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Musicmystery -> RE: Trump wants to start charging stores to accept food stamps (7/29/2017 7:20:40 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AtUrCervix
quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
Trump wants to start charging stores to accept food stamps
So much for pro-business.
* Trump wants to charge retailers a fee for accepting food stamps as payment from the poor.
* Separately, the Trump administration is proposing $191 billion in cuts over the next decade to the food stamp program.
The White House proposal to overhaul the U.S. food stamp program — and the deep cuts it would make to benefits for the poorest households — has sparked public outrage on both sides of the aisle. But there's another change tucked into the proposal that businesses say caught them off guard — and could wind up costing them more than $2 billion.
That provision is a new fee that the White House wants to charge retailers that accept food stamps.
The proposal surprised the grocery industry, which is already fighting to block the controversial border adjustment tax on Capitol Hill. That measure would lower the cost of exports but raise the price of imports and has been widely opposed by chain retailers. Trump's food stamp fee, however, would fall squarely on supermarkets.
Grocers oppose the "flawed policy of imposing fees on food retailers in order to reduce the cost of the federal government's nutrition assistance benefits to the most needy in our society," said Leslie G. Sarasin, president of the Food Marketing Institute, which represents the industry.
Changes hit congressional opposition
But the proposed changes are already running into obstacles on Capitol Hill — even among Republicans. Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas and Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees, have signaled they would fight the measure.
"We need to take a look at our nutrition assistance programs to ensure that they are helping the most vulnerable in our society," they said in a statement.
"Implementing cuts to that extent are going to have stark consequences for retailers, especially in low-income communities." -Brian Lang, director of healthy food access, The Food Trust
More: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/trump-wants-to-start-charging-stores-to-accept-food-stamps.html
This is no different than the slow progression towards all social programs (SSI among many) that were supposed to be free of any encumbrance....yet today even SSI is taxed at some level.
So...now (no less than health insurance was once at $500.00 deductible...now upwards of $5,000.00...the spread is...in fact...actually...in every mathematical reality...a tax)...every social benefit is taxed (deal with it).
So also is Welfare and even...at a state level...unemployment.
Dare to presume this is anti business? It is in fact...business.
The govt. is a business....and they want their share...whether you make a little...or a lot.
(Even if the check comes from them).
Here's the truth...whether you believe it or not...we simply don't have enough money coming in to pay all that is going out....unless....
We all agree that bridges to nowhere and...YOUR Senator.....is/are...wrong...and must stop.
Meaning....all the shit YOU want....all the shit I want....
We all have to buck up.
Bannon is proposing a new (higher) 44% tax on the "uber" wealthy.
To balance the REAL....proposed.....reductions of taxes on the lower and middle.
(Which are desperately needed).
It's still not enough so....at what point do we stop taxing the wealthy into oblivion? At what point do they say...."Ehhhh....I'll head to...thus and so country"?
I personally, don't believe we can go much farther on the upper end.
Knowing that the upper 10% pay 3+ times what they paid (in % of the total) than they paid in 1980....and that the lower 60% pay LESS than 1/2 what they paid in the same period....at some point...the wealthy are going to crack and say...."in today's digital economy....I can live in ___________ and pay 1/2 the taxes....still sell stuff to American's.....why would I live in America?"
At some point...we cannot continue giving tax breaks to the lowest 80% and still be a viable country.
Without getting into all that . . .
The key issue is:
a) pass law
b) don't actually fund it
c) pass off funding to different sector
There's no reason businesses should have to pay to accept food stamps -- and I suspect it's a crappy attempt to get businesses to refuse accepting food stamps, making them impractical to use.
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