The Trump administration is prepared to reduce funding for, and the benefits of, the food stamps program, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and potentially Medicare and Social Security as well; furthermore, it intends to change the way poverty is measured to reduce the poverty line. This comes in a time when the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic makes clear that our policies should be aimed at enhancing the safety net, and not reducing it. The Rediscovering Government Initiative (RGI), of which I am the director, has dedicated itself to combating these efforts.
The latter of these efforts comes from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which has proposed to rewrite poverty measures. RGI submitted a detailed response.
As an example of the current state of American welfare, Urban Institute has just completed its annual survey of hardship. It finds, stunningly, that even when unemployment was at its lowest last year, some 40 percent of Americans reported that they have at least one hardship in an area such as housing, health care, utilities, and nutrition. It’s clear that the OMB’s intentions are in blatant disregard of the facts.