accountability through the trees of impeachment.

By that, I mean the point is justice. Impeachment is one way. There are other ways if we are brave. We can’t know if impeachment will hurt or help the Democrats in 2020. Let’s move ahead, slowly, as we should, but let’s not lose sight of what really matters: holding a criminal president accountable.

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